The Rainy Day Women: a collective of independent artists committed to the environment
A needle and thread is all these 5 women need to demonstrate their political convictions in the face of the environmental crisis. Their first mission: to show their opposition to the greenwashing of Barclays, the world leader in financing the fossil fuel industry.
The story of the collective
It all started in 2019 when Julie Hutchison, creator of the collective, learned that Barclays was the new sponsor of the Isle of Wight festival, a musical event held annually on the Isle of Wight in England. A resident of the region and strongly committed to the environmental cause since 2018, Julie felt compelled to take action.It is therefore through her artistic creations that she has led actions against Barclays annually, as part of the festival, since 2021. Her projects range from embroidered pins designed to be worn by musicians to real “happenings” where she smashes a cardboard electric guitar – like Jimi Hendrix – against the facade of Barclays. The artist had cleverly placed a balloon filled with a blackish liquid, symbolic of oil, inside the guitar to leave a trace of it on the wall after the explosion.
The posters with the slogan “Stitched up by Barclays” were photographed and printed on a large scale, then hung above the advertisements at bus stops and on the motorway.
How to act?
The actions of Julie Hutchison and her collective are not insignificant: they are part of the global movement of uprising against the major banking groups that continue to use their clients' money to invest in projects such as fossil fuel extraction, deforestation, etc.At iT4W, we support independent artists who rally to our cause and who want to inform people of their power as producers and consumers in our current financial system. Together, we can put pressure on businesses like the Isle of Wight Festival to change their banking partners and on banks like Barclays to channel their resources towards eco-friendly projects.You can follow The Rainy Day Women on their website and social media. Looking forward to seeing what they have in store for this year’s festival!
