Lamont Gallery Paints The Pictures of Justice

Graphic Advocacy: International Posters for the Digital Age 2001-2012, the new exhibition in the Lamont Gallery, explores how communities can use graphic advocacy to solve world issues. The exhibit, which opened on Friday night with a reception in the gallery, will be running concurrently with other social projects such as MLK day and We All Bleed Red, a social awareness project led by students.The next day, the gallery also held a panel discussion on the institutionalization of art and the role of visual media in advocacy. The panel featured Elizabeth Resnick, the chair of Graphic Design at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the curator of the exhibit; Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández, an associate professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at The University of Toronto and Mercedes Carbonell, an English instructor and co-head of the MLK day committee. Several students also participated in the panel, such as senior Nicolas Coleman and the creators of the We All Bleed Red project, seniors Kevin Zhen, Pranay Vemulamada and upper Carissa Chen.

“Posters are dissent made visible—they communicate, advocate, instruct, celebrate and warn, while jarring us into action with their bold messages and striking iconography.”

Graphic Advocacy takes inspiration from two other exhibitions also curated by Resnick: Graphic Imperative and Graphic Intervention. Both exhibits center around posters. Graphic Imperative was a retrospective of international sociopolitical posters spanning forty years. It showcased a wide variety of themes such as dissent, liberation, racism, sexism, human rights, civil rights, environmental and health concerns, AIDS, war, literacy and tolerance. Graphic Intervention centered specifically on international AIDS awareness posters.Graphic Advocacy showcases 122 pieces to illustrate the role of posters in advocacy today. The curator’s statement elaborates on the role of posters in politics. “Posters are dissent made visible—they communicate, advocate, instruct, celebrate and warn, while jarring us into action with their bold messages and striking iconography,” it says. The statement elaborates on the power of a poster, describing it as the most resonant, intrinsic and enduring item for the contemporary graphic designer.Recognizing this significance, Professor Resnick focused the exhibit on posters, especially in the new millennium. According to her, the role of posters in modern advocacy has shifted due to advances in technology. The Internet, as well as an advance in printing, has allowed artists to create and share work less expensively and more efficiently. Largely due to technology, posters are often now used as a tool for visual advocacy. Resnick believes this blending of the modern and the classic has allowed the poster to take on a greater role in protests. “The poster has become a cornerstone of 21st century advocacy,” she said.The exhibit was brought to the Lamont Gallery by Lauren O’Neal, the curator of the Gallery and a former faculty member at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She had seen Resnick’s previous exhibitions at the MassArt gallery and decided to bring her former colleague’s work to the Academy to create a way for reflection on modern history through art. She found the exhibit to be particularly relevant due to discussions on campus regarding various socio-political issues. The use of the poster as a medium was particularly compelling to her due to the historical use of posters in advocacy.“Posters have been used to raise awareness, to critique, and to inspire people to take action,” O’Neal said. “The symbolic weight of an image—or hashtag or any other meme—matters greatly in terms of how we envision an alternate political reality.”The exhibition was well received by many at the opening reception. “It’s wonderful how people are able to express their opinions, especially in ways as beautiful and as powerful as these posters,” prep Natalie Love said.Upper Nada Zohayr agreed with Love’s sentiment. She appreciated the effectiveness of visual media as a method of communication. “This exhibit shows that you can speak out in many different forms; your words aren’t your only tools. You can use art to express yourself, to stand for what you believe in,” she said.Several students also appreciated the alignment of the exhibit’s opening with MLK Day. According to Zohayr, the exhibit aligned “beautifully” with the MLK Day workshop led by Michael Thompson, a graphic design artist who has pieces featured in the new exhibit. “[The new exhibit] is a  nice way of tying everything in and using multiple aspects of the Academy to relate back to the important day [of MLK],” Zohayr saidThe relationship between activism and art was particularly compelling to viewers. Lower Aiyanna Brough appreciated this connection, especially because of her artistic background.“I love combining art and activism;” she said, “it is something that I, as an artist, really want to do. I find it inspirational and I like the sentiments behind these pieces.”Other students also lauded the clever use of media to highlight socio-political contention that is relevant today. “I think [the exhibit is] a creative way to bring to light all sorts of social issues and also appreciate art at the same time,” prep Miranda Derossi said.Higgins expressed a similar sentiment, finding that “[the exhibit] broadens the spectrum of the things that we think about.” He added, “it definitely makes us think about racism, effects of natural disasters, rights for women and such.”One popular theme in the exhibit was Hurricane Katrina. According to Zohayr, the 2005 catastrophe has been forgotten by a lot of Exonians, despite its important impact on the nation. She was glad to see it get attention, especially since it is the tenth anniversary of the hurricane. “It’s a nice reminder that [the hurricane] affected thousands of people, millions even,” she said.It was this representation of the political through the aesthetic that compelled O’Neal to bring the show to Exeter. She appreciated the opportunity the show gave to contemplate on the defining issues of our time.  “What I especially appreciate is that the exhibition gives us a way to reflect on events in recent history,” she said.For her, the exhibit poses and hopes to answer the question: “What is important to us today, and how do we want to respond?”Contributions from Sophia Zu