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Occupy Bay Area is designed as a multi-layered experience of
actual events. The creative activities of the artists in the exhibition
inform our understanding of the power of the visual arts to convey
political messages and intent. The San Francisco Bay Area’s unique
role in this visual culture is not only impressive, but also moving in its
commitment and exemplary ability to express and record the Occupy
movement’s significant contribution to progressive politics in the
United States. In response to Occupy, many artists and documentarians have
created works that visually express the unique qualities of this widespread
action. In particular, Occupy Bay Area focuses on the
manifestation of the movement in the Bay Area and its commitment to direct
democratic process and resistance as expressed in political posters; its
representation in photojournalism; as well as several key historical
precedents for protests. In addition, we include several projects by
contemporary artists representative of the spirit of the Occupy
movement.
The Occupy movement has demonstrated a unique 21st
century approach to progressive activism. For this exhibition Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts focuses on four aspects of the movement that we found
particularly compelling. 1) Encampment, as it has proved to be an effective
way to spatially localize collective action and a compelling site for the
broadcast of dissent. 2) The direct democracy of the general assembly, as
it is a display of a collectively-driven, rather than leader-oriented,
approach to organizational decision making. 3) The demands/no demands
strategy, which denied to make visible or materialize specific sets of
actions, as has been the convention of past protest movements. 4) The
self-organizing social structure of the Occupy movement, as a curious
amalgam of the Paris Commune of 1871, where people of diverse classes came
together to create a council sensitive to the needs of workers and the
power of the public sphere as a form of political agency; and as a
manifestation of aspects of the hippie communes of the 1960s, where there
is a partial dissolution of private property and a concerted effort to
share food, lodging, and other resources in a specific localized geographic
space.
We pay special tribute to the role that Bay Area artists
have played in giving voice to the 99% and utilizing art as an effective
vehicle for social change. Impressively, various political poster
artists devote their talents to messaging the politics and culture of the
movement by creating iconic images—designs that become a symbol of
community, are a call to action, or announce an upcoming event. Represented
in over 50 posters by twenty-five Bay Area graphic artists, these works
carry forward the region’s long tradition as a leader in political
struggles. The exhibition also includes visual material from a sampling of
significant political struggles located in the Bay Area where claiming
space played an important role for making political change. To further
expand the discourse central to the Occupy movement, works by six Bay Area
contemporary artists are also on view. Their works in painting,
photography, and video resonate with the themes, desires, and strategies of
the movement. This exhibition is not meant to represent a fully executed
social history, but is a testament to the power of images to evoke the
emotional expression of popular and widespread sentiments.
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