Six Protest Placards, 2013

The Two Rivers Art Gallery in Prince George, BC invited me to participate in a juried group exhibition titled, Pipeline; A Line of Division in 2013. I produced the small series, Six Protest Placards, in acrylic and graphite on thin plywood panels, each one 15 x 11 3/4 inches. I would have liked to bolt the posters to 2 x 2 inch wooden poles about seven feet tall, but I was dissuaded from this course by the curator. I did not particularly mind; the placards might have been difficult for the gallery to present in a safe manner.

I set out to produce protest signs like a non-artist might: simple graphic tools, ordinary colours, inexpensive stencils and straight-forward statements. I succeeded to the extent that I even (unintentionally, but appropriately) included a spelling mistake.

Despite these ambitions, Six Protest Placards look like art to me. I remind myself that this is probably normal. Artists would naturally be inclined to make protest images that resemble art. But I’m not certain these placards are really are art; its complicated.

Other participants in the exhibition were Kimberly Baker, Sylvia Bews-Wright, Jean Brandel, Nora Curistan, Judith Currely, Robin Edgar-Howarth, Eward Epp, Corey Hardeman, Bill, Horne, Betty Kovacic, James Lindsay, Moyna Macilroy, Beate Marquardt, Rosalie, Matchett, Mary Mottishaw, Arlene Nesbitt, Perry Rath and Cara Roberts.