I am once again thinking about how people in the north talk/think about the south and feeling really! Tired! Frustrated! Idk!

I’m doing repro justice work in Georgia this year and like. All the repro justice orgs here are ready for a fight when the legislative session starts. A big national repro rights org headquartered up north told me last week that they didn’t really believe we’d actually see legislators try to pass a new bill. I’m! So! Tired!

We’ve spent months working to get voter turnout up in the face of massive voter suppression, especially voter suppression of Black & Brown & low income people in Georgia, and the big message I’m hearing from northerners immediately after the senate runoff? “Wow embarrassing that it was still so close.” Shut UP have y’all seen NY this cycle!!!

Like I *get* it, people in blue states want to feel safe, y’all want to believe none of this could ever happen to you. You want to believe *your* state could never pass an abortion ban, an anti-trans law, a voter suppression law. You want to believe that *you’ll* be okay no matter what—you’ll always be able to get healthcare, you’ll never be prosecuted for an adverse pregnancy outcome, you’ll never lose someone in a nightclub shooting, you’ll be okay. And I hope you will be. But you have to fight for that. And we *are* fighting. So don’t write us off. Don’t act like we deserve what’s happening to us by virtue of where we live. Trust us, invest in us, work with us, and when y’all need help, don’t be afraid to ask us.

Aspire Rights fights for artists' royalties

Mohau Modisakeng | Ditaola XV | 2014 | Inkjet print on Epson Ultrasmooth dibonded Aluminium composite | 200 x 150 cm | Courtesy of Nina Lieska, Repro Pictures

Committed to the development of the African art market, Aspire Art Auctions is the first auction house in SA history to pay living artists royalties.

This long-awaited implementation of the Artist Resale Right (ARR) is an investment back into the industry, acknowledging the value of authorship and ensuring support for artists. The inequality of artists only profiting from the initial sale is compounded when one considers the rise in value of an artwork over time, in relation to the growing success of the artist; the resale royalties endeavour to return some of that value to the living artist.

William Kentridge | Room Service | 1986 | charcoal, pastel and gold paint on paper | 90 x 63 cm | Courtesy of Nina Lieska, Repro Pictures

Inaugural Cape Town Auction 2017 27 March 2017 Avenue | V & A Waterfront | 40 Dock Road | Cape Town

For queries, please contact Jacqui Carney | [email protected] | 071 675 2991

Aspire’s vision places art, sustainability, and the development of the industry at its core; the sustainability of the practitioners and the professionals that have made this market what it is today forms the heart of this pioneering auction house. Whilst upholding the significance of established artists, Aspire is building a market for the future.

Across the world, artists, associations and collecting societies have been actively fighting, for decades, to achieve resale rights. With the globalisation of the art market, this is a timeous and significant international trend.

Deborah Bell | See-Line Woman dressed in Red, Makes her Man lose his Head | 2012 | oil on canvas | 120 x 50 cm | Courtesy of Nina Lieska, Repro Pictures

The droit de suite (French for “right to follow”) was first proposed in Europe around 1893 to alleviate the plight of the ‘struggling artist’. Although not yet universal, ARR has been implemented in different forms in over 70 countries including France, Australia, and Russia. The European Union standardised its legislation in 2001, with the payment mandated to official collecting agencies, or paid directly to the artist. The EU directive was met with loud protestations from established UK auction houses and galleries, however in 2011 and in 2012 the European Commission and UK Parliament reported that the resale right does not impact the art market negatively.

Wim Botha | Faultlines | 2001 | carved continuous data paper, fluorescent lights | life-size, installation dimensions variable | Courtesy of Nina Lieska, Repro Pictures

In fact, as stated on the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) website, over £14 million ($22.5 million) was paid in royalties to 19,000 registered artists and estates in 2013. Barring the state of California, the USA does not enforce ARR – along with Canada, China, Japan, and Switzerland.

Here in South Africa, beneficial copyright legislation for visual artists is still very much in discussion. With little opportunity for funding in the arts, the profound social inequalities of South Africa seem particularly magnified in the sector. In the absence of legislation or a government mandated collecting agency, Aspire voluntarily covers the cost of the ARR percentage fee.

Athi Patra-Ruga | Castrato as [the] Revolution | 2010 | wool and tapestry thread on tapestry canvas | 133 x 96 cm | Courtesy of Nina Lieska, Repro Pictures

Aspire is perfectly placed to usher in a new era, as the newest South African art auction house, with the longest combined secondary art market experience in the country, and a particular focus on top quality fine art.

    Aspire Rights fights for artists’ royalties was originally published on Artsvark

Kansas voted to keep protections for abortion rights in their state constitution and it wasn’t even close—abortion rights are a winning issue because people are passionate about reproductive autonomy!!!! People turn out to vote for reproductive autonomy!!! Even in red states!!!! Our elected officials have to act like it and campaign on it!!!!

God aren’t you tired like the cops killed another Black man in Memphis just trying to go home and now there’s troops in the streets because god forbid we say enough is enough. Last week they killed a protestor in Atlanta trying to protect the forest from being turned into another site where they train cops to kill us. There were so many mass shootings this week that I can’t remember them all. More people have died in mass shootings this year than there have been days of the year, and that line doesn’t even hit me anymore. Texas prosecutors are investigating a teenager for a miscarriage, and the Alabama AG is trying to walk back earlier comments saying they’d use the state’s chemical endangerment law to prosecute people for self-managed medical abortions. 30,000 people were hospitalized this week with a virus the country is determined to pretend is over. Aren’t you tired? The Supreme Court is about to overturn affirmative action and make it easier to do racial gerrymandering and get rid of the Indian Child Welfare Act and make it so businesses can discriminate against gay people. Aren’t you tired of being scared of what the conservatives would do if they thought they could get away with it—the fetal personhood bans and the contraception bans and the criminalizations of trans & queer people and the attacks on the unhoused and all the other monsters under the bed that get realer every day? Aren’t you tired of being scared for your life, if you’re Black or Asian or trans or queer or disabled? Aren’t you just so tired some days?

Settling in