For those of you who are into cosmetics, remember that thinking ruins the face. / ... Passion?—It’s merely neurosis. / Made in Itary: All’s in Order: “Out of Order” Fashion’s Inability to Divest of Power By Christian Alborz Oldham/ Putting the Theory to the Test

Abstract

Clothing—its manufacture and its point of distribution and sale—is an apt illustration for the faults and entrapment of contemporary productive society as it relates to human and ecological rights and wellbeing. Artworks, like those produced by Sturtevant, are in place that manipulate readymade power and in doing so, point to the total structures that allow that very artwork to be shown. The fact that this work is given an immense public platform and standing in financial markets throws into question the efficacy of the artworks pointing and makes one aware of the very real possibility of criticism becoming capital. With this knowledge, what does it mean to be making work that disconcertingly falls within this potential cycle of critical production, which is largely similar and toxic to many other types of artistic production. When and how does model-building for alternative ways of living and producing stop being a type of Stockholm Syndrome, and become a practical and viable reality?