MANA – The images of the empire
On Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest by Anne McClintock. Imperial Leather is a brand of soaps that, alongside many other brands, effectively spread the colonial ideas of the white man as a conqueror and provider to the Occident through their advertising, and thus generating the shift from scientific racism to commodity racism that was necessary to keep the colonial project alive.
Client
ManaCreative Field
IllustrationProject Type
EditorialTechnique
Digital, Pencil
The ideas of colonialism were promoted through commercial ads for household goods, beauty products and sweets. What the seemingly inoffensive ads were in fact selling was colonial violence and the colonial thought that one man can make another his slave.
Cover.
«Terra nullius», «nobody's land» (not to be confused with «no man's land»), is a principle used in international law to justify claims that territory may be acquired by occupation of it. This concept is the very foundation of the colonial idea, but according to Anne McClintock it can also be translated to a male view of women as either taken or free to be conquered.
Detail.
The images of the Empire. Pencil drawing and digital collage.
