Five Rapid-Fire Videos to Free You From the COVID Creative Quicksand

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Feeling stuck?

Yeah, we have been throughout the pandemic as well. But creative quicksand is nothing new—and as the creators featured in Airbnb Design’s new Quicksand video series prove, there’s great power in perseverance.

As the project details:

We’ve all been there before, whether it’s the inner critic who snatches the last word, the status quo that threatens our vision, or the absence of a playbook to count on because it hasn’t been written—yet. But what happens when makers and artists are plunged into chaos? They rise.

At a time when inspiration can feel at an all-time low, these rapid-fire videos, filmed in Mexico City, deliver it in spades.

Check out the trailer below, followed by the five installments of the series. For more, head to the project's official landing page.

Porfirio Gutiérrez’s visual tapestry is rich. Plying a craft that marries Oaxacan weaving tradition with contemporary production processes, the Mexican textile artist and activist preserves local tradition and champions sustainable materials sourced from his ancestral homeland. Discover how the textile master defied the whims of the mass market and wrote a love letter to his heritage along the way.

Renegades have no path. Just ask the rebel fashion duo behind UK-based Art Comes First. Helmed by Sam Lambert and Shaka Maidoh, the music-inspired sartorial menswear brand was born almost by accident. While the self-taught pair didn’t always have the mentorship or resources that other multihyphenates rely upon, nothing could stop them from creating an iconic fashion brand that marries coveted couteur with community outreach. Discover how they got it done with glamour and little guidance.

Fashion has many faces. Or at least it should, according to casting director and model agent María Osado. Intent on challenging the Eurocentric beauty standards that often define the industry, Osado founded her inclusive agency Guerxs at the age of 18. Street-casting everyday models and friends who represent a range of diverse genders, body types and sexual identities, Osado sought to upend the idealized depictions of beauty that filled Mexican fashion magazines and catwalks. Learn how the former architecture student constructed her own career and recast the runway while she was at it.

Go to the source. Create. Block and drape. Perfect. Repeat. That’s how milliner and art historian Ana Lamata approaches her creative process. Heralded for hats that marry bespoke craftswomanship with near fanatical-like attention to detail, the Madrid-based artisan sources sustainable materials that morph into headwear made for each wearer’s whims and quirks. Explore how she triumphed over mainstream creative ideas to home in on her power as a visionary craftswoman.

Welcome to Andres’ Mañon’s world, where reality is refashioned into an opulent universe of his own creation. Using photography and makeup as his tools of choice, the Mexico City native centers gender non-binary representation in visually stunning portraits that allow his subjects to explore and subvert identity. Featuring self-portraits and other LGBTQI creatives, Mañon celebrates the corporeal: a sensual, zebra-skin clad cowgirl greets the camera with her unflinching gaze, a “trans baby” Madonna looks heavenwards as hyper-stylized tears cascade to earth. Explore how Mañon uses the power of self-creation to affirm queer identity.