Giving Voice to the Void: Artists And The Social Justice Movement
by Justine O’Brien
“How can you be an artist and NOT reflect the times?” — Nina Simone
It was three in the morning when I found out that Donald Trump had won the presidential election. Like many people, I thought there was zero chance he would actually slither his way into the most coveted position in the world. The night of November 8th however, while photographing an election viewing party, I got my first inkling that the impossible was about to happen when I saw the electoral map on the television screen bleeding red.
Lying in my bed that night, staring at my ceiling, I couldn’t wrap my mind around the new reality. I was feeling angry, sad and afraid. The world that seemed so secure a few hours ago now seemed so uncertain. How had this happened? How were other people feeling?
As I checked my social media accounts, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: Already, mere hours after the election, people were flooding the web with art, photography and poetry, protesting an election result they weren’t going to let define them or their country. Instead of going to sleep terrified that night, I drifted off feeling inspired. More than ever, artists seemed to give voice to the void.
As the country continues to slip its moorings, artists have become ever more important as voices of reason and moral clarity, pressing for social justice and engaging the public conversation about the controversial issues shaping the world in which we live.
One such artist, Bibiana Medkova, gives voice to victims that we rarely hear from — slaves. In her multimedia installation, “Love Snaps”, which was recently displayed in the Student Union Gallery at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Brooklyn-based visual artist advocates for victims of human trafficking by “[giving] visibility to a largely invisible phenomenon.”
“The decision to treat the topic of human trafficking was not because of its compelling qualities. On the contrary, I think human trafficking evokes every reaction other than compelling. I have read about human trafficking, forced labor, and modern indentured servitude many times over the last decade — always on a scale whose magnitude boggled my mind,” Medkova said.
Medkova’s installation was sparse and lit with pastel pinks, oranges and yellows, making the compact space feel much larger than it was. The use of bright color was deliberate.
“I knew from the beginning that any presentation of this subject matter was going to be difficult at best,” Medkova said. “I chose certain visual devices to mitigate the content and to offer the viewer something irresistible, which would then, in turn, keep them in the space longer, thereby forcing them to be confronted with the subject matter.”
A table by the gallery entrance was arrayed with colorful cards made from acrylics and foam. The front of the cards held playful phrases such as “PICK ME”, “NOT ME” and “TURN ME OVER.” The back of the cards bore sobering testimonials from victims of human trafficking as well as abusers who perpetuated exploitation in the sex industry.
“All the scenarios on the cards were examples pulled from various government documents — FBI, Department of State, UNICEF, different NGOs doing work on these issues,” Medkova said. “I used these examples in highly reduced form to quickly transport the viewer to a completely different space than they are physically present in.”
In the gallery a woman’s disembodied voice echoed “How could you do this to me? You were so nice.”
A video looped of a young man and woman bathed in blue pastels, sitting next to one another having a conversation. At first glance, nothing seemed amiss; the man took her photo, she smiled. Superficially everything appeared normal. The man then texted the photo to multiple people, bartering the unsuspecting woman off to the most interested client.
“Like what you see?” he typed.
“How could you do this to me? You were so nice,” the woman’s disembodied voice continued echoing throughout the gallery over and over again. “You said I was special.”
Three out of four victims of contemporary human trafficking are trafficked online in some capacity. In our hypersexualized society, the internet is often the perfect forum for predators to remain anonymous.
“I think it is inaccurate and misleading to speak of slavery in the ‘past’ tense in the American context, when in reality it is very much a contemporary issue AND the scale supersedes historical records and precedents,” Medkova said.
“I think it is inaccurate and misleading to speak of slavery in the ‘past’ tense in the American context, when in reality it is very much a contemporary issue AND the scale supersedes historical records and precedents,” Medkova said.
Chris Johnson is another artist who aims to empower the people through his work. In 2012, Johnson, along with fellow artists Hank Willis Thompson, Bayette Ross Smith, and Kamal Sinclair, launched the transmedia project entitled “Question Bridge: Black Males.” Formatted in a question and answer model, the subjects of this documentary-style video installation pose pertinent questions to one another about the modern experience of being a black male.
Johnson, a professor of photography at the California College of Arts, created the concept of the question bridge back in 1996 with a video installation for the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego and expanded upon it for this piece.
As the black American male is a subject whose voice is not often heard, “Question Bridge: Black Males,” offers a view into a population that has historically been silenced.
Though the subjects of this instillation are not actually in the same place, the call and response manner of the project is designed to simulate discussions between the participants. As one man speaks, images of the other participants periodically flit across the screen, mimicking intimate conversations between the men. Featuring over 160 black males from all across America, from all walks of life, the diversity of questions matches the multiplicity of the answers.
“What is the last word that we can remember you by as a black man? For your last day on this Earth what is a word we can remember you by?” one participant asked his colleagues.
“Warrior.”
“Sincere.”
“Motivated.”
“Dedicated.”
“Father, I think is the best thing a black man can be. Father.”
“This may seem like a silly question, but am I the only one who feels uncomfortable eating chicken, watermelon and bananas in front of white people?”
While this question brought about a chorus of laughter from some of the subjects, no topic was off limits in this installation, and each answer, from man to man, was composed with sincerity and compassion. “I have a question,” a little boy in a tipped cap said to his older peers. “How do you know when you become a man?”
“I have a question,” a little boy in a tipped cap said to his older peers. “How do you know when you become a man?”
It is questions like this that get to the heart of the project; the underrepresentation of realistic, actualized black males in the media today was something that “Question Bridge: Black Males” fought to change. The project works to elaborate and expand upon the underwhelming and often negative social commentary that is often associated with black men.
After being showcased in several universities and museums across the country, the “Question Bridge: Black Males” project has expanded to include a mobile app, a curriculum for schools, and a community engagement aspect known as the Blueprint Roundtables.
The Blueprint Roundtables facilitate conversations between a diverse group of black males, creating a space for these men to express their thoughts and opinions about their experiences traversing life in today’s America.
Loretta Yarlow, the Director of the University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said the “Question Bridge: Black Males” project falls into a larger trend within the art world.
“It’s not only great art, but also makes clear that being a “black male” isn’t a uniform category or description. This exhibition showed how the voices and faces of black men of all [demographics] can provide new insights and help redefine black male identity in America,” Yarlow said.
Simply put, art is able to communicate principles to the public that words alone often struggle to convey. Visual imagery strikes a chord within us, moving us to the point of awareness. This heightened awareness through art is in itself is a political action. Throughout history, social justice has been an influence for artists nearly as long as social injustice has been an influence for unrest.
One of Picasso’s most famous political works, Guernica, displays the horror of the Basque town being bombed by the Nazis in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. Martin Luther King Jr. would personally invite photographers to attend the often violent protests and marches of the Civil Rights Movement, once writing to novelist Harold Courlander, “The world seldom believes the horror stories of history until they are documented via the mass media.”
The notion of giving power back to the people is at the heart of the social justice movement in the art world; the idea is that the more people we educate, the more people we can rally to stand up for something that matters. The importance of the creation of art in the public sphere is a concept popularized in recent history by activist artist, Keith Haring.
Before he became a staple of the pop art world, Haring’s career took flight from the subway stations of New York City, where he illegally created his own unique art using chalk on top of black matte paper that lined the walls of the stations. In this way, Haring was able to reach a wide audience. In an interview published by the LA Times in 1990, Haring said that, “Art is nothing if it doesn’t reach every segment of the people.”
Like Haring, Che Anderson and the POW! WOW! Worcester mural festival are helping to further the creation of public art. Back in 2013, Anderson, one of the founding directors of the initiative, paired with Worcester’s Public Art Working Group to launch the idea of a mural festival in the city.
Anderson began traveling the country to see examples of work in other cities to best gauge how to put together a festival of this sort. After meeting Jasper Wong, the father of POW! WOW! Hawaii, Anderson and his colleagues put together POW! WOW! Worcester 2016 in just five months.
It is no secret that Worcester, Massachusetts, is an interesting place for a project of this sort; the second largest city in New England has had a proud industrial past. That said, industry means buildings, and buildings mean large, blank walls begging to be utilized.
This past year, 41 murals were created by over 50 artists from all over the world. The murals range from a unicorn with wings being chased by two Dobermans as rainbow balloons float towards the sky, to a painted purple, pink and blue neon sign that reads, “free your mind”, in cursive. The festival is still in its infancy, but if POW! WOW! Worcester 2017 is any indicator, the project is doing anything but slowing down.
“Over the last two years, people [have used] the murals for engagement photos, proposals, family photos, neighborhood meeting announcements. In my opinion, they have caused people to look at Worcester through a different lens, and come together with a new sense of civic pride.”
“I think POW! WOW! is representative of the community of Worcester as there are artists from each continent, as well as artists and subject matter that represent all walks of life,” Anderson said. “Over the last two years, people [have used] the murals for engagement photos, proposals, family photos, neighborhood meeting announcements. In my opinion, they have caused people to look at Worcester through a different lens, and come together with a new sense of civic pride.”
Anderson, a New York City native, works for the city of Worcester in two distinct ways: through his role as a staff assistant to the city manager, and as a volunteer for the project. Anderson cites these two roles as driving influences behind his recent accomplishments.
“I think that anytime you live in a location, you are indebted to provide something to your community. I’m fortunate enough to live and work in Downtown Worcester and as such I am just doing my part to help my neighborhood and greater community,” Anderson said.
This past year, the initiative secured wall space at many Worcester Public Schools. Additionally, the program hosted events during the ten day festival, ranging from artist panels and youth clinics to meetings with the artists and public parties.
Many industrial cities have struggled to adapt to modern precedents. Rather than totally give up on a place with potential, the POW! WOW! Worcester project is just one example of the power that revitalization and community building can have.
“Projects like POW! WOW! are needed because they introduce Worcester to new possibilities and audiences. It shows residents, and potential residents, that the City is fun and hip and interesting. It shows potential investors that we value growth. It shows artists and makers that we value innovation and creativity. And it shows the world that they need to pay attention because great things are happening in unlikely places,” Anderson said.
Dyymond Whipper-Young (known as @_dwhpp to her Instagram followers) is an artist working to create art with a message. As a black female artist, the Baltimore native creates art related to the modern black experience.
Many of Whipper-Young’s pieces display the complexities of being black in a world that feels increasingly more segregated. Whipper-Young’s art also demonstrates the power of the black community and the importance of unification within it.
In an early work entitled, “The Power of Melanin,” Whipper-Young aimed to “tackle the issue of creating unnecessary division within the black community.” One of the subjects of this painting is Whipper-Young herself, holding her best friend’s hand who is darker skinned.
“Our faces demonstrate the tension between us but our hands are joint signifying our unity in the black community,” Whipper-Young said.
At 21, her style is mature for someone so young; it is almost as if the artistic process has always been the easy part and conveying the message of the content has been the challenge. For Whipper-Young, the personal is political. Strong images of strong subjects are the hallmarks of her work and the importance of family ties is not lost on her.
“I’ve always considered myself and my art to be a product of my environment. Family has always been the anchor of black culture. The older I get the more I realize that strong black family units are essential to the progression of the black community,” Whipper-Young said. “This system was built on the backs of slaves who were torn from their homeland and sold away from their families. In a sense, having a strong black family unit in America is a form of resistance.”
Though she feels her “motivation lies everywhere,” Whipper-Young said being an artist today is more than just painting what is “trendy.”
“The current political climate has affected my approach because for a while after I came to college I began to focus more on custom commissions clients would purchase from me. Now I’m stepping back and realizing it’s time to create art for myself and for my community. I am reclaiming my time and my art.”
“This system was built on the backs of slaves who were torn from their homeland and sold away from their families. In a sense, having a strong black family unit in America is a form of resistance.” — Dyymond Whipper-Young
In regards to her larger influence, Whipper-Young does not take being an artist with an overarching message lightly.
“It is our job [as artists] to reflect the culture while simultaneously leading our culture. I feel that as a young artist living in my truth and utilizing my voice, I have the power to mold the future of our culture,” Whipper-Young said.
Of her proudest accomplishment in her already flourishing career, the advertising major with a concentration in Art under the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, cites organizing her first art show. The sold-out event, appropriately titled #DWHPPandFriends, was curated entirely by Whipple-Young, hosted over 300 guests and included local artists and performers for a celebration of some of young Philadelphia’s finest.
“It truly was an event for us by us,” Whipper-Young said.
When asked what she wanted her audience to see when they view her work, Whipper-Young replied, “I honestly want them to see themselves. Even if you don’t directly see yourself, I want you to associate it with an experience that you’ve felt in your life.”
For many, this past year has brought out issues long hidden in plain sight. Artists everywhere are responding to the moment by creating messages on platforms capable of reaching audiences larger than ever before, and far and wide we’re hearing the call.
Justine O’Brien is a senior at UMass Amherst studying journalism and media literacy. In her free time she loves photography, shoes and attempting to keep plants alive.
