Five months of lockdown. Five months of billboard companies scrambling because nobody is buying outdoor advertising.

Hi. Art in Ad Places is back.

R.I.S.E. Indigenous and Demian DinéYazhi'. Photo by Luna Park.

To help Art in Ad Places re-enter the world during a period when activist-oriented public art is perhaps more important than it ever has ever been, we reached out to our longtime collaborator Jess X. Snow. We can think of no better way to dive back into taking up public space than this series that Snow has put together. It may be, quite frankly, bolder than anything we have put up in the last three years.

Snow should pretty much take it from here:

During this global pandemic and national uprising for the movement toward Black Lives and futures, Indigenous Sovereignty, and the Defunding and Abolishing of Pol(ICE) and borders, it is time for LGBTQ+ Black, Indigenous, Immigrant and POC artists to take back the public space that has been dominated by white artists and paid advertisements. The five queer artists included in this series - Demian DinéYazhi’, Alan Pelaez Lopez, Kah Yangni, Ashley Lukashevsky, and Jessica Sabogal - span differing BIPOC identities, and make intersectional and feminist work that is both tender and loving to the communities they are fighting for and interrogative to the violent power structures that stand in their way.
This body of work embodies the spirit of the Claudia Jones quote: “A people's art is the genesis of their freedom.” These posters are brave love letters that speak truth to power. In the ashes of the power structures that failed us, Kah Yangni’s piece reminds us “We Find Safety In Each Other” and Ashley Lukashevsky reminds us of the Assata Shakur chant “We Will Protect One Another.” These artists show that embodying solidarity for each-other's differing but connected struggles is a life-long discipline. The decolonial future where police is abolished, and borders have fallen, land is given back, power is returned to queer Black and Indigenous and POC communities, is not only a destination but a process and a practice we all must work toward everyday. Each poster is a compass, pointing us in the direction of that future, reminding us that the future is coming if we dare to create it together.

And of course, the artists themselves…

Demian DinéYazhi’:

This piece was originally made in recognition of Missing & Murdered Indigenous Womxn’s Day, which is held every year on May 5th.
Some statistics courtesy of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women:
4 out of 5 Native women are affected by violence today.
The U.S. Department of Justice found that American Indian women face murder rates that are more than 10 times the national average.
Homicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among 10-24 years of age and the 5th leading cause of death for American Indian and Alaska Native women between 25 and 34 years of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2016, 5,712 cases of MMIWG were reported, but only 116 of them were logged in the Department of Justice database.

Alan Pelaez Lopez:

This work should be in public space because the society that we currently live in is failing Black people daily. Every entity named in this art piece is an entity that advances the global circuit of anti-Black violence that forecloses our futures: pol(ice), prisons, borders, and corporations. Each time this piece is read in a public space, this piece demands that we betray the systems that we were taught to trust under settler-colonial law. I also want to remind all Black people to hold on to their joy because Black joy and Black pleasure are and will continue to be the antithesis to anti-Blackness.

Kah Yangni:

I’ve known police and prisons have so many problems but it was really hard to even picture a world without them. I was asked to make this illustration for an article in Autostraddle by Benji Hart about the fact that police and prisons don’t belong in our future. Making this illustration and seeing everything that happened in June are what made me believe that a world without jails might be possible. I think this piece out in public could make people think about it for a second- think about what safety is, and if they think police need to be a part of it.

Ashley Lukashevsky:

This work belongs in public space, because Black trans women and GNC folks need to be centered in our work towards liberation, always. The words in this piece are inspired by Assata Shakur’s chant which is always read by a young person at the end of @blmlosangeles protests. The last line of the chant reads “We must love and protect one another, We have nothing to lose but our chains.” It fills me with hope and peace - I want it to do the same for others. I want queer people of color walking past to feel hopeful and expansive.

Jessica Sabogal:

I put this piece in public space to address the lack of responsibility taken by the institution of whiteness to dismantle the social environment that protects it and isolates it from race-based stress.

Time and time again, we have said that the only way to create the future that you want is to live it today. It’s why we do what we do. This series brings together five artists and a curator who exemplify that ideal. We hope that, as Jess proposes, we can all use their work as a compass.