Born in San Francisco and raised in Huntington Beach, artist and activist Carole France Lung is a descendant of three generations of textile makers. At the age of eleven, they were taught by their grandmother to sew their own clothes and over the years became a professional seamstress, cutter, pattern maker, production manager, and designer before pursuing a career in art. Lung received their BS in textiles and clothing from North Dakota State University and earned both their BFA and MFA in fiber and material studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They were professor of fashion fiber and materials at California State University, Los Angeles, and currently serve as director of Antenna, a nonprofit, multidisciplinary cultural institution presenting exhibitions, public programs, publishing, and regranting in New Orleans.
A background in the apparel industry and firsthand experience with the devastating effects of textile consumption, unfair labor practices, and production systems have driven Lung to investigate the meaning and value of labor. They aim to educate the public on these issues as a form of activism. Lung asks, "What happens when a piece of clothing costs less than a loaf of bread? How is that even possible? I'm a proponent of slower fashion, so that means buying a little bit less, buying better quality, buying things that are going to last a little bit longer and learning how to mend your buttons."
Lung’s work often comprises long-duration performance art projects and collaborative artmaking, typically through their alter ego Frau Fiber. This middle-age, uniformed East German seamstress persona emerged from of a 2006 performance piece, One Size Fits All, which Lung created while studying abroad at the Bauhaus University of Art and Design in Weimer, Germany. They view Frau Fiber as a “symbol of the lost generation of East German workers,” having lost her job as a garment worker when factories closed after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and East Germany’s transition to a capitalist economic system. Since then, Frau Fiber evolved into a “textile superhero.” Lung describes Frau’s mentors as Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, Mother Jones, Rosa Luxemburg, and Wonder Woman. “Instead of spandex and stars, [she wears] industrial uniforms, aprons, and mended garments—turning the superhero costume into a worker’s uniform of empowerment.”
Frau Fiber’s mission is simple: “stop shopping and start sewing.” To spread her gospel, Lung founded the Institute 4 Labor Generosity Workers and Uniforms (ILGWU), honoring the now-defunct International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Since 2006, the educational component of ILGWU has been the Sewing Rebellion, in which Lung represents labor in performances, allowing audiences to reconsider labor’s value. During these “garment-construction community outreach programs,” Frau Fiber teaches participants how to sew and construct whatever they desire. Through the Sewing Rebellion, Lung encourages dialogue about our clothes and where they come from. They use sewing to explore issues of skill, labor, marketing, and economy within the textile industry, as well as globalization and the environment. For Lung/Frau, “Buying fast fashion isn’t just a purchase—it’s a vote. A vote for pollution, for sweatshops, for waste mountains taller than any skyline. Shopping to last—that is a revolution. Mending what’s broken instead of throwing away, choose timeless over trendy. Know the story behind your clothes and [understand] race‐to-the-bottom cheapness. Shop to last, not fast!”
Frau Fiber also has hosted “tailor-made” pop-up shops, where customers can bring garments in need of alteration or repair—such as pants requiring hemming or jackets needing darning. Prominently featured in the shop is the Wheel of Wages, which patrons spin to determine Frau’s hourly fee for the work completed. The wheel lists wages from major garment-producing countries, including China, Vietnam, Mexico, and Cambodia, along with U.S. and French couture garment workers’ wages. For example, customers can compare Cambodia’s 45 cents with France’s $11.03, highlighting unfair labor practices. While tongue-in-cheek, the pop-up shop performance addresses serious issues surrounding everyday items, providing alternatives to purchasing ready-made clothing produced under abusive working conditions.
In their first filmed performance as Frau Fiber, Lung directly confronted the instruments of the garment industry in Frau Fiber vs. Circular Knitting Machine (2019). The four-and-half-hour black-and-white video was shot on the factory floor of Wigwam Mills in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where high-performance socks have been manufactured for more than a century. Amid the din of classic rock radio and whirring machines, Frau Fiber sits on a folding chair, hand knitting a tube sock from start to finish, next to a computer-automated knitting machine that continuously pumps out socks into a basket.
The video addresses the issue of time and how the desire for quick production, acquisition, and consumption of goods stems from a capitalist system that also has led to job losses. Instead of a robust workforce producing these items, one or two mill workers occasionally enter the frame, either inspecting the socks before dumping them into a bin or conducting routine maintenance on the machine. Moreover, the video highlights the actual labor—or lack thereof—involved in making these socks. Partway through the video, the screen divides into three sections, with two offering close-up views of Frau’s hands stitching, alongside the nearly static metal parts of the knitting machine. Despite the motionlessness of the machine, it was able to produce ninety-nine socks in the time it takes Frau to complete just one.
Lung has stated this performance was inspired by the nineteenth-century folk character John Henry, a railroad steel-driver who was threatened by the invention of the steam-powered drill. Henry challenged the machine to prove the value of his labor. While he ultimately won the challenge, he died from the effort, emphasizing the inevitably of loss—whether of life or livelihood—caused by the machine, regardless of the outcome. Lung draws inspiration from John Henry as they undertake the seemingly impossible task of repairing the global garment industry. In Frau Fiber vs. The Circular Knitting Machine, they hand-knit against faster technology, aware of their impending failure. Nonetheless, they remain committed to making these conditions clear to their audience, “chipping away at [the industry’s] grip on contemporary consumers, one stitch, one apron, one shirtwaist blouse at a time.” —Kanitra Fletcher