On June 5, 1968 Robert Kennedy was assassinated while campaigning for presidency. Kennedy was a key figure not only for the democratic party but also for social justice across America. He was a strong supporter of the civil rights movement and universal healthcare. On that day Americans lost a candidate whose mission was to bridge…

What obligation does the citizenry of one country have to care about the citizenry of another? Neue Slovenische Kunst (NSK), an Eastern European arts collective, has at once a pessimistic and utopian answer to this question. The United States, for instance, has or believes it has little or no self interest in some of the greatest…

Cuba has restrictive free speech laws that prevent any unmediated discourse. The artist Tania Bruguera chose to supply people of Havana, Cuba with a temporary stage where any member of the audience could speak uncensored for one minute. She complicated the piece by having two men dressed in military garb escort the speakers off the…

This performance was to protest the countless women in Guatemala who are subjected to cruel and inhumane violence. Her goal was to bring awareness to Guatemala’s long history of ignoring the lives of women, specifically indigenous women, who are often left brutally tortured with the word “perra” also scraped into their flesh. Although she was…

Regina Jose Galindo was motivated to challenge the politics and society of her home country of Guatemala by producing art that garnered strong reactions from audiences around the world, specifically those in her very own backyard. Through her performance, she created transparency within the collective memory of her people and the government that was supposed to…

Using the imagery of high fashion advertising, Josephine Meckseper mounts a potent attack against the corruption of German politics. Easily mistakable for a fashion advertisement, Josephine Meckseper’s glossy photographic print exudes wealth, power, and influence. In the foreground, two almost identical women dressed in evening wear are posed together on a chaise lounge. Surrounded by…

Fallen Fruit is a Los Angeles based artist’s collaboration that focuses on the relationships between fruit and urban space, citizenship, and community. In their ongoing project Public Fruit Jam, Fallen Fruit invites the public to bring homegrown or street-picked fruit and participate in communal jam making. All different kinds of fruit are accepted, and none…

Women on Waves is a Dutch pro-choice NGO created in 1999 focused on making reproductive heath services—particularly non-surgical abortion procedures—available to women in countries with restrictive laws regarding female reproductive rights. When A Woman on Waves boat visits a country, the members of the organization take women onboard and sail out to international waters where…

  The United States post office murals were examples of public art commissioned through the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture, a program to employ artists as part of the New Deal during the Great Depression. The Section awarded commission through competitions, and accepted entries from all artists regardless of economic status. It sought works…

Gonzales-Torres’ 1991 work is comprised of individually wrapped multicolor candies. The weight of all of the candies together should be approximately 175 pounds: the ideal weight of Gonzales-Torres’ partner, Ross, who died of an AIDS related-illness in 1991. Viewers are invited to approach the work, take a piece of candy, and eat it. By engaging…