Art is not in culture
and shouldn't try to become it
Had to take a small break from authoirty while I finish off a project that needs my attention, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on fashion, art and culture. Thanks for the space - back to normal programming next week. x
Balance Sheet
There is no end of artists who want to be household names. That position requires some bending to the establishments that decide who gets known and for what, and who wants an artist that bends. One may break through to that level of renown late in a career. But those intentions for success rarely end with art fulfilling its greatest good.
It will surprise no one inside the industry when I say the art world has struggled for relevance over the last few years. On social media, creators have pushed the boundaries of shock and socially critical performance. Fashion houses and luxury brands have become the only products people use to expand their level of taste. And technology has regressed everyones experience to a mucky median.
Art, especially the visual kind, was once the cultural good because it challenged how the world looked. It is now a cultural good. And not one built to participate in modern society like the others.
It’s financial engine has a culture of its own, one I’m not sure does anything but produce more of the same. It crowns a name, sells it hard for a few seasons, then scans the pack for the next one to ascend the levels of sales and shows.
But art has always had the others. The ones with nowhere popular to stand. Who say, here is where the culture is going wrong. And often those people are celebrated posthumously. The art market, along with the undertakers, is one of the very few cultures that reads the obituaries with glee.
The obvious place for us to start is fashion. I completely redirected my practice in 2024 to see what a bridge between art and fashion looks like. It is now one of the core pillars of what I do. Last year we partnered with Topshop on their relaunch campaign. This year, something else is coming. Soon.
Because art’s role is not to be part of culture. Anything that is part of a culture is a victim of it. It must participate by the culture’s rules. And when art collaborates with fashion as an advertising mechanic, it surrenders the one territory that suits us most.
Observation.
Outside
Our job is to step outside of fashion and look at it from there.
The fashion industry has coverage. Opinion pieces, all paid for. Friends of the brand, part soft power, part payroll, telling you what to buy and what to avoid, all inside an industry that works together so the right applause happens at the right moments. The last critics who bit were banned from the shows. It has a hierarchy. It is established. And everyone in it is owned.
Artists are not. We have the advantage of being comparably broke as an industry. We owe them nothing.
The one thing fashion cannot develop by itself is honest critique. It already buys everything from itself. The machine can produce infinite acceptable campaigns that shill products to the masses, but it cannot disapprove of one. It is a culture that has nothing at stake. Nowhere unpopular to stand. Honest critique is the one asset left that cannot be generated.
So why partner with fashion at all?
Fashion has been growing steadily at 3 to 4 percent a year. Art fell 12% in 2024 and clawed back 4 (that still leaves it down 8-9% Net since 2023). We have too much critique and not enough sales. Fashion has too many sales and no critique.
Fashion turns over 1.8 trillion dollars a year. Every gallery and dealer on earth, 34.8 billion.
What if there is a 1% piece of value the art world can provide? Which artists do we bring in to offer a novel perspective, to deliver a critque, an observation we can’t see from inside our machine? What if we spend 1% of our budget on art collaborations. Would it return more than 1%? Surely. Would it change the art market?
yes.
Merch
When most people see my merch, they see cool hoodies. Well made, well done. But the people who have been to the studio, who understand the practice, know what I am saying with it. All fashion is marketing. All of it is merch. That is all it is. You turn your consumers into walking advertisements for your brand. I say this from inside it. And there is much to talk about inside high fashion. The inspiration. The construction. The commendable work the designers do. The critique is not meant with contempt, it’s simply attention.
This spring Prada hired Jordan Wolfson, one of my favourite artists. His creatures walked through the campaign while the cast repeated a sentence they never finished. I, I, I, I am. The closest thing to a critique fashion has bought in years. It makes sense that it was Prada leading the way. Some reviews called it fashion annexing art. They saw an invasion instead of a bridge.
Fashion has the money. Its growing. It has the machinery and it has the crowd. The one thing it cannot build is a mirror.
Good job that’s the only thing we make
Poets Corner
Prison
Between the bars that I’m behind,
a teeny spider floats to the centre,
building, from nothing, a trap for flies.
Should I swoop to destroy its work?
No one would ever know
it was me that saved that space
from the struggles of the gnat.
- Thomas MayNeeded a week
carrying a lot rn
appreciate it loads
nothing but love
r
x
loved this read - do you mind sharing the link to where the graphs are from? Can't find it on the Art Market site X