If...

EXIT

 

All that is in the images and if we take the time to engage with them we will find that we are in the middle of one of the major conflicts of our time - Globalization and its Discontents. These dislocations in contemporary Western society have their historical counterparts in the Industrial Revolution where the products of that revolution caused massive problems for the societies they swamped with, for example, cheap textiles.

 

 

 

 

 

Thus in the 19th century these industrially produced textiles destroyed traditional production in (British) India and the (Dutch) East Indies. In the 20th century cheap labour in those regions has meant a relocation of production and a similar dramatic impact on textile production in the West. Thus there is a direct connection to historical socio-economic debates - slavery, labour relations in general and the balance of power between production and profit; between state and corporate responsibility on a local and global scale.

 


“The shortest way to find yourself leads round the world.”

Count Hermann Keyserling (1880-1946)