Makoto Fujimura’s ‘A Letter to the Occupy Wall Street Movement’

I haven’t made up my mind how I feel about the ‘Occupy’ movement sweeping the globe, partly because it’s become so massive and populous that characteristics and objectives must surely differ significantly between locations and, especially, between people, but most because I just haven’t looked very far into it. My dear Bradford has but a single white tent with a few picket signs outside of the town hall, and sometimes even a few people who aren’t just passing determinedly through Centenary Square, so I certainly haven’t felt to be on the forefront of the action, though I could easily go see what’s going on in Trafalgar Square down in London, and even more easily train over to Leeds for what they’ve got going on there (this reminds me, I meant to go see the Tokyo demonstrations while I’m back in Japan for Christmas).

Therefore I’ll pipe down with my own uninformed opinions and let far greater artists speak; specifically, Makoto Fujimura, an artist I hugely admire and have had the privilege to hear speak. Visiting his website today, I came upon a letter he wrote to the Occupy movement as a whole – which begs the question, who read it feeling it was addressed to them specifically, but perhaps you yourself can be the answer to that. I suppose I could copy the whole of it and paste it in here, but rather I’ll just post a link to the letter, that way you can enjoy it in its wonderful original context as well as the greater website in all its informative glory. Read.