Inquiry Questions:

How can art be an effective form of social critique or protest?

What is the point of protest/critique?

How do ideas evolve?

What can art convey?

Introduction

Protest art, at its core, is designed to send a message about an issue in an accessible way. More specifically, it is designed to persuade its audience to change their thinking, their actions, their emotions about an issue and create a community of like minded thinkers. In other words, it is an IMPLIED ARGUMENT and often includes metaphorical representations of data that allow the audience to infer connections that support a main claim.

Gallery Walk of Social Critique and Protest Art

Our essential question for this unit is "To what extent can art be an effective form of protest?" In order to answer this question we need to pay particularly close attention to the word "effective." Protest art, as we discussed, is designed to send a message about an issue in an accessible way. More specifically, it is designed to persuade its audience to change their thinking, their actions, their emotions about an issue and create a community of like minded thinkers. (NOTE: To be effective, you don't necessarily have to "agree" with the message, in order to evaluate effectiveness)

In order to explore what qualities help a piece of art achieve its goal effectively we competed a gallery walk of different examples of this type of art. Some are effective, some aren't, some are in between. To complete this assignment, view the images below and fill out the attached gallery walk note catcher (below the images). When you are done compile a list of qualities that make for effective protest art. 

Analyzing and Evaluating Protest Art

Now that we have an understanding of what makes Protest/Critique Art effective. It is time to put our analysis and our evaluation skills together in order to understand - in a more in-depth way - how this art functions and what its potential value might be.

We are going to take a look at two fairly recent examples of protest art together as a class. We will talk about what we notice, see if we can't use our SKUM analysis skills to figure out all (or part of the message), and then read some statements by the author.  Watch the recording of our today's instruction and one of my class discussions below.

Protest Art Google Slides from the lesson

 Analysis and Evaluation Practice

If you are in class, each group will pick one of the images of Protest Art in the second part of the Slideshow above. Your tasks will be to complete a SKUM Analysis of this piece of art and then use the qualities of effective protest art, that we came up with together as a class (above), and evaluate how effective the artist is in portraying the main message you identified in the SKUM analysis.

If you are working from home, you can pick any one of the pieces that interests you and complete the tasks above.

If you need a refresher on how to complete a SKUM analysis, follow this link.

Artist Statement

Reflect on the following question:

What role - if any - does having a statement from the artist play in the effectiveness of the piece overall?

Relationship between the Art and the Artist Statement

With some pieces of art, the statement that the artist makes about their work is just as important as the art itself. Without it the piece may be misunderstood, at worst, or not fully understood, at best. In order to further understand this relationship and discuss what makes artist statements work, we are going to look at one more piece of protest art. The medium is photography. 

DISCLAIMER: This piece is disturbing. It is meant to be. It uses a hate-filled and grotesque word in its center. I want you to be prepared. There is much more to it than meets the eye and it definitely requires analysis. 

SKUM Analysis

The first thing we need to do is actually analyze the piece. We will be using our SKUM heuristic to do this. 

STEP 1: Pay attention to your initial feelings when you look at this piece and track it. The initial reaction is part of what makes this piece effective.

When you are ready, click here to reveal the image.

STEP 2: Complete the analysis. Remember our rules of notice when it comes photographs.

• Identify the "subject" or your entry point into the piece

• Look for key details by noticing:

  • Notice what is in places of privilege - center and along the lines of the thirds

  • Notice scale

  • Notice focus

  • Notice objects

  • Notice composition

  • Notice color

  • Notice contextual information *this is key to understanding this piece.

*CONTEXT: This photo was taken by a man named Benedict Fernandez. He was a Puerto Rican American. He was a journalistic and documentary street photographer who's main focus was the civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements. He was also the personal photographer and friend of Martin Luther King, Jr., even covering his murder and funeral. This photograph was published in an exhibit called "Protest" in a section entitled "Mental Poverty."

• Make some inferences about how the details connect

• Infer what you believe the main message is

Below is an example of how we completed this SKUM as a class. You can watch the recorded video and then see a picture of our class SKUM.

Translating a SKUM into an Artist Statement

An artist statement generally will provide an analysis of a piece of art (while still leaving room for the audience to "experience" the piece in their own way) and explain the context. It normally will include the following:

1. An explanation of the context of the issue/topic your piece of art is speaking to

2.  The claim - what are you arguing about your issue/topic

3. Data - what credible data are you basing your claim on

4. How are you representing that data in Key Details in your art

5. What inferences should your audience make by making connections between these Key Details and how to they help your audience figure out your claim

6. The significance or the so what - why does this topic matter? Why do you care if your audience knows about it? What is your call to action?  

Below please see a sample artist statement that takes our SKUM analysis from the Benedict Fernandez photo and turns it into prose.

Creating Your Protest/Critique Art - Project

All year - in our past 3 units - we have worked on the skills necessary to build and communicate reliable, credible knowledge. In this last unit we are considering the questions: "Now that we have built this knowledge, what responsibility do we have to use that knowledge for action?" and "How can art be an effective form of social critic and/or protest?" 

As we explore this, you will be tasked with composing your own piece of protest art. It can take many forms (see examples of the work my past students have done below) and can convey any message or stance in which you believe. You simply need to utilize your skills from the year to make sure that that belief is grounded in logic and credible evidence. Think of this project as an implied argument whereby you will strive to convince others to be aware, change their minds, or act based on the argument you present. This project will be one of two culminating projects for the year. Your effort should reflect that of an end of year assessment that show cases how you will synthesize the myriad of skills you have learned. 

Examples from Past Students 

I have had students create all kinds of Protest/Critique Art. Students have painted, sculpted, written, danced, sang, photographed, even directed short films. Some of this art you may have seen on my classroom walls. Below are some samples of protest art to get you thinking about what is possible. 

Your Task

All year long we have discussed what it means to be a responsible, discerning U.S. citizen. We have focused on how to assess, critically read and think about the information being disseminated to you from the media, the government, your peers, your teachers, etc. and how to come up with your own, supportable, credible positions on issues. However, this is only part of what it means to be a responsible democratic citizen. A democracy requires that its citizens participate – through informed voting, dialog, and action. Part of this tradition in the United States has been in the form of protest/social critique. One of the culminating projects for this unit, and this year, will be to use the skills you have gained in argumentation and persuasion to create your own piece of protest art on an issue of importance to you. The following are the guidelines for the assignment:

• Your art must convey a clear CLAIM regarding your position on your issue of importance

• Your art must consist of intentionally chosen artistic details (think of these as symbolic representation of your DATA that supports your claim)

• These details must work together to create and understanding of part, or all, of your claim (think of the combinations of the details, and the inferences you want your audience to make from them, as the WARRANTs of your argument)

• Your piece must aim for success, which we defined as: a piece of art that communicates a clear point of view and attempts to inspire a change of opinion or action

• Your piece must employ the qualities of successful protest art that we identified as a class (see this list above).

• In addition to your art, you will also complete a detailed written analysis of your work in the form of an artist statement.

• Your final project will be due MAY 14th, and smaller assignments will be due along the way. PLEASE NOTE THESE DE DATES ARE FIRM AS IT IS THE END OF THE YEAR. All due dates are:

• Proposals: May 5/1

• Rough Draft Sketch/Plan for execution: May 5

• Artist Statement: May 9

• Final Draft of art: May 9

Pick an issue that speaks to you and that you know something about – your knowledge on the issue and the reasons for your position regarding the issue will inform your art and will be shared in your written analysis. The form of your art can be 2-D (painting, drawing, photography, poetry, or short story with a 3 page MAX), 3-D (sculpture), or performance based (song, dance, 3 minute short film, or live-action). You may work individually, or in groups of 2. You each must write your own individual analysis.

The Proposal

The first step in any art installation is to write a proposal pitching your idea. Whether you are working from home or in person, it should include the following information:

1. What issue are you protesting/critiquing and what is your stance (claim)?

2. What research are you basing this point of view on and how does it support your claim (you will need a minimum of 3 credible sources)?

3. What form will your piece of art take?

4. Why this form? How will it help you meet the criteria of effective protest art we brainstormed together as a class?

5. What steps will you take to compose this piece of art (BE DETAILED! This will be your to-do list). 

Please note that all pieces must be school appropriate because of the venue in which they will be displayed. All supplies must be furnished by you or your group members. All members of your group must complete all the written portions of this project individually.