Main Gallery

Art Behind Bars: Prison Art by Soudabeh Ardavan
Practitioner:
Soudabeh Ardavan
Date:
Nov 30 1985
Charged with participating in demonstrations against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Soudabeh Ardavan was held for eight years (1981-1989) in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. She found sanity and solace through the forbidden activities of drawing and painting, secretly producing paint from flower petals and tea, using brushes made from toothpicks and human hair.
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3
Nameless Vigilantes
Practitioner:
Anonymous
Date:
Apr 17 2003
Anonymous (used as a mass noun) is a loosely associated hacktivist group. It originated in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, representing the concept of many online and offline community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic, digitized global brain.
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2
Ai Weiwei on the project that awoke his political voice – The Start podcast
Practitioner:
Ai Weiwei
Date:
Feb 15 2018
In 2008, an earthquake devastated Sichuan province in China, claiming the lives of more than 69,000 people. Following accusations from parents that substandard construction caused the collapse of schools across in the region, the artist Ai Weiwei set upon a political investigation that would name every missing student and call the government to account for their deaths.
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4
This is America
Practitioner:
Donald Glover/ Childish Gambino
Date:
May 6 2018
(NEWS 8) — A day after pulling double-duty as both the host and musical guest on "Saturday Night Live," actor-writer-comedian-musician Donald Glover was garnering attention on Sunday for another reason. Social media blew up this weekend with reactions to Glover's new music video for "This is America," released under the name of his musical alter ego, Childish Gambino.
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8
Articulo 6 (Action 5)
Practitioner:
Lucia Cuba
Date:
Aug 15 2012
MFA Fashion Parsons graduate and fashion designer Lucia Cuba, for her senior collection, created a fashion collection inspired by the victims and used to raise awareness of forced sterilization in Peru.
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5
Nongfu Spring Market
Practitioner:
Brother Nut
Date:
Jun 1 2018
The 9,000 bottles of water on display at an art gallery in Beijing last month appeared identical to those of Nongfu Spring, one of China’s most popular spring water brands, with one jarring difference. Inside each bottle was brown, murky groundwater collected from a Chinese village.
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2
Paremos el acoso sexual callejero
Practitioner:
Paremos el acoso sexual callejero
Date:
Jan 1 2012
This is an organization and online platform that registers cases of street harassment in Peru and disseminates information about the subject. People can report cases and get in touch with the organization to talk or learn more about what to do when being sexually harassed.
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2
Seventeen Says Thanks But No Thanks To Teen’s Photoshop Petition
Practitioner:
Julia Bluhm
Date:
May 3 2012
Seventeen editor Ann Shoket met yesterday with Julia Bluhm, the 14-year-old reader who started an online petition to ask the magazine to curb its use of Photoshop.
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3
Activists Illustrated - Women at the Heart of Global Struggles
Practitioner:
María María Acha-Kutscher
Date:
Jul 8 2015
Latin American Artist María María Acha-Kutscher takes photographs from social and feminist movements and turns them into stunning pop art illustrations.
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3
Las hijas de Violencia
Practitioner:
Las hijas de Violencia
Date:
Jan 1 2016
Born as a side project Las hijas de Violencia approaches the subject of street harassment and gender based violence through performance art, punk and video that is addressing socially legitimized male violence. "As actresses and as women we feel directly affected and consider it urgent to address the real cause of the problem: its ideological nature.
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5
Shoddy, a disability arts exhibition
Practitioner:
Gill Crawshaw; Uk disabled artists
Date:
Apr 7 2016
A disability / textile arts project, challenging assumptions about disabled artists & highlighting shoddy treatment of disabled people by current government: https://shoddyexhibition.wordpress.com/
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3
21-Day Survival Challenge
Practitioner:
Artist Zou Yaqi
Date:
May 1 2021
In her 2021 graduation project from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Chinese performance artist Zou Yaqi staged a provocative social experiment titled “21-Day Survival Challenge.” For three weeks, Zou assumed the persona of a wealthy socialite, using counterfeit luxury items, strategic self-presentation, and social engineering to access elite spaces in Beijing—such as five-star hotel lobbies, first-class airport lounges, and high-end restaurants
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2
Beijing Sitong Bridge protest
Practitioner:
Peng Lifa
Date:
Oct 13 2022
The Beijing Sitong Bridge protest was a protest in China during the prelude to the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
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3
Carry the against sexual harassment billboard everyday
Practitioner:
Zhang Leilei
Date:
May 1 2016
In March 2016, Chinese feminist activists had planned to launch a crowdfunding campaign against sexual harassment advertisements, and they worked hard to raise 40,000 yuan in a month and a half. However, after perfunctory, evasive, and rejection by the relevant departments, anti-sexual harassment advertisements finally failed to go online.
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1
Artist and Activist Niki Lopez Helps Trauma Survivors Through Art
Practitioner:
Nikki Lopez
Date:
Apr 11 2018
Artist and activist Niki Lopez is a survivor. From age 11 to 25, she was trapped in a religious cult in Georgia, where she was separated from the rest of her family. The cult's leader sexually abused her. But in 2000, Lopez escaped and worked with the FBI to put him in prison. She was later given a humanitarian award from the FBI for her help in putting her abuser behind bars.
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6
Pimp My Carroça
Practitioner:
The Pimp My Carroça Project, Mundano
Date:
Jun 10 2012
With the intention of recognizing the work of the Latin American carreteros (garbage pickers) that collect recyclable materials in wheel carts, and increase environmental consciousness, artist Mundano created “Pimp My Carroça"
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4
A Well Within
Practitioner:
Christopher Babers, DigDeep
Date:
May 14 2012
A Well Within" is a collaborative art and education project that inspires people - young and old - to confront the global water crisis in a personal way. This interactive experience tells the story of Alile, a young East African girl affected by drought, who struggles to give her grandmother a precious drink of water.
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2
Estados de excepción
Practitioner:
Lorena Wolffer
Date:
Nov 25 2013
Estados de excepción (States of Exception) is series of participatory cultural interventions created for women to freely and joyfully exercise our rights in public and secure environments, currently being produced in Mexico and abroad.
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5
Barbed Wire Protest
Practitioner:
Petr Pavlensky
Date:
May 2 2013
In May, 2013, Russian performance artist Petr Pavlovsky wrapped his body, nude, in barbed wire and lay outside the St. Petersburg legislative assembly. The act was in protest of restrictions imposed on freedom of speech and assembly. Police officers were forced to attempt to disengage him from the wire. After medical officials also arrived, Pavlovsky refused to be taken to the hospital and was brought to jail, where he was held for several weeks.
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2
Heidelberg Project
Practitioner:
Tyree Guyton
Date:
Jan 15 1986
The Heidelberg Project is an outdoor art project in Detroit, Michigan. It was created in 1986 by artist Tyree Guyton and his grandfather Sam Mackey ("Grandpa Sam") as an outdoor art environment in the McDougall-Hunt neighborhood on the city's east side, just north of the city's historically African-American Black Bottom area.
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