So I watched Sundance Channel's new reality show about a buyer for Anthropologie called Man Shops Globe. More like Man Plunders Globe. How dare they?! How dare Anthropologie and the Sundance Channel (I thought Robert Redford was supposed to be some sort of eco-guy??) produce and air such filthy excess. In the midst of an economic crisis no less. It's arrogant consumerism disguised as thoughtful re-use. White neocolonialism (is that redundant?) is alive and well. Yeah, he has some good ideas for utilizing found objects, but so do you and I. Unfortunately the exploitive nature of the show outweighs any of the positive notes.
Robert Clive & Family with Indian maid, painted by Joshua Reynolds, 1765
There's a scene where the "star" of the show, Keith Johnson walks through the streets of Jodhpur and points to wooden transport carts that hard-working people are using to deliver goods around town, "Can we get those?" he says to his Indian agent. And with a sweeping wave of his hand declares, "Let's get twenty of those." Isn't that cute the way they use those primitive carts to do back-breaking work all day. Let's make those into a coffee table that we can rest our tired Gucci soles on after a hard day's shopping. Get those to Anthropologie stat!
I'm hoping that they are reading their reviews. It appears that they are as following my earlier post wherein I pointed out that they used the wrong name for one of "their" artists, Leslie Oschmann, a correction was made on the show's web site. If anyone out there has contact with Robert Redford please feel free to share this with him. Cheers.
So Sylvie 
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