BECAUSE THE WORDS WE SAY STICK TO US.
JUST LIKE LABELS.
When this project started to exist in my mind and then in reality, soon my family and friends asked me: why labels?
It is a lovely question with more than one answer.
Let me start with the first one:
- I liked them. Simply as that, I found those colored tapes very nice to see, touch, and read.
After a few days of observing them, I understood that a voice inside me wanted to express bigger ideas using some nice and small vinyl labels. In those days, I read an article on the labeling theory developed and popularised by American sociologist Howard S. Becker in his 1963 book Outsiders.
“This refers to a theory of social behaviour which states that the behaviour of human beings is influenced significantly by the way other members in society label them. It has been used to explain a variety of social behaviour among groups, including deviant criminal behaviour. According to this theory, individuals who are labelled as criminals by society, for instance, may be more likely to engage in criminal activities simply due to such social labelling. By the same logic, positive labelling by society can influence individuals to exhibit positive behaviour.” (from The Hindu.com 23.01.19)
I found this theory extremely powerful, and I thought, “If a minuscule label has such a power, imagine the great effect that we all could produce using them in the right way!”
So, in the next few days, I started to print some labels with the words I liked the most and put them next to each other in no order. I felt good sensations in my body, like an electric feeling. Immediately after, some images came to my mind, so I took the colors and started to paint. When I finished with a natural movement, I attached the embossed words to it. The words on the canvas represent the original inspiration behind the image and also the final name of it.
That night, I thought inevitably about all the times that I could not express myself, that I had limited myself, labeling my life, my attitudes, my friends, and my feelings, and I felt an inner pain. “What my life could have been If I had used the right labels?” I decided to turn the new idea into an opportunity. In front of me, there was the occasion to feel better, touching new words with my hands.
That night, I wrote the manifesto.
Now, let me finish writing some other reasons why I consider these labels as masterpieces:
- They are sticky. Exactly like in real life, they stick on us;
- They are removable to remind us that nothing is forever;
- They are colored, as colored exists as an opportunity for expression;
- They are tridimensional, three dimensions.. body, mind, soul;
- They are flexible, like our minds, open to always finding new words or silence;
- They are markable and remarkable;
- They are small but have a big power;
- They are kind, intentionally kind;
- They are labels, against labels, because a new era has begun.
Now, we can make labels a work of art!
Love is yours,
NILLA