In his book The Utopia of Rules, anthropologist and anarchist David Graeber wrote, “The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make, and could just as easily make differently.” This concept is the foremost driver of my practice. By drawing connections from across the cultural plane, I hope to illuminate within myself and those who consume my work the ways in which our world really operates. In an age mired by uncriticality and anti-intellectualism, my role cannot be to influence the thoughts of my audience but to instead influence the ways that they think. I strive, simply, to make people engage. This often takes form through the kaleidoscope of mass culture. “Man…” German playwright Bertolt Brecht commented, “can be understood only in the light of the processes in which he is involved and through which he exists.” This dialectic is the essence of my creative intention.
I have been inspired for a long time by the great disruptors of history: Karl Marx, Walter Gropius, Martin Margiela, Rei Kawakubo. These are but a few of the thinkers and creators who have committed their lives to imagining and representing the world in new, unflinching ways. They compelled action within their followers, and reflection about the societal and cultural failings of their times. We are currently in a time where these failings are manifesting through a flattening of the physical and digital realms, collapsing what we know as truth and reality on the way. My recent research has sought to understand this new stage in our culture through historical, philosophical and sociological lenses. If my practice is not propelled by the defence of free thought and creativity, and the progression of society, then what is its purpose at all?