The trials and tribulations that it takes to leave one’s home in search of a better future can be characterized in the symbolism behind a single Guatemalan passport left at the border between Mexico and the United States. This changes the viewer’s perception of home, that a simple small book can be neglected, but home…

This simple yet jarring billboard of an empty bed reminds viewers about the tangible reality of loss, of the literal and metaphorical depressions a person creates in their lifetime. Felix Gonzalez-Torres publicly awakens the world from its political slumber to realize that all of the protests and activism against the spread of HIV/AIDS and the…

A symbolic, artful action can have actual consequences and, in the case of Armenia’s Nikol Pashinyan, lead to a revolution. Pashinyan initiated  the Velvet Revolution on March 31, 2018 when he began his Im Kayl walk across Armenia in protest of the continuing rule of former President Serzh Sargsyan. As Pashinyan walked through various towns and…

Public art and performances present a challenging question: which “publics” are they for? A sculpture in the middle of a bustling downtown area is available for everyone to look at, sure, but is the gleaming, bronze statue immediately outside of a major financial center for the working class? They are certainly a possible audience, but such an…

Although the punk community has long been known for its progressive and left wing ideologies, women have been grossly excluded since its inception. Even today, festival lineups have an obvious shortage of female acts, and female fans are often devalued and written off as unserious “fangirls” or “groupies” who fawn over male band members. Riot…

In Harlem during the 1920s, African Americans were forced to pay unreasonably high rent prices for spaces that were cramped and narrow. At the same time was the Great Migration — many who were living in the south moved north in order to acquire industrial jobs. The result was an influx of people living in…

Santiago Sierra’s work, titled 160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People El Gallo Arte Contemporáneo. Salamanca, Spain. December 2000, is exactly what it says it is. Like many of his works, Sierra hired people off the street to be human props. In this case, four heroin addicts would be paid with a shot of heroin…

Roman Ondak’s 2003 piece Good Feelings in Good Times uses the action of waiting in line to create an open dialog. This piece is as simple as it seems: actors are paid to act natural while waiting in line somewhere in a museum. The line stays until it eventually dissolves, collecting unknowing participants. At this…

The São Paulo Museum of Art structures itself to allow the ground floor to stay as a public plaza. When it’s grounds were given to the city hall, they were given under the pretenses that the land’s view was never to be compromised. By creating the structure of the art museum underground and elevated above…

W.E.B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits used data visualization to show an international audience how far African-Americans had gotten just 35 years after slavery. In these posters, Du Bois’s shows things like the amount of wealth held by African-Americans, literacy rates, and publication information. Although these charts caught eyes through their bright colors and intuitiveness, what…