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25 Years Ago, Rage Against the Machine Whipped Their Dicks Out in Protest
Practitioner:
Rage Against the Machine
Date:
Jul 18 1993
When Rage Against the Machine arrived in Philadelphia to play their 15-minute set as part of Lollapalooza ’93, the Los Angeles band knew they had a problem. Zack de la Rocha, the band’s incendiary frontman who was as outspoken on the mic as he was loud in his cadence, had no voice. A month of playing shows on a tour to support their self-titled debut album released the previous November had taken its toll on the frontman’s vocal cords.
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5
Pandas on Tour
Practitioner:
Paulo Grangeon
Date:
Jul 1 2008
Grangeon's long-running traveling exhibit, Pandas on Tour, features 1600 papier-mâché pandas. That's approximately one for as many as there are left in the world (recent estimates actually place the number slightly below that, at 1596).
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6
#LaLigaArcoIris: Rainbow Shoelaces Against Homophobia
Practitioner:
Federación de Lesbianas, Gais, Transexuales y Bisexuales (FELGTB)
Date:
Feb 21 2015
Spanish soccer has witnessed and engaged in a variety of conversations in the last few years: Racism, politics, xenophobia, territorial issues, corruption, inmigration. However, there is an issue that remains untouched, and this issue is homophobia. Soccer is still a context where it is acceptable to use the word "marica" ("queer") in a pejorative way.
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3
Work Ideology
Practitioner:
Madison Liao
Date:
Apr 15 2022
Work ideology centers around sustainable work. Through fifteen interviews, workers and prospective workers were interviewed about their experiences with work and the job search. Those interviews are analyzed and compiled on work ideology. However, work ideology goes further than showcasing the interview results, it allows for anonymous responses to be entered as well, expanding the research’s accessibility to every worker.
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2
Inmates Perform Valmiki Pratibha
Practitioner:
Calcutta Presidency Jail, Alokananda Roy
Date:
Jul 7 2007
Alokananda Roy walked into Calcutta's Presidency Jail on International Women's Day, 2007. The Indian classical dancer had been invited to watch female inmates perform, but it was the men who caught her eye. "They shook me," she says. "Their body language — it was as though they had no future, nothing to look forward to."
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3
Bread and Puppet Theater
Practitioner:
Peter Schumann
Date:
Jan 1 1963
The Bread and Puppet Theater was founded in 1963 by Peter Schumann on New York City’s Lower East Side. Besides rod-puppet and hand puppet shows for children, the concerns of the first productions were rents, rats, police, and other problems of the neighborhood. More complex theater pieces followed, in which sculpture, music, dance and language were equal partners. The puppets grew bigger and bigger.
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5
Walden, A Game
Practitioner:
Tracy J. Fullerton
Date:
Feb 27 2017
It’s certainly a long way from Grand Theft Auto. Henry David Thoreau’s classic “Walden” is the inspiration for what Smithsonian Magazine is calling “the world’s most improbable video game”: Walden, a Game.
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2
Bruce High Quality Foundation University
Practitioner:
Bruce High Quality Foundation
Date:
Sep 19 2009
The Bruce High Quality Foundation University (BHQFU) is an unaccredited, free collaborative school founded by the eponymous artist collective and presented by Creative Time.
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1
Chinese gather and lay flowers despite heavy security as former Premier Li Keqiang is laid to rest
Practitioner:
Chinese citizen
Date:
Nov 2 2023
HEFEI, China (AP) — Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people gathered Thursday near a state funeral home in Beijing as China’s former second-ranking leader, Li Keqiang, was put to rest, while a steady stream of mourners showed their respects at the ex-premier’s childhood home in central China. Li, who was China’s top economic official for a decade, died last Friday of a heart attack at age 68.
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32
Ben & Jerry give political art contraption to AVAM
Practitioner:
Ben & Jerry
Date:
Apr 19 2016
Susan Speirs fed four dollars into the Amend-o-matic Stamp Mobile. After spiraling up the "Tower of Corrupted Power," gliding past a clanging gong and sliding down hairpin turns on a roller coaster-style track to a final stamping station, the bills came out with bright red lettering in all caps. Now, they read, "Stamp money out of politics."
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2
Migration is Beautiful
Practitioner:
Favianna Rodriguez, Pharrell Williams
Date:
Jan 26 2013
Artist and social activist Favianna Rodriguez collaborated with musician Pharrell Williams to create a documentary series focusing on migrants in America. The documentary consists of 3 episodes that focus on the role of artists in the political realm. The goal of the documentary is to change the perception of immigrant workers in America.
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1
Barbie Liberation Organization
Practitioner:
Barbie Liberation Organization
Date:
Dec 25 1993
On Christmas day in 1993, kids were finding more than they bargained for under their trees: Mattel’s new talking Barbie dolls growled “Dead men tell no lies,” while Hasbro’s macho GI Joe’s chirped “I love to shop with you.”
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1
Melting Man: Red Cross-Sponsored Activist "Melts" On Sidewalk
Practitioner:
Red Cross
Date:
Dec 10 2008
A young man melting into a puddle of himself is something you don’t see everyday, much less in a busy public square. Yet this humourous but surprisingly effective spectacle is the latest effort by the Red Cross of Argentina to raise awareness about climate change.
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2
Kurdish Artist Zehra Doğan Has Been Freed in Turkey After 3 Years for Illustrating Turkey's Violence
Practitioner:
Zehra Doğan
Date:
Feb 28 2019
The Kurdish journalist and artist Zehra Doğan was freed yesterday after nearly three years in prison, Hyperallergic reports. Doğan first caught the attention of the Turkish authorities back in 2017 with a watercolor that depicted a Kurdish district after Turkish security forces set it on fire and largely destroyed it.
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2
Response to James Cohan Gallery (October 19th, 2017)
Practitioner:
Chinatown Art Brigade
Date:
Oct 19 2017
October 19, 2017
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2
Lifeline for Domestic Violence Survivors Isolating with Abusers During Stay at Home Orders
Practitioner:
Women Helping Women
Date:
Apr 14 2020
The message we keep hearing over and over again from government and health officials is that it’s imperative to practice social distancing during the COVID-19 crisis: To benefit public health, we have to stay at home. But what if your home isn’t a safe space?
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1
untitled (Long Live the Real King)
Practitioner:
Unknown
Date:
Feb 24 2025
An A.I. generated video of Donald Trump sucking Elon Musk's toes was broadcast at the Department of Housing and Development headquarters in DC in February of 2025. As an actual art piece, we can debate if the video itself is art. However, the caption, subject matter of the fake video, and chosen location to broadcast is definitely a strategic work of creative activism. From the New York Times:
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4
I Love You America
Practitioner:
Sarah Silverman
Date:
Oct 12 2017
Sarah Silverman Wants to Pop Your Bubble With her new political variety show, “I Love You, America,” the stand-up comic aims to unite red and blue. But can TV really change minds? By Jason Zinoman Oct. 4, 2017
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4
The SOA Cycle
Practitioner:
Carlos Motta
Date:
Jan 1 2015
"SOA Cycle, and what it later became, which is called the Democracy Cycle, is a group of seven large works that approach the question of democracy. What is democracy? How is it constructed? How is it implemented? Is it something that is to be thought of in relation to its political influence? Or is it something that plays out in terms of cultural and social, and even emotional terms, for instance?
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4
An Italian farming community gathers for the funeral of traditional agriculture.
Practitioner:
JR, Alice Rohrwacher
Date:
Nov 1 2019
Omelia Contadina was born out of the concern of JR and director Alice Rohrwacher for the difficulties encountered by many small farmers and inhabitants of the Alfina plateau, in Italy.
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