The Movement For Change

The new Stella McCartney Fall 2016 Campaign collaborates with Ed Ruscha, photographed by Harley Weir, and features Amber Valletta.

Ed Ruscha? Is he the artist who was active in the same period as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns in the 1960’s? The artist I learned about from my Contemporary Art History book? The retrospective exhibition I’m visiting right now in the de Young Museum? Yes, Ed Ruscha, no doubt.

Can’t wait to see the campaign, I’m in the de Young museum’s cafe, and I just looked it up.

The visual look of the new campaign is very similar to the landscape paintings he made in the past. If those are good-looking landscape posters, this campaign is a fashion poster in GIF format. The words on images, making people think the words and people in the pictures are in motion. Amber Valletta reclines to the left while the words fly in to the right. There is a movement in the still image through the different directions of the elements.

Stella McCartney Fall 2016 Campaign

I believe words are still the most important here (as always in his other works). Amber Valletta, who’s in natural make up, poses to set the stage for the given text. However, the text “No Leathers, Feathers, or Fur”, which is what Stella McCartney is advocating. Conversely, it suggests the beauty or glory of Amber, in a very harmonious way.

Ruscha likes words, and especially focuses on “the tension of combination of words and the world,” as he said in an interview in Tate Shots. My understanding is that it’s a shout-out through the context. There are many proven examples. The best one would be the context of the 1960’s. We see the Civil Rights Movements, the Vietnam War, and the assassination of JFK, Martin Luther King Jr, and Robert Kennedy during that period. In that situation, Ruscha did a painting called “Chemical," a word singled out on the canvas, ironically depicting the triumph of industrial progress but also the tragedy. The painting makes people consider that word in their age.

Today, in the fashion world, animal cruelty is a hot topic.

Some compare the value of human life with animal life. I’m not deciding on who should have the privilege, but, overall, life should be respected. The point here is the post. Similar to his paintings, they bring attention to controversy, and arouse people’s introspection. I’m not a vegetarian, and sometimes I will wear a leather jacket, yet when I saw these words, I took a moment to ask myself: am I wrong?

“Silence Equals Death.” There should be some activists paving the way. Stella McCartney

is doing the thing that some people are not ready to see. She standing for her protest, with the help of Ed Ruscha. The straightforward slogan is making its voice heard, without making any noise at all.

The campaign will be hashtagged with #StellaCares on Instagram. More on www.stellamccartney.com/