Trust visions that don't feature buckets of blood Favorite 

Practitioner: 

Date: 

Jan 2 1984

Location: 

MoMa

In the 1980s, Holzer and Lady Pink used New York as a backdrop for their artworks: Holzer wheatpasted posters and slogans on walls throughout Manhattan, and Lady Pink spray-painted graffiti on buildings and subway cars. The two also collaborated on a series of paintings on canvas, such as this work, for which Holzer composed phrases and Lady Pink did the painting. Trust visions that don’t feature buckets of blood was based on a recent image by the documentary photographer Susan Meiselas, who worked extensively in Nicaragua during the armed conflict that roiled the nation for decades in the second half of the twentieth century.

Posted by Laraferreri on Feb 26 2023

Staff rating: 

0

Effectiveness

How does this project help?

Activates (people)Energizes and organizes people into action. Can include emotion work
Amplifies (issue or campaign)Brings public and political attention to an issue or campaign.  Can include prefigurative action, making the invisible visible.
Shifts (culture)Shifts the cultural landscape in order to imagine and enable change.
Does nothing (at all)Doesn't really have an impact, beyond possibly expressing the artist-activist's dissatisfaction with the world.

Timeframe For change

This project seems to be part of a campaign with a clear short-term goal. Short-term goals tend to be things like: create or repeal a law; get a President impeached; make the city administration repair a sidewalk. A campaign with a short-term goal needs a clear theory of change, complete with targets that can be cajoled or pressured into effecting the goal.
The art piece "Trust visions that don’t feature buckets of blood" is addressing the issue of violence and conflict, particularly in Nicaragua during the second half of the twentieth century. It encourages people to trust and believe in non-violent solutions to conflicts and to avoid violence as a means of achieving political or social goals.
This project seems to be part of a campaign with a clear long-term goal. Long-term goals tend to be things like: end racism; end homophobia; make the sun stand still in the sky. A campaign with a long-term goal also needs to have some kind of theory of change.
This piece aims to raise awareness about political and social issues and to promote positive change.

Notes

This art can spread awareness to people who are not aware of the violence, particularly in developing countries.