A trio of far-right, pro-gun provocateurs is behind some of the largest Facebook groups calling for anti-quarantine protests around the country, offering the latest illustration that some seemingly organic demonstrations are being engineered by a network of conservative activists.
Oakland-based artist-activists Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza teamed up to form Dignidad Rebelde, a graphic arts collaboration working for social change. They believe that art can be an empowering reflection of
community struggles, dreams and visions, and following principles of
Xicanisma and Zapatismo, create work that translates people’s stories
JAMES GUBB was finishing off the knuckles when the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) shut him down. Trading single shares between two accounts, Mr Gubb had managed to “draw” the image of a fist with an upright middle finger onto the share-price chart for Oakbay Resources and Energy Limited, a company controlled by the Gupta brothers, cronies of President Jacob Zuma, that is at the centre of allegations of “state capture” in South Africa.
In her 2021 graduation project from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Chinese performance artist Zou Yaqi staged a provocative social experiment titled “21-Day Survival Challenge.” For three weeks, Zou assumed the persona of a wealthy socialite, using counterfeit luxury items, strategic self-presentation, and social engineering to access elite spaces in Beijing—such as five-star hotel lobbies, first-class airport lounges, and high-end restaurants
Hostile architecture—urban design features like ground spikes that deter the homeless from lying down or slanted benches that prevent lingering—inscribes exclusion into our streets. In response, a Chinese artist will launch the Free Butt Plug Catalogue, an art-activism project that documents fifteen such spikes and anti–loitering benches across London and pairs each with a commercially available butt plug of the same shape.
Anthony Papa was arrested for a drug crime and with no prior offenses was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for violating New York's harsh drug laws. While in prison, Papa began to document his inner struggles via painting and ultimately earned a pardon from New York governor and has gone on to actively fight the drug war in his years since release.
On Nov 24, 2013, more than 10 Chinese feminist activists sang the feminist song "Do You Hear Women Sing" in the cabin of Beijing Metro Line 13 (adapted from the famous song "Do You Hear the People Sing" in the musical "Les Miserables". Beijing has the most stringent control on society.
Asian Americans standing up for themselves, the Black Lives Matter movement, and their home: New York City
In 2020, as COVID-19 flared through New York City and NYC hospitals saw a spike of nearly 200,000 patients, Asian and Pacific Islanders (APIs) faced an added threat: blame, racism, and xenophobia.
The Overpass Light Brigade (Milwaukee, WI), has been working with Idle No More (WI) in order to give visibility to the cultural and environmental costs of opening up Northern Wisconsin to iron mining. The proposal will soon be voted on and likely passed by the conservative Wisconsin legislature which has been purchased by the Gogebic Mining Company.
Born in China in 1941, artist Lily Yeh experienced first-hand the ravages of that country’s civil war when her family became refugees, fleeing to Taiwan as the communists took over. That personal story and the story of Yeh’s global art activism with communities from North Philadelphia to Rwanda and China is the subject of a new documentary film, The Barefoot Artist, now in post-production and ready for viewing later this year.
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.
Courtoom sketches were, for many cases, the only glimpses into high profile trails that captivated the nation. Now, over 200 of these sketches by artists will be in the Library of Congress, ranging from cases such as The Rodney King trial, the Watergate scandal, and the Allen v. Farrow custody battle. While the Nation's Library will be collecting these sketches for their historic value, many seek to buy the "art" as an investment.
I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the first guy to give socks to homeless people. But I can almost guarantee no one has handed out socks to as many homeless people in as many cities and countries as I have. In the last ten years, I have traveled to over 300 cities and eight different countries handing out socks and making new homeless friends.
The project (created in 2009-2010) consists of painted plats and posters depicted with drawings of police torture scenes. Images also include snippets of email exchanges. The plates have been exhibited in numerous galleries in Ukraine, and posters were hung in public spaces.
It all started when an Icelandic girl took off her top on Twitter in a bid to promote sexual equality, only for her to be verbally attacked by some male Icelandic tit troll. Despite both comments being deleted, Twitter was suddenly awash with bare breasted ladies ("Th?"s one here is for feeding babies.
Trolls chanted in the streets the day of a planned neo-Nazi rally in the small ski town of Whitefish, Montana earlier this year. But they were not the trolls that residents had been expecting—namely, white supremacists from around the country, who had been harassing the town's Jewish community with death threats.
The coronavirus outbreak has prompted climate activists to abandon public demonstrations, one of their most powerful tools for raising public awareness, and shift to online protests.
This week, for example, organizers of the Fridays for Future protests are advising people to stay off the streets and post photos and messages on social media in a wave of digital strikes.
Does it vex you, the environmental impact of Olafur Eliasson’s Ice Watch? Do you hear about the transportation of 30 icebergs from the Nuup Kangerlua fjord in Greenland to be displayed in London as a memento mori for our inhabitable environment and judge the project a bit of an own-goal, sustainability-wise? You would not be alone – on personal evidence, this seems a popular response.