The Art Of Protest
Where Is The Voice Of Art When We Most Need It?
No one can deny that we are living through some of the most bonkers times in history. During the height of the recent lockdowns, I would wake most mornings thinking I was living in some kind of alternative universe. I wondered if I was the only one that was actually getting that feeling that something was, a little off. I kept looking around for people who had also smelled a giant rat, and slowly but surely found that I was not on my own. There were others. I hoped that someone from the world of music, literature or film would do what they have always done, to use art as a way to speak out. I waited and waited. But there just seemed to be a complete wall of silence.
Not all of us are not bestowed with the ability to articulate verbally, our deepest thoughts, feelings and fears. Even if we were, we might be too shy, embarrassed or scared of the consequences of laying ourselves bare for all to see and perhaps ridicule. We might lack the ability to recall the facts and figures of the situation, therefore afraid of making a complete ass of ourselves in the bargain. So we feel it better to just remain silent and let others do the talking for us.
But when we find ourselves in a situation in which staying quiet might actually lead to suffering, harm or perhaps even death, we may have little choice but to swallow our pride and do the right thing. But that doesn’t necessarily have to mean standing before our peers, family or friends trying to get the words out in the right order before they either get bored, tired or just annoyed with us. There are other ways.
Art has long been used as a vehicle to communicate radical ideas and to offer a voice to a worthy cause no matter what the medium. Whether it be painting, sculpture, theatre, film, TV, music or the written word. All of them have there own particular merits and appeal. And can tap directly into the vein of the recipient, cutting right to the heart of the matter so to speak. History has taught us that art has always played its part during times of crisis, injustice and inequality, no matter how small or big.
It’s apparent now that our world is at a nexus point, as a number of monumental changes in our environment and social structure take place simultaneously. Including a technological revolution which has seen a push to increase more of what we do in the digital space. Add to this a rise to power of multi million pound corporations and it’s not too hard to see where things are heading. We are constantly being warned of a collapse in our environment, or of our financial and health systems. Sometimes it feels like we are being pressured to submit to actions to mitigate these crises without any public consultation, let alone any long term study of the consequences.
For example, during the last few years large numbers of the population were persuaded or pressured into taking a brand new type of medical intervention without really knowing the mid or long term side effects. For an illness which for the most part, did not pose a serious health threat to the majority of healthy people. Following the roll out of said intervention it became clear that its ability to be effective in shielding against the illness, or preventing the spread, was, to say the least, pretty poor. Not only that but since the repeated application of this medicine, huge numbers of reports of serious life changing side effects and deaths have been recorded and documented on government reporting systems around the world. And alarmingly, we now have a substantial rise in excess mortality around the world, as the number of sudden unexplained deaths and heart attacks go through the roof.
Despite all of this, with reassurance from world leaders, and the pharmaceutical industry that there is no link between the intervention and deaths, we have, on the other side of the coin, a growing number of doctors and scientists who are coming forward with valid concerns. At the very least, would it not be sensible, given both the rapid rise in all cause mortality, the noted serious adverse reactions, and the growing outcry from health experts, to stop the intervention and launch a truly independent enquiry. But this has not happened and we must start to ask ourselves why? I’ve not even mentioned the outrageous censorship of those experts that do speak out, or the fact that when those harmed do try to engage with their political representatives or the media they are met with a brick wall of silence. On top of all that we must also wonder why established safe medicines that were proven to prevent illness during the early stages were banned or withdrawn from use.
It seems to me that by now, our situation, by its very nature, should have signalled an explosion of art in response. But this seems not to be the case. There have been many works, in multi-mediums, that have sought to tell the story from one side of the coin. But very few who have been brave enough to address those difficult questions. For example, in music, I can only name a handful of musicians who have sought to use their influence and ability to highlight the glaring injustice. Van Morrison being the obvious one to mention with his 2020 anti-lockdown song, No More Lockdown.
The world of comedy has more or less ignored the frankly hilarious government overreach of rules and regulations that were inflicted on the population. When this kind of material would normally be considered manna from heaven for any comic worth their salt. As for the rest of the arts and media world's leading lights. A big fat nothing. In fact it has been up to those members of the public who have resisted the top down tyranny, to dip their feet into music or film, to get their message across.
Perhaps the art community needs to be reminded of its greatest moments of resistance? Of it’s indelible connection to protest. So let us now look at some examples of how art has been used innovatively to highlight social injustice and political issues.
Photography
Between 1948 and 1972 Gordon Parks was a staff photographer for Life magazine. His early work focussed on exposing the harsh realities of social segregation in America during the civil rights movement. In 1966 Life sent him to photograph boxer Mohammed Ali, who had become a conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam on religious grounds. Parks managed to capture the boxer in a contemplative moment, sitting with head bowed as if in prayer. His hands clad not in his boxing gloves but wrapped in white bandages. A man who had made a name for himself through fighting who was now refusing the fight.
Park’s photograph, Doll Test, documented the work of psychologists Dr. Kenneth Clark and Dr. Mamie Clark, who designed the infamous “doll tests” to study the effects of racial segregation on children. In their tests, the Clarks asked African American children to express preferences for black or white dolls. In the photo, a black boy is sitting at a desk while a white man dangles two dolls in front of him, one black, and one white.
“I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.”
Street Art & Mixed Media
The anonymous graffiti artist Banksy has been known for his satirical street art since the early 1990s. His work has appeared on streets all over the UK, Europe and New York. His temporary outdoor installations have criticised capitalism, war, royalty and the establishment. One of his most famous works is called Love Is In The Air (Flower Thrower) which depicts a masked man dressed in black poised to throw not a Molotov cocktail or petrol bomb, but a bunch of flowers.
The obvious message of Love Is In The Air, being, spread love and peace, not war and fear. In 2015 he and other artist friends created Dismalland, Bemusement Park. With its tainted, run down and frankly hostile atmosphere, it was more akin to a kind of apocalyptic amusement park. Many of its exhibits had a serious message though, such as the remote control boats featuring refugees or the spectacle of Cinderella’s upturned carriage being eagerly photographed by a group of ruthless paparazzi.
Graphic Design
Graphic design has elevated many campaigns over the years, whether it be a poster, a symbol or logo. Its contribution being instantly recognisable, raises mass awareness.
Perhaps one of the most successful designs and most easily recognisable is the one used in the campaign for nuclear disarmament. Commonly known as the peace symbol. It was designed by British designer Gerald Holtom in 1958 and has been in use ever since. The design of the vertical and two diagonal lines inside the circle was based on the letter N and D in the flag semaphore system.
Tom Ungerer’s Eat poster from 1967 was one of many he designed in protest against the Vietnam War. The image shows the white arm of America shoving the Statue Of Liberty down the throat of a Vietnamese citizen.
Designed by students at the École des Beaux Arts in 1968, the poster “Borders=Repression”, was a direct response to the events of May that year when France reached a cultural turning point. A man shaded in stripes is shown behind a riot shield, grasping a truncheon. Student strikes later became a national movement, with worker strikes bringing the country to a halt. Many similar posters were seen on the streets at the time.
During the 1970’s and 80’s Japanese artist Masuteru Aoba created a series of posters advocating nonviolence and environmentalism, including, “War Waste Energy”, in 1981, on a red background two jet fighters fly head on into a waste bin. His goal was to encourage a more emphatic society. His work was so well received that he was later asked to design the official poster for the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano.
Fine Art
Paula Rego was a Portuguese-british contemporary artist who championed women's rights through her work which often had elements of magical realism, fantasy and the surreal. She used her art to highlight the dangers of illegal abortion in a series of pastels in 1998, which had such a huge impact that it influenced public opinion in a campaign for a second referendum, which saw the legalisation of abortion.
In, Detail of The Human Cargo triptych (2007-8) she drew attention to the horrific realities of human trafficking in three large images, depicting the pale faces and listless bodies of those being transported in the back of a lorry.
“Art is the only place you can do what you like. That's freedom.” -- Paula Rego
Painting
Guernica is a large oil painting (4 x 8 metres) by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. It was painted in response to the 26th April 1937 bombing of Guernica in northern Spain by the Nazi regime. The attack was timed to maximise civilian casualties. Over three hours twenty five bombers dropped one hundred thousand pounds of explosives and incendiary bombs on the village, reducing it to rubble and killing a third of the population.
Completed in only three weeks, Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. It is composed in black and white and shows images of a weeping woman with a dead child in her arms, a flying fury of war holding out a torch, a woman facing the heavens with outstretched arms, a woman trapped inside a burning building and a dead soldier whose severed arm carries a broken sword from which grows a white poppy. The chaotic scene conjures up intense feelings of fear, despair and destruction.
The work has gained monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention and raised money for Spanish refugees fleeing fascism. During the Vietnam war it became a powerful anti war symbol and continues to this day to be used by those who oppose war.
It is said that when a German Officer visited Picasso he saw a photograph of Guernica on the wall and asked, “Did you do that?”, to which Picasso replied, “No, you did.”
Sculpture & Installation
Bounty Pilfered, by artist Pam Longobardi is a cornucopia made of marine debris and filled with debris from the 2013 Gyre scientific expedition and various other locations. Featuring over 1000 pieces of ocean plastic.
Longobardi is an American contemporary artist, currently living and working in Atlanta, Georgia. She is known primarily for her sculptural works and installations from plastic and debris collected from the ocean. In 2006 she began the Drifters project - collecting drift plastic to create her work. In 2013 she was selected to be lead artist in the GYRE Expedition, an art-science research expedition that assembled a team of notable marine scientists, journalists, filmmakers and artists to trawl remote Alaskan coastlines and to document collaboratively the impacts of plastic pollution on these delicate ecosystems.
“The plastics tell a story of globalism, consumption, hubris, ecological disruption and waste of resources. But they also tell a story of intentionality, irony, and even a sense of humour.” - Pam Longobardi.
Music
From the folk music of Guthrie, Dylan and Seeger, the blues of Lead Belly, to the rock and pop of Springsteen and Rage Against The Machine, songwriters have always used the medium to raise awareness on a whole number of social and political issues. When it came to the oppressive clampdown of our freedoms during the recent lockdowns though, with the implementation of an experimental medical procedure, mandated in some parts of the world as a requirement to work, we strangely had muted silence from artists that had once gained a reputation as speaking out musically. Artists like Manic Street Preachers, Idles, Stormzy, U2, Billy Bragg, Peter Gabriel, Jackson Browne, Ani DiFranco and Roger Waters to name but a few, were missing in action.
Thankfully we have had some push back in the shape of Van Morrsion, who has felt so deeply about the damage Lockdown has caused that he has devoted his last two albums (2021’s Latest Recording Project and 2022’s What’s It Gonna Take), to getting things off of his chest. Bravely, he defied both the authorities and his critics by releasing the song, No More Lockdowns, at the height of the madness in September of 2020. The songs lyric leaves little to the imagination,
“No more lockdown,
No more government overreach,
No more fascist police,
Disturbing our peace,
No more taking our freedom,
And our God-given rights,
Pretending it's for our safety,
When it's really to enslave
Another voice that rose to the surface, albeit as a result of physical illness after having the experimental procedure, was blues and rock guitarist, Eric Clapton. He added vocals and guitar to one of Van Morrison’s anti-lockdown songs called, Stand and Deliver, which was released in Dec 2020. Proceeds from Morrison’s anti-lockdown tracks went to support his Lockdown Financial Hardship Fund, helping musicians facing difficulties from not being able to play.
Clapton’s own contribution, released in July 2022, is somewhat less direct than Morrison. On Pompous Fool, Clapton seems to be giving out a warning as to who we may choose to follow and let influence our thoughts. The song's lyric makes reference to dumping number 10, so it isn’t hard to see who the song is aimed at.
“Do you wanna laugh? Do you wanna cry?
Do you still believe in you and I?
Is it your opinion that we should start again?
And turn the volume down from number ten
Don't you worry, don't be blue
Let your woman take care of you
Live your life by the golden rule
Pay no mind to the pompous fool.”
Ian Brown, the former Stone Roses front man, also released a song in 2020 in which he questioned the lockdown among many other things. The song, called Little Seed, Big Tree is still banned by some streaming services to this very day. So it must have struck a nerve or even chord with those who sought to silence him.
“Just a little seed, makes a big tree
Standing on its own, thriving all alone
Just a little seed, makes a big tree
Grows so high, gonna touch the sky
Just a little seed, makes a big tree
Spreads roots deep, branches far and wide”
Under the name Slow Hand & Van, Clapton and Morrison also released the song, “The Rebels” in June 2021, which asked a very poignant question, aimed squarely at the music establishment, and perhaps also at the wider arts community, “Where have all the rebels gone?”
Where have all the rebels gone?
Hiding behind their computer screens
Where's the spirit, where is the soul?
Where have all the rebels gone?
Why don't they come out of the woodwork now?
One for the money, two for the show
I can't find anyone at all
Where have all the rebels gone?
Animation
Flee (2021), directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, is an animated documentary feature film interspersed with archival TV footage to tell the true story of Amin, and his families escape from Afghanistan in 1989 after the Russian withdrawal. After Amin’s father is taken by mujahideen forces the family flee to Kabul, where they take a flight to Moscow, they lay low trying to avoid persecution by the corrupt authorities. Eventually Amin’s sisters are nearly killed after being trafficked to Sweden in a freight container onboard a cargo ship. Later Amin’s life is also placed in the hands of a trafficker in order to join his family in Sweden, but instead ends up in Copenhagen where he hands himself over to the authorities. Following his traffickers advice, and fearful that he will be sent back to Afghanistan he tells everyone that his entire family have been killed. This was a secret he kept to himself and only opened up to telling Jonas many years later.
In an interview for Screen in 2021, Jonas Poher Rasmussen said using the medium of Animation was key, “Having this way of telling the story was what made him feel safe enough to open up,
Waltz With Bashir (2008), directed by Ari Folman is a feature length animated film in which the director seeks to recover lost memories of being a soldier in the 1982 Lebanon war. After meeting an old friend in 2006, who talks about his memories of the war, Ari begins to wonder why he can not recall his part. Later that night he has a vision in which he is bathing in the water, off the coast of Beirut as flares fall from the sky. He recognises that the vision is connected to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, but only remembers certain fragments. A therapist friend advises Ari to seek out other soldiers who were in Beirut at the time in order to gain a better understanding and hopefully regain his memory. The film explores the effect that trauma has on memory.
Fiction
Without question fiction has been the genre where writers can express their true feelings of anger, fear, sorrow or even hope on all kinds of dystopian subjects. Classic novels such as Nineteen Eighty Four and Brave New World have looked into the possibility of a dark future, and told the story of how humanity may end up. A warning so to speak, wrapped up lines of imagination.
The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea, is a 2014 collection of seven short stories smuggled out of North Korea,. It was written by a North Korean writer still living under the regime going by the pen name of Bandi (which translates to “Firefly” in English. The stories are set during the North Korean rule of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il’s leadership, depicting what life was really like for those living under the dictatorship.
Bandi apparently wrote it on brown paper starting in 1989 and finishing in 1995. He then asked a relative, who was illegally leaving North Korea to smuggle it out of the country but they declined, fearful of retribution from the authorities. Later in 2012 the relative was captured in China, so an activist paid the bribe to free her and later arranged for the manuscript to be discreetly taken out of the country.
“Once upon a time there was a garden, surrounded on all sides by a great, high fence. In that garden, an old demon ruled over thousands upon thousands of slaves. But the surprising thing was that the only sound ever to be heard within those high walls was the sound of merry laughter. Hahaha and hohoho, all year round-because of the laughing magic which the old demon had used on his slaves. "Why did he use such magic on them? To conceal his evil mistreatment of them, of course, and also to create a deception, saying, 'This is how happy the people in our garden are.' And that's also why he put the fences up, so that the people in other gardens couldn't see over or come in. So, well, think about it. Where in the world might you find such a garden, such a den of evil magic, where cries of pain and sadness were wrenched from the mouths of its people and distorted into laughter?” excerpt from Pandemonium, a short story included in the The Accusation by Bandi.
The Jungle is a 1906 novel about the exploitation of immigrant factory workers, particularly in Chicago’s meat-packing district. The book actually led to the passing of the Federal Meat Inspection Act. The author, Upton Sinclair, depicts working class poverty, lack of social support, harsh and unpleasant working conditions and the hopelessness among many workers. Contrasted to this was the deep seated corruption of those in power. Sinclair was considered a Muckraker, a journalist who uncovered deceit and dishonesty in government and business. He spent several weeks working undercover in the meat packing plants of the Chicago stockyards to gather the material he needed for the book.
“All truly great art is optimistic. The individual artist is happy in his creative work. The fact that practically all great art is tragic does not in any way change the above thesis.” Upton Sinclair.
Indian Horse is a 2012 novel by Richard Wagamese, who was writing about the culture, stories and history of the First Nations of Canada for many years up until his death in 2017. The plot amalgamates many experiences of native children who were forced into the residential school system, to accept the values and ethos of Christianity and relinquish any connection to their own language, spirituality and ancestors. Many of these children suffered trauma, abuse and ill treatment at the hand of those who were charged with their care. The protagonist of the novel Saul, endures this repressive school system himself and finds escape from it with a talent for playing ice hockey. It’s an important well told piece of fiction that speaks for many native children, who found that later in life they had turned to drugs or alcohol to deal with the pain of the past. Children who were let down by the government. The book won the 2013 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature and was made into a feature film in 2017 after Wagamese died.
“I learned how to live through adversity in the library. I learned how words and music can empower you, show you the world in a sharper, cleaner, more forgiving way. I became a writer because of what I found in libraries, and I found the song that still reverberates in my chest. I’m a better man, a better human being and a better Indian because of the freedom in words and music.” Richard Wagomese - One Native Life (2008)
Poetry
The spoken or written word as poetry, often offers us a very direct, undiluted route to the heart of the matter at hand. Which is why it has been used very successfully through the years as a means to disseminate a dissident view.
In 1819 Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote The Mask Of Anarchy, in response to the Peterloo Massacre in which a large public protest was held at St Peter’s Fields in Manchester calling for political reform, following Political corruption, harsh working conditions and low pay. When radical speaker Henry Hunt began speaking, the army attempted to arrest him and attack anyone who got in the way, resulting in at least fifteen people being killed and four hundred being injured. As a consequence Hunt was sentenced to two years imprisonment, meetings of more than 50 at any time were banned and there was a tax on newspapers, preventing people from being able to afford them, and to be less likely to publish anything negative about the Government. Shelly heard of the massacre from a friend and was so moved that he wrote The Mask Of Anarchy, calling for radical social action and non violent resistance.
The poem takes the form of a dream in which a political crisis is turned into an apocalyptic vision, in which Britain's true anarchists are its leaders, perpetrating fear and disorder with delight. The followers of Anarchy, the lawyers and priests take possession of Palace, Bank and Parliament and are only challenged by a “maniac maid” called Hope. Though it appears she is about to be trampled by horses hooves, a form appears to challenge Anarchy, “the ghastly birth”. A voice encouraging the people to seize freedom rises up. There is a great assembly, a gathering of people, whose steadfast resolution eventually defeats the troops and soldiers. The title of the poem comes from the hideous masquerades that monarchs staged to celebrate their power.
The poems finale invites those who have been asleep to wake.
”Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.”
from The Mask Of Anarchy
Bringing things a bit more up to date, in 2017 a poetry anthology entitled, Bullets into Bells was published on the 5th anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting. The book is a powerfully emotive response to the continued problem of gun crime in America by a host of poets with responses to each poem by activists and survivors.
Each of the poems in the book is a time machine that records the moment when normal life ended with the shot of a gun. In The Dark by Jack Myers is just one of those haunting poems, written for his son Jacob who died in 2009 after taking his own life.
In the Dark
JACK MYERS
In memory of my son Jacob Myers, 1985–2009
Anger and sorrow have split off from me like twin tree trunks.
I think I will grow in opposite directions like this from now on,
watching the fruit of what I can hardly bear open.
When I dared to look at my son’s ashes, I said
“focus,” but I could not accept that this was
what’s left of my boy who, just yesterday,
freshened the world with his jasmine presence.
I would’ve jumped in front of the bullet, I would’ve
killed for him, but he was the one who took his
life leaving me swirling in mid-air while the world
emptied itself out and became more meaningless and precious.
I am struck dumb, twisted inward,
and folded over by something so final that
I have sworn to stay alive just to spite death,
just so I can stick a thumb in its eye and
then follow through looking for my son in the dark.
In the time it has taken to research this essay, I have been on a whirlwind voyage of discovery into the relationship between art and protest. I have been overwhelmed by the creativity, imagination and emotion of artists to use their skills in order to speak those fundamental human truths of equality, peace and justice for all. It seems to me, in those moments when we are at our lowest, when we have our backs against the wall, with nothing else to lose, we can find our voice and raise it in the only way that we know how.
But what troubles me about our present predicament, is that we seem to have lost those crucial voices of artists with strong ethics, values and merit, who should be stepping forward into the light to raise awareness of the injustices that have taken place in recent years. Why are we not seeing an unveiling of canvases, manuscripts, verses and stanzas in an explosion of art? Could it be that artists are fearful of rejection or scorn damaging their career? Surely any society that seeks to censor the creative act is one that has become seriously ill and in need of a complete reassessment. Fear of reputational or financial loss should not enter into the equation when the stakes are so high. Each of us should be playing our own part, including those of that are bestowed with the skills of pen, brush, lens or melody. Art urgently needs to enter the conversation on where our future is heading, to voice the will of the people, in its own radical and imaginal style.
“The role of the artist is that of the soldier of the revolution.”
DIEGO RIVERA (Mexican painter)
“How important is art as a form of protest? Very.”
Jeremy Deller (English conceptual, video & installation artist)
“Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s radical voice.”
Paul Robeson (American Actor & Musician)
“In the largest sense, every work of art is protest ... A lullaby is a propaganda song and any three-year-old knows it ... A hymn is a controversial song - sing one in the wrong church: you'll find out …” Pete Seeger (American Folk Singer)
“Writing becomes a form of protest against the incontestable ravages of time. The poet takes revenge on mortality, defeating cruelty and saving what she can by thinking the unthinkable and presiding over her own creation. The joy of writing stands against the bitter knowledge of just how much of the world cannot be controlled outside the work of art. This is the art of poetry trying to kill time. Probably.” Edward Hirsch (American Poet & Critic)
This post is available as a Spotify Podcast with enhanced music tracks from Van Morrision and Eric Clapton. To hear the full tracks you will need to play the episode from within the Spotify App and be a subscriber.