These Artists Want You to Vote
With the U.S. Election Day only three weeks away, the buzz surrounding voter turnout is at an all time high. From designer's making a statement on the fashion week runway to celebrities sporting their favorite voting merch, the conversation surrounding the U.S. presidential election has been top of mind. American artists are also using their work and platforms to push democracy forward this election season, creating bold installations or launching fundraising sales dedicated to voter advocacy.
This week, Jenny Holzer Studio rolls out the artist's nationwide You Vote campaign to push for further political engagement and voter empowerment. Featuring phrases like "Vote for Your Life" and "Be an Ally" in her signature block text style, the centerpiece of the campaign is a fleet of LED trucks that function both as an art piece and a voter information center. The campaign also includes dozens of phrase-emblazoned billboards, light projections, murals, and a number of social media animations. The messaging has its greatest presence in areas commonly acknowledged as swing states with large electoral pull, such as Florida, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and will remain on display through U.S. Election Day.
Photographers Nan Goldin, Kim Gordon, Cindy Sherman, and Cass Bird are also using their work to target swing states ahead of U.S. Election Day by partnering with the States of Change project to sell prints in an effort to raise money to help fight voter suppression in those pivotal areas. The sale partnered with the Movement Voter Project, which supports grassroots organizers in mobilizing voters. Prints by these coveted artists, and others, will be sold for $150 through October 18. In a more partisan effort, Sherman's work was previously featured in the Artists for Biden fundraiser curated by David Zwirner earlier this fall.
Increasing accessiblity to artwork also seems to be playing a role in these campaigns, as planyourvote.org has curated a public library of voting advocacy artwork that can be downloaded and posted across platforms. It features downloadable works from Patti Smith, Sally Mann, and Marilyn Minter in an effort to build buzz surrounding the upcoming election and encourage citizens to get out and make their voices heard.
Minter and Holzer's work appears in another voter advocacy project, titled Artists Band Together, which launched in August and runs through November 1. This project brings together artists including Barbara Kruger, Juliana Huxtable, Shepard Fairey, Merritt Johnson, Luchita Hurtado, and Christina Quarle to craft unique printed bandanas sold in a curated eBay fundraising event. It features limited drops of the artist-created bandanas as inspired by the role of the bandana in historic images promoting action and unity, like the iconic Rosie the Riveter. The work by Venezeulan-born painter Hurtado, with the phrase "Together Forever" emblazoned across it, was submitted shortly before her death in August of this year.
From wearable art to sweeping murals, Michelle Obama backed organization When We All Vote has its hands in an array of artistic endeavors in an effort to reach as many voters as possible. The organization has collaborated with renowned fashion designers and now with popular street artists like Buff Monster to create 13 digital murals across the country to promote voting.
The political action committee Downtown for Democracy released t-shirts with designs by artists like Kim Gordon, the Haas Brothers, Marc Hundley, and Rory Rosenburg and Evie K. Horton. Many of the pieces reference the artists' own lyrics, like Gordon's "#MaleWhiteCorporateOppression" tee, which comes from Sonic Youth's song "Kool Thing," while the Haas brothers keep it simple with the message, "The Future is in Our Hands. Vote.” All of the proceeds from these shirts will be used to fund other D4D initiatives like digital media campaigns and community organizing.
For Freedoms, a group that uses art to spark discussion on American civic issues, unveiled billboards across the country with its 2020 Awakening campaign. This project subverts the aesthetic conventions of the electoral process in order to call for social change. “Rather than sharing candidate-based messaging, weshare artists created messages encouraging deep thinking, self reflection, and discourse,” said For Freedoms’ Creative Producer taylor brock. The billboards–created in collaboration with Aiweiwei, Guerrilla Girls, and other creatives–encourage viewers to continue to think about how to make an impact after the election. Fashion designer Prabal Gurung is among the participating artists and created a piece titled "American Dream = Segregated Nightmare?" that addresses the oppression of racially marginalized communities in the U.S. The billboard is located in the swing state of North Carolina and depicts the opening look of the designer’s Spring/Summer 2020 collection with a sash that reads “Who gets to be American?”
Art and social engagement has a long and tethered history, and access to works created by these renowned artists has never been so simple. Motivated to use their various mediums for the sake of defending America's right to vote, these artists are tearing down traditional barriers to speak directly to their audience, encouraging them to do one unifying democratic action: vote.
