Protest posters are a sucker punch to the unwary pedestrian who glances at the image with detached attention, expecting to see another ironic advertisement for something we don't need or can't afford. Instead we are confronted by something genuine: a raw emotional outburst, a furious call to arms, or a desperate cry for help. The protest poster subverts our expectations, by delivering emotionally powerful and controversial content in a form normally reserved for sellling things.
A political painting hanging inside the pristine white walls of the museum can afford to be understated and 'quiet' because the viewer approaches the work with quiet contemplation. Walled off from the real world, we give art our undivided attention. But the protest poster doesn't have the luxury to be subtle, complex or idiosyncratic.
Because they live in the public realm, the protest poster has to shout loudly and clearly in order to be 'heard' above the din of competing media. In order to accomplish its mission, the protest poster must distill a complex social and political issue into a single powerful image/statement. Like a visual haiku, the protest poster is an exercises in ruthless efficiency. There is no room for exposition or explanation. The protest poster plays on the visual literacy of popular culture to grab as wide an audience as possible. The protest poster seeks to grab us and shake us out of of our complancency.
Cheap to produce and print, protest posters have an immediacy that other forms of visual art often lack. More importantly the protest poster differs from other forms of visual art, in the way in whcih it can transforms the passive viewer into an active participant. The act of sticking up the poster in the public realm, known as 'Guerrilla Posting', is as much a form of social action as the creation of the poster itself.
It is the urge for artists and designers to connect and collaborate with citizen protesters that drives the web site, powertotheposter.org
The site provides free, black and white, protest posters in PDF format to be downloaded and printed on your home computer. The only thing that the artists ask in exchange is that the poster be posted. The protest poster depends on the person who prints it out to post it in a public place in order to fulfill its mission. The protest poster is not just an object, it is an action: the act of collaboration between the artist and a socially conscious individual wielding a bucket of wheat paste or an industrial stapler.
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