The Tendency Towards Social Equalization with the Desire for Individual Differentiation and Change

Justin Price

The title for this painting is taken from an excerpt of German sociologist and philosopher Georg Zimmel’s essay “Fashion” found in the book On Individuality and Social Forms. Fashion is a recuring theme throughout my work because it represents a universal occurrence that posits the individual with agency and uniqueness while simultaneously satisfying the demand for social adaptation and acceptance. I’m referencing specifically in this piece to the brat phenomenon that took place in the summer of 2024, or brat summer. Inspired by the Charli xcx album, brat became a global cultural sensation characterized by a confident, independent and hedonistic attitude, establishing itself as a unique aesthetic and way of life. For me, this was the perfect embodiment of fashion’s sociological connections between an individual’s conscious being and the social, physical world we are inseparable from. Finding balance through binaries, my work explores issues of part to whole, integration and dislocation, presence and absence, subject and world, image and object, dimensionality, illusion, sustainability, and inspired creation through consumption—an engagement that provokes the viewer toward experiential outcomes in beingness.