Protest Art

Protest art also known as Resistance Art, Activist Art and Humanitarian Art uses the medium of art to shine a light on social injustices and issues.

Protest art is the creative works produced by activists and social movements. It is a traditional means of communication, utilized by a cross section of collectives and the state to inform and persuade citizens.

Protest art helps arouse base emotions in their audiences, and in return may increase the climate of tension and create new opportunities to dissent. Since art, unlike other forms of dissent, takes few financial resources, less financially able groups and parties can rely more on performance art and street art as an affordable tactic.

Protest art acts as an important tool to form social consciousness, create networks, operate accessibly, and be cost-effective. Social movements produce such works as the signs, banners, posters, and other printed materials used to convey a particular cause or message.

Often, such art is used as part of demonstrations or acts of civil disobedience.

Wikipedia

Shamsia Hassani - An Afghani street artist

Shamsia Hassani

Born April 1988, is the first female graffiti artist of Afghanistan. Through her artworks, Shamsia portrays Afghan women in a male dominant society.

Her art gives Afghan women a different face, a face with power, ambitions, and willingness to achieve goals. The woman character used in her artworks portrays a human being who is proud, loud, and can bring positive changes to people’s lives. During the last decade of post-war era in Afghanistan, Shamsia’s works have brought in a huge wave of color and appreciation to all the women in the country.

Her artworks have inspired thousands of women around the world and has given a new hope to female Afghan artists in the country. She has motivated hundreds of Afghans to bring in their creativity through her graffiti festival, art classes, and exhibitions in different countries around the world.

Fuad Alyamani

Fuad Alyamani was born in Ramallah in 1996, Fuad Alyamani, is a visual artist of Yemeni origins. In 2021, he earned his BA degree in Contemporary Art from Birzeit University.

In 2022, he resided in and taught at Konstfack University in Sweden. Throughout his career, he has actively engaged with various youth institutions and groups, both participating in and volunteering for their activities.

Alyamani has exhibited his work in numerous shows, gaining recognition both locally and internationally.

Left: Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Right: Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 1989 Just  be yourself), 1999-2000

American conceptual artist Barbara Kruger’s iconic works of black and white photography overlaid with white-on-red declarative captions often address identity, consumerism, and gender related constructions of power and sexuality with billboard like directness.

By combining the postmodernist theory of writers like Walter Benjamin and Pierre Bourdieu with mass cultural imagery, she is able to shine a light on assertions that we take for granted as truths–about women’s value, the role of consumerism in postmodern society, and gender representation. In 1989 Kruger created Untitled (Your body is a battleground) for the Women’s March on Washington in support of reproductive freedom and women’s right to choose. Simultaneously art and protest, the piece is emblematic of both the timely-ness and timeless-ness of Kruger’s artistic activism. 

Information - Various Sources