This is a video I helped edit with Dan Peters.
Latest
the beginning of a new series
March 1st National Day of Action for Education Rights
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Prairie Fire
Digital designs based on graffiti
“Graffiti and street art are fascinating as natural forms of resistance, as they are often times an unconscious protest of private property. Graffiti is the natural result of the disenfranchisement of the people from their land and property by the capitalist class. It inherently reclaims public space by subverting advertising and private property for public use, thus challenging us to reconsider the use of public space under capitalism.”
“When I say that there will soon be a high tide of revolution, I am emphatically not speaking of something which in the words of some people “is possibly coming”, something illusory, unattainable and devoid of significance for action. It is like a ship far out at sea whose mast-head can already be seen from the shore; it is like the morning sun in the east whose shimmering rays are visible from a high mountain top; it is like a child about to be born moving restlessly in its mother’s womb.”
“It’s graffiti on the wall but its not advertising, its a warning from the youth about the future uprisin”
- Rebel Diaz
“Palestinian artists penetrated the heavily fortified heart of West Jerusalem overnight and painted graffiti bearing an image of a woman wearing a kaffiyeh with the word “revolt.” This image is a reminder of the central role women have played in Palestinian popular struggle. These areas and large swathes of West Jerusalem were ethnically cleansed of their Palestinian populations in 1948 and are now almost exclusively Jewish.” - EI
“Art is a powerful weapon. As with any other weapon, it is important to aim it at the right targets when using it. When using art as a weapon, artists have to be responsible to their communities and take precaution to use art deliberately and effectively.” – Excerpt from Art in the Age of Imperialism.
Hands Off Africa
Text credit to Chance Zombor
Coalition Against NATO/G8
NATO/G8 are coming to Chicago May 19-21st, more info here: http://cang8.wordpress.com
Image is creative commons licensed, click on image for larger sizes.
Injustice & Resistance
Injustice
Foreign Occupation
Incarceration
Police
Media
Surveillance
Resistance
Civil Disobedience
Art
Strike
Direct Action
Self Defense
The series Injustice & Resistance is a series of ten screen prints in two parts: Injustice is represented by five different arms of the government: The police, the military, incarceration, surveillance, and media. Resistance is represented by five different tactics of resistance to oppression: civil disobedience, strike, art, direct action, and self defense. These opposing forces are representative of two sides of society, and this display asks the viewer to choose a side in the continuing battles between the oppressor and the oppressed.
While the wealthy elite own nearly all of the media, the rest of us need to find new and creative ways to expose our stories. This is why each composition is composed entirely from appropriated images. Remnants of digital texture found in the images speak to the facade of truth that corporate media and advertising present to us.
Although appropriation naturally confronts corporate ownership of intellectual property in particular, the content of these images is intended to challenge unequal ownership of property in general.
While the series is almost absent of text, the conventional format of the prints frames the series as a collection of political posters. Instead of using text within the poster’s composition to condemn injustice, I have used recognizable images of repression such as barbed wire, surveillance cameras, or war scenes contrasted with faces of real workers, students, mothers, and people from around the world who are taking action against such crimes.
The arrangement of space and perspective shifts within each poster as foreground and background merge multiple events together while they happen simultaneously across the planet. By tying together similar actions of resistance from around the globe I hope to illustrate the unity the people of the world are expressing against the common enemy – “injustice.”
In contrast, the Injustice images cannot be placed in one time or space because of the massive and inhuman impact of empire everywhere. This side of the series is nearly faceless, it is represented by the weapons of repression used against the people – riot gear, predator drones, and instruments of control.
Like the high-contrast view of society that is presented in the series, all of the images are full contrast with no mid-tones. My intentions are not to ignore the complexities of our environment, but to promote a deeper understanding of our surroundings. Injustice & Resistance is a visual journal of the class war happening around us. From understanding comes the potential for change.
