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Chris Cawkwell, artist, thermochromic print on aluminium dibond, heating pad, digital timer switch

Colin / Michael / Phil - thermochromic print on aluminium dibond, heating pad, digital timer switch (2022)

Colin / Michael / Phil

- thermochromic print on aluminium dibond, heating pad, digital timer switch (2022)

“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.
Just do it.”

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– Colin Kaepernick, NIKE 'Crazy Dream' campaign, September 2018

“Republicans buy sneakers, too.”

– Michael Jordan, 1990

“Life is growth. You grow or you die.”

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– Phil Knight, Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike, April 26 2016

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Chris Cawkwell, artist, custom Nike trainers, magnetic shoe display, masonite, single-channel video

Buy / Burn - custom Nike trainers, magnetic shoe display, masonite, single-channel video (2022)

Buy / Burn

- custom Nike trainers, magnetic shoe display, masonite, single-channel video (2022)

In 2018 Nike, the brand that had almost single-handedly created the brand incarnate with Michael Jordan and Air Jordans, signed Kaepernick to be the face of its new marketing campaign. And so, in an age of divisive politics Nike had suddenly found a way to embrace and commodify protest, their profits could sore and they would have a free marketing base like no other via twitter users and other social media commentators.

It would no longer be a choice of this brand or that brand, this sneaker or that sneaker, suddenly buying a brand of shoe would be a political act. As would be burning them. The hashtags #burnNike and #boycottNike were soon trending on twitter as right-wing “activists” tweeted videos of themselves dousing their Nike sportswear in lighter fluid and setting them ablaze for all to see, decrying the brand. President Trump also saw fit to take to Twitter in order to express joy at Nike “getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts”. 5 days later Nike’s sales had surged by 31 percent.

The left had heeded Nike’s call – the political base who a decade earlier were using the same #boycottNike hashtag to denounce Nike’s work and labour practices and its use of sweatshops had helped the brands profits to soar.

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Chris Cawkwell, artist, Basketball, Jesmonite, spray paint, acrylic, marker pen

AirBall - Jesmonite, spray paint, acrylic, marker pen (2021)

Chris Cawkwell, artist, Basketball, Jesmonite, spray paint, acrylic, marker pen, metal ball rack

Be Like Mike (rack) - Jesmonite, spray paint, colour pigment, acrylic, marker pen and metal ball rack (2021)

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~~I Have Seen~~ The Face Of God

- publication, published by Folium Publishing (2020)

So when kids line up all night to buy $250 sneakers, they weren't exactly buying the sneakers; they were buying the idea of Just Do It and the dream of Michael Jordan...

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature and I won't have it, is that clear?! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs! There are no third worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars! Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars! reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels! It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet! That is the natural order of things today! That is the atomic and sub-atomic and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and You Will Atone!

~~I Have Seen~~ The Face Of God explores consumer culuture, brand and the commodification of protest – contextulising recent work(s).