Social commentary, the quiet art of infiltration: Art and Activism. Politix and Pop Culture. Fashion versus Fascism. Clothing with a conscience. Fair Fashion.

_Then and Now_

I have not always made political tee shirts. Back in South Africa, fresh out of art school, I began making anti-apartheid tee shirts while in a rock band. The shirts were eventually banned because the South African government feared they would become “commercial.” By banning them, they ensured just that! So they (quietly) un-banned them. All this helped contribute to the larger energy that eventually took down apartheid. I saw first-hand the power of pop culture to influence politics.

Do not get me wrong: I am not for a moment suggesting that what the artists did back then was in any way as courageous and heroic as all those that gave their lives in the struggle for equality or all the lawyers, journalists and regular people who were jailed for their pro-democracy work. But we all have a role to play – and we do what we do because we have to. And because we love to.

Then, years later, with South Africa in my rear-view mirror, and after immersing myself in the fast-paced fashion world that is New York City – the Bush administration took us to war (again): It was time to make tee shirts (again)!

I started Reason8 as a rebuke. A refusal to buy the lie they were selling. There never were any WMDs. Didn’t everyone know that? Fearful of losing their geo-political foothold and desirous of dwindling resources – driven by their insatiable thirst for gas, a bunch of fearful ideologues distorted the evidence and tricked us into a war that wasn’t necessary, went blundering into the middle east, selling democracy at gunpoint, leaving a trail of carnage and death – killing children or leaving them orphaned and, ironically, changing the power balance in that region so that our “perceived” enemies were empowered. Either they are incredibly shortsighted and stupid or they have done this on purpose, and are criminals advancing some awful Machiavellian agenda to hold onto failing American dominance in the face of new rising world powers – by provoking a clash of civilizations. Whatever their reasoning, it is possible that we might never ever know the real reasons behind this fiasco. But, when they invaded Iraq the first thing they did was to protect the oil instead of the people they’d (supposedly) come to rescue and that said it all.

So, instead of just whining and shaking our heads in resignation, we made a few tee shirts (it’s what I do when I’m pissed off): (“Got Democracy?” and “One Nation Under Surveillance” and we wore them to all the early demonstrations. *One Nation* won a national tee shirt competition and we were asked to make more –and soon we found ourselves with a business. Though not necessarily a profitable one as we decided to print on sweatshop-free shirts either made in union shops or in factories that treat workers decently. Paying workers fairly means a more expensive shirt. And hence, less of a profit. But we believe that our customers don’t mind paying a couple of dollars more for a shirt knowing that everyone is sharing the cost and that it’s for an important cause: Fair Fashion. Looking good at the expense of someone else is just plain ugly.

At first, some store owners were reluctant to get behind a message of Fair Fashion (“but won’t my customers ask where all the other shirts were made, if yours say ‘Sweatshop-Free?’” Duh.) It was also considered unpatriotic to question the government in the aftermath of 9/11. Not easy to sell political shirts like these in that environment. So we created our own subversive language of dissent, tapping into art and activism, politics and pop-culture to fashion a message and sneak it under the radar and into our consciousness (via our infamous underbelly – that special place where you wait in line, scanning the trash mags and listening to the music of registers singing: Point of Sale!)

We wore the shirts to rallies, to parties, clubs and even (if you had courage) – through airports (though we DON'T advised this!) – to get the message out there. Not in our name, we said—but they did it anyway. We felt like outsiders, untrusting of a single word that appeared in the mainstream media. But then, as the press noticed what we were doing and stores began calling – we began to see a turn for the better: dissent was actually becoming fashionable! The shirts began turning up on the streets, at demonstrations, on Youtube videos and on MTV. Some rather famous activists wore them. After years of sewing our seeds of dissent – We sensed that change was finally in the air.

Many of our customers, storeowners, managers and buyers courageously showcased our work at the risk of alienating their (Republican) customers and losing business to get the message out there.

And then suddenly, there’s a glimmer of hope. Obama. A choice: abomination versus Obama-Nation. A bummer nation versus something better.

Thankfully, we believed enough in ourselves to go for something better. From Iowa through a brush with the Clintons all the way up to Sarah Palin keeping tabs on Russia from her back door. Luckily we made a smart choice. And Obama being who he is – immediately chose Clinton as his Secretary of State and set about attempting to right the ship.

But, as we know – this ship is listing badly. Broke from a mistaken war(s), broke from lack of regulation, broke from too much ego and empire fatigue – we can only hope that it’s not so broke that it’s unfix-able.

Maybe, because we humans only do something when our hand is forced to the hot-plate, maybe this will be that definitive point in History, when it stopped being His Story and became “our story.” A new paradigm.

We are audacious enough to hope.

Using art, a tee shirt and the human body- we will not be silenced. This is about the future: having one! After all, bomb-shelters are claustrophobic and sooo passe´. (Yes, even the portable one's from Walmart with free first aid kits and designer bibles. In Braille- in case you happen to be caught staring out the window when the bomb goes off)

HIStory Lesson:
Screen goes from black to blue. Camera pans across an empty expanse of open sea. Zooms in and under the water to focus on a single fish swimming against the current towards the camera and the shore. Surfing in on a wave the solitary fish lands on the beach and quickly begins to crawl up the sandy embankment towards a pile of hurriedly discarded clothing.
voice-over:
'It took Him 6 days to create the world in His Image. On the 7th day while He was resting, she recreated the world in hers. On the 8th day- we got dressed:

Reason 8: because you still fuckin can.