The Stream

Art and activism

What happens when the two collide?

For many, art helps showcase the beauty they see around the world. For others, it’s a type of guerrilla warfare where art and activism collide. Coloured pencils or paintbrushes replace guns, allowing artists to express and examine how societies are constructed and function.

“You can expose so many things that can’t be exposed otherwise,” American artist Molly Crabapple told TIME magazine about what drives her work. Crabapple joins The Stream on Monday to discuss her depictions of the Syrian crisis and camps in northern Iraq and Lebanon, as well as her new partnership with American civil rights leader Bryan Stevenson. Together, they created an animated short exploring the history of African-American lynchings after the Civil War and into the 1960s. It aims to provide context to contemporary race dynamics in the US.

Crabapple will be joined on The Stream by artists Steve Lambert and Rajkamal Kahlon, who are using artistic expression to raise public awareness about social issues, like the impact capitalism has on society.

We’ll discuss the impact art has on political activism and the cultural changes made when the two collide.

In this episode of The Stream:

Molly Crabapple @mollycrabapple
Artist and Journalist
mollycrabapple.com

Steve Lambert @SteveLambert
Artist
visitsteve.com

Annya Sand @annyasand
Artist
annyasandart.com 

Rajkamal Kahlon
Artist
rajkamalkahlon.com

What do you think? Record a video comment or leave your thoughts below.