Are we doing enough?
Are we doing enough?
We're tired of hearing that we are living in “unprecedented” times, aren't we? How can it be that the instability of this past year has somehow managed to bring about an enclosed period of mundanity for so many of us? Pacing the floor back and forth, thinking about that list and checking it twice so we don't have to go to the store more than is needed, making 'plans', and aspiring to a 'post-COVID' world that may never come.
Amongst all these, and in the nooks and crannies of societies around the world, a darker side of humanity is coming to the fore. Tech companies, such as Amazon and Facebook, have cornered markets and made it harder for small businesses to connect to consumers. Media censorship and Global 'North' domination have obfuscated life-threatening changes elsewhere in the world - most recently, the farmer-led protests in India and the attempted military coup in Myanmar. The irony of a time in which information is closest to our fingertips and yet it's hardest to connect to an 'elsewhere'.
Although my physical motions have been repetitive this past year, my thoughts have been anything but. With each set of pacing, sweeping, breathing - a new series of reflections emerge. Namely: Are we doing enough?
When we are able to harness the power of communities, to tap into the brilliance and ingenuity on each of our blocks, to connect with neighbors and collectively uplift one another - that is how we can do a part of the work required for some form of 'enough' to arise.
For some of us, confinement and isolation have spurred consumption - clothing, decor, new pets - for others, COVID-19 has us out of work, teetering on the brink of evictions, if not already having had to move out.
The gap between these two worlds is increasing and it is my firm belief that we must not fault one another for our situations (except for the 1% whose generational wealth is being compounded off of suppressing labor unions, exploiting workers, avoiding taxes, and looking down on the ‘poor’ who “should be pulling themselves up by the bootstraps” - fuck the 1%). In today’s social climate where we are increasingly left with a bad taste in our mouth at the site of small(er) businesses going out of work and corporations growing, many consumers with a disposable income will happily spend it on a small business. Simultaneously, many creatives and innovators out of work have the ideas and means to create but lack the support to make their talents known and base their income on this ingenuity.
At Peat and Repeat, we want to bridge this gap. While of course, we operate within the art world, we want to make high-quality art accessible to people and (financially) support the artists whose visions we believe in. We want to make those physical repetitions in your home a bit more pleasing to look at, to think about, to instill a new sense of reflection and appreciation for art, in however way you see fit. And we want those artists to gain the recognition they deserve so that they can continue creating and contributing to this world with their talents.
Yes, these remain 'unprecedented' times, but wouldn't they be even more so if we emerged just a little closer to one another?
We have so much planned for the future - from increasing the number of artists we work with to launching special projects focusing on our central mission to making art and artwork more accessible - and we are looking forward to sharing it with you.