Philadelphia "Diesel" storefront vandalized. Clothing company's use of sweatshop labor at issue.
Passersby in Philadelphia's trendy Old City gallery district who are surprised to see a brand new Diesel Clothing store this month are even more surprised to see the flyers wheat-pasted onto the storefront. The signs; "Today underpaid laborers WORK HARD in unsafe conditions sewing DIESEL clothing in overseas SWEATSHOPS" and "WORK HARD for justice: ask DIESEL about their use of sweatshop labor: 1-212-755-9200 or 1-800-699-2556" both riff on Diesel's current "work hard" ad campaign.
The display in the storefront's windows, with figures of a toddler-sized G.W.Bush, a jaunty Osama Bin Laden, and an eight-armed four-headed G.H.W.Bush/Bill Clinton/Ronald Reagan/ Dick Cheney figure seems provocative even by Diesel's usual standards. That the Bin Laden figure is wearing a sports jersey emblazoned with "CIA Alumni Association Softball League" and the toddler-Bush is playing enthusiastically with a passenger airliner seems to confuse those who stop to window-shop even more.
Shoppers who venture inside looking for expensive jeans and fashionably scruffy shirts are finding that the only clothing on display is a collection of pointedly political t-shirts with familiar brand logos reworked: The ubiquitous CK Calvin Klein logo now reads "Capitalism Kills". The "Diesel" storefront and the window display are part of the Nexus Gallery presentation of the the traveling "Illegal Art " exhibition.
The storefront and the t-shirts are the work of Philadelphia artist Albo Jeavons, who ruffled feathers last year with his "DisneyHole" project for the then hole-in-the-ground at Eight and Market Streets in Philadelphia (see <http://www.disneyhole.org> for more information). "Diesel's cynical use of political-protest imagery in their ads disgusted me, but the "Work Hard" campaign, coming from a company that exploits sweatshop workers around the world, is too big a provocation to ignore" says Jeavons. "Their Website asks you to "Join The Union", which will "protect your rights as a Hard Worker". "The Union" is just a mailing list that will get you advertisements sent to your e-mail account. I'd be interested to hear from Diesel how many of the workers who are making their clothing in China and Laos have the option of joining a union; a real labor union".
The storefront installation has been popular with both gallery-crawlers and casual passersby; Nexus curator Matt Pruden says that it is bringing people into the exhibition who might otherwise have passed it by. Some people have been slower to "get it" and have entered the gallery expecting a clothing store. Free stickers with the "WORK HARD for justice..." graphic are available at the exhibition. The "Illegal Art" show features works by artists and musicians dealing with intellectual-property and copyright issues. "The mocking, right-wing character of Diesel's ad campaigns has bugged me for years" continues Jeavons, "A company that charges $40 for a t-shirt can afford to pay a living wage to the people who make that shirt" Photos of Jeavons' installation are online at: <http://www.adanon.org> and <http://www.critpath.org/illcompute/dieselpower.html>
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