We’re excited to announce that SLEEK 60 is on sale now, and what an incredible issue this is! For our winter cover, British photographer and filmmaker, Nadia Lee Cohen photographs herself with an inside portfolio examining the contemporary obsession with the self. Cohen, who is renowned for her hyperreal and cinematic portraits, is the ideal cover star for this issue, which takes a deep-dive into the self-help trend. But instead of recommending the perfect perfume, or the best film to watch for a night on the sofa, we’re examining the worrying contemporary obsession with the self.
The last four decades have been a rollercoaster in self-care jargon. Type ‘self-care’ into Amazon, and hundreds of books appear with cloying names like You Are a Badass and Women Who Love Too Much. It’s easy to forget in our era of millennial self-care-as-a-badge-of-honour, that in the ‘70s, it was a buzzword for the desperate. Despite self-care now being one of the most popular hashtags on Instagram, as a chaotic 2018 looms to a close, the idea of bubble baths, or cancelling plans as routes to self-actualisation, is beginning to look a little shallow.
In a fascinating essay, “The Cult of Self-Care”, London-based journalist Kieran Yates takes a smart and necessary look at how the concept of self-care has morphed overtime, as a political act for marginalised communities to a multi-million euro industry. Man Booker Prize longlisted author, Sophie Mackintosh, has penned a poetic self-help-inspired short story, and Instagram icon Amber Wagner AKA @jstlbby gives us some much needed advice on self-worth.
Elsewhere, we sit down with LA-based artist Martine Syms to discuss the conditions of our image-centric culture and her upcoming exhibitions; we profile a selection of London artists, including SLEEK columnist Reba Maybury, who are fighting elitism and austerity in the art world, and explore the power of listening through the work of multidisciplinary artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan. For SLEEK 60’s cabinet, we feature the work of one of our favourite photographers, Ruth Ossai, in an exclusive portfolio, entitled 9ja, shot in Lagos, Anamabra and Enugu State, and inspired by Nollywood.
If this sounds like the perfect cure for the onset of winter, then be sure to buy now.