Disobedient Objects is an exhibition about the art and design produced by grassroots social movements. It includes exhibits loaned from activist groups from all over the world, bringing together for the first time many objects rarely before seen in a museum.
From a Suffragette tea service to protest robots, this exhibition is the first to examine the powerful role of objects in movements for social change. It demonstrates how political activism drives a wealth of design ingenuity and collective creativity that defy standard definitions of art and design. Disobedient Objects focuses on the period from the late 1970s to now, a time that has brought new technologies and
political challenges. On display are arts of rebellion from around the world that illuminate the role of making in grassroots movements for social change: finely woven banners; defaced currency; changing designs for barricades and blockades; political video games; an inflatable general assembly to facilitate consensus decisionmaking; experimental activist-bicycles; and textiles bearing witness to political murders.
Disobedient Objects How-To Guides Disobedient objects are often carefully designed solutions to problems faced by activists on the ground, in the midst of social and political movements around the world. The exhibition includes several take home guides on how-to make some of these objects, from Book Bloc Shields to Tear-Gas Masks. Made available with help from many of the activists who created these objects, the guides were illustrated by Marwan Kaabour at Barnbrook. Additionally, these are now available online at www.vam.ac.uk.
E s s e n t i a l l y Disobedient Objects is an exhibition about out-designing authority. Looking beyond art and design framed by markets, connoisseurs and professionals, this exhibition considers the role of social movement cultures in re-making our world from below. Disobedient objects can be ingenious and sometimes beautiful solutions to complex problems, often produced with limited resources and under duress. Working by any media necessary,
Disobedient objects have a history as long as social struggle itself. Ordinary people have always used them to exert counterpower, and object-making has long been a part of social movement cultures alongside music, performance and the visual arts. While these other mediums of protest have been explored before, this exhibition is the first to look broadly at material culture’s role in radical social change. It identifies
“First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.” — Nicholas Klein