Contra

After the withdrawal of Western troops in Afghanistan and the rapid takeover by the Taliban, with them capturing Kabul on 15 August, women’s lives and freedoms are already beginning to be restricted. Choosing to keep her instagram active, Afghanistan’s first female graffiti artist Shamsia Hassani @shamsiahassani shares her latest acrylic painting works that show a fading of hope for women. Also an art lecturer at Kabul University, she first started painting on abandoned buildings in Kabul and developed a technique of painting over photographs she had taken of her city, striving to make her voice heard through her art, then and now. #afghanistan #war #conflict #art #painting #freedom #artistsofinstagram #acrylic #graffiti #wallart #cityscape #hope #hopeless #womensrights #humanrights #supportrefugees #artforchange #courage #drawing #global #academics #worldnews

Poised to release the visuals for his latest track, ‘Bless’, Indigenous rapper @Drezus was faced with the news of 751 unmarked graves discovered in the former grounds of another Canadian Residential school.⁣ ⁣ Encouraged by his mother, he went ahead with the release in the wake of this latest community trauma. With ‘Bless’ speaking to Indigenous strength, culture and resilience amidst colonial ‘acts of war’, Drezus’ affirmations are set within a strong visual focus on family, community, and Indigenous culture.⁣ ⁣ “They want to take my culture, that’s an act of war ⁣ They want to take my language, that’s an act of war”⁣ ⁣ Speaking about the track, Drezus wrote, “Bless is about asking for strength and protection as I grow into the man I need to be for my family. It’s about having the strength to leave behind the bad energy and trauma for a meaningful and rewarding life.” ⁣ ⁣ #Indigenous #IndigenousRights #ResidentialSchools #Canada #Colonialism #NoPrideInGenocide #Justice #IndigenousCanada #Music #conflict #war #global #printisnotdead #worldnews #publishing #magazine #worldtones #throughthelens #changetheworld #cinematography #filmmaking #protest #artforchange

‘War Inna Babylon: The Community’s struggle for Truths and Rights’ at the @ICALondon examines the ‘vast range of collective actions, resistance and grassroots activism undertaken by Black communities across the UK,’ bringing together documentary photography, film, archival materials, and forensic technology for this major survey. ⁣ ⁣ Ten years on from the police killing of Mark Duggan that sparked UK-wide riots, the exhibition looks at “the impact of various forms of state violence and institutional racism targeted at Britain’s Black communities since the mass arrival-upon-invitation of West Indian migrants in the late 1940s.”⁣ ⁣ The exhibition also presents @ForensicArchitecture ’s full investigation into the killing of Mark Duggan, and is on view until 26 September 2021. ⁣ ⁣ ‘War Inna Babylon’ has been curated by London-based racial advocacy and community organisation, Tottenham Rights, alongside independent curators Kamara Scott and Rianna Jade Parker, and is accompanied by an extensive public programme held both at the ICA and in Tottenham.⁣ ⁣ #WarInnaBabylon #NoJusticeNoPeace #ICA #InstituteOfContemporaryArts #Resistance #Activism #AntiRacism #BLM #Curation #Community #conflict #art #contrajournal #contemporaryart #global #printisnotdead #photojournalism #worldnews #throughthelens #changetheworld #cinematography #documentary #film #painting #installation #filmmaking #photography #protest #artforchange

Spanish artist Sergi Cadenas @sergi.cadenas makes 3-dimensional oil paintings that change visually dependant on which angle you look at them from. The work observed from one side to another creates a dual image to address complex ideas of ageing, race and mortality. A self taught artist, he creates vertical ridges on the canvas with a piping bag in order to paint two portraits in the same space. Image courtesy of the artist. View more of his work on instagram. @sergi.cadenas #painting #duality #oil #canvas #3d #portraiture #portraits #reality #contrajournal #conflict #art #contemporary #world #global #spanishartists #girona #sculpture #engineering #motion #transformation #faces #identity #cuadros #gallery #installation

In front of the standardised steel T-shelters of the Azraq Refugee Camp, Jordan in 2017, stood a sand arch entrance like a model of the Palmyra Arch destroyed by ISIS in 2015. The sand arch foregrounded a different idea than that of the T-shelters, a “self-determined shelter that prioritizes cultural and emotional needs”. ⁣ ⁣ This humanisation of temporary structures which otherwise provide ‘living conditions devoid of any sense of agency’, was the force behind the MIT Future Heritage Lab’s ‘T-Serai’ project, exploring “how art and design can offer creative and critical tools to not only expose global inequalities and amplify the voices of those who have been silenced, but to also imagine and create alternative futures”. ⁣ ⁣ The ‘T-Serai’ project collaboratively produced modular tapestries that could be used to personalise the T-Shelters. Inspired by textile histories of the MENA region, participants have been able to record their personal stories through design motifs and use the tapestries to set up tents for storytelling and gatherings, mobile storage, and vertical gardening. ⁣ ⁣ To read more about the project:⁣ /projects#/tserai/⁣ /journal/119/401128/future-heritage/⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #heritage #culturalheritage #displacement #refugees #refugeestories #migration #shelter #architecture #textiles #tapestries #storytelling #Jordan #Palmyra #Syria #alternativefuture #conflict #war #art #global #design #worldnews #worldtones #throughthelens #changetheworld #installation #protest #artforchange

An exhibition ‘Social Works’ at the Gagosian @gagosian in New York by new curator Antwaun Sargent @sirsargent presents both emerging and well known black artists, including Carrie Mae Weems, Theaster Gates and Christie Neptune, amongst 9 others, now open to the public until August 13. In this meeting of multiple mediums and experiences, Sargent invites the artists and the viewer to examine “personal, public, institutional and psychic” space and its relationship to Black social practice. Artist Lauren Halsey presents box sculptures incorporating community based hieroglyphics that give visual life to neighbourhoods, drawing on her roots in South Central LA, whilst Carrie Mae Weems’s photography series questions the edifices of power confining the body, asserting in each image her freedom to roam. Read more about the art on view at /exhibitions/2021/social-works-curated-by-antwaun-sargent/ Image 1: © Lauren Halsey. Photo: Rob McKeever. Courtesy of the artist, David Kordansky Gallery, and Gagosian Image 2: Courtesy of artist Carrie Mae Weems, photographic series Roaming (2006) #contemporaryart #contrajournal #conflict #art #socialworks #gagosian #installation #curation #photography #videoart #film #analogueisnotdead #8mm #sculpture #graffiti #blackartists #blackhistory #gallery #space #newyork #rebuild #music #community #artforchange #exhibition

‘THE MODEL MINORITY IS A MYTH!’. Playing off the gospel billboards that dominate the roadside landscape of the US, artist and programmer Maya Man created this series of billboards for @forfreedoms May #AAPIMonth initiative.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ In urging drivers to ring ‘for the truth’, calling the number introduces and dismantles the ‘Model Minority’ trope, which has been used to drive wedge between Asian and African American communities.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Speaking about the work, @mayaontheinternet wrote, “Billboards are a medium for manipulating the mind. I wanted to design a piece that might extend beyond the billboard and offer a chance for interaction, education, and conversation around a topic that deeply affects the (very varied and multidimensional) Asian American experience.”⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Further resources on the Model Minority collected together by Maya Man can be found at www.are.na/maya-man/model-minority-myth⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Billboard installed in Pittsburgh, PA in partnership with @orange_barrel_media . Photos by Di-ay Tesoro Batta.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ #AAPIHeritageMonth #AAPISolidarity #ModelMinority #Billboards #PublicArt #Advertising #Roadtrip #US #StopAsianHate #contemporaryart #global #design #worldnews #graphicdesign #publishing #magazine #worldtones #throughthelens #changetheworld #installation #photography #protest #artforchange

Researcher and curator Dr. Francesca Cavallo introduces her project A Manual for Every Disaster. From wartime civil protection campaigns, survival manuals and preppers guides to enduring a number of different doomsday scenarios, Francesca’s research explores publications that span more than a century and offer advice on what to do when it all goes wrong The full feature, along with 30 contributors over 200 pages of ambitious new material, can be read in Issue 03 Ruin, available to purchase for £12 on our shop (link in bio). Delve deeply into the viewpoint of artists examining the evocative theme of Ruin, spanning from the Middle Ages right up to present day. #contrajournal #spotlight #conflict #art #contemporaryart #survival #apocalypse #doomsday #wilderness #nature #war #worldnews #ruin #printisnotdead #magazine #design #typography #issue03 #landscape #illustration #painting #research #academia #escapism

For Michael Rakowitz’s latest work, ‘April is the cruellest month’, an Iraq war veteran cast from Margate chalk and concrete, calcite, sand and earth from Basra, Iraq, stands with fossilized military medals emerging from just under the surface. ⁣ ⁣ The figure is based on Rakowitz’s friend, Daniel Taylor, who served in Basra, Iraq during the 2003 invasion and is now a member of Veterans for Peace UK.⁣ ⁣ The figure points accusingly in the direction of Westminster, “where in some sense these soldiers fell, soldiers sent to Iraq for a war based on blatant lies — a crime against a collective humanity, a brutality visited on Iraqis but also on the soldiers”. ⁣ ⁣ The work also stands in dialogue with the 1899 ‘Surfboat Memorial’, which honours the lives of those lost in a rescue mission. Looking at the Surfboat Memorial, Rakowitz, “felt a betrayal of that sculpture… we are no longer looking out to sea but turning people away”. ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ‘April is the cruellest month’ has been commissioned as part of ‘Waterfronts’ by the @turnercontemporary and can be seen from 1 May - 14 November 2021.⁣ ⁣ #MichaelRakowitz #EnglandsCreativeCoast #TurnerContemporary #Margate #Aprilisthecruelestmonth #TSEliot #PublicArt #Iraq #IraqWar #TheWasteLand #Conflict #War #Rescue #Borders #Refugees #Veterans #Art #ContemporaryArt #Global #WorldNews #WorldTones #ThroughTheLens #ChangeTheWorld #Sculpture #Protest #ArtForChange #Monument #Memorial #CoastalArt

A 1980 law banning artwork of ‘political significance’ made it so that any artwork comprised of the four colours of the Palestinian flag was forbidden; with the display of the Palestinian flag in Gaza and the West Bank already banned by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967.⁣ ⁣ ‘Forbidden Colors’, Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s 1988 work, is a commentary on this ban. In the 1980s when the green, red, black, and white panels next to each other, could “cause an arrest, a beating, a curfew, a shooting or a news photograph in the occupied Palestinian territories”, Gonzalez-Torres’ work was displayed as an act of consciousness and solidarity at a gallery in SoHo, New York.⁣ ⁣ Although the ban was lifted in 1993, the legacy of exclusion of the Palestinian flag is still carried forward. During the ban, Palestinians would carry around watermelon slices, the green, red, black, and white of the fruit, “a beautiful symbol of resistance, political protest, and a reminder of the power of creativity.” - @khaledhourani6 ⁣ (via. @dimasrouji ) ⁣ @FelixGonzalezTorresArchive ⁣ ⁣ #Palestine #FreePalestine #savesheikhjarrah #sheikhjarrah #gaza #انقذوا_حي_الشيخ_جراح #contemporaryart #global #worldnews #worldtones #throughthelens #changetheworld #protest #artforchange #solidarity #censorship #politicalart #resistance #protest #artforchange #felixgonzaleztorres

@darjacir is an independent artist-run initiative founded in 2014 devoted to educational, cultural, and agricultural activities, located in the Jacir family’s ancestral home in Bethlehem. The space also holds extensive physical archives of Palestine and Bethlehem’s Ottoman history, organised and used by Palestinian artist and filmmaker @EmilyJacir ⁣ As part of the ongoing violence and oppression, Dar Jacir has been ransacked causing extensive damage throughout with computer, hard drive and camera equipment now missing, and the Urban Farm burnt to the ground. ⁣ ⁣ Dar Jacir has worked with practitioners from Michael Rakowitz to Nicolas Jaar, with plans on re-activating their archival material through further work with artists, musicians, and filmmakers.⁣ ⁣ “The site serves as a place in which the history and contemporary conditions of Bethlehem meet, enabling the exchange and production of new art works and visions towards the future… a place to ask questions, exchange ideas, to dream and to grapple with our contemporary situation.”⁣ ⁣ #DarJacir #EmilyJacir #Palestine #Bethlehem #FreePalestine #CulturalHeritage #CulturalCentre #History #savesheikhjarrah #sheikhjarrah #gaza #انقذوا_حي_الشيخ_جراح #contemporaryart #filmmaking #filmmaker #global #printisnotdead #worldnews #worldtones #throughthelens #changetheworld #protest #artforchange #archive #global #heritage #solidarity

⁣May 15th marked the anniversary of the 1948 Nakba (from the Arabic meaning, “Catastrophe”), when more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced and over 400 Palestinian towns and villages depopulated, producing one of the world’s largest refugee populations. To this day there are over 7 million Palestinian refugees, with many still in refugee camps, barred from return.⁣ ⁣ ‘Palestinian Journeys’, the Palestinian Museum’s digital storytelling archive, has put together a collection on ‘The Palestine War and The Nakba’ exploring the timeline of events through images, documents, and biographies. The digital archive is a way to “present marginalised and forgotten narratives about the Palestinian experience, highlighting unknown stories, personal accounts, oral histories, and undiscovered experiences.”⁣ ⁣ @palmuseum is currently closed to the public, “in mourning for the martyrs of Palestine, and amid the brutal crimes by the Israeli occupation.” A march was staged in London for the freedom of Palestine on the anniversary of the Nakba, as global movements against Israel’s occupation and brutal apartheid grow. On the same day, Israeli air raids in Gaza flattened a high-rise building that held the offices of media organisations Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, and the Associated Press, as well as residential apartments, and targeted a refugee camp where at least 10 Palestinians, including 8 children, were killed. ⁣ ⁣ Images.⁣ 1. Samia Dajani at their Home Before the Nakba and Displacement - The Mahira al-Dijani Collection.⁣ ⁣ 2. Orange Groves in Bir Salim Prior to the 1948 Nakba - The Walid az-Zain Collection.⁣ ⁣ 3. Harvest Season in Bayt Nabala Prior to the 1948 Nakba - The Walid az-Zain Collection.⁣ ⁣ ⁣ palarchive.org⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #Nakba #Palestine #FreePalestine #PalMuseum #المتحف_الفلسطيني #Gaza #GazaUnderAttack #PressFreedom #Publishing #Magazine #Museum #History #Global #Archive #DigitalArchive #Storytelling #WorldNews #WorldTones #ThroughTheLens #ChangeTheWorld #DocumentaryPhotography #Protest #Resistance #غزة_تحت_القصف #ArtForChange #SaveSheikhJarrah #انقذوا_حي_الشيخ_جراح