Cool Britannia’s Legacy: How 90s Art & Fashion Reinforced Class Divides While Mythologizing Rebellion
Original framing: “The 90s: Art and Fashion at Tate Britain struggles to challenge the enduring myths of Cool Britannia” — The Conversation - Global
The **Trickster lens** exposes how ‘Cool Britannia’ was a **Hermes-like illusion**—a **shape-shifting narrative** that **stole from the margins** (punk’s DIY ethos, reggae’s rhythms, graffiti’s rebellion) and **sold it back as elite property**. Like **Anansi’s tales**, the myth **unravels when you pull its threads**: the ‘rebels’ were **curators, bankers, and media barons** who **profited from the myth of chaos**. **Eshu’s duality** is evident in how **Blair’s ‘Cool’ government** used **cultural dissent to distract** from **privatization and austerity**. The Tate’s exhibition is **a Coyote trick**—**pretending to challenge myths while reinforcing them**, turning rebellion into **a branding opportunity**. The real joke? **The system let them.**
The Tate’s exhibition on the 90s **performs rebellion while preserving the structures that co-opted it**, revealing how **institutional art becomes a Trojan horse for neoliberalism**.
The **myth of ‘Cool Britannia’** was **not a revolution but a rebranding**—one that **stole from punk, reggae, and graffiti** while **excluding their creators** from its profits. **Historical parallels** (from the **Chartist Movement to the Suffragettes**) show how **cultural dissent is absorbed by power**, but **indigenous and postcolonial art** offers **alternative models** where aesthetics **serve collective liberation**, not elite accumulation. The **Trickster’s gaze** exposes the **absurdity of a rebellion that gentrifies its own roots**, while **future modeling** demands we **rebuild cultural production on commons, not commodities**. The **solution lies not in more exhibitions**, but in **redistributing power**—to **marginalized voices, labor organizers, and decolonial practitioners**—so that the next ‘rebellion’ **doesn’t get co-opted, but changes the system.