Gallery: 11 Classic Examples of Design for Political Protest
Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum, London0113.-Guerrilla-Girls-1
A new exhibit at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, called Disobedient Objects, studies how political protest has spurred different design innovations. The feminist group Guerrilla Girls, seen here in their trademark masks, formed in New York City to push back against sexism and racism in the arts industry.
Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum, London029.-Graffiti-Writer-1
Objects in the exhibit only date back to the 1970s, when the curators say technology started playing a bigger role in protest design. The Graffiti Writer, here, was invented in 1998 by the surveillance-themed activist group, the Institute for Applied Autonomy.
Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum, London03CIS:C.37C-1972;CIS:C.37D-1972
The British Women's Social and Political Union imprinted china, a classic English export, with their emblem.
Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum, London043.-Inflatable-Cobblestone-1
To rally against climate change, the Eclectic Electric Collective started sending giant blow up balloons, instead of people (who would have been responsible for fuel used during travel) to different protest sites around the world.
Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum, London056.-Chilean-Arpilleras-wall-hanging-1
Chilean women wove these textiles during the oppressive Pinochet regime of the 1970s, with hieroglyphic-like patterns that detail the tortures and economic suffering.
Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum, London06No Number
You can see the influence of the Chilean tapestries on the members of the Zapatista Revolution, in 1990s-era Mexico.
Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum, London072.-Bread-and-Puppet-Theatre-1
The curators deemed objects significant if they were made at the “zero point of political art”—meaning made on the ground, not later as a commentary. These papier-machê heads, for example, were made by the anti-war, Vermont-based Bread and Puppet Theater for political marches.
Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum, London085.-Climate-Change-banner-1
There will be 99 objects in the London exhibit. In acknowledgment of the ongoing nature of political protest, the V&A curators have left room for another object to be added while the exhibit is live.
Illustration: Marwan Kaabour, Barnbrook09VA-DO-How-to-Bottle
Available at the museum are a series of "how to" brochures with step-by-step guides to making some of the objects at home.
Illustration: Marwan Kaabour, Barnbrook10VA-DO-How-to-Pamphlet
They include a guide for making “bucket bombs,” used in South African cities to discreetly disperse flyers containing information censored by the government.
