What is true remains to be seen, and the artist instinctively knows the value of such simple truths by communicating this through their works. Conceptualising reality through the beauty of art is a subtle craft, where the artist pours their wisdom and emotions into the abstract, and then the concrete.
Jenny Holzer’s medium was the power of words and slogans. Her career was hallmarked by an artistic style that spoke volumes in a few words, and depths in the brevity of sentences.
Such a style has permeated the revolutionary tactics of past to future waves of feminists, whether to topple governments or inspire cornerstone changes in the community.
Holzer’s most celebrated slogan has remained eternal since its inception, and people have recognised its impact and relevance after appearing as a front print giving the finger to the establishment.
This dangerous act of empowering the masses snowballed as politically-charged tees continued to make their mark on the ethos of society, and she didn’t stop there.
Giving consciousness to the most mundane of everyday items, she printed her art on everything from t-shirts, mugs, and stickers to co-opt the practices and counterrevolutionary tactics of enterprise branding.
That ethos lives on in the hearts of subversive streetwear, where corporations and cohorts collide. Today’s designers and artists work underground and at the grassroots to beat the Machine at its own games: taking the means of production to take back the minds of the masses.
While our art is for sale, we are not, and the power struggles waged on the battlefront of creative content are no different than any other war in the history books. They all take strategy, skill, and essentially, a quiet ruthlessness steeped in the survival of ideology.
In that same spirit, ALLRIOT has peacefully waged its own war against the corporate dross of linear conformity and meaningless ideology in consumerism with our own powerful weapons. We carry our own banners, screen prints, and sardonic wit, with a carefully crafted product lineup to break up the crystallisation of discourse on some of society’s most pressing issues. This year, reproductive freedom is under attack in the US, so we’re focusing all our efforts on Roevember t-shirts.
