Artivism and Visual Expression: An Act, A Praxis
I recently became inspired by a pivotal interview piece, conducted by the ArtsResearchCenter on Youtube. The speaker interviewed is a creative and multifaceted artist known as Favianna Rodriguez, who co-founded the Eastside Arts Alliance as well as guiding the Center for Cultural Power. Favianna argues that visual activism is an aesthetic vehicle for socio-political change. Rodriguez grew up in Oakland, California, which she described as incredibly hard-hit during the establishment of the War on Drugs in the 1980s; her frequent experiences observing the violence between or unjustly imposed upon others through hierarchical subjugation caused her to turn to art as a creative outlet and coping mechanism. The boundaries Favianna described pushing are incredibly important for everchanging perceptions within the art and creatively-oriented world, through acknowledging such structures as expressive pieces housing a lot more meaning than mere surface-level interpretations. The artist and theorist also emphasizes the erasure and whitewashing of the media, with predominantly white artists and personalities taking the lead. This is hardly representative, so Favianna appreciates her ability to create art as a remembrance and reclamation of the accurate depiction of LatinX people, celebrating both cultural lifestyles and the history of Indigenous and African roots.
What I found immensely interesting and fresh was Rodriguez’ comparison between art compositions and sociopolitical schools of thought; both are socially constructed stories, when boiled down. Policies knowingly hurting minorities are man-made, cultivated through introducing stories and stereotypes that spread like wildfire and ultimately become codified; in a similar fashion, creations and publications of art possess similar trajectories, through catalyzing representative stories and expressions launched and interpreted by the public. Rodriguez, within her pivotal interview, states that “...the stories that [she] wanted to tell were actually the stories that would work to combat and alleviate the false stories. That’s how we create stories of inclusion, and stories where we belong, and stories where we see each other.” Rodriguez, through her interview, frequently touches upon the climate crisis, and artist’s responses to ever occurring climate change; she references a pivotal image of the earth that was taken in 1969, and delineates its global circulation to the prevalence of the first Earth Day in 1970, which led to the creation of the EPA and other formative regulatory practices. Rodriguez notes this image’s capability–through its artistic style– to showcase a world without borders, acting as a place that everyone can call home and enabling a positive unification of society.
When understanding sustainable fashion and groundbreaking capabilities for garnering representation, support and circulation, I believe that Rodriguez’ perspectives have emboldened a holistic view; sustainable fashion is not only a slogan, but a movement to represent positive change, give voice to underrepresented and central stories and life experiences, and grow empathetically-aligned and intellectually-charged activism in order to achieve renewable goals.
The ability to reflect upon the societally-constructed normatives is the first step towards co-creating and constructing authentically innovative world building. When translating Favianna Rodgriguez’ perspective into the realm of sustainable fashion, we can showcase this artform as an intersectional space, where we can come together and share, understand the contextual and vital histories of sustainable, cultural, and fashion-based movements, as a first step towards a newly collective mindset!
To watch the entirety of her interview, follow this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhkQqKcWZpM
Lillian Worley
