June 5-14, 2015
16
Fashion Statement Rights struggles inspire RainbowTie campaign
Plowman’s posters are intended to make people think about which side of history they want to be on. Photos courtesy of Mackenzie Plowman
They say a picture is worth athousand words. Mackenzie Plowman hopesthe pictures in her RainbowTie campaign will be worth at least as manythoughts.
she says. “I really liked this idea and wanted it to go somewhere.” There wasn’t time to get fabric rainbow ties made for the festival, but paper ties will be on sale for $2 each at the Evolution Exhibit and in the festival’s Merch Tent. Proceeds will be donated to Reaching Out Win- nipeg, an organization that strives to create perma- nent resettlement opportunities for LGBT refugees. Anyone who buys a tie is encouraged to take a selfie wearing it and share the photo on social media with the hashtag #Rainbowtie. “People can wear them in reference to the cam- paign. It would be great if the bowties could actually be a thing,” Plowman says. If all goes well, the campaign won’t end in Winni- peg. Plowman says Pride Winnipeg staff have prom- ised to introduce her to contacts in Calgary and in the U.S. following the local festival. “That would be awesome,” she says. “It would get more traction in the States. I think it would be a good fit if it was campaigned there.” ◗
flect on their positions today,” she says. “Change is slowly being implemented.” Her Rainbow Tie campaign began as a class pro- ject that needed a social awareness theme. “I knew I wanted to do something about gay rights, and I like bowties,” she says. Plowman has always been passionate about LGBT rights. Her best friend in high school was gay, and she says seeing how he was treated might have sparked her interest. “I read lots of articles about it. I like to fight against things that to me seem obviously unfair,” she says. “There’s a lot more I could have said (on the post- ers). It was a challenge to make sure I made effect- ive use of the space. I wanted to make people think without overwhelming them.” The project was well received at Red River Col- lege. When Plowman learned that her instructor had shown her posters to another graphic design class, she decided she should go further with it. She con- tacted Pride Winnipeg and met with Pride Festival organizers in April. “I was really excited when they wanted to meet,”
Plowman, a recent graduate of Red River College’s Graphic Design program, used archival photographs to create a simple but powerful message intended to make people think about LGBT rights. Posters with the slogans Be on the Proud Side of History and Be on the Right Side of History bring to mind social issues of the past, such as women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement, with vintage photographs that have been altered so each person is wearing a rainbow tie. “Society is becoming more accepting of all sexu- alities, but there’s still negativity,” Plowman says. “I wanted to raise awareness and exposure by taking a look at movements in the past and adding the mod- ern touch of the bowtie.” She’s hoping the posters, which will be promin- ently displayed at Pride Winnipeg’s Evolution Exhibit at The Forks, will get people thinking about which side of history they want to be on. “I want people to think about the past, and how people reacted to others who were outsiders back then. How things are compared to how they were. People can see how well things turned out and re-
Powered by FlippingBook