Julius Eastman was a Black and Queer avant garde, minimalist composer and performer from the 1960s-1980s. He used his platform to advocate for the rights and livelihoods of Black and queer people through his unique musical aesthetic and the controversial naming of his pieces, including "Gay Guerrilla," "Evil N-word" and "Crazy N-Word"
The Guggenheim Museum in New York City temporarily closed off its entrance on Saturday afternoon, November 11, after eight artists and cultural workers took to the institution’s iconic spiral ramp to denounce the Israeli military’s ongoing killing of Palestinian children in Gaza.
Two children stand back-to-back, but they are facing two very different Chicagos. One child blows bubbles in a park under blue skies. The other wears a gas mask against a backdrop of scrap metal and billowing smokestacks.
If the way to one’s heart really is through the stomach, Rirkrit Tiravanija must have more than his share of admirers. Now at GAVIN BROWN, the Buenos Aires-born artist with a history of dishing out tasty edibles in his exhibitions invites viewers to enjoy a bowl of soup in his interactive show, Fear Eats the Soul.
American artist Bob Partington created a wax sculpture of a Florida panther and her cub to display at a nonprofit zoo in Tampa, Florida this September.
When it debuted, the sculpture looked like nothing special. But as the wax began to melt under the heat of the sun, the bodies of the endangered species started to disintegrate. Within a couple days, the mother panther’s melting body revealed a simple message: “More heat, less wildlife.”
For third world artists who are forced into exile, the creativity process could be greatly challenged due to displacement in language, community and history. Many filmmakers in exile tend to look at their connection to the homeland in strictly political terms, or give up making films overall.
On Sunday, September 16th at around 1am, a white van—labelled with “Van Wagner’s” blue logo and topped by a yellow strobe light—circled through permanently lit Times Square. Inside the vehicle, the driver and passenger, both dressed as construction workers, were nervous. They had just vandalized one kiosk a few yards away from an NYPD tower, now they were about to hit another one right underneath the nose of a large white NYPD security camera.
To bring attention to the widespread apathy toward climate change, nonprofit group 350action and agency Barton F. Graf 9000 got a little personal. Tapping into the meteorological legacy of naming hurricanes after people–thereby marring the good names of unsuspecting Sandys, Irenes and Katrinas everywhere–“Climate Name Change” told the same storm story, but subbed in the name of prominent politicians who refuse to acknowledge climate change.
On 19 November 2011 over 100 dancers converged at Occupy SF & Oakland to dance the world awake. Flashmob Produced & Directed by Magalie Bonneau-Marcil of DancingwithoutBorders.org, Video Directed & Edited by Ben Flanigan (BenFlanigan.com), Thanks to our team of choreographers: Giuliana Blasi, Samantha Sweetwater and Mika Lemoine. Co-sponsors: CODEPINK.org & SFNOW.org Want to bring the flash mob to your community?
At the same site where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, we lit thousands of candles - one for each signature on our petition - to commemorate the legacy of brave freedom fighters Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner and to stand up for the rights that are once again in peril.
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Dyke Action Machine! (DAM!) is a two-person public art project founded in 1991 by artist Carrie Moyer and photographer Sue Schaffner. Between 1991 and 2004 DAM! blitzed the streets of New York City with public art projects that combined Madison Avenue savvy with Situationist tactics.
What is Art for Social Change?
There are many ways of defining art for social change. In each of these cases, art for social change strives toward effective engagement with social issues that integrate and celebrate imaginative thinking, helping people to find new ways to see and be engaged in the world. In the context of the ASC Project, three types of art for social change are considered:
Sarcastic delivery spoken to black people talking about issues regarding black "progress" , media, consumption among other things
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Conquest is a compelling new collective performance conceived by acclaimed artist Pope.L (b. Newark, 1955). It is inspired by his iconic solo crawls, where the artist dragged himself across a number of different urban landscapes. Navigating the streets and parks of Downtown Manhattan, Conquest extends this irreverent and provocative forty-year tradition of public performance with an ambitious group crawl involving over 140 volunteers.
Room13Delmar is a tricycle-based mobile studio conceived as a sculpture: a cross between a vending tricycle and a ‘Mary Poppins’ bag that unfolds to create a space for creativity on the sidewalk, at a senior center and at a veterans medical center, north of Delmar in the city of St. Louis, Missouri.
Fashion designer and former head designer of Dior, John Galliano, in the past few years has failed to rise to his former glory in fashion. In 2011, a videotape of John Galliano shouting anti-semitic statements went viral, thus leading to his dismissal at Dior and the irreparable defamation of his fashion career.
Transfixed by racial, political, and socioeconomic tensions saturating the news, movement artists Jon Boogz and Lil Buck, enveloped by the art of Alexa Meade, switch off the TV and release their emotion into a stirring dance that is both a lament and a spirited call to action.
Over the winter break, I was actually able to see the recently re-decorated Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia. After the height of the Black Lives Matter Protests over the past summer, it couldn’t be torn down, but it was fully wrapped with protest art. All phrases and slogans (such as Black Trans Lives Matter, ACAB, Etc.) were in full display over the statue of the infamous Confederate General.
The Real Cost of Prisons Project brings together justice activists, artists, researchers and people directly experiencing the impact of mass criminalization to work to end mass incarceration.
The purpose of this project was the permeate stock images with more depictions of Black people. Stock images are usually easily found and utilized, showcasing people doing everyday activities or scenes. To boost representation of Black people in this particular image field, were left out, so the artist chose to recreate popular stock images with Black models to showcase representation and shed light on the lack of diversity in these photos.
"SOA Cycle, and what it later became, which is called the Democracy Cycle, is a group of seven large works that approach the question of democracy. What is democracy? How is it constructed? How is it implemented? Is it something that is to be thought of in relation to its political influence? Or is it something that plays out in terms of cultural and social, and even emotional terms, for instance?
Photographer Donna Ferrato helped bring awareness to the epidemic of domestic violence in the United States through her raw and often graphic portraits of survivors of violence. But she fell into the work by accident after witnessing domestic violence firsthand.
AN UNPRECEDENTED COALITION of workers from some of America’s largest companies will strike on Friday. Workers from Amazon, Instacart, Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, and FedEx are slated to walk out on work, citing what they say is their employers’ record profits at the expense of workers’ health and safety during the coronavirus pandemic.
Montreal: The City of Lights
In Canada Alfredo Jaar completed a project referred to as Lights in the City, in 1999. Keep in mind this is considered one of the richest cities in North America. with a large population of homeless individuals. Is there not a way, for such a rich city, to help people in dire need of just basic necessities?