THE MORRIS MANIFESTO
(or How to live to a Good Life in a Complex World)
For the past seven years, from 1 January to 24 March, Morris's birthday, I have staged an annual Morris Quarter: a three-month attempt to "become" William Morris. What began as an absurd idea somewhere between Dry January, Veganuary and Movember has become an ongoing artistic investigation into Morris's work, politics, creativity and way of life.
Through making, singing, reading, performing and experimenting, I have started to develop a manifesto for how we might live differently. The full ideas form the basis of a talk I am currently developing, as well as a future book.
"Imagine positive futures and turn the world upside down with joy and energy."
Why Morris, Why Now?
William Morris designs are having a revival - seen in every museum gift shop or Stoke Newington store. There is also a surge in left and socialist politics across the globe as a reaction against the Far-right - Morris is an unknown yet very palatable hero of the leftist movement - through loved wallpaper and navigating compromise he plots a path to radically re-thinking how we might live in the age of AI, far right politics and late capitalism.
Morris understood well, more than most politicians today, how ecological crises are always also social crises and the two are entangled in both cause and effect.
The Six Principles
1. Cartwheel
Imagine positive futures and turn the world upside down with joy and energy.
Morris believed that imagining a better world was itself a political act. Cartwheel explores optimism, play and the possibility of radically reimagining the future - upside down and inside out.
2. Craft your Health.
Creative activity is vital for your mental health and wellbeing.
Making things isn’t about creative excellence or producing something worthy of being called an artwork. There is value in the simple satisfaction of completing a creative act - whether that’s making a painting, cooking a meal, fixing something or growing something. Through What I’m Looking At and my pollen paintings, I’ve explored creativity as a way of paying attention, processing experience and looking after ourselves. But the underlying idea is much more ordinary:
that making things, however small, can be a meaningful part of a good life.
Explore: What I'm Looking At / Pollen Paintings
3. Learn from nature.
Morris understood that our relationship with nature is inseparable from our social and political lives. Like Morris, Parakeet and Bramble, What I’m Looking At, and my ongoing work with natural materials explore how we might learn to live differently with the world around us. We are a part of, not apart from nature.
4. Fellowship and Family (Business)
Bringing creativity, joy and purpose to your home life.
For Morris, work, home, friendship and politics were not separate worlds. This principle asks how we might build more meaningful relationships through the things we make, share and do together.
5. Declare Red Flags
Show up, agitate and talk about the pressing issues of our time.
Morris was an artist who got involved - from socialist leagues to utopian literature. Today, red flags have wider meaning in life as a general warning, and in this time of extreme change that we live in we need more people to declare their own red flags, telling stories, creating urgency and giving warnings from the people, to the power holders to create change.
Explore: Save Our Soil
6. Compromise(d)
Confront and acknowledge our mistakes to create space for experiment, exploration and adaptation.
Morris was full of contradictions, many of which he could not have seen himself - but he kept working, making and adapting anyway.
Like a modern social entrepreneur, Morris turned ideas into action, learning through the process rather than waiting for everything to resolve. Compromise(d) asks what might become possible when we acknowledge our mistakes rather than hide them.
Where Next?
The Morris Manifesto is currently being developed in a book project and framework for my practice. I also do a lively talk on it - like this one at Society of Antiqueries. Do you work at an institution that would like to host me? I am particularly interested in bringing it into schools, universities, galleries, community spaces and other places where these ideas can be explored collectively.
If you would like me to give the talk, collaborate on the project, or discuss bringing it to your organisation, get in touch.
