Dead White Man
Jeremy Hutchison is a British artist employing art and performance as a means to disrupt systems of power. At a time where systems of power are consistently failing us, causing increasing irreversible damage and destruction in the name of profit and growth, this defiance against dominant capitalist systems is more important than ever. Many of his projects seek to challenge consumer culture and the colonial systems and ideology that sustain it. Jeremy’s new body of work, titled Dead White Man does exactly this. This work is a portrayal of the secondhand clothing trade, challenging the dominant ideology of waste colonialism, through a performance in which he subverts his own position as a white male consumer.
Photographs by Dani Pujalte
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“This is our problem”, he says. “A white problem. A problem that is built on the conflation of capitalist profit with white supremacy. This logic is so old - so embedded in our culture - its hard for us even to see it. But it’s very well understood in sub-Saharan Africa: rather than dealing with the teeming excesses of our consuming habits, we package it up and sell it to the Global South. This process has a name: Waste Colonialism. I am not prepared to remain silent, or quietly apologetic. It is my duty to own this responsibility. I am the monster.”
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Dead White Man addresses the problematic nature of the trade in post-consumer garments, responding to the exploitative act of using the Global South as a waste management solution for the Global North, which Jeremy refers to as a ‘zombie imperialism’. This project focuses on the waste that gets exported and sold to countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where countries, like Ghana, are burdened with the excess of Western consumer culture. The name ‘Dead White Man’ refers to the Ghanaian name for this used clothing: ‘obroni wawu’, meaning Dead White Men’s Clothes. In this project, the artist is performing the role of the dead white man, becoming the physical grotesque monster of post-consumer imperialism as he clothes himself in masses of secondhand clothing. As he performs this role, Hutchinson is identifying his position as a white, male, Western consumer - with his skin visible in every photograph, Jeremy highlights that this is inherently a white problem that needs addressing at the very root of its source.
In a video installation, Dead White Man acknowledges the secondhand clothing supply chain and reverses it. The monster rises from the largest secondhand clothing market in Senegal, after which it wanders the streets of Dakar - where the secondhand clothes were found - in search for a shipping container to return to the Global North. Once the monster arrives in the Global North he silently and unapologetically makes his presence known amongst the modern British capitalist structures - high streets, banks and shopping centres . The monster embodying waste colonialism acts as a bridge connecting Western consumption and the destructive nature of the secondhand clothing trade. By the monster returning to the Global North, the waste is in plain sight to those responsible for its creation - the out of sight, out of mind racist ideology that sees the Global South treated as a waste management solution is addressed. The fashion industry seems to rely on being able to turn a blind eye to the reality of its exploitation as brands and CEOs continually export and outsource to evade the responsibility of their production. Here, Jeremy has made this impossible, forcing those of us engaged in consumerism in the Global North to recognise our role in this system. It is as if a mirror is being held up to the face of consumer culture, showing the byproduct of excessive production and consumption and challenging the dominant ideology that sees the West elevating secondhand as a positive act of charity. Jeremy presents a vital lesson for Western consumers : as a problem that is unquestionably the result of the Global North’s overproduction and overconsumption, it is our responsibility to generate change.