The Project
100 Banners, 23.5 Million Whispers is a collaborative art project by Alizon Gray & Simon O'Carrigan. You can be part of it! Find us at one of our banner making locations and contribute your own banner to the project (using the materials we provide).
The finished work will be shown at the 2014 Toyota Community Spirit Prize from 19 November, 2014 running March 2015. With any luck, it will get other showings elsewhere in the future.
Check out where we will set up next, and what we've done so far, via our
Facebook event page. (This event will be updated for each new banner making session!)
What's it all about?Protests build community whilst voicing opinions on leadership decisions that will impact upon local, national and international communities. Often such decisions are irreversible and have far reaching implications. Though the aims of various protest movements may differ, many cite the core issue as being lack of public consultation and the feeling that the voice of the people is not being heard. Raising petitions and protesting in the street has long been an essential constituent of our history and democratic free speech. However, in Victoria there are now laws that can be used to sentence peaceful protesters with gaol time. This artwork is a timely and poignant reflection on the changing social and cultural situation in Australia and around the world: it can feel as though our democratic rights and proportional representation are being challenged.
Before installation of 100 Banners, 23.5 Million Whispers within the Toyota grounds we are inviting members of the public to ink messages onto calico and then we will immediately wash the words out. The ink will slightly stain the calico so that only a hint of the message is left. Washing away the slogans reflects the muted protests of citizens; the erosion of the opposing voice. Rather than focus on any one issue or cause, this artwork captures the emotional groundswell of discontent when the voice of community opposition falls on deaf ears.
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