Challenging power is a scary and vulnerable act. But protest art, the cross-section of visual art that addresses social and political issues, evokes a kind of understanding in us about urgent topics that words often cannot convey.
The Hatch Art Gallery has been a campus staple since its opening in the ‘70s, but its focus on activism was somewhat recent — and happened more out of necessity than by choice.
Last fall, the gallery — which has been student-run since the early 2000s — was home to the Reveal/Reform exhibit which featured a replica of the West Bank Barrier, put together in partnership with UBC’s Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights.
In response to the piece, then-Hatch Director Isabel Sihan Chen said her team saw “a flurry of very aggressive and confrontational feedback from Zionists and people who are not sympathetic to the Palestinian Liberation Movement.”
“At that point, we realized we can’t be neutral,” Chen said. “To be neutral is to be the grease in this giant machine that is pressing downwards. We weren’t going to do that. From that moment onwards, we said we’re going to do what we can to support these very urgent issues and organizing initiatives on campus.”
“I personally don’t think of it as activism … For me, it’s just doing what needs to be done.”
Since 2021, the Hatch has hosted events and exhibits like as part of the programming for ARTIVISM, a festival centred on the intersection between art and activism. Although several campus arts groups participated, it’s spearheaded by Exposure UBC, a student organization within the UBC arts and culture district that focuses on creating events that uplift marginalized artists.
Each year the festival follows a different theme. Last year, Exposure UBC President Jesse Medrano oversaw “Madness in the Masses,” an exploration of the mental turmoil that results from living in a world where costs of living are reaching unbearable peaks, climate catastrophe constantly looms overhead and accessing affordable and culturally-appropriate food is a primary concern.
Given that she’s studying gender, race, sexuality and social justice and visual arts, this work falls perfectly into Medrano’s realm of expertise. But the link between art and activism is larger than its connection to Medrano — the two topics naturally overlap, which makes for exciting, powerful pieces and projects developing across UBC’s campus.
Statistics don’t authentically capture the individual stories and collective struggles that lay within the masses the way art does, so a creative lens can help reframe social issues with those distinctions in mind.
With laws that restrict Canadians from viewing news content on Meta and Google’s platforms, integrating political discussion into art can help us work around these limitations to staying informed and curious. Even as the news landscape shifts and a highly digital generation risks becoming ignorant to current events, the conversation can still continue through mediums like poetry or visual art.
“Art is an integral component of how oppressed people can vocalize their struggles,” Medrano said. In order to find the answers, we have to understand the systemic issues at hand, so it’s crucial that people take the time to tell their own stories.
“I really learned, being in these spaces, that my activist work and my artwork do not have to be separate,” said Medrano. “[ARTIVISM’s] goal, from the artists’ side, is to really unlearn the very neoliberal idea that art is for aesthetics, art is for capital, art is for entertainment — it can be so much more.”
Coming from an animation background, Medrano never imagined herself doing the kind of work she is putting her expertise toward now. She explained that sometimes you have to see your work presented in a different context to understand how social justice influences your art, even if the subject matter may not be intentionally political upon creation.
When you make art, it’s inevitable that pieces of yourself will find their way into the things you create. Memories, values, lived experiences — the inspiration for art is also usually the foundation of people’s desire to participate in activism.
While sharing your story can be vulnerable, expression through art also provides room to distance yourself from your voice by directing eyes to your work, rather than having them on you.
And creativity isn’t merely a coping mechanism — it’s a way of dreaming about how we can change for the better.
“[Art] is the vehicle of imagination, to think beyond what is currently possible. It is a tool of creating possibility and imagining possibility,” said Medrano. “By its very nature, it is critical for activism and revolutionary movements, and throughout history, those things often went hand in hand. So much of what we did this year was an ode to that legacy.”
Although anyone can inspire change, Medrano said a university campus is a fitting place for this work to happen.
“I think specifically why it is a student responsibility is because studying alone is such a privilege,” she said. “To be educated on a topic is such an immense privilege.”
But Medrano also pointed out that being connected to a school can have its pitfalls. Though UBC makes space and implements resources into these kinds of intersectional student initiatives, artists must still abide by certain rules and limitations.
“UBC [is] still an institution,” said Medrano. “There are certain guidelines you have to obey when you’re curating an event or if you’re applying for grants … but [you’re able to] showcase and vocalize things that they might not necessarily want to actively be talking about.”
Chen noticed similar issues during her time at the Hatch — she said she experienced pushback with regards to her programming choices.
“There’s a lot of censorship … there’s been attempts to … change the display, or to cater to … different perspectives,” Chen said. “But what they really mean is to cater to those in power, so they don’t have to suffer the consequences.”
Overcoming institutional barriers like these is made possible through collaboration — by relying on the community in pockets where bureaucracy falls short.
Art and activism naturally lend themselves to collaboration, which is why both Chen and Medrano find themselves involved in many different organizations on campus. In each, people work together to achieve a common goal — the networks formed in these spaces often become essential to finding opportunities that can expand your practice.
One of the main barriers for artists, especially in a city as expensive as Vancouver, is finding a location to prepare and present creative projects. Exposure has access to a physical space through their connections at the Hatch and other campus arts venues, so providing logistical support to artists by helping them access these resources is one of the group’s priorities.
“The purpose of the [Hatch] is to be an experimental platform for students with an interest in the arts to develop their own creative and curatorial practice and identity, whether that is personal or professional,” Chen said.
“It’s kind of like this playground, in a way, for students to have access to resources and physical space in order to do that,” she said.
Being involved in activism often requires a lot of background research if you don’t have lived experiences to draw from. In order to understand an issue, it’s important to know about the historical, geographical and social factors behind the systems of oppression that marginalized people live under today.
“I think activism can be so intimidating for a lot of people,” said Medrano, who recalled how she was initially hesitant to step into the coordinating roles she holds now. “People can be really scared to say [or] do the wrong things, or have a wrong point of view, because they’re scared of getting shamed.”
This barrier is one of the main factors that deters people from stepping into the world of organizing, but there are ways around it.
Attempting to understand institutionalized issues can seem hard to manage at first, but creating and consuming art provides an opportunity to break down these oppressive systems into smaller parts by spotlighting individual stories.
“I think art is able to create that bridge of the individual versus the collective in a really profound way,” said Medrano.
“Activism comes from a place of love. These narratives aren’t coming from a place of hatred or wanting to continually divide,” she said.
“The reason people get passionate about activism is because we want better conditions, not just for [ourselves], but others.”
— With files from Khushi Anand
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