Description

Join us for an online, hands-on art class exploring themes in the current exhibition at Contemporary Art Museum – St. Louis.

CJ Mitchell, Art Educator, will lead a discussion about Andrea Bower’s Resist, which uses found, recycled cardboard pieces to create a backdrop for a powerful figure with a banner that says “resist.” Like remixing in music—when artists cover or update songs—the artist has taken existing materials and images to give them a new life yet a sustained message. In this activity, we will use similar materials and reference images to create recycled and reimagined protest art.

The artist’s use of cardboard was inspired by handmade protest signs she saw at Zuccotti Park, during Occupy Wall Street, and her concerns around climate change and waste. On the surface of the cardboard, Bowers uses acrylic markers to draw a figure taken from a poster and postcard design made by an artist collective in London in the early 1900s. This collective, called Suffrage Atelier (suffrage means right to vote, atelier means workshop), used their artworks to campaign for women’s right to vote. Bowers replaces the word “Reform” from the original design to say “Resist,” updating the call to action to be broader, more inclusive, and reminding us that the fight for equality still continues 100 years later.

We will provide supplies and you can make your own piece inspired by Resist.