Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law & Technology

Warning: Pussies on Fire (Literally)

Ever experienced the sheer delight of acquiring that coveted garment or accessory, only to realize it's essentially a one-way ticket to the medieval era, complete with a complimentary torture session?

Yes, it's an absolute truth that some fashion items are as comfortable as a cactus pillow. You've got materials that could double as sandpaper, or if you're lucky, synthetic fabrics that transform you into a walking sauna. And let's not forget the shapewear trapping you into an endurance challenge, gasping for every breath. Designers will tell you that fashion is not supposed to be comfortable and that, to look amazing, you must suffer and sitting is anyway overrated (most grand gowns of the kind you see on the Met Gala red carpet do not allow the wearer to sit down…).

But, hold on, there's a new trend these days and it's all about designing clothing that doubles as a punishment device for your nether regions that should instead be celebrated (think about art projects such as Jamie McCartney's The Great Wall of Vulva). Who knew fashion could be this masochistic?

A decade ago, the obsession with pussies began its journey into the spotlight, thanks to the unfortunate arrival of the word "vajazzle." What began as a trend to bedazzle the nether regions with gemstones, rhinestones, and glitter, soon transformed into a hygiene mania instilled by the fear of stinking mainly engrained in women's minds by a patriarchal society that thinks women should smell like violet and roses down there.

Enter the era of internal glitter bombs, jade eggs peddled as detoxifiers, and the infamous vaginal steaming, popularized by none other than the queen of all things vaginal, Gwyneth Paltrow. Yet, it turns out most of these products (and douching too, for that matter) disrupt the delicate balance of vaginal bacteria.

Gynecologists will be the first to tell you that your lady bits don't require the same rigorous cleaning standards as your kitchen floor. Many of these perfumed soaps, gels, and antiseptics wreak indeed havoc on the healthy bacterial balance and pH levels, causing irritation.

But now, there's a new trend that threatens women's health and confidence. Just this September, rapper Doja Cat had a cringe-worthy experience at the Victoria's Secret World Tour 2023 event in New York. She rocked up in a black V-neck slip dress with spaghetti straps that seemed to feature a built-in thong.

In a series of since-deleted Instagram stories, Doja Cat didn't hold back her feelings about the outfit. "It's crazy when you got a dress on and your whole vagina is out the whole night and the straps on the dress pull ur tits all the way down to your knees and all you asked for was a slip dress (...) I'm in my complaining era, my fuckin karen era. A bitch coulda got a UTI but the hole real resilient. The fuck."

And then, she delved into vivid descriptions of her outfit's discomfort. "When I tell u the panty was built into the dress so when i put it on, the shoulder straps pulled the strings up through my cervix and split me like a block of sharp cheddar cheese. A bitch never thought she could get man handled by a piece of fabric. The panty on this contraption took me under the bleachers and ransacked my shit."

In a way Doja Cat managed to find humor in this wardrobe malfunction, but there may be also items produced by luxury fashion houses that may leave you itching for more comfort Miu's embellished pants from the brand's A/W 23-24 runway collection are for example now available at the modest price of €4,200.

There are different options, in pink, pistachio, and gold, with a zip on the back (so you're supposed to put them on like a skirt, and zip them up at the back) or in corduroy and with a very narrow crotch, but in charming autumnal shades, including "ochre" and "camel brown" (impossible not to think about the expression "camel toe" here - who came up with the name for this color of tiny pants?). Of course, you'll need to pair them with a soft polo neck and translucent tights.

Perhaps Miuccia had good intentions (and she has a soft spot for visible pants under skirts - remember Miu Miu's Spring/Summer 1996 collection that featured early examples of the naked dressing trend?), as she wanted to liberate women, but, alas, most of us are not Edie Sedgwick.

Besides, the narrow crotch on the camel ones and the rather large sequins on the heavily embellished designs make you wonder if they may be comfortable at all.

Yet, judging from the models' expressions on Miu Miu's site, comfort isn't essential while wearing these designs. So, sorry Miuccia, we mere mortals may not have the money to buy our vaginas the pants of the season, but we should still rejoice: our pussies will not be on fire, and therefore they may still be able to bite (in fact, why don't we turn around this trend and do a book - "Pussies on Fire" - on all the garments that, throughout the decades caused rashes and wardrobe malfunctions to women's nether regions?).

Impiraressa, A Multi-Threaded Podcast: Episode Two - "Tomato Girl Summer" My Ass

Narratives, much like seeds, possess a dynamic nature; they evolve, expand, and journey in often unexpected directions.

Episode 2 of Impiraressa starts with the fleeting "Tomato Girl Summer" trend, enveloped in Mediterranean vibes and characterized by an idealized depiction of carefree summer experiences.

From there, it delves into personal recollections and dives deep into the distressing reality of migrant agricultural laborers in Italy, particularly within the tomato harvesting sector, where labor conditions starkly resemble modern-day slavery.

The exploration draws striking parallels between the agricultural industry and the fast fashion world, illuminating the exploitation of low-cost labor and the glaring disparity between professed ethical standards and the harsh truth.

Ultimately, the message is clear: trends may come and go, but human exploitation endures. While individually we may feel powerless, our collective efforts to scrutinize and question the systems, producers, and products perpetuating this exploitation can drive positive transformation. It is of paramount importance that we do not avert our gaze from the suffering of others, for the scars of trauma persist long after trends have faded into obscurity.

Episode Two Music: "Johnny Sera (Sigla Prima Puntata)", written and performed by Franco Pisano, published by Kutmusic Italhouse Produzioni Musicali, recorded in 1966, released by Kutmusic, 2023; "Salute Paisà (Hello Neighbor)", written by Giuseppe Giacomantonio and Vincenzo Perugini, performed by Quartetto Silano, published by Kutmusic Italhouse Produzioni Musicali, recorded in 1961, released by Kutmusic, 2021; "City_Demented" and "City_Extraterrestrial", written and performed by Aldo Lanzini Aviance, courtesy of the Artist.

Refugee Crisis as a Crisis of Humanity: Award-Winning "Green Border" by Agnieszka Holland Faces Government Criticism in Poland

At the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival, Matteo Garrone’s film "Io Capitano", won the Silver Lion for Best Director, while the Special Jury Prize was awarded to "Zielona Granica" (Green Border) by Agnieszka Holland. Both the films tell stories of migrants and refugees.

In Holland's brutal drama, the Polish film-maker follows the vicissitudes of a group of people - refugees from Syria, a Polish border guard and a woman who joins Polish activists.

Their lives intertwine at the "green border", the forests between Belarus and Poland. While the film is a fiction, the stories it tells are inspired by real-life events in 2021 when thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa were trapped in hazardous conditions on the EU's eastern frontier.

Making them believe that they could have crossed on foot into Poland and be in the European Union through the Białowieża Forest, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko authorized the entry of asylum seekers in his country. However, this act was not a humanitarian gesture, but a way to revenge towards the European Union's sanctions against Belarus and put Poland under pressure.

The refugees turned indeed into political pawns, used by Lukashenko and then mistreated by Polish border patrol that in turn reacted by pushing them back and condemning them to a life of hardship and even death in the forests.

This situation has pushed Poland towards xenophobia, something that benefits Lukashenko (but also Russian President Vladimir Putin).

Shot in dramatic black and white, the film is a way to ponder on human behavior in the interactions between its characters.

In the film there are indeed moments of ambiguity and fear, such as when a Polish farmer helps a refugee, but triggers suspicions he may be alerting the authorities about her presence, or when a Belarusian border guard degrades a refugee over the price of water. These incidents, alongside physical violence, erode the characters' sense of humanity, generating fear and mistrust among them, and insinuating doubts and moral qualms (the border guard in Poland expected to carry out brutal actions, begins to question their necessity).

One final dilemma appears towards the end of the film, with a final note on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the border force receiving thousands of Ukrainian refugees, compared to the smaller number of darker-skinned refugees from Africa and the Middle East rejected at the border.

The film has got a dichotomic structure with sections that call to mind movies about the Eastern Front during the Second World War, and more futuristic parts that represent tales of survival in a world that has lost its humanity and that point at the post-apocalyptic genre.

But while the film serves as crucial cinematic testimony to the current events unfolding in Europe and received positive reviews from critics, it was condemned by Polish government officials.

The film was released in Poland two days ago by Kino Świat, just weeks before the country's pivotal migration-focused elections (on October 15; on the same day of the elections, the government has scheduled a referendum on migration policy).

The right-wing conservative government is strongly opposing the film (that some politicians haven't even watched...) as it claims it tarnishes Poland's reputation.

Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the right-wing populist and national-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS; the party aims to secure a third term in power thanks to its anti-immigration stance; yet a visa fraud scandal reportedly linked to consulates in Asia and Africa, where visas were allegedly issued in exchange for bribes, has somewhat undermined the government's credibility on this issue) and Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, organized a press conference last week to criticize the film.

During the conference, he expressed his belief that the portrayal of Poland's border guards, army, and police was deeply derogatory; Polish officials also argue that security personnel protected Poland from a migration flow instigated by Lukashenko and Putin.

Kaczynski claimed that Holland is aligning with Putin's supposed agenda and accused her of "oikophobia," a contempt for her own homeland.

Stanisław Żaryn, the government's plenipotentiary for the security of the Polish information space, accused Holland of being "out of touch with reality" and making "insinuations used to attack Poland, Poles, and the government." Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, of the Catholic nationalist Sovereign Poland party (part of a governing alliance with the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS), which is leading in polls ahead of the national elections with a campaign focused on migration, and on the wall constructed between 2021 and 2022 on the border with Belarus to keep out refugees), likened the film (though he admitted he hadn't watched it) to Nazi Germany propaganda, and in a separate address, referred to Holland as a Stalinist.

Holland, whose father was Jewish and whose mother, a Roman Catholic, took part in the Polish resistance against the Nazi occupation, demanded an apology from Ziobro and announced her intent to pursue defamation charges against him.

President Andrzej Duda also criticized the film, suggesting that a better choice would have been a film focusing on Poland's response to Russia's war in Ukraine.

Besides, right-wing groups targeted social media pages and film-related websites promoting the movie in Poland, attempting to disrupt screenings attended by Holland.

Yet the film, born out of Holland's frustration with the government's handling of Poland's emergence as a migration route (she felt it was her duty to shoot it), serves as a deeper pondering on the collective loss of humanity and as a reflection on the geopolitical factors that push individuals to their limits. The traumatized border guard, tormented by his actions and the attitudes of his colleagues, turns indeed into another victim in this narrative.

When governments and politicians express fear of artworks, books, or films and argue that they cast their country in a negative light, it often indicates that these works are addressing crucial issues. In 1959, after the release of Vittorio De Sica's neorealist masterpiece "Umberto D", about a pensioner living in Italy and struggling to get by and contemplating suicide, Giulio Andreotti, at the time Undersecretary for Entertainment, stated: "While it's true that evil can also be fought by exposing its rawest aspects, it's also true that if people are mistakenly led to believe that Umberto D. represents Italy in the mid-20th century, De Sica will have done a disservice to his homeland."

The main aim of Agnieszka Holland's "Green Border" is not paying a disservice to Poland, but calling all governments worldwide to reflect on the plight of migrants and refugees, urging us all to contemplate our humanity in a world where it seems to be steadily diminishing. When the director received the Special Jury Award at the Venice Film Festival, she emphasized that the situation at the border remains unchanged: "People are still hiding in forests, deprived and stripped of their dignity, their human rights and their safety; some of them will lose their lives here in Europe, not because we don't have the resources to help them, but because we don't want to."

Satire & Social Commentary with an Architectural Twist: Ilana Harris-Babou's Artistic Approach

You can criticize something by ripping it apart in an angry and resentful way; or you can also do it more elegantly and with a pinch of humor as Ilana Harris-Babou does. The interdisciplinary artist producing sculptures, installations and videos, has often employed irony to look at painful realities or at the contradictions of the American dream.

For example, one of her past projects, entitled "Reparation Hardware" (2018) moved from luxury design, trendy interior pieces and clothes to ponder on the legacy of disenfranchisement hidden within the aesthetic of the upscale American home-furnishings company.

The company's promotional videos on YouTube may look at labor, value, and inheritance tied to restoring materials such as old wood, but in her project Harris-Babou explored these values linking them to historical injustices like the fact that, post-Civil War, formerly enslaved people were allowed just forty acres and a mule, dismantling in this way the grandiosity of the original videos.

The project becomes therefore a way to go beyond parody and shed light on the struggle of Black Americans who navigate a society that often reduces them to mere objects despite their resilience and resourcefulness. This particular project also questions the alignment of social justice with consumerism, raising a dilemma on whether wealth or buying power alone can serve as a form of reparation. Black Americans have faced systematic denial of inheritance, which causes an understandable yearning for luxury or fashionable and trendy products.

Yet Harris-Babou goes beyond this point challenging the notion that wealth or purchasing power alone can't rectify historical injustices and absolve consumers from the guilt they may be feeling about a variety of issues - from climate change to slavery. In brief, design falsely promises redemption. There is a twist in this project: despite facing relentless attempts to reduce them to mere objects, Black Americans have managed to create value and meaning from seemingly nothing, exposing a failure of the American dream.

In another project, "Decision Fatigue" (2020) the artist looked at cooking shows, self-improvement, design, and the beauty industry. To prepare for this project Harris-Babou attended The Class, a fitness workshop promoted by Gwyneth Paltrow and her lifestyle brand Goop. She then proceeded to turn a gallery into a mock boutique with a pink front wall reminiscent of Glossier's flagship store, with ceramics of skincare products, soap dishes, jade rollers, and yoni eggs on display. Resin "soaps" included surprising elements like car air fresheners and Cheeto puffs; the latter were also turned into the miracle ingredient of a surreal makeup tutorial for a face mask featuring, Harris-Babou's mother, Sheila.

While the beauty and wellness industries provide ample material for satire, Harris-Babou approaches her critique with humor, gentleness, and a non-judgmental stance.

A new project at Storefront for Architecture will continue along this path, but also explore childhood memories and reinterpret the playful rituals embedded in the streetscapes of Central Brooklyn.

"Under My Feet" (October 7th - December 16th) moves from the artist's own experiences of growing up in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, East Flatbush, and Crown Heights - predominantly African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and West Indian immigrant neighborhoods. While reimagining the sounds, colors and textures of these areas, Harris-Babou reconstructs her sense of home and belonging in this project.

The exhibition yearns for the innocence of childhood, of games played on the sidewalks - hopping over cracks, sitting on cellar gates under bodegas, enjoying music, and contemplating the vibrant signs above. But it also tackles intimacy and dispossession, adding an architectural element to the theme and conceiving the key locations of the neighborhood as a protective environment.

"Under My Feet" is a way to acknowledge and reconnect with a fading landscape of freedom and support amidst gentrification and displacement, but, through it, Harris-Babou also explores the future possibilities ingrained in the sidewalks and storefronts of Nostrand Avenue, Church Avenue, and Flatbush Avenue, so that the gallery becomes the locus where intergenerational businesses and independent retail establishments - hubs of liberating pedagogies for Afro-diasporic imaginations - can be celebrated.

A Legacy of Strength: "Black Venus" @ Somerset House, London

The subject of women's body objectification is frequently discussed and the Hottentot Venus can serve as a notable example of both objectification and racism.

This epithet was given to Saartje Baartman, a woman enslaved by Dutch colonists. Born in 1789 in South Africa, Baartman was exhibited in Europe as part of a "freak show" due to her non-Western body type, leading to caricatured depictions that perpetuated the exoticization and othering of Black women in Western culture. The prints and engravings of the Hottentot Venus usually portray her in a nonconfrontational side profile, like an object under scrutiny.

Artist Renee Cox moved from these representations to upturn the tables: in her portrait entitled "HOTT-EN-TOT" (1994), Cox poses like the Hottentot Venus, but she looks directly at the viewer, locking eyes, reversing that objectifying gaze.

Both the images are part of the "Black Venus" exhibition (closing on 24th September) at London's Somerset House. 

Curated by Aindrea Emelife, "Black Venus" is another version of the 2022 exhibition presented at New York's Fotografiska and includes over 40 contemporary mainly photographic artworks, a selection of archival images from 1793 to 1930, over 19 new works and 6 UK-based artists.

The event examines the historical representation of Black women and aims to establish a legacy and track the evolution of how Black women have been perceived and allowed agency over their own image throughout history.

The exhibition takes into consideration three key figures that influenced Western perceptions of the Black female body: Saartje Baartman, "The Voyage of the Sable Venus, from Angola to the West Indies", a 1793 etching by Thomas Stothard, and the Jezebel. 

The etching was a prominent illustration in a highly circulated 1798 book about the history of the British Colonies, written by Bryan Edwards, an amateur historian, British expatriate and enslaver who owned seven plantations in Jamaica.

The illustrator, as explained by Emelife, represents a way to whitewashing and even romanticize the transatlantic slave trade.

Drawing inspiration from Sandro Botticelli's renowned work, "The Birth of Venus" (1485-1486), the artist portrays a Black woman, referred to as the "Sable Venus" by the artist himself, standing on a seashell. She is surrounded by white cherubs and is being pulled by a mythical pair of fish harnessed to the reins she holds. To her left, Triton carries the British flag and guides the procession across the ocean, gazing at the woman with apparent desire.

This widely circulated image simultaneously fetishized and erased the real-life horrors that a Black woman would have endured during such a journey. It perpetuated a violently inaccurate narrative among the educated Western elite at a time when alternative visual information on the subject would have been scarce and similarly distorted (think also about fascist expeditions in Africa, and at the ways Black women were portrayed by Mussolini's regime and sexually exploited by his soldiers).

The show's third inspiring figure is the Jezebel, incarnated by Josephine Baker, who represented a new vision of Black female sexuality.

Baker's journey from the Midwest to Paris in 1925 transformed her into a new archetype of Black womanhood in popular culture, challenging racial stereotypes.

In New York, Baker's initial publicized role in The Chocolate Dandies (1924) involved darkening her skin tone and adopting caricatured traits to amuse the audience.

Upon arriving in Paris, Baker maintained a playful and self-deprecating style, that at the same time satirized Western’s audiences limited views of Black beauty, but evolved into a burlesque sex symbol, fulfilling colonialist sexual fantasies with her body and persona. Reviews of her iconic 1925 French debut, La Revue Nègre, often described her using animalistic metaphors. Emelife suggests that Baker used self-awareness as a tool to challenge racial prejudice.

Josephine Baker also turned into a civil rights icon and played a crucial role in the French resistance during the Nazi occupation. She remains the only American-born woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral. Her influence extended to a wide range of creative figures, from Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso to Mick Jagger and Diana Ross.

Ming Smith's portrait "Me as Josephine" (1986), showing the artist posing as Baker, is an investigation of how Black women's sexuality has been demonized due to its power.

The show's artists span generations, from Amber Pinkerton, born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1997, to Coreen Simpson, born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1942. Simpson's images of nude Black women in African masks from the early 1990s are particularly poignant, given the context of her life at the time.

One key aspect of the exhibition is the emphasis on the diversity of the contemporary Black female experience - check out for example Zanele Muholi's empowering "Miss (Black) Lesbian" series.

Ayana V. Jackson's work is inspired by Dr. Shatema Threadcraft's 2018 scholarly papers and presents counterimages that challenge the historical oppression of Black women. Jackson's images subvert colonial depictions of the forcibly labored Black body and capture moments of leisure and repose in the lives of 19th and early 20th century Black women.

Carrie Mae Weem's "When and Where I Enter, the British Museum" (2007) tackles instead European colonialism with Weems placing herself among the museum's tourists and ionic columns, invisible and anonymous, yet conspicuous at the same time.

The show invites therefore visitors to confront racial and sexual objectification and embodied resistance in the Black woman's experience. While celebrating the progress made by Black women in various fields and emphasizing the resilience, power, and multiplicity of Black women's identities and acknowledging the historical stereotypes they have faced, it is also a call to action.

Hopefully, we will see this event expanding and travelling to other European countries: it is indeed impossible to think about Black women slaves throughout history without pondering about the modern odyssey of migrant women from Africa, some of them pregnant or accompanied by their children, embarking on treacherous journeys to cross the Mediterranean and arriving by boat in Italy, where they may end up being vulnerable to exploitation. So, while "Black Venus" is a due celebration, it is also a way to raise awareness about the present-day challenges that Black women have to face.

Image credits for this post

1, 3, 6, 12 and 13. Installation views of "Black Venus" at Somerset House, copyright Tim Bowditch

2. Renee Cox, HOTT-EN-TOT (1993-1994)

4. Amber Pinkerton Photo Booth, Sabah, Girls Next Door , 2020, © Courtesy the Artist and Alice Black

5.  Ayana V. Jackson, "Anarcha" , 2017 © Courtesy of the Artist and Mariane Ibrahim

7. Coreen Simpson, "Black Girl with Eye" (1992) from "About Face" series, Courtesy of the artist

8. Carrie Mae Weems - "Not Manet's Type" (2010) © Carrie Mae Weems, Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York)

9. Ming Smith, Instant Model, 1976 © Courtesy of the artist and Pippy H ouldsworth Gallery, London.

10. Zanele Muholi, "Miss Lesbian I, Amsterdam", from the series "Miss (Black) Lesbian" (2009) 

11. Ming Smith, "Me as Marilyn", 1991 © Courtesy of the artist and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London

Beneath the Surface: The Multilayered Artistry of Ebony Patterson's Tapestries

In yesterday's post we mentioned an artist included in Seattle Art Museum's exhibition "Femme Noire" (until 30th September) that for her vividly bright and clever photographic compositions may be co-opted one day by the fashion industry.

But there are other talented artists in that event that, at some point, may attract the attention of the fashion industry.

Among the others there is Ebony G. Patterson, a visual artist and educator originally from Kingston, Jamaica but now based in Chicago.

The 2023 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize in recognition of her contributions to the field of African American art, Patterson has undergone a significant artistic journey.

She initially focused on creating mixed media paintings, drawings, and collages, primarily on paper. Throughout her evolving career, the artist consistently explored the female body as a central theme in her work.

Her early "Venus Investigations" series, for instance, explored the objectification of the female torso, often depicted without a head, anonymously challenging contemporary notions of female self-image and beauty standards. These explorations provocatively extended to taboo topics like the vagina.

As her artistic journey progressed, Patterson embraced various mediums, incorporating photographs, fabrics, and found objects into more intricate and colorful compositions. She began addressing social issues, such as violent crimes, and explored the concept of masculinity within the Dancehall culture and the representation of homosexuality in a predominantly homophobic environment.

Behind her more recent multi-textured and multi-layered tapestries lies a celebration of surface aesthetics. Patterson skillfully combines in them torn papers, tassels, appliqués, beads and jewelry to create visually stunning gardens that gleam with glitter and burst with vibrant colors.

Yet, behind their intricate and multi-layered nature, Patterson's artworks hide dichotomies: the artist juxtaposes indeed beauty with more profound themes addressing social issues.

While initially appearing celebratory, her compositions draw viewers in, encouraging them to uncover truths related to class-based racial issues, social divisions, and political violence. Through these elaborate surfaces the artist looks at the legacies inherent in postcolonial spaces and pays tribute to the lives of those who have been rendered socially invisible.

In Patterson's mixed-media tapestries, there are also hidden undertones, pointing at grief and mourning experienced by many women, something smbolised by hands and limbs that seem to reach out amidst a tangle of appliqued elements and beads.

Patterson's gardens incorporating fabrics and paper flowers, hint at the ideas of death, rebirth, and regeneration: while the inclusion of butterflies and monarchs symbolizes the dichotomous aspects of life, the garden in itself, a recurring motif in her work, serves as a metaphor for postcolonial states, where beauty conceals underlying trauma and violence. Therefore Patterson's art continually challenges viewers, making them feel slightly uncomfortable in their contemplation and luring them into her intricate yet unsettling compositions.

Patterson's innovative approach to utilizing various materials to express the language of art suggests that she could bring fresh perspectives also to the fashion industry.

Her understanding that all materials are valid for artistic navigation and expression may indeed breathe new life into those contemporary collections burdened by fashion fatigue.

Portraits of Empowerment: Spotlight on Thandiwe Muriu

Former Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor's poem "Femme Noire" celebrates the beauty and strength of Black women - from his mother to his wife and daughter, to all the women of his home country.

Written while he was imprisoned in Germany during World War II, the poem is an ode to all the women, symbols of hope, freedom and belonging, the author longed to return to.

Seattle Art Museum moved from this poem for its exhibition "Femme Noire" (until 30th September). Organized in collaboration with Chicago-based blackpuffin and Seattle's own Wa Na Wari, the project develops in various locations across the Central District - from lamp poles to Black-owned businesses and arts organizations - to engage the community in a public dialogue.

"Femme Noire" features works by women artists from Africa and the African diaspora. One of the artists included is Thandiwe Muriu, a Kenyan photographer.

Born and raised in Nairobi, Muriu became interested in photography when she was 14. She self-trained on books and the Internet and started working as a professional photographer three years later.

Introduced to advertising photography, she shot her first solo advertising campaign when she was in her early 20s. From 2019 Muriu transitioned into fine art photography and since then her works have appeared in major exhibitions all over the world, while she also created advertising shots for some of the biggest companies in East Africa.

In her first capsule series entitled "Universal Truths", the photographer analysed the experiences that connect us all as human beings exploring themes such as Ascension, Brotherhood, Unity and Discord. In that series, Muriu also started exploring the vibrant and lively world of African textiles.

She continued this exploration in "Material Culture", a body of work inspired by the elaborate, rich headwraps donned by her mother at special events and at church services. In her series the headwraps become regal symbols, almost crowns and her subjects turn into solemn figures surrounded by an aura of power.

In this series Muriu continued the exploration of the visual power of fabrics and perfected it in her "Camo" series that she started in 2015. This series challenges cultural norms and celebrates African heritage.

In this series her subjects, wearing designs that perfectly match the background seem to disappear in the image.

But it is exactly in this surreal act of disappearance that they end up emerging in full glory; by picturing the subjects against these vibrant backdrops, the viewer's focus is indeed drawn to the women's faces, hair, and hands. In the images the photographer also defies preferences for lighter skin tones, highlighting the beauty of dark-skinned Black women.

The images can therefore be interpreted as new versions of contemporary African portraiture, but also as celebrations of strong and independent women that affirm themselves through their personalities, architectural hairstyles, clothes and accessories.

Each photograph is accompanied by a proverb: for example, Muriu's image entitled "Camo 23" is defined by the proverb "He who is destined for power does not have to fight for it". The photograph portrays a strong, confident woman gazing into the lens, and sporting a hairstyle integrating five fisted coloured hands, a silent yet firm reference to the gentle power of a woman who is confident in herself.

The compositions are extremely complex and Muriu works like a Vogue editor (the fashion magazine was actually an inspiration when she was a teenager): Muriu first explores fabric shops in Nairobi looking for intricate and mesmerizing textile patterns characterized by bold colours and a distinct visual appeal.

Then she researches traditional hairstyles across Africa and tries to find ways to reinterpret or exaggerate them: just like J.D.'Okhai Ojeikere documented the elaborate hairstyles and head wrappings of Nigerian women, Muriu looks at hair to explore the anthropological, social and fashion values of different hairstyles, and she then adds a fashionable and fun twist to her researches. 

In one image the long braids of her model, caught in motion, look like jump ropes or like Rupunzel's tresses, and represent the enlongated braids that the artist and her sisters would have liked to have as kids.

Muriu amplifies traditional Kenyan hairstyles and uses them to push back against Western beauty standards: some images are accompanied by proverbs that emphasise the importance of hair and reveal Muriu's dedication to preserving and celebrating cultural standards of beauty that she believes are at risk of being forgotten.

"When your sister does your hair, you do not need a mirror," recites one African Proverb that Muriu employs to refer to the way women empower each other in Africa by freely giving a helping hand or word of advice when needed. "When a woman goes to get her hair done, she sits indeed at the heart of a semicircle of women who all braid her hair", the photographer explains in the notes to the image.

Another image (Camo 2.0 4415 - that won Muriu an award at the 2021 edition of Female in Focus) shows a woman wearing multi-coloured beads in her hair and is accompanied by the proverb "Beauty and greatness do not belong to the gods alone". Muriu explains on her site that the image celebrates the rich history of wearing beads as part of adornment in Africa, for both beauty and to symbolize messages of status and age group in one glance - without speaking a word.

The hair of another model is decorated with bottle caps from drinks found around Kenya. The photographer uses them to point at traditions and at the fact that soft drinks are often used during cultural events, most notably during the Kikuyu pre-wedding meetings of families. "At these cultural events, a girl will pour a soft drink for her suitor after dowry negotiations to symbolize that she is agreeable to marrying him," Muriu explains. "If a girl refuses to pour a drink for her suitor when requested to do so by her father, she is indicating she does not want to marry."

Accessories are also an integral part of the composition and Muriu often makes them upcycling found objects, a way to emphasize Kenyans' resourcefulness, but also to point at women's strength. Combs, for instance, are to be interpreted as symbols of power.

"To every woman, hair is her crowning glory, making the combs (...) a symbolic celebration of the strength, shine and curl of African hair," she explain (visit Muriu's site and read the descriptions to the images as they are very inspiring and will provide you with some insights on Kenyan culture). 

While Muriu creates the accessories, dressmakers and tailors in Nairobi make the garments she designs for the models. In brief, creating an image for Muriu is more like making a painting.

Symbolically the "Camo" series also hints at Muriu's condition: as a woman working in Kenya's male-dominated advertising photography industry, she addresses questions about women's roles and tradition and the fact that you have to be strong to fight against the challenges and obstacles that come with breaking gender barriers.

Expect Muriu to be picked in future by the fashion industry for advertising campaigns or for collaborations (can we have T-shirts with her vivid, eye-popping images, please?). In the meantime, try to catch some of the exhibitions she's featured in this year or next year when her works will also be part of the Biennale of Female Photography in Mantua, Italy (check out the updated list of events she'll take part in at this link).

Image credits for this post

All images by and copyright Thandiwe Muriu, Courtesy of Thandiwe Muriu & 193 Gallery

1. Ascension (2022)

2. In Full Bloom (2022)

3. Camo 23 (2021)

4. Camo 11 (2021)

5. Camo 34 (2022)

6. Camo 2.0 4322 (2018)

7. Camo 27 (2021)

8. Camo 2.0 4415 (2018)

9. Camo 2.0 4452 (2018)

10. Camo 49 (2022)

11. Our Collective Beauty (2022)

12. It takes Imagination (2022)

L'Arc de Triomphe, (Un)Wrapped: A New Life for Christo & Jeanne-Claude's Artwork

Recycling materials from artistic installations is gaining prominence and it is even inspiring exhibitions and pavilions at biennial events.

This month marks the two-year anniversary of the public artwork by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, "L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, 1961-2021," that attracted millions of people when it was unveiled.

Wrapping L'Arc de Triomphe was the realization of a project sixty years in the making; Christo used to call it his last "temporary exhibition".

All the projects made by Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude involved careful preparation and political negotiation, but this one was particularly dear to him as it was the first monument he dreamt of wrapping.

The temporary installation, completed in partnership with the Centre des Monuments Nationaux (CMN), the government institution that manages the Arc de Triomphe, and Christo's dedicated team, is currently undergoing its final phase of repurposing.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude's installations were usually entirely self-funded and had a limited lifespan, after which the materials were repurposed or recycled, and the sites meticulously restored to their original condition.

For instance, the wooden and steel substructures of "L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped" were given new purposes and used by Les Charpentiers de Paris, ArcelorMittal and Derichebourg Environnement respectively.

To complete the sustainability cycle of the installation, the 25,000 square meters of silvery-blue polypropylene fabric and 3,000 meters of red polypropylene rope have instead recently been processed by Parley for the Oceans and the materials are now moving into the design and production phase.

The materials are set to enjoy a second life during upcoming significant events in Paris, most notably the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as confirmed by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

These materials will soon be transformed into shade structures, tents, or barnums for this major events in Paris, that will help protecting people during heatwaves.

The announcement coincides with a new event dedicated to Christo's early works, on display at 4 Princelet Street in London (from 6th to 22nd October), as part of the Gagosian Open series of off-site projects.

These sculptures see everyday objects wrapped in fabric or plastic and secured with rope or twine and reveal an artist who, even during the early stages of his career, exhibited a creative response to domestic and urban environments. Most of these works date back to the 1960s and 1970s, and they also convey themes of movement, migration, and preservation.

The artist's diverse heritage and his experience as a political refugee, shaped his identity as a perpetual wanderer, as he often referred to himself - "l'étranger."

In March 1958, Christo Javacheff (1935-2020) arrived in Paris as a stateless political refugee, having escaped Communist Bulgaria in 1956 and found his way to Vienna via Czechoslovakia, smuggled in a freight car with only a scrap of paper bearing his destination. With the help of connections in Geneva, he eventually reached Paris, where a French aristocratic family offered him refuge in a maid's room overlooking the Arc de Triomphe. After 17 stateless years, Christo became a United States citizen in 1973.

This narrative is mirrored by the history of 4 Princelet Street, which has housed successive migrant families. Originally built in 1723 to accommodate Huguenot migrants, it has since been a home to Irish linen workers, Eastern European Jews, Dutch Jews, and more recently, the Bangladeshi community in Spitalfields.

It would be interesting to see if some of the materials from the Arc de Triomphe installation could be destined also to design students or ethical fashion projects to create artworks linked with sustainability and the refugee theme (Helen Storey's Dress For Our Time comes to mind), or could be used to come up with temporary structures for refugees in collaboration with a renowned architect known for such projects (Shigeru Ban?). You know that Christo would have appreciated the idea.

Image credits for this post

1. Christo and Jeanne-Claude, L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961-2021
Photo: Wolfgang Volz
© 2021 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

2. Installing the ropes to secure and contour the fabric on the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, September 13, 2021
Photo: Lubri
© 2021 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

3. Christo and Jeanne-Claude, L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961-2021
Photo: Benjamin Loyseau
© 2021 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

4 - 8. Recycling of the fabric and ropes used for "L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped", 2023
Courtesy Parley for the Oceans
© 2023 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

9. Christo
"Dolly"
1964
Wooden box, tarpaulin, polyethylene, rope, girth, and metal wheels
183 x 101.5 x 82 cm (72 x 40 x 32 ¼ in)
Property of the Estate of Christo V. Javacheff
Photo: Eeva-Inkeri
© 1964 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

Ultra-Fast Fashion Vs. Ethical Education: A Clash of Values

It's frustrating to hear politicians vehemently advocating for traditional family values or lecturing young people not to use drugs, only to discover that their own personal lives don't align with their rhetoric, and often involve very loose interpretations of family dynamics and secret indulgence in substance abuse.

Similarly, it's bewildering when institutions teach the importance of ethical behavior to students, but fail to uphold those principles through their actions. For instance, numerous fashion and design institutions offer courses on sustainability, waste reduction and alternative materials, urging students to find solutions for a better future. However, there are instances where these institutions fall short of practicing what they preach.

 

In May, ultra-fast fashion retailer Shein launched a scholarship program and curriculum called Shein X Project Launchpad in collaboration with the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM).

As part of its Shein X designer incubator program, this initiative aimed to provide 12 selected students with $40,000 scholarships, along with the opportunity to create 5-10-piece clothing collections to be sold on Shein's platform.

The curriculum spanned 20 weeks, with a first part focused on market research, design development, fit, and production. Upon completion in October, students will be able to their collections on the Shein platform, earning commissions and retaining ownership of their creations.

The students were chosen for this opportunity through a selection process that considered various factors including their academic achievements, portfolio of work, résumé, recommendations from their instructors, and a brief video submission in which they explained their motivations for applying to the program.

"Shein X Project Launchpad aims to launch these students into successful careers in the fashion industry," George Chiao, US president of Shein announced in an official press release published when the announcement was given. "By providing scholarships and access to Shein's resources and customer network, we hope to remove some of the barriers aspiring designers typically face and provide these talented young people with the tools and support they need to help them achieve their dreams."

Barbara Bundy, FIDM vice president of education, added in the same press release: "We are very grateful for the generous scholarship opportunities Shein has brought our students to further their education. Through this partnership, the students will enhance their design talent and creative vision, and more fully understand the business side of fashion and how a product is made end-to-end."

The announcement in May preceded Shein's sponsored trip for influencers to China: in June a group of influencers was indeed invited to visit one of their factories in China, but their online reports ended up sparking controversy on social media, as they were all favorable, suggesting in one case that consumers were being presented with a particular anti-Shein narrative in the US.

Since its introduction to the US in 2017, Shein has actually risen as the most popular ultra-fast fashion brand in the country, winning the favour of customers with its extremely affordable prices and trendy designs. In May 2021, the Shein mobile app became the most downloaded shopping app in the U.S., and, in May 2022, it outperformed both TikTok and Instagram, becoming the most downloaded mobile app in any category.

Yet, in the last few years, Shein has faced criticism for a variety of unethical practices, these include poor working conditions, the presence of high levels of toxic chemicals in their clothing, mishandling of customer data and plagiarism of designs from independent creators such as fashion, graphic designers and photographers.

In July Shein was sued on copyright infringement grounds by three independent artists - Krista Perry, Larissa Martinez, and Jay Baron - who accused the company of large-scale and systematic intellectual property theft. The artists claim that Shein not only copied but also produced, distributed, and sold exact replicas, cheap versions, of their creative work, alleging that such infringement constitutes racketeering under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO Act).

Besides, in 2021 a Swiss watchdog group, Public Eye, found that Shein's supplier factories had unsafe conditions, with workers enduring long hours, lack of contracts, and fire hazards. Moreover, in the documentary "Inside the Shein Machine," aired by Channel 4 in the UK last year, Shein's factories in Guangzhou were exposed, revealing low wages, excessive working hours, and harsh penalties for errors. Shein has also faced scrutiny for allegedly using cotton from Xinjiang, a region associated with human rights abuses and with Uyghurs' forced labor.

Last but not least, Shein's environmental footprint raises concerns as its ultra-fast fashion model leads to unsustainable practices. The lack of transparency in its production makes it challenging to measure the true extent of its environmental impact, but we know that Shein introduces a staggering 6,000 items to its catalog every week. 

While the FIDM partnership appeared to support young talents, it is hard to see only the positive sides of this. It is indeed puzzling that an institution that organizes courses about sustainability in fashion, aligned with this company. The university has a history of promoting sustainability in the fashion industry, housing an "Innovative Materials Collection" (that includes bionic yarn, and biosynthetics, mycelium and recycled cassette tape) on campus. Additionally, they introduced a course on sustainability in their Merchandising and Marketing Program in 2021, emphasizing social responsibility.

Sure, it is hard to resist money when they throw it at you. It is hard to provide a honest review of a runway show when a fashion house has paid for your flight, put you in a five star hotel and given you a bag of goodies or provided you with a runway invitation that incorporates an expensive item (yet people nowadays are more aware of the difference between reporting and being paid for a post...).

This temptation may be even more difficult to resist in case of institutions facing financial difficulties. Like other colleges, FIDM, faced recent challenges, from closing satellite campuses to being placed on probation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission in 2021 over concerns about financial viability (to address these issues, in April this year it merged with Arizona State University, forming a new partnership (ASU FIDM), but layoffs continued, indicating persistent problems). 

It is also hard for institutions to refuse scholarship partnerships when education is becoming increasingly expensive, placing a heavy burden on many families (this means that education may in a not so distant future become accessible primarily to those wealthy enough to afford it, regardless of their skills or genuine interest in learning...).

However, there's concern about not practicing the values you teach, it is indeed essential for educational institutions and brands to align their actions with the values they promote to avoid sending conflicting messages to young generations. Shein made a very generous offer, but there are huge conglomerates out there with better credentials that could offer the same amount of money and there are smaller brands that may offer less, but that may prove more beneficial to the school's reputation. Behind Shein's offer there isn't indeed the will to create a better world, but to create a better reputation for itself, just like they tried to do by inviting influencers to China.  

Yet young people may be inexperienced but they aren't certainly stupid: Lexy Silverstein, a fourth year digital marketing student at FIDM, launched for example a campaign on Change.org against the partnership (signed, at the time of writing this post, by over 4,600 people). In the message accompanying it (but read also her letter accompanying the petition), she states: "One of the reasons I chose this college in Los Angeles was because of their sustainability classes. I was proud to share that FIDM was named one of the Top Ten Sustainable Fashion Schools in the World. So how hypocritical is it for my school to partner with a fashion brand that has such an unsustainable business model?" 

While Silverstein is fighting back and asking us all to join in, there may be students who may have taken part in the scholarship programme and who may have opened their eyes about the industry or who may use the discrepancies behind this story to take from now on more informed decisions about their future careers and values.

But, the focus in this story is not on the students, but on the institution: FIDM is not the first university to partner with Shein. In 2021, the company established a collaboration with Indiana University to create career opportunities for international students. This partnership faced similar skepticism and eventually the school cut its ties with the brand just months later. But the practice extends to other sectors and universities: fossil fuel companies provided, for example, research funding to 27 US universities (including Harvard and MIT) between 2010 and 2020. 

It will prove extremely challenging to persuade students of the value of our teachings if our actions contradict what we impart to them. How can we encourage them to embrace originality, avoid copying, and engage in thorough research on organic textiles and innovative materials when we preach sustainability, but then we align ourselves with the same retailers that have been accused of multiple copyright infringements, with the same companies that promote overconsumption and that push us to indulge in the binge-buying behavior exemplified by the "#sheinhaul" videos? (ultra-fast fashion retailers like Temu encourage us to "shop like a millionaire," but the reality is that we are merely acquiring a heap of disposable goods that won't last, spending more and increasing environmental pollution...).

These considerations should serve as food for thought for educational institutions and educators. To nurture the next generation of designers effectively, we must establish coherence between our teachings and actions; otherwise, we risk of becoming like those hypocritical politicians who preach morality but actually live in an immorality play.

Artists for Woman Life Freedom: Honoring Mahsa Amini's Memory

At recent red carpet events, from a premiere at Lincoln Center in New York City in March to last week's Vogue World: London 2023 at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane, actor and producer Nicole Ansari-Cox, the wife of "Succession" star Brian Cox and of half-Iranian descent, made a powerful statement in support of women's rights in Iran.

She often adorned her attire with a sash bearing the words "Woman Life Freedom." This slogan emerged last year during the protests that erupted following the tragic death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, while in custody.

Mahsa had been detained by the Gasht-e Ershad, the "morality police," for wearing her hijab 'improperly,' thus violating the dress code for women.

The protests, primarily centered on women's rights in Iran and opposing the mandatory hijab enforced by the theocratic regime, spread to various cities within the country and received support from around the world. Many powerful images and videos showed women cutting off their hair as a symbol of mourning and protest, a gesture deeply rooted in Iranian literature.

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of Mahsa's tragic death, and various events were organized in different countries to commemorate the occasion.

Iranian-born American-British artist Koushna Navabi founded "Artists for Woman Life Freedom," an initiative aimed at raising awareness of the brave women in Iran fighting for basic human rights against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Navabi's artistic practice spans sculpture, installation, and painting, with a focus on textiles. Her use of "feminine" techniques explores the intersection of the personal and socio-political in an expressively ironic manner, drawing heavily from cultural myths surrounding Orientalism and gender identity. Her work intertwines sexuality with politics, and is often tinged with a horror nuance. Navabi frequently combines textile media in her works, including traditional Persian kilims, with sculpted or found objects. Her craft techniques reference folkloric primitivism and also look at the theme of alienation.

As part of the "Artists for Woman Life Freedom" campaign, Navabi and fellow artists Anahita Razmi, Abbas Zahedi and Hadi Falapishi all created a series of posters that will be exhibited in public spaces across the UK, Dublin and Paris over the coming months.

The posters are accompanied by events and film screenings hosted by local art institutions which focus on the ongoing struggle for women's rights in Iran.

The project launched in Paris with a day of art, activism, and reflection, including talks and screenings by artists such as Navabi and Mina Keshavarz at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris and films by Mina Keshavarz Keshavarz and Pegah Ahangarani at The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, events followed by a night march through the city.

Mina Keshavarz's documentary, "The Art of Living in Danger," follows a group of women advocating for change, transforming from a personal narrative into something much greater. Keshavarz's story is dedicated to her grandmother, Nurijan, whom she never had the chance to meet. Nurijan died before the revolution, while Mina was born after its conclusion. It is only later in the film that the family's decades-long silence regarding her grandmother's tragic tale begins to make sense. Simultaneously, the documentary sheds light on the efforts of women's rights activists who have dedicated years to drafting a comprehensive bill that would establish equal treatment as a fundamental right in their country. These activists have collected numerous poignant accounts of oppressed women and the film evolves into a testament of how Iranian women persistently strive for legal protection, showcasing their unwavering commitment to the cause.

In her film "I Am Trying to Remember" Pegah Ahangarani uses instead photographs, videos, and vivid recollections from her own childhood to evoke a collective memory of the Iranian revolution. Ahangarani tells a story from her childhood and of beloved family friend Gholam who disappeared after the revolution and whose images were erased in family albums, a fate shared by many individuals, political prisoners executed and buried in unmarked grass graves in 1988, ten years after the Islamic revolution.

Throughout September, the poster artworks will be displayed on billboards across Edinburgh and exhibited on the exteriors of The Maison Européenne de la Photographie and the Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire. Additional UK and Dublin-based galleries and museums participating in the campaign will be announced in the coming months, with more posters displayed in public locations in various cities. Hopefully, we will see these posters spreading throughout Europe, because while we should be showing the brave Iranian women our support, in turn they can be inspiring for us and give us the strength to fight against gender-based violence and femicides. 

Koushna Navabi, stated in an official press release about "Artists for Woman Life Freedom": "I believe it's crucial to harness the impactful voices of artists in the public sphere to amplify awareness and support for the ongoing women's-led revolution in Iran. We are awed by the bravery of Iranian youth who have made sacrifices and still face peril while striving for freedom. This revolution resonates at the heart of society and has the potential to transcend Iran's borders, in its neighbouring countries, giving rise to a wider movement against injustice."