This is a bit unlike me, but I wanted to share my thoughts on the images above.
Yesterday I picked up some magazines for research. Randomly. I happened upon AdBusters from 2006. Every article was like reading current headlines - 20 years on nothings changed - The same questions about fascism creeping into democratic language. The same arguments, the same silences, & the same people paying the same prices.
And it made me think about the creative industry, the fashion industry, and about my peers, because we don’t really have a point of view. Not a real one. We have aesthetics. We have references. We’ll all gossip over a glass of natural wine and discuss who the new creative director of a brand is, or debate whether a collection was quiet luxury or just boring. But actual points of view? Politics. Things we actually believe and are willing to say out loud, are rarely ever spoken about.
And maybe it’s because we’re scared. But maybe it’s also because, for some of us, it genuinely doesn’t touch our daily lives - and that distance is its own kind of privilege. And for those it does affect, the cost is real. It’s being labelled difficult. The one who made it political. The one brands quietly stop calling. The one peers start distancing themselves from. That is a specific tax, paid by specific people. And nobody talks about it.
We choose to ignore it. We make it aesthetic. We make it a mood board.
This quote by Arundhati Roy.
“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness — and our ability to tell our own stories.”
This is what we should all be pushing for. For the people who say they don’t do politics: silence is still a stance. Opting out is a choice. Think carefully about what you want to stand for - because whether you decide or not, you’re already standing somewhere.
This is me trying - to speak about something bigger than the shallow world we’ve agreed to perform in.
——
All Images and Extracts from - AdBusters, 2006.
