My obsession with leapord print is not just a fashion statement, its a dialogue with the past. What we inherited from early explorers who created a global interconnected world we have now. Where their developments what we needed? They were definitely not perfect due to the issues we have inherited. The global inequalities, mass industrial pollution, all slavery old and modern, diseases from labs and secondary reactions to misguided pharmacological developments etc. We are playing too much with Nature and we need to stop now.
On a personal level, I have fun with my animal print clothes once a cult symbol of past explorers & their sino ambitions to own the world. I do not want to own the world. Just my own life. Where I am allowed to dream & fantasise about life possibilities, where all my dreams and hopes really come true – drama, romance, adventure , exploration, and knowledge
By carving out my own legacy, I hope to leave my own statement through my own unquie print and designs.
Unfortunately, I have become a staunch critic and pessimist of issues related to some of these developments which a find abhorrent and unacceptably. Im not totally thrilled by all global devts and feel I have every have a right to question and document them. I have been looking at fashion protests as a viable platform of expression. In recent years, Fashion Protests have gained popularity, especially in the Donald Trump era when just wearing a Donald Trump, red MAGA cap would trigger even some of the most even keel pple.
As an Activist, I believe, Fashion protests are going to continue to grown to replace huge gatherings of people in groups for physical protests which are seen as inciting violence, risk to lives, property damage, unacceptable political instability and national security risk in the 21 century.
In UK a new legislation was introduced that can turn a protest into public nuisance crime. As we we see more & more legislation to regulate and even ban physical protests all together especially protests with sensitive agendas that can create clashes between different sectors of people like targeting of minorities etc, with serious issues that need public attention, we need to be more resourcful and creative. Like explore the potential of a fashion protest. So when you see me, playing clothes, know that, it’s a visual dialogue of human history through clothes and prints that were given to us from the early Safari expeditions many many generations and years ago. And we question, Were their globalisation developments a success or disaster. Your answer usually depends on how you have benefied from these global developments. They will always be bias towards ones own circumstances, good or bad unless they have the bigger picture. As an Artist, Activist & Academic, Reclaiming my own life though these developments, finds me extremely soul searching. Im a complex human being who found art which I use to understand myself now against the history & legacies that connects us all. I am my own muse. We all have a history and story. We can not keep repeating the errors of the past of grouping & stereotyping people. We are individuals, grouping people, we know it did not end well because we inherited the class system, racism & all sorts. Now, everyone wants to be identified as an individual, who can relate to what they want and can leave what the dont. Not the other way round where we are grouped & its up to the individual who is strong, to say, EXCUSE ME, I DONT FIT IN. With our differences and similarities, we just need one code- Live and Let Live, so we can all flourish into our individually best selves.
WINNIE MANGWENDE 