Projects tagged "Civil Liberties"

untitled (Long Live the Real King)
Practitioner:
Unknown
Date:
Feb 24 2025
An A.I. generated video of Donald Trump sucking Elon Musk's toes was broadcast at the Department of Housing and Development headquarters in DC in February of 2025. As an actual art piece, we can debate if the video itself is art. However, the caption, subject matter of the fake video, and chosen location to broadcast is definitely a strategic work of creative activism. From the New York Times:
The People v Barack Obama
Practitioner:
Law Office of Jason Flores-Williams
Date:
Mar 15 2013
I am a federal criminal defense attorney and have written a formal legal brief in response to the Obama Administration's White Paper attempting to justify the killing of American citizens without due process. The brief is a new form fusion of law and nihilistic commentary about the American condition. I will be delivering the brief with others to the Department of Justice and posting at the White House on March 15.
The Vivienne Foundation
Practitioner:
Vivienne Westwood
Date:
Dec 15 2022
The Vivienne Foundation exists to honour, protect and continue the legacy of Vivienne's creativity and activism. Since the start of her career in the 1970s, Vivienne was renowned not only for her fashion design, but also her activism. Vivienne always utilised her platform of prestige to make the world a better place.
PORTRAIT OF A GENERATION
Practitioner:
JR
Date:
Jan 1 2004
After a first illegal exhibition on the walls of the Cité des Bosquets, JR settles in the heart of this neighborhood and the neighboring projects of La Forestière, in Clichy-sous-Bois, where the 2005 riots started in the French suburbs. The first portraits are displayed on the walls of the last popular neighborhoods of the capital, in Eastern Paris.
How Selective Enforcement of Illegal Advertising Laws Punishes Creative Activism
Practitioner:
The Illuminator, Occupy Museums
Date:
Sep 29 2014
The enforcement of city and state law pertaining to graffiti, advertising, and other signage has enormous power to visually shape public space. In New York City, enforcement is heavily skewed to ignore illegal commercial advertising, while simultaneously aggressively targeting graffiti and, in some cases, symbols of dissent.
Ai Weiwei: Sunflower Seeds
Practitioner:
Ai Weiwei
Date:
Oct 12 2010
Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently identical, but actually unique. However realistic they may seem, these life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in porcelain.
This Taiwanese Calligrapher Brings a Message of Freedom to the Met
Practitioner:
Tong Yang-Tze
Date:
Nov 9 2024
The boulders hiding in the alcove of Tong Yang-Tze’s apartment testify to this Taiwanese calligrapher’s daunting perfectionism.
Ghost Protest in Seoul
Practitioner:
Amnesty International in Korea
Date:
Feb 24 2016
Haeryun Kang reported the following for NPR on February 24, 2016: "On the eve of South Korean President Park Geun-hye's third anniversary in office, protesters gathered in Seoul... to condemn the administration's increasing crackdown on free speech. These protesters were unlike any others Seoul has seen. They were holograms"
A Straight Journey: days and nights in their kingdom
Practitioner:
Masamojo
Date:
Apr 23 2015
A Straight Journey is a documentary of Chinese homosexual people. It is the first time for Chinese gays and lesbians to make their debut and speak out via one of the largest Chinese Internet service providers. Two Chinese photographers Masa and Mojo took a journey across 11 China's cities making portraits of 48 gays, lesbians and their families from 2014-2015.
Myanmar coup: How citizens are protesting through art
Practitioner:
Myanmar's citizens
Date:
Feb 7 2021
"An atmosphere of fear and anger spread across Myanmar this week as millions of people awoke to find out the military had taken control, ousting the elected government. But how do you fight back in a country where protests have been violently suppressed before? For some, it has meant putting pen to paper and taking the battle online.
Slashing the Rokeby Venus
Practitioner:
Mary Raleigh Richardson, WSPU
Date:
Mar 10 1914
On March 10, 1914, Mary Richardson slashed Velasquez's "Rokeby Venus" with a small axe during public hours at the National Gallery in London. A militant suffragette protesting the force-feeding of imprisoned suffragettes in prison (and the Cat and Mouse Act which released the starving women only until they were slightly healthier only to imprison them again), Richardson released this statement after her arrest:
In her Shoes
Practitioner:
Creativity and Change - Reproductive Rights Group
Date:
Apr 28 2018
‘In Her Shoes’ was a street exhibition of stories from women and men affected by the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution. These stories were selected from the ‘In Her Shoes’ project Facebook page. We hung copies of the stories on ribbon between trees and provided pens, paper and a seating area for people to sit down and write a response to the stories if they chose.
A Night Of Philosophy And Ideas
Practitioner:
various
Date:
Jan 27 2018
"A Night of Philosophy and Ideas is a thinker’s lollapalooza. The free, 12-hour weekend lyceum at the Brooklyn Public Library includes spirited debate, live music, theater, performance art pieces, and film screenings. At any given hour, five or six different events will be taking place simultaneously. Visitors are encouraged to come and go as the spirit moves them.
Ex Libris
Practitioner:
Emily Jacir
Date:
Jul 1 2012
Recurrent themes in Emily Jacir's practice—which spans a range of strategies including film, photography, interventions, archiving, performance, video, writing, and sound—are silenced historical narratives, resistance, movement, and exchange.
Wrap my Hijab
Practitioner:
Mona Hayda
Date:
Mar 27 2017
Mona Haydar’s first single, “Hijabi (Wrap My Hijab)” is an empowering anthem for women everywhere who wear headscarves. It’s also a sharp rebuke to those who dare to ask headscarf-clad women what their hair looks like underneath, whether they’re hot in there, and whether it feels too tight.
Occupy West Side Story
Practitioner:
Occupy
Date:
Apr 15 2012
If you're a fan of West Side Story (music by Leonard Bernstein), don't miss this "updated" video. Absolutely first-rate! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wGZRJG4ZJE "Occupy West Side Story" takes aim at NYPD Deputy Inspector Edward J. WInski, the white-shirted bully of Occupy Wall Street, who replaced the infamous Tony Baloney.
Land Minds: spreading internet freedom and privacy
Practitioner:
Minds.com
Date:
Jan 27 2016
In the past few years we have seen a growing awareness and concern with Internet freedom and privacy, fuelled by Edward Snowden’s revelations of the vast U.S.
A Call to Action
Practitioner:
Unknown
Date:
Jul 1 2022
This piece is fascinating because of its use of just a few words and country names, muted colors, and the recreation of famous art. The artist used this canvas to depict a concern about events happening in the Gaza strip.
FEMEN’s Fight for Feminism in Spain
Practitioner:
FEMEN
Date:
Jun 11 2021
FEMEN is an organization that is revolutionizing the feminist movement. Founded in Ukraine in 2008 and adopted in Spain in 2013, FEMEN protests gender-based issues such as inequalities, violence, patriarchy, etc. Since its creation, it has spread to several other countries, and there have been hundreds of organized protests.
Regina José Galindo- Performance Art Guatemala
Practitioner:
Regina José Galindo
Date:
Feb 3 2000
Regina Galindo is a Guatemalan performance artist that uses her body as a means to explore many of the human rights violations in Guatemala. In one of her performances, " no perdemos nada con nacer," or " we don't lose anything by being born," the artist "disposes" of herself in a plastic bag.
Autonomy Cube
Practitioner:
Trevor Paglen, Jason Applebaum
Date:
Jan 1 2014
Pursuing the possibility of emancipatory use of technology, Paglen, together with Jacob Appelbaum, developed Autonomy Cube (2014). Autonomy Cube is a sculpture and internet router designed to be housed in civic spaces. The sculpture is meant to be both “seen” and “used.” Formally it references Hans Haacke's 'Condensation Cube' (1963-65).
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/
Kurt Hiller's Literary Activism
Practitioner:
Kurt Hiller
Date:
Sep 23 1928
Kurt Hiller’s Literary Activism 
The Most Shocking Image I Can Remember Is Seeing Myself in the Mirror
Practitioner:
Ai Weiwei
Date:
Apr 3 2011
It can be important to reflect on the artistic recounts of activists experiences under state imprisonment. In a revealing interview with Artspace, Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei reflects on his 81-day secret detention in 2011 and the psychological strategies used to dismantle identity and autonomy.
Bicycles as a vehicle for protest in Guatemala
Practitioner:
Guatemalean girls
Date:
Feb 13 2021
Non-profit organizations and a multitude of Guatemalan girls protested together demanding justice and security from the government. Guatemala's insecurity and cases of girls' disappearances have increased over the years. The protest started outside the Government Ministery (Ministerio de Gobernación) early in the morning, where protestors gathered riding their bikes.

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