globalacts - Tumblr blog

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Hans Haacke, German American Artist

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Rosalie Gascoigne, artist from New Zealand who uses rubbish she finds to make art, ie. fancy recycling. 

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Richard Long, is a British environmental artist who uses unobtrusive tactics to sculpt nature. 

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The sassy side of presidency--it seems the Obama administration is using a little art to get people to act. 

And, appropriately, a great article about how our hypothetical children will be enduring, "the early stages of a global calamity," via, global warming. 

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XAM, a friend of the birds and street artist architect, has a new solution to the problem of urbanization on the bird populations. 

"In a comment on the mortgage crisis, some have  'Bank Owned' or 'Foreclosure' signs plastered across the entry holes." Steven Kurutz, NY Times

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A humanist, Yoko Ono (shown above in the Cut Piece performance) 

"She didn't want to hold down and lay claim on human beings any more than she did her art and ideas."

"Women, though -- everything they think and do and are proves their worth or danger as mothers and wives. But not with Ono. "Mothers are not supposed to give guidance," she said in a 1998 interview, believing instead that children should do their own thing."

"Yoko Ono is the ultimate feminist. She isn't fighting for women's rights per se, but she expresses herself doggedly and with a single-minded purpose of art for art's sake, truth for truth's sake, and doesn't seem to care what anyone thinks about her as a woman. Just as male artists do and we don't think anything of it. She's an artist, not a female artist. Her life -- and those of the people around her -- is a tool. She uses incredibly personal autobiographical details in her work, yet she doesn't seem to feel any need for perfect factual order or to worry about anyone's feelings. That quality is neither feminine nor masculine; it;s genius, which is always disturbing when peered at too closely but more so when it's housed in the body of a woman, who should be maternal, who is supposed to be desirable, agreeable, likable."

quotes from, Yoko Ono: A Reconsideration by Lisa Carver

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Allow Healthy Gay and Bisexual Men to Donate Blood

Starting today, there is a move to change the past restrictions on gay and bisexual men not being able to donate blood when they are perfectly capable. Please sign the petition by clicking on the link above, or by clicking here.

AIDS has been a tragic disease, yes, but it is definitely not one restricted entirely to the LGBT community. And large art installations (such as the AIDS Quilt pictured above) go to show that people from many different communities are affected.

"Since 1983, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines have disqualified men who have ever had sex with men (MSM) from donating blood. The policy has been heavily criticized recently for misrepresenting 21st Century scientific realities; and the American Red Cross, alongside senators, universities and other organizations, have called for an updated policy that reflects the realities of modern science and technology."

"That I could have had sex with 365 partners this year and be a perfectly fine candidate for donating blood, while the MSM next to me wouldn't qualify, betrays a faulty line of logic."

"Inspired by the University of California, Berkeley's "Sponsor Drive," Middlebury encouraged eligible donors to "sponsor" a gay student by giving blood in his name."

quotes pulled from this great article, Tainted: Why Gay Men Still Can't Donate Blood

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"Even though you probably haven't heard her name before, there's a very good chance you have heard the work of veteran bassist and guitarist Carol Kaye. In the 1960's, this studio musician performed on numerous recordings, including many famous pop hits: the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations"; Sonny and Cher's "The Beat Goes On" and "I Got You Babe"; Joe Cocker's "Feelin' Alright"; and "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" by Simon and Garfunkel. In addition, Kaye has also performed music for TV and film, including the theme for Mission Impossible."

"It wasn't that [I was a woman] that made me want to play. I had to play because I was a poor kid that stuttered. As soon [as] I could start playing music, I could put food on the table. I found something that I was really great at."

Carol Kaye, Veteran Bassist & Guitarist from CA

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Beate Gordon is a heroine in Japan for the policy she helped produce in post-war Japan in the 40s. She was 22 at the time and even through her challenging upbringing she managed to spur momentous change in Japan.

"Japanese women were historically treated like chattel; they were property to be bought and sold on a whim,' Ms. Gordon told The Dallas Morning News in 1999. 'Women had no rights whatsoever." 

"Had her father not been a concert pianist of considerable renown; had she not been so skilled at foreign languages; and had she not been desperate to find her parents, from whom she was separated during the war and whose fate she did not know for years, she never would have been thrust into her quiet, improbable role in world history."

Beate Gordon Sirota, Women's Rights Activist for Japan 

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"When I came up with the tagline OBEY for my work, it was based on the idea that there are forces all around us that have agendas, but they are frequently unspoken. So what I was doing was crystallizing that into something tangible. I thought it would make people think about all the mechanism of control out there."

Shepard Fairey, Interview Magazine

Granted, Shepard has been getting much beef in the world for certain Obama related projects (etc.), in all fairness his great work in the world of promoting social issues and allowing those proceeds to go towards a just cause clearly over-shadows legalities.

OBEY AWARENESS: (non-profit collaborators)

URBAN ROOTS / FEEDING AMERICA / ARTISTS FOR PEACE & JUSTICE / SURF RIDER / HOPE CAMPAIGN / ALASKA WILD / &MORE.

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Jamaica Kincaid - A Small Place

While Kincaid isn't an outright activist, she is an especially inspiring manipulator of language. Particularly in "A Small Place" she calls attention to colonialism in the west, and neocolonial issues. Those of which (in the following quote) are reflective of her own experiences from Antigua in the Caribbean. 

"You came. You took things that were not yours, and you did not even, for appearances' sake, ask first. You could have said, "May I have this, please?" and even though it would have been clear to everybody that a yes or no from us would have been of no consequence you might have looked so much better. Believe me, it would have gone a long way. I would have had to admit that at least you were polite. You murdered people. You imprisoned people. You robbed people. You opened your own banks and you put our money in them. The accounts were in your name. The banks were in your name. There must have been some good people among you, but they stayed home. And that is the point. That is why they are good. They stayed home."  

Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place

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"I was holding my own son at the time and was simply horrified that this was going on while the world stood by,' she recalled. 'It was the middle of the night and I was so totally enraged that all I could do was write everyone I knew a letter asking them if they would join me in doing something. Anything."

Leslie Thomas, on starting her Art Works Projects

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"All other things being equal, the point of a justice system should be to identify that thousandth guy, find a way to keep him from harming other people, and give everyone else a break."

Adam Gopnik, for The New Yorker

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Fresh Page/Submit!

Hello all, this blog is a branch off of a Sarah Lawrence College club but we also encourage outsiders to submit any interesting/relevant/artistic/inspiring/motivating content. There is a submit button up at the top with some guidelines if your interested. 

Nevertheless, this page will start getting filled with a number of things so check back often!