Social distancing guidelines didn’t stop members of Refuse Fascism Philly from criticizing President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic on Saturday.
Rather than march as a crowd through Center City, a handful of protesters from the group, which has repeatedly called for Trump’s removal, drove their cars through Philadelphia before arriving at the Trump National Golf Club in Pine Hill, N.J.
Chinese Artist Zhang Bingjian has embarked on an artistic project to promote transparency in China and Chinese government. His motivation? Discovering the extent of the corruption going on in his country. Zhang told the Toronto Star: “The chief prosecutor announced that 3,000 officials had been convicted for corruption in a single year. I remember being shocked, a little angry and then confused.”
In 2006, art historian Claire Bishop lit a fire under the collective seat of the art world with her Artforum piece “The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents.” It set off — as much as any essay in the hermetic and staid world of contemporary art theory can — an uproar. The article inspired Grant Kester, an art historian also specializing in relational art practices, to respond:
A changing cast of theater workers — actors, seamstresses, lighting technicians and prop masters — are protesting the privatization of a stage once graced by some of Europe’s greatest thespians, from Sarah Bernhardt to Vittorio Gassman.
Imagine if back in the 1960s, creators Jack Kirby and Stan Lee had found inspiration for The Avengers in Yoruba mythology. Instead of Iron Man, we'd have the warrior Oxaguiã. Taking the place of the blue-eyed, blonde-haired Norse god Thor would be the equally strong and black-skinned Xangô, the ruler of justice — who also happens to carry a hammer.
Started by UK resident Laura Bates, The Everyday Sexism project is an open forum for women to record their stories of experienced sexism. The project was started as a means to show that gender inequality and sexism pervade contemporary society.
The group known as Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli, which practices Mexican Nahua dance, song and drumming, is a frequent presence at Black Lives Matter protests in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Its dancers first took to the streets in solidarity with the movement after the death of Jamar Clark, who was shot and killed by Minneapolis police in 2015.
An artist who sparked significant awareness regarding the issues of climate change was Olafur Eliasson. Eliasson’s main objective has been to catch people’s attention and make them feel emotions and care about climate change because many people do not connect to the effects of climate issues as they do with other controversial impacts solely because the effects are not played out directly in front of them.
This month’s blast of arctic air may have roused climate-change skeptics. But the composer Laura Kaminsky and the painter Rebecca Allan were unfazed. Holed up in their apartment in Riverdale in the Bronx on one of the coldest days in decades, these longtime artist-activists were doing what came naturally: fighting the planet’s warming.
https://vimeo.com/114980972
"Probably one of the most important and timely shorts for America this year. Reinaldo Marcus Green's film addresses the upsetting aspects of New York City's stop-and-frisk policies with sensitivity and insight."
-Jeff Bowers, VICE (http://bit.ly/1mU7HHQ)
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 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg58d8opQKA
From Flavorwire:
“Another world is possible!” — so goes the popular activist chant at rallies and marches. Yet one of the most difficult aspects of sustaining a grassroots political movement can be imagining that other world and persisting even when it seems far away.
Drake has released an emotional video for "God's Plan" in which he donates the music video budget to people in need.
Shot in Miami and directed by Toronto's Karena Evans and Jordan Oram, the video features a bunch of generous, grand gestures.
A TYPICAL EPISODE of Journal Rappé begins with Senegalese rapper Makhtar “Xuman” Fall dressed in a suit and seated behind a news desk. At first glance, the show looks like an ordinary newscast. But then Xuman (pronounced human) launches into his intro, rapping in French instead of talking. “Welcome! Make yourself comfortable. These are the news for you. Some good ones and bad ones too. But they’re all news for you.”
Swedish lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates offered their colorful stance on Russia's controversial anti-gay legislation over the weekend.
Embody the Message: Occupy the Mind This t-shirt / language project began in March 2006, when a small group of artists and activists decided to embody the historic words “WE WILL NOT BE SILENT” while doing a public action in New York City.
"When it comes to the effects of the virus on black lives, the roots run deep.
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This is one of the hardest illustrations I’ve ever done. Not because of the tree - but because of the overwhelming nature of the subject at hand. Seeing headlines like “Blacks are Dying at Higher Rates from Covid-19” SHOOK me!
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The Comfort Illusion is a solo aural performance that highlights the effects our everyday actions can have on the environment. Through mixed media storytelling using sound and lighting, Adams narrates the life of "The Overkiller" a fictional villian who negatively impacts the earth and the lives of the people around him through smaller everyday decisions. This character constantly prioritizes convenience over care and responsibility (ie.
"Formerly incarcerated people, activists and family members of people detained on Rikers Island released dozens of white balloons into the air from the base of the Rikers Island Bridge.
The balloons, each one representing someone who had died at Rikers, transversed the heavily guarded bridge that separates the island from mainland Queens, disappearing out of sight.