The Art of Protesting is favorable to the cause it fights/is fighting. It is not the kind that harms or kills people like the revolution many youths in different African countries are asking to begin. It is objecting and calling for the needed change in a peaceful yet powerful way using art.
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“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”-Angela Davis.
The just-concluded United States of America election wasn’t won purely by votes. Neither was it due to the personality of the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates. Or the huge sums of money invested in different states to flip Republican states.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election because of the heavy resistance of artists to the Trump government since the day he was declared winner in 2016. These artists are referred to as artivists.
Indecline can be mentioned as one of the resistance art groups who prepared the ground for Joe Biden’s victory. For example, they placed naked-Trump, guerilla-art installation The Emperor Has No Balls with very small manhood at the busiest streets across America.
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Artivists create arts in solidarity with ordinary and average citizens. They are activists who know and understand the facts and would form a “rebel alliance” against the “Dark Lord” if that’s what it takes to be successful as artivists. An activist puts the message, the struggle, and the helpless above profit, and fame.
Art is a weapon you have been armed with to help the helpless and hopeless in society be victorious in their fight for equality, justice, and freedom. Art extends to music, writing, photography, graphics design,…
Your artistic talent and capability is a gift that has not been given to you for the sole aim of entertaining people, creating art that ends up in museums or galleries, or a means of livelihood to sustain yourself. Art in this age has proven to be needed for more than any of that.
Your artistic potentials should express the minds of the voiceless to the various kinds of oppressors they battle with every day. You are a superhuman and your unique creativity is your power.
The time has come to make art for the sake of humanity. This means creating pieces of art that are inspiring, awakening, inquisitive, loud, funny yet informative, and entertaining yet rebellious.
Around the world, people continue to seek better ways to execute protests and display their dissatisfaction with the government. The question on the lips of most Africans is this: what is the way forward in this ongoing fight against government brutality and injustice?
The answer is art in its various forms including music, dances, theatre, and films.
Art is the loudest, most effective, and strongest tool that should be utilized to continue and win this fight. To become an activist, your art should take one or all of the following forms.
Prophetic.
An artist is a prophet. Artists have the imagination of the creator of the universe which enables them to foresee unfavorable happenings.
Your art should begin to raise alarm, warn people, and be a constant reminder of societal issues that a lot of those concerned and others who will be most affected are starting to forget.
Informative.
The kind of art you make from here onward should inform people about what they don’t already know.
The kind of art you make from here onward should inform people about what they don’t already know. During the #EndSARS protest, a lot of Nigerian artists were able to create didactic artworks or images that passed concisely and comprehensively what the movement is about.
There are different events unraveling every day that politicians and their media portfolios have been saddled with the responsibility of not reporting. Yes, it is your duty as an artivist to identify, understand, and create arts concerning such.
The majority of the populace is beginning to take interest in national matters. They have become very sensitive. All they need you to do as a creative is make something conscious that can help sustain their desire and the fire for change burning in their hearts.
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Note: Resistance art doesn’t have to be absolutely serious.
“If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be a part of your revolution”-Emma Goldman.
You tend to attract more audience and charm them when your protest arts are funny yet powerful enough to get your audience awakened and talking about the issues in the society. Such as environmental degradation, political exploitation, leadership dictatorship, or capitalist greediness.
Creating protest art in a comedic way increases how effective it is in achieving the objective of informing the audience.
Critical-Thinking.
“Resistance Art gets people to think about what they don’t want to think about”-Buck Angel
The kind of art you make should be tailored around that objective. That goal of getting people to think critically results in them pushing for changes that they normally wouldn’t have pushed for if they had not seen your art or creative masterclass.
Interrogative.
The art of protesting is the act of creating a piece of work in your own medium of specialization where the art produced fingers the brains and minds of people to do the right thing.
The kind of art that interrogates nonsense bills, silly laws, and rules put in place by individuals entrusted with unmeasurable power. Ask the right questions and raise conversations around them with your art.
Flashback to the days of Fela Anikulapokuti, Martin Luther King, and Ben Onokprayawe, art has been a medium to question every wrong thing in society. Unfortunately, these days, art has become a means to make money and be famous.
Hopefully, this article reignites the activists’ spirit in emerging artists to do the right thing not because they want to sell. Rather, for the reason that it’s the ideal thing to do by art.