Charity fundraising t-shirt for Doctors Without Borders from Jeremy Deller, featuring Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, of Greek Cypriot descent and Andrew Ridgeley, son of Alberto Mario Zacharia (1933–2015), 'of Jewish, Italian, Yemeni and Egyptian descent... expelled from Egypt as a result of the Suez Crisis'.
I believe this started out as one of a series of Deller's billboard posters last year (2024), including in Dundee:
This is an ongoing theme in Deller's work, including a similar message on other billboards (see below) and his 2019 work '(A 303) Built my Immigrants'' (the A303 road goes past Stonehenge) which was included in the Radical Landscapes exhibition at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow in early 2024.
 |
| Billboard poster, Brockley (South London), August 2024 |
Update July 2025: wearing that Wham t-shirt in the wild
I was given one of Jeremy Deller's Wham t-shirts as a present last year. I love its intent but haven't worn it out before, must admit to having a bit of nuanced ambivalence about the the slogan. Living in a migrant city (Londinium) I am wary of making people feel that their existence has to be a subject of political discourse, even positively - it's just a fact. Also while recognising the enormous contribution that migrants have made to social life in London, Britain and beyond I don't think their rights are dependent on demonstrating their value to the 'host society'. But in this context it's a fun, positive slogan, and cheekily appropriates a couple of great pop icons. Not that comrade St George, once a member of the Young Communist League, would mind I'm sure.
Anyway last weekend was the hottest of the year, I needed a light white cotton t-shirt and there it was in the wardrobe so off it went on successive days to Brockwell Park Lido and Parliament Hill Fields Lido, and then on to Somers Town festival, there to see Janet Kay singing for the local community. It was a low key but lively event with the kind of connections that Jeremy Deller couldn't make up, such as people in Pearly King/Queen jackets dancing to lovers rock legend.
I have never had such a reaction to an item of clothing - people smiling, putting their thumbs up, chatting to me, taking my photograph - or rather the T-shirt's photo. I was at the bar in the Cock Tavern, great Irish pub where people were watching Kerry v Tyrone in the All Ireland Gaelic football semi-final, when somebody started talking to me about the T-shirt, he told me that he was actually at the festival with Jeremy Deller! I didn't see him but somebody told me later that he had been standing right behind me at one point.
Anyway it all got me thinking about how an item of clothing can still have a subversive charge and set of all kinds of random communications - I imagine in a different context not always such positive ones. In Somers Town I was likewise impressed by somebody else's outfit and asked if I could take a photo...
 |
| The Birthday Party - Drunk on the Pope's Blood - at Somers Town 2025 |
 |
| Janet Kay at Somers Town festival |
 |
| Me in t-shirt savouring the delights of Bunhead Palestinian bakery in Herne Hill |
Cheer yourself up with this account of the 2025 'Fuck Off This Is My Culture Sexual Freedom Party', a celebration of George Michael on Hampstead Heath.
No comments:
Post a Comment