Materials from SAHA's poster and ephemera collections are being profiled in the USA in a major new exhibition organised by Exit Art, chronicling over forty years of political graphics, media and social protest movements.
In Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now, hundreds of posters, photographs, moving images, audio clips, and ephemera bring to life over forty years of activism, political protest, and campaigns for social justice. Curated by Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee as part of Exit Art's Curatorial Incubator Program, this important and timely exhibition surveys the creative work of dozens of international social movements.
Organised thematically, the exhibition presents the creative outpourings of social movements, such as those for civil rights and black power in the United States; democracy in China; anti-apartheid in Africa; squatting in Europe; environmental activism and women's rights internationally; and the global AIDS crisis, as well as uprisings and protests, such as those for indigenous control of lands; against airport construction in Japan; and for social change in France. The exhibition also explores the development of powerful counter-cultures that evolve beyond traditional politics and create distinct aesthetics, life-styles, and social organizations.
Although histories of political groups and counter-cultures have been written, and political and activist shows have been held, this exhibition is a groundbreaking attempt to chronicle the artistic and cultural production of these movements. Signs of Change offers a chance to see relatively unknown or rarely seen works, and is intended not only to provide a historical framework for contemporary activism, but also to serve as an inspiration for the present and the future.
September - December 2008
Exit Art, New York
January - March 2009
Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Until May 2009
Troy Art Center, Tory, NY
Image and text supplied by Exit Art.
