T-shirt protester working up a sweat

Dunedin man Jay Hutchinson cuts out a T-shirt in his makeshift ‘‘sweat shop’’ yesterday. Photo by...
Dunedin man Jay Hutchinson cuts out a T-shirt in his makeshift ‘‘sweat shop’’ yesterday. Photo by Craig Baxter.
A Dunedin man is making T-shirts in ‘‘sweat-shop'' conditions to highlight the plight of Third World workers.

Textile artist Jay Hutchinson (30), who hopes to finish manufacturing 40 T-shirts in 40 hours by late today, began his sweatshop simulation performance at Dunedin's White Room basement at 6.30am yesterday.

‘‘My work is about the alienation of the worker, in particular the people in the Third World who manufacture goods they cannot afford to consume,'' he said.

Working towards a master's degree in fine arts at Otago Polytechnic, Mr Hutchinson hoped to complete the T-shirt project on Monday - if he can get some sleep.

He was taking only a 20-minute break every six hours.

‘‘The plan is to sleep all day Sunday.''

The completed T-shirts would not be sold, ‘‘because they should never enter the capitalist system'', he said.

‘‘I will probably donate them to a place like the Hocken.''

‘‘I have done most of the cutting out already and my arm is getting pretty sore. I think sewing through the night, with no sleep is going to make things pretty interesting.''

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