Art as Activism

Symposium as part of the Visible Justice exhibition at LCC

In context of human rights violations, the symposium and display of various projects of artists and scientists that took place today as part of the Visible Justice exhibition at LCC, emphasized amongst other aspects the impact that art can have to shape the future.

After analysing the extinction exhibition at Somerset House last week, I was especially interested in the action-orientation of art as activism.

I was really inspired by Poulomi Basu, an Indian photographer who interpreted her profession as a responsibility to give a voice to groups suffering from human rights violations, but more importantly, also to create an actionable impact.

Two Nepalese women, Photo by Poulomi (Visible Justice, 2019)

One of her projects, also vividly presented in the Visible Justice exhibition, showed the discrimination of women in Nepal experienced during their time of menstruation. They are then forced to live in so called 'menstruation huts' outside their villages, rather unprotected and excluded from social activities. With photography and a VR enabled movie co-created with Nepalese women she rose awareness and attention. In her speech, she pointed out the political relevance she wanted to give to her project. With her continuous efforts and collaboration with various organisations she managed to use her influence to get access to Nepalese policy makers who changed the law to protect women's human rights and made the menstruation hut practice a criminal offence (Blood Speaks, 2018).

This achievement is praised as an ‘ambition to reach beyond the limits of traditional storytelling’ by The Tim Hetherington Charitable Trust (2017) that shortlisted her for the 2017 Visionary Award.

The activist character of Poulomi’s art reminded me of the prediction for the future of brands in Leslie Crombie’s lecture of this week. Crombie (2019) sees the futures of brands as to develop from a marketing or corporate driven core to a value driven brand activism. To summarise the lecture, brand activism implies that brands are established with the main reason to serve a good cause. By this they address important, future related issues and use their power to make a change through the purchasing power of customers that take more conscious purchasing decisions based on values represented by brands.

Although of course art and brands can’t be compared completely, when considering future developments, I am happy to see a movement towards a deeper meaning in both sectors with the aim to create a real, positive impact.

Reference List:

Blood Speaks (2018) Impact. Available at: https://www.blood-speaks.org/impact (Accessed: 04 May 2019).

Crombie, L. (2019) ‘The Future of Brands’, Lecture at LCC, 02 May.

The Tim Hetherington Charitable Trust (2017) Poulomi Basu on her project "Ritual Of Exile" ~ In discussion with Stephen Mayes, 19 July. Available at: https://www.timhetheringtontrust.org/news-and-calendar/2017/07/poulomi-basu-her-project-ritual-exile-discussion-stephen-mayes (Accessed: 03 May 2019).

Visible Justice (2019) Photography by Poulomi Basu, Exhibition at LCC, 17 April - 3 May 2019.