Artists Proposing Alternative Economies: From New Eelam to Company Drinks

An essay by Danielle Child in Afterall Journal 49 examines how contemporary artists propose alternative economic models, focusing on two projects: Christopher Kulendran Thomas and Annika Kuhlmann's New Eelam (2016–ongoing) and Kathrin Böhm's Company Drinks (2015–ongoing). New Eelam, a 'subscription housing' start-up, offers fluid citizenship for the displaced and transient, inspired by the lost Tamil state of Eelam. Company Drinks, a Community Interest Company in East London, revives hop-picking traditions and forages botanicals, making visible contemporary migrant workers. Child contextualizes these within neoliberal co-optation of the artist as model worker, referencing Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello's 'The New Spirit of Capitalism' and Maurizio Lazzarato's critique. The essay argues that artists are suited to propose new economies as labor adapts to artistic skills, but notes that New Eelam may initially serve only the employed, while Company Drinks explicitly rejects neoliberal models by prioritizing communal and cultural values over commerce.