by Chloe Parkinson
MADA 2023
COL3002 Survival
→ Home
→ Background
→ Process
→ Outcome
→ Distribution
by Chloe Parkinson
MADA 2023
COL3002 Survival
→ Home
→ Background
→ Process
→ Outcome
→ Distribution
Background
This project considers how people use protest as a means of survival. It investigates how artists and designers use poster graphics to both respond to and encourage social change. When I first signed up for my semester abroad in Prato, a friend advised me that I use the opportunity to pay attention to Italian politics, as they hold a lot of weight on the politics of the rest of Europe. So, I decided to create my own protest posters that respond to the recent introduction of a law in Italy that prohibits people from throwing and participating in raves. This page goes into more detail about why I find protest posters important, and summarises the political issue I am addressing.
The History of Protest Posters
Visual graphics have been used extensively through time by protestors and dissenters in order to advocate for social changes, fight against inequalities and oppose discrimination. When government does not do its job to look after its population, it falls on the people to publically fight for their own rights and freedoms. The protest poster can become a very important symbol of rebellion. Having a strong, unified visual language to simplify issues that are complex contributes a lot to the success of a resistance movement in terms of its public reach. The beauty of a poster is that it can have a fast and powerful impact on a very wide audience. Given they are displayed and distributed in public spaces, people who may not have had any knowledge of a movement can be exposed to the ideas and issues being addressed visually.
These posters are an opportunity for artists and designers to use their unique skills to support their own politics, and amplify the ideas of others. It is an important way that a designer can take part in the important social movements of their time.
However, it is important to note that the making of protest graphics is not an activity entirely exclusive to professional designers. Anyone who is passionate enough can equip themselves with the necessary tools to visualise a movement. In fact, more often than not physical protests are filled with hand-made signs written up by passionate people who are not artists. Protest is for the people, by the people.
Below are a few of my favourite protest posters that were made by more artistically inclined people that I used as research for how I would undertake my own designs. All of them use strong verbal messaging, and are tactful with their illustrations/photography in order to deliver an impactful message.
Created by a group of gay men in NYC to draw attention to the AIDS crisis. References pink triangles Nazi’s used in concentration camps to identify homosexual prisoners. The poster was adopted by ACT UP, in response to the US government’s inaction in addressing the crisis.
Radical protest poster made in response to the Vietnam War. Features a white person’s arm adorned with the word “Eat” shoving the Statue of Liberty into the mouth of a Vietnamese man. It is a violent visualisation of America forcing its ideals on the Vietnamese people.
This poster was created to raise money for the defence of “The Black Panther 21”, group members who were arrested and charged with planning a bomb attack on New York police stations. After an 8 month trial they were acquitted.
Made by a radical political student organisation, arguing that the American political system was only a democracy in name. The motif of the clenched fist was a widely recognised symbol of left-wing protest at the time.
A prolabour, pro-May Day march poster. A red poster with a black line drawing of a small worker bent over with the weight of carrying the large rich man’s belly.
The Guerilla Girls worked to expose sexual and racial discrimination in the art world. The poster asks the question above a reclining naked woman who wears a gorilla mask. The image is based on the famous painting entitled La Grande Odalisque. The poster was originally designed to be a billboard commissioned by the Public Art Fund in New York.
Decreto Anti-Rave
Article 633 is a new law designed to prevent the occupation of both public and private spaces for hosting raves and other types of entertainment in Italy. The statute allows for the surveillance, such as phone tapping, of groups suspected of holding these unauthorised events and has a maximum penalty of six years in prison for event organisers.
This legislation was enshrined at the end of 2022 by Italy’s newly elected right-wing government headed by Giorgia Meloni. It was triggered by a few notable raves in Italy that faced negative media coverage. Raves had become a hot-button topic, despite being around in Italy in the 90s. Most of them already were technically illegal, but tended to pass under the radar.
There is a concern that the repercussions of this legislation mean that law enforcement will be able to stop other kinds of demonstrations like protests because the wording is vague enough that it could be applied to a variety of gatherings.
Also the law very obviously compromises youth culture and music culture.
The organised protest movement in response to this legislation is labelled “Smash Repression”. Protests took place across a variety of cities in Italy, but were particularly energetic around Bologna, a city that is highly populated by students. At the protests, people danced behind trucks blasting techno music in parades through the city streets.
* All information here was sourced from articles written by The Guardian and Vice