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Most people know William Morris, if at all, through the leafy swirls of wallpaper and fabric that haunt museum shops and Victorian parlours. Yet Morris was far more than a pattern-maker: he was a radical visionary who believed beauty, fairness, and craft should infuse every corner of life.Artist and unabashed Morris fanatic Freddie Yauner is creating a Morris Manifesto for our modern world. Freddie doesn’t just write about Morris—he lives him. For the past seven years, Freddie has staged an annual “Morris Quarter” (from 1 January to 24 March, Morris’s birthday), a three-month immersion in which he attempts to “become” Morris: growing a beard, making prints on Morris’s letterpress, dyeing flags with madder root, singing socialist chants, fishing the Thames, and staging public performances.
The points in this Manifesto, much like Morris’s extraordinary life and works, present an alternative way to live. Morris believed that work and enterprise, the fellowship of humans and nature and creative activity were totally entwined. Through his craft, writing, social entrepreneurialism and campaigning, he shows us that a very different politics is possible.
For Freddie, “Morris has become a kind of spirit guide… a magnificent way to live a life and potentially an answer to the mess that we’ve got ourselves into.” The ideas in The Morris Manifesto will help you live a more fulfilling life. And collectively, if we were all to live a little more like Morris, the world would be a better place and we would together find solutions to the many crises we face.
Freddie Yauner enjoys holding a mirror up to the world – sometimes quite literally. His work explores how the human drive for continual growth has impacted people and planet. He wants to bring people into the unfamiliar, sometimes implicating myself or going to ridiculous lengths to shift viewers’ perspectives. He’s serious and funny, trying to make complex ideas or issues simple to digest. As an artist that uses different media for different subjects. He comes at things in curious ways to be able to reach a range of audiences. He’s made viral videos of world record breaking toasters and digital fire exit signs that give hardworking pictograms a rest. He paints portraits of CEO’s using pigment made of pollen, take walks wearing a mirrored mask and spends the first three months each year trying to become William Morris. His work has been exhibited and collected internationally and is included in the several permanent collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
There will be a drinks reception after the lecture.
About Morris Month
We’re celebrating Morris Month this March with the William Morris Society and leading cultural collaborators. Join events and workshops that show how the legacy of William and May Morris continues to shape creativity, craft and culture today.
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Event Venue
Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BE London, United Kingdom, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0, United Kingdom
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
