Most nights since a coup returned Myanmar to military rule on Feb. 1, a spectral symbol of protest has glowed on a mildewed side of a building.
Where the next illumination will appear in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, is a mystery. But, suddenly, a projected image appears in the dark. Three fingers raised in a rebellious pose. A dove of peace. The smiling face of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whose government was ousted in the army putsch.
For the past few years, I've been creating what I call "art of social conscience:" tv spots, viral emails, paintings and posters, but none of it has engaged viewers as much as this series of "historical" markers, each one a small story containing a discrete point of view.
Unlike some of Occupy Wall Street’s iconic actions in recent months, May Day
did not include a scene of mass arrest. Several dozen arrests were
scattered throughout the day and night during various marches and
actions. But, as never before in the movement’s short history, arrests
When the revolution began in Cairo's Tahrir Square,
music played a big role in galvanizing young people and
giving them a voice. So it's not surprising that music
continues to play an important role in Egyptian politics
as the presidential candidates began their campaigns.
Fashion designer and social scientist, Lucia Cuba, has taken up the task of using fashion as a vehicle to bring attention and awareness around Articulo 6, an article in the Peruvian constitution that declared a law of forced sterilization of women in the country. Cuba has taken the testimonies of the victims of this article and integrated them into the very fabric of her designs.
Protesters bathed an entrance to the Tate Britain in mock oil provoking anger from guests attending a party to mark 20 years of BP's sponsorship of the flagship gallery. A dozen veiled artists, angered by the Tate's continuing involvement with the oil giant, spat vats of treacle before covering the area with feathers as guests arrived.
It was September 1738, and Benjamin Lay had walked 20 miles, subsisting on “acorns and peaches,” to reach the Quakers’ Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Beneath his overcoat he wore a military uniform and a sword — both anathema to Quaker teachings. He also carried a hollowed-out book with a secret compartment, into which he had tucked a tied-off animal bladder filled with bright red pokeberry juice.
When you design an economy to be based on short term profit to the benefit of giant corporations, the results over the long term will be a country so hostile to human life that the unreasonable and unthinkable becomes an every day reality. Wealth inequality, mass poverty, a crumbling welfare state aside, the prison system perfectly illustrated the madness of the American capitalist system.
Art has the power to move our imaginations and bodies, transforming the emotional and physical spaces we share. It has the power to build and transform social relations and to bring about equity and justice.
Elina Chauvet’s red shoes are worldly. They’ve been in Milan, Italy, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Not just one pair, but hundreds — red boots, red heels, red toddler shoes. They’re not there to see the sights, but to take up space. Especially when the women or girls who would have worn them no longer take up any space, except in the lives of their loved ones.
Beijing and the rest of cities in northern China suffer from years of smog pollution.The beige-gray miasma of smog brings coughs and rasping. Hospitals are crowded from respiratory ailments and a midday sky is so dim. But “Brother Nut(坚果兄弟)“, a performance artist, has something solid to show from the acrid soup in the air: a brick of condensed pollution.
The streets of Santiago are once again alive with the spirit of revolution. For weeks now, working-class Chileans have occupied national monuments and blocked major intersections in protest of widespread inequality. They desire full reform — a request so long in the making that it is practically tradition. The country’s floundering political elite offer half measures while dispatching riot police and the military.
Low-income tenants at a public housing project in Rhode Island — many of them working mothers with young children — wanted an affordable day care center in their building. With petitions, pickets, and letters to the city council, they built up a steady drumbeat of pressure on the key decision maker, the local Housing and Urban Development (HUD) director. At a certain point they decided to escalate with direct action.
Syrian Journey: Choose your own escape route
The Syrian conflict has torn the country apart, leaving thousands dead and driving millions to flee their homes. Many seek refuge in neighboring countries but others pay traffickers to take them to Europe - risking death, capture and deportation.
Thief steals 44 lb golden cookie from the world-renowned Bahlsen Cookie Headquarters in Hanover, Germany earlier this January. Under the guise of Sesame Street's beloved Cookie Monster, the thief sent the headquarters a ransom note demanding cookies be donated to a children's hospital in Hanover. As plain cookies simply would not suffice, the Cookie Monster demands cookies of the milk chocolate variety.
Linha Vermelha was created in 2016 by the non-profit organization Academia Cidadã (Citizenship Academy). At that time there were fifteen active contracts for oil and gas drilling and we were inspired by the “Red Line Action” in Paris, during COP21 and decided to create this campaign.
Following in the strong tradition of using graphic novels to explore social ills, DC Comics is releasing two new politically activist issues in their "New 52" series.
The first is called "The Movement" and is written by Gail Simone. Simone describes that "The Movement is an idea I’ve had for some time. It’s a book about power–who owns it, who uses it, who suffers from its abuse."
"By yesterday afternoon, news of Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s lifetime NBA ban had already settled in. But there was still plenty of anger among the protesters who gathered outside the Staples Center Tuesday.
BEIJING — Like many art students, Zou Yaqi often worried she’d be unable to afford to live in Beijing after graduation. So, earlier this year, she decided to set herself a daunting challenge: Survive in the city for three weeks without spending a single yuan.
It turned out to be a piece of cake.