SEDIMENTAL WORKS, 1975–2025
On Thursday November 6th, CARHARTT WIP marks the 50th anniversary of the Active Jacket with SEDIMENTAL WORKS – a project tracing five decades of cultural accumulation through layers of identity, resistance, innovation and evolution, art directed by ILL-STUDIO.
Set within the Tate’s South Tank, the project examines 50 years of the Active Jacket and the culture that has formed around it. “[The jacket’s] design has remained unchanged over the past five decades,” says Thomas Subreville, co-founder of ILL-STUDIO. “This project was not about remembrance, but continuum: Fragments of activity, time, and matter compacted into a single surface, to form a geology of meaning.”
The result unfolds as an excavation site — a spatial dialogue where the past overlaps with the present; materials and shards of history are reused, recomposed, and reimagined. Columns rise as cross-sections of time, their architecture bearing traces of what has been lost and what still remains.
The event brings together sound, moving image, texture and movement, contextualizing how the jacket has absorbed and reflected the world around it, from its inception through to present day. Live performances throughout the evening underscore the experience, with a lineup that features classically trained, experimental cellist Abi Asisa, of London collective Life is Beautiful; South London avant-garde composer, singer-songwriter and multidisciplinary artist Klein; Brixton act Wu-Lu, known for a visceral mix of grunge, punk, jazz, and shoegaze; and Erika de Casier, the Copenhagen-based singer-songwriter and producer, performing her heady take on contemporary R&B and avant-pop with a more stripped-down, minimal arrangement.
An accompanying book, also titled Sedimental Works, will debut as a special edition format, before its general release later this month, exploring remnants of memory, and themes of cultural continuity through the lens of a single enduring garment. The book features a series of speculative historical texts relating to different epochs of the past five decades, from writers including Scott King, Brad Phillips, Benjamin Krusling, Alissa Bennett, Lynne Tillman, Alex Quicho, Christelle Oyiri, Geoffrey Mak, Paul Dalla Rosa, and Chris Kraus.
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Contact
Federica De Carlo
fdecarlo@carhartt-wip.comAbout Carhartt Work In Progress
Carhartt Work In Progress (WIP) is a clothing brand that adapts and modifies the core products of the pioneering American workwear brand Carhartt to create its own collections. Established in 1994 by Edwin Faeh, the brand’s audience is just as likely to associate its iconic yellow C motif with late 90s hip hop videos or skate clips, as they are with factories or manual labor. This distinction is key in defining what Carhartt WIP does. Carhartt WIP engages with different cultural spheres: from Detroit and Berlin’s symbiotic techno scenes, to skateboarding and its communities that span Paris, New York, and Seoul, to the contemporary art world. The brand channels these influences, representing the culture which has formed around it. This can be seen and felt in its collections, its imagery, and its choice of partners and collaborators. Today, Carhartt WIP operates over 100 brick and mortar retail stores across Europe, Asia, and the US, as well as working with select wholesale clients.