Task - The visual voice

1. I want you to consider who is going against the grain in your discipline? Who are the provocateurs, the agitators?

2. What can you say about their work?

3. Why is there work different to the mainstream?

Provocateur is a person who deliberately behaves controversially in order to provoke argument or other strong reactions.

An agitator is a person who urges others to protest or rebel.

Yung Cheng Lin also known as 3cm is a photographer what wants to bring around change, his images are very unsettling but he does this in hopes to get a reaction and make people think further into his imagery.

“The main appeal is to discuss the morality issue especially in women... the definition this society nowadays has given to women is quite narrow, judgmental, and unfree, and the media has great influence on it particularly,”

“When people don't follow the latest fashion trends, they are considered as out-of-fashion or black sheet. This phenomenon is obvious to see among women. For instance, women need to shave hair or lose weight to keep good shape.”

The aim of his work is to shock people into talking about the meaning.

His work is different to the stuff in the mainstream as mainstream art isn't normally this shocking as people don't tend to like unsettling art as they don't like to be made to feel uncomfortable.

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/wnpzkn/the-manipulated-female-body-explored-by-taiwanese-photographer-3cm

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Find examples of work on the street which questions the status quo, makes a political statement, plays with irony, or attempts to bring something to public attention.

These examples could be ones you see yourself, or ones from artists, designers, makers, activists you follow.

I wanted to look at British street so could learn more about what is going on in my own country. I found it hard to find artwork that wasn't done by Banksy as I already know a fair bit about him. After a while of searching I came across #WingsofParadise which is a campaign drawing attention to rainforest deforestation. I couldn't find who started this campaign but loads of paintings of the bird of paradise have been popping up all over the world including Melbourne, Vienna, LA and now Shoreditch.

I think this is powerful as the paintings are beautiful and along with the hashtag they have a powerful meaning. Some of them are more direct than other about commenting on the deforestation aspect but you can pick up on the trend non the less. Due to the influence the internet (in particular Twitter) has people all over the world have been able to see this work and get behind the cause and continue to spread the message.

https://www.shoreditchstreetarttours.co.uk/tag/birds-of-paradise/

https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/18445/wings-of-paradise-drawing-attention-to-rainforest-destruction/