I really want to write something on how arts and crafts carried a significant role in acts of resistance through the ages. From the visuals and cookbooks of the suffragists to the knitting spies of WWII, it really is such a rich topic
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I am a high school art teacher. I teach that there is no art without craft. I would love a book about this. There are some great books about HOW to use art as activism. I’d love a history of it!
36 embroidered panels telling the autobiography of a Jewish woman who hid in plain sight during the German occupation. She ended up joining the Red Army and going all the way to Berlin.
I saw a brilliant exhibition at the British Museum called Sedition. It had rugs woven with tanks in the pattern, subversive art and, of course, the Votes for Women coins. It was a similar thing and was absolutely fascinating! If more on that topic exists, sign me up!
We're launching a bunch of new Pride and protest stickers later this month—guessing they're going to be quite helpful when people take to the streets once it gets warmer across the country.
Craft is super important historically because it’s the art of a culture. It’s accessible to everyone and usually serves a useful purpose, so it tells the stories of its people from its time. Fine art get lauded all the time but craft is SUPER important if you want to know about the everyday person
The month following the election, the only thing that brought me joy was David Byrne’s American Utopia, and a major reason was because of his explanation of the Dadaist movement. I finally felt hope
That’s great! I was an art major and art history was a big part of the curriculum. The Dadaists always captivated me. If we are nonsensical enough to engage in war, then nothing in this world makes sense.
why start with the suffragists? way before that, enslaved ppl used quilt patterns as code to assist those seeking freedom. I'm positive the us native resistance to genocide was/is also rich with this type of innovative resistance via craft but much of that history is so buried it takes digging.
Surrealism for one! Millions of people were dying in the war, and it was the artists that created surrealism so people could go within their dreams and have an escape.
Currently reading 'Let's move the needle: an activism handbook' by Shannon Downey and it may be a good place to start. Not the same thing as what you are wanting to write, but she has a chapter on past arts activism.
Check out the sarcastic comic books and comedy routines that developed in Burma under military dictators. They produced some wildly popular, biting commentary often with complex, multiple meanings hidden in plain sight.
Not only in resistance but also in recovery. The profession of occupational therapy was born during WWI and used arts and crafts to help soldiers with shell shock (PTSD) stay occupied through use of arts and crafts. It can be healing to find meaning thru the things we do!
Ooh… Getting my Papier Maché juices flowing. Just finishing up a pirate ship, hippo and giraffe head puppets, but I can change course as required once I’ve delivered the above to grandkids in 🇩🇪. Maybe piñatas for the protests? Besides the obvious hitler mobile, any thoughts on what kind?
Music is another art to consider in this space. It’s been essential through the years. I currently play in an activist street band. Look up Honk festivals.
Crafting Dissent edited by Hinda Mandell is a collection of essays on this topic. It is mostly US focused so it only scratches the surface but I remember it having some good stuff.
Have you heard of the play "Quilters"? Basically about how women in the US west used their sewing skills to tell the story of their lives through quilts. I think it's from the 80's.
Immediately thought of quilting and the really complicated patterns that came down from back in the day that require serious math skills to figure out the correct layouts and connections.
Even though it's male centric and I really don't care for the Scouts as an indoctrinalizationist faction for the military, given subject and that I am aware, Robert Baden-Powell 'coded' details of German fortifications and such into his paintings of butterflies during WWI.
Something about art and resistance that is more recent in the time line is this excellent book by Jack Lowery, “It Was Vulgar & It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic”
It is, particularly in relation to how these things have been denigrated as “women’s crafts” rather than the rich, and in some cases life sustaining accomplishments that they are.
It would make a cool show especially if you could find pictures of the crafts being made. I always wished there were process slides in my art history lectures.
I was *just* thinking about this earlier. Not the writing part but how amazing it is that so many skills like this have played a role in important history. The Underground Railroad is another example, quilts were used to pass maps and messages.
Oh, you definitely need to check out Chicago artist @colley-don-o.bsky.social's protest signs. They are amazing. #ProtestSigns #Chicago #StandUpForScience #Illustrators #MuskRat
Madame Defarge in a Tale of Two Cities knots her secret registry. I realize that’s fiction but I would lay odds it’s based in fact. This is a cool topic.
The fact was not the knitted code, but the grizzly detail that women spectators took their 🧶 knitting to the execution site to work on their projects while watching other humans being decapitated. Thérèse Defarge is not a rôle model!
Absolutely you should do this! Distanced from each other most everything we consume now comes pre-made. So many skills are lost; community spirit, imagination, meaning and powerful truths have faded, possibly even been suppressed. Now that Resistance is required (again) such info would be good!
Write it!!! People talk about art in general as being an act of resistance but I haven’t heard anyone focus specifically on crafting. This type of specificity is what unearths the best stories. Write it! 🙌
It is how history is laid down, from the beginning of time, art, drama, storytelling and music has added richness and understanding and carried a voice from one generation to the next.
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36 embroidered panels telling the autobiography of a Jewish woman who hid in plain sight during the German occupation. She ended up joining the Red Army and going all the way to Berlin.
https://youtu.be/TPHafKOd9A4
I would love to know more.
Inflatable and painted decoy tanks and trucks worked so well that Churchill praised it publicly.
You could also talk about how Rosie the Riveter was too successful.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a33c398e-17cb-4f22-825f-dbe0c5438802
This is a good recent example.