Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Fallon and Rosof On Utopia

We are utopians.

Utopianism does not mean perfectionism. It means aspiring to something better. Much of our own art is OK, not perfect, but we still think it's utopian. We reinvent our lives in our art to tell a mythic story of everyday heroine-ism. We give away our autobiographical art on the street to promote our vision of utopianism--collaborative, activist, small and people-centric.

We want to show you can have your little utopia in your everyday existence.

We are living in dystopic times, and that sense of the world falling apart is what's catalyzing the urgency of today's utopianism. It's how things felt during the Vietnam War era. People are again creating utopias and collectives. The 1960's homemade candles, tie-dyed t-shirts, and homegrown food has transmogrified into today's hand-printed t-shirts, knitwear and everything else that etsy.com has to offer. The whole DIY ethic is the dream of a better and more authentic world. No more plastic.

We've noticed that more and more artists are making unabashedly utopian art -- people like Oliver Herring or like the collectives of young artists who are transforming Philadelphia's art scene with their idealism and energy.

Utopianism provides a counterbalance to the Bush administration philosophy of greed. We know we're not going to change the world except in small ways but we're going to go down trying.

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