Main Gallery

Is Coachella getting political? Some of this year's art says yes
Practitioner:
Coachella
Date:
Apr 15 2016
Has the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, long a bastion of high-priced fun-in-the-sun escapism, finally sharpened its political teeth? A few of this year's art installations would say yes, as Coachella during this election year doesn't seem to be going quietly into the cultural void.
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Cut and Paint
Practitioner:
Various individuals
Date:
Jan 1 2010
Cut and Paint is a website with free access to a wide variety of visual designs that can be printed out, cut, and used as graffiti stencils anywhere. Access to a variety of resolutions of each design is free for all, and there is a standing invitation for artist-activists to contribute their own designs for others to use.
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“Supporting Ukraine Is Not a Choice, But Our Common Duty”: How a Group of Artist-Activists Is Supporting Ukraine From Warsaw
Practitioner:
Sunflower Solidarity Community Center
Date:
Feb 25 2023
In 2023, it is impossible to be an apolitical artist in Eastern Europe. As war rages on in Ukraine, art serves as a powerful and necessary tool, according the members of the Sunflower Solidary Community Center in Warsaw: Maria Beburia, Sebastian Cichocki, Kuba Depczyński, Taras Gembik, Yulia Krivich, Kaja Kusztra, Natalia Sielewicz, and Bogna Stefańska.
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Deepfake Activism: Campaign Uses AI to Target Germany's Far-Right Party
Practitioner:
Zentrum für Politische Schönheit (ZPS)
Date:
Nov 23 2023
The German government is considering legal action after a deep fake video of Chancellor Olaf Scholz calls for the far-right AfD party to be banned.
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Crack is Wack
Practitioner:
Keith Haring
Date:
Jun 27 1986
Without having been commissioned—or even given legal permission at all—Haring set out to create Crack Is Wack on the wall of an abandoned handball court in a park at 2nd Avenue and East 128th Street on June 27, 1986. Upon the completion of the mural, Haring was arrested by the New York City Police Department for vandalism of city property and faced potential jail time in addition to heavy fines.
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Degrees of My Deaf Rage
Practitioner:
Christine Sun Kim
Date:
Sep 8 2018
Christine Sun Kim's series Degrees of My Deaf Rage is a series of charcoal drawings of charts that depict the artist's varying degrees of what she calls "deaf rage." These frustrations are categorized by situations: deaf rage in the art world. institutional deaf rage, deaf rage concerning interpreters, deaf rage while traveling, deaf rage within educational settings, deaf rage in everyday situations.
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Sing for the Climate
Practitioner:
Nic Balthazar, The Belgian Climate Coalition
Date:
Sep 22 2012
Sing for the Climate is a big singing manifestation that first took place on September 22 and 23 2012 in Belgium.
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Rhythm 0
Practitioner:
Marina Abramović
Date:
Jun 1 1974
This is Marina Abramović's first attempt to interact with the audience on the spot, allowing the audience to become part of her work. Guns, bullets, kitchen knives, whips and other dangerous items), the audience can use any item to do whatever they want to her. Due to the unpredictable danger of the work, Marina promised to take full responsibility for the performance of the performance art.
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Beautiful Women's Rights Walk
Practitioner:
Meili Xiao
Date:
Sep 15 2012
In 2012, the 24-year-old feminist activist Xiao Meili launched the "Beautiful Women's Rights Walk" anti-sexual assault activity. She set off from Beijing in mid-September and passed through Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and other cities along the way to reach the destination Guangzhou. She took 114 days and reaches more than 2500 kilometers in this tour.
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Subway Therapy
Practitioner:
Matthew Chavez
Date:
Oct 8 2016
Matthew “Levee” Chavez sits at a table in New York City’s Union Square, sporting a thrift store suit and tie, holding a sign that reads “Subway Therapy.” This act of social practice, which started as an invitation for conversation, went viral after he set up shop at the subway the day after the 2016 presidential election. He wrote “Express Yourself” on a Post-It and stuck it to the tiled wall.
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Dad Writes Anti-Sexism Timewarp Letter to Daughter's School
Practitioner:
Stephen Callaghan
Date:
Aug 12 2017
When the boys were sent on a field trip to a hardware store and girls went to get their hair done, this modern dad didn’t get mad, he got hilarious. He wrote a letter notifying the school that there was a rift in the time space continuum somewhere in the school and that his kids had been sent back to 1968. He requested that the administration fix the timewarp immediately. This kind of humor is a hallmark of creative nonviolence.
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Pro-Choice Trolling
Practitioner:
Jasmine Shea, Nathaniel Peck
Date:
Jul 9 2014
Hobby Lobby is a chain of arts and crafts stores that has recently come under fire for denying its employees affordable access to contraception. Jasmine Shea redecorated many of the craft supplies in one of their stores to "troll" them by rearranging letters to spell out "pro choice" and "all women deserve birth control"
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Birds Aren't Real
Practitioner:
Gen Z
Date:
Dec 9 2021
In Pittsburgh, Memphis and Los Angeles, massive billboards recently popped up declaring, “Birds Aren’t Real.” On Instagram and TikTok, Birds Aren’t Real accounts have racked up hundreds of thousands of followers, and YouTube videos about it have gone viral. Last month, Birds Aren’t Real adherents even protested outside Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco to demand that the company change its bird logo.
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Contest Backfires on Social Security Privatizer
Practitioner:
Social Security Works - WA & The Economic Opportunity Institute
Date:
Oct 18 2011
Oh, the sweet irony. Pete Peterson is the conservative billionaire who is a major financier in the effort to dismantle, cut and privatize Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Recently he and his foundation held a contest asking folks to submit videos on why it is important to “fix” the national debtof which, he and his foundation falsely claim, Social Security is a major contributor.
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Activists protest on MRT to show solidarity for ISA detainees
Practitioner:
Jolovan Wham and other activists
Date:
Jun 4 2017
A group of activists took to the trains to protest the horrendous treatment that the Singapore government meted out upon 22 individuals who were detained 30 years ago under an operation that was entitled,"Operation Spectrum" with the use of the Internal Security Act (ISA).
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Soviet Lives of Uncle Tom
Practitioner:
Dmitry Borshch, Regina Khidekel
Date:
Feb 4 2019
"Soviet Lives of Uncle Tom" 105 NY-110, Melville, NY 11747 February 4, 11 am – March 1, 7 pm Monday – Friday, 11 am – 7 pm, free admission Artist talk – February 28, 2 pm Please write to racc.ny@mail.ru or call (347) 662 1456 The artist is available for interviews
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HeForShe
Practitioner:
UN Women
Date:
Sep 20 2014
HeForShe is a solidarity campaign for gender equality initiated by UN Women. Its goal is to engage men and boys as agents of change for the achievement of gender equality and women’s rights, by encouraging them to take action against negative inequalities faced by women and girls.
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The Artists Representing Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria
Practitioner:
Focus on Puerto Rico residency
Date:
Jan 18 2018
Six months before Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc in the Caribbean, a group of Puerto Rican artists were invited to participate in a residency program in Miami by local art organizations. The artists were offered abandoned storefronts-turned-studios at a historic downtown mall, where they’d exhibit their work during Miami Art Week in December to engage an art world that often overlooks the island territory.
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Republican climate sceptics face battle for re-election as green groups hit back
Practitioner:
green groups
Date:
Oct 3 2012
Republican climate sceptics face battle for re-election as green groups hit back: Activists plan targeted campaign to defeat 'Flat Earth Five' group of Republicans in congress who refuse to accept climate science
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Rainbow Crossing
Practitioner:
Local LGBT activists
Date:
Aug 12 2013
Swedish lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates offered their colorful stance on Russia's controversial anti-gay legislation over the weekend.
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