From the Gallery to the Street
A Perspective on Art in Protest
Lucia Babjakova
Visual art has been used as a form of protest for centuries in different ways. Art and activism have a common aim of exposing the truth and art can unite through protest across the linguistic and cultural barriers that often divide.
Lucia Babjakova’s belief is that creative art-in her case painting-has a very powerful role to play in dissent and can add a dynamic and unique impact to the purpose of the protest in a way that can engage people beyond the emotional limitations of outrage and anger. Protest art typically uses print, photos or street art. This exhibition is about how paintings, which are not usually seen as having a role in protest art, have great potential to move people and make potent and intense statements.
It shows art in the gallery environment–installation, painting and 3d–which is highlighting specific abuses of human rights, cruelty and oppression, and how it can be transferred to a street protest context and exert its emotional impact in a public environment. Art in street protest has a different energy to that of a gallery and can be more powerful than a sloganeering placard because it triggers a complex mix of emotions that makes it more than just outrage and anger.
Lucia is focusing on specific social/political issues to connect universal themes. She is portraying timeless elements of humanity: love, compassion, resilience, courage and hope (e.g. the mother figure in all 3 paintings resonates with oppression against Palestinians and Muslims but could also be a woman of a different faith) and this delimits the protest from being confined to only one specific issue.
Art in protest is based on the belief that civil dissent is one of the most critical rights in a democracy; when the ballot boxes fail us, all that is left is street protest. Dissenting creative art, as well as street protest, are activities authoritarian governments will try to crush, which is a testament to the power of both.
Tuesday – Sunday // 10.00 – 17.00