Rectification of names
"If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant;
if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone;
if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate;
if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion.
Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said.
This matters above everything."
Confucius
The Confined Hearts Project is creating 1468 terracotta anatomical human hearts, one for each person seeking asylum in Australia but being held in detention on Manus Island and in Nauru. Hundreds of people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures have been involved in making the hearts to date.
The group of NYU graduate students went to bars in Manhattan to shout back against sexual harassment and bring awareness to the Everyday Sexism project. Armed with coasters that said "#shoutingback" on them, as well as a slogan. Three different coasters with three different slogans were put on bars and tables in local watering holes. The slogans included "She ordered a drink.
Hewlett-Packard pledged to stop using dangerous plastics in its computers by 2009. It broke that promise. Will a company-wide voicemail from William Shatner make it change its mind?
Flushing Creek is so hidden by industrial sites and highways, it’s almost invisible to those passing through the Flushing neighborhood of Queens. “I lived in Flushing my whole life and didn’t know that I lived near waterways until I was 20 years old,” Cody Ann Herrmann told Hyperallergic.
On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the communist takeover of China, Tibet activists projected messages of support for human rights and freedom from inside and outside of the Empire State Building, countering China’s public relations stunt to bathe the building in red and yellow light. “NY [Hearts] Human Rights” was projected from inside the ESB onto a nearby building.
The action art performance themed "War on smog, we are taking action" was held by some environmental activists and volunteers on the commercial center and famous tourist spot Yangren Jie (Foreigners’ Street) in Nanan district, Chongqing municipality in Southwest China on Friday, Febuary 28.
From an article in BoredPanda:
"If you’ve ever felt like your voice and opinion doesn’t matter in the vast world, then Seth is here to prove you wrong. This New Yorker runs the ‘Dude With Sign’ Instagram account where he uploads photos of himself protesting the strangest, weirdest, most random things. And the best thing is, we can relate to most of what he’s written on his signs.
At least three international companies have committed to join the fight against slavery in a campaign that aims to make Hong Kong the hub in Asia to tackle human-trafficking.
The aim of the action is to create a fractal network of poets, where their poems will be recited, recorded, set to music, will be activistically acted as performance material in order to resist the censorship of art.
The field of action is the poets who will be born and the network that will be created by the restless artists.
In early 2012, a group of artists, activists and assorted other odd balls got together to form People's Tours. The idea was to give walking tours in the Boston area. Standard enough. But instead of the usual history, we would talk about social justice, contested spaces, important protests, and shady corporations.
So far, the group has consisted of Dave Taber, Heather McCann, Kristin Parker, Neil Horsky, and Tim Devin.
Ronald Haeberle took a color photograph of the bloody corpses of men, women, and children after the Mai Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War in in March 1968, initially publishing it in Life magazine. Later the image was used by the Art Worker's Coalition to create the infamous poster, "And babies.," which superimposed "Q: And babies? A: And babies" in red letter across the top and bottom of the image.
hot pink see-saws installed along the US-Mexico border where one person on each side can sit and see-saw with the other. installed at Sunland Park, nine miles northwest of El Paso, on the 18 feet slats border wall between Mexico and the United States. It is at this site where the US Border Patrol detained about 300 migrants from Mexico. (Public Delivery) the installation lasted only 1 day and was done without permission.
On Sunday April 3rd, Art Not Oil coalition member group BP or not BP? occupied the Great Court of the BP-sponsored British Museum with a 'disobedient exhibition'. Called 'A History of BP in 10 Objects', the exhibition featured artifacts submitted by frontline communities around the world who are fighting back against the impacts of BP's operations.
The Whitney Museum of American Art’s pay-what-you-wish Fridays are typically busy. For two-and-a-half hours out of the 53 the museum is open each week, visitors can enter without paying the usual $25 admission fee, a brief and temporary, but recurrent, leveling of the playing field for art lovers.
A video that was first posted on X (formerly Twitter) on November 8, of a Congolese man setting himself on fire has gone viral. The gruesome clip has started a discussion on whether a genocide is occurring in the DRC and is being ignored by both Africa and the rest of the world.
A project as expansive as the Guerrilla Girls Twin Cities Takeover is a first for them. Kicking off on January 21, the festival will comprise a series of events by 30 different groups, which will take place until March 6 at more than 20 arts and cultural organizations in and around Minneapolis/St. Paul. A network of local art activists will be mobilized, and the Guerrilla Girls have been working in tandem with the area’s youth groups to prepare.
"At the recent Amnesty International Annual General Meeting, we decided to do an action stating we stand with Shaima Alawadi and Trayvon Martin. Check out the action, even Asma Mahfouz, one of the founders of the April 6th Movement in Egypt and nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize participated in the action." -#MillionHijabMarch
In Cape Town, South Africa the design firms Design Indaba Trust and Thinking have teamed up with artist Faith47 to help raise funds to bring more light to their urban city. Their goal is to raise funds to light up 700 meters of Manwabisi Park, which will ultimately reduce the crime rate in the area through more light. In order to get the community involved in the project, they have combined street art with community engagement.
The Youth Activist Art Archive (YAAA) is a dedicated platform that highlights and celebrates the creative efforts of young individuals (26 years old and younger) actively participating in diverse social movements and causes. YAAA acknowledges the vital role and innovative vision of young activists who employ their artistic talents to envision and advocate for a brighter future.