Open-access protest posters by Vivienne Westwood and Tilda Swinton appear in Visionaire
Tilda Swinton, Nan Goldin and Vivienne Westwood are among 10 artists and activists commissioned by Visionaire magazine to design protest posters for readers to download and use for free.
For its 68th issue, Visionaire magazine asked the artists and activists to create a poster on issues ranging from gun violence and criminal justice to climate change and equal voting rights.
Faith Ringgold's poster pushes for gender equality
The protest posters, which are available to download on Opensource, feature designs by Nan Goldin, Katerina Jebb collaborating with Tilda Swinton, Vivienne Westwood, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Candice Breitz, Martine Gutierrez, Marilyn Minter, Faith Ringgold, and Kim Gordon, as well as duo Zoe Buckman and Hank William Thomas.
The posters aim to "re-contextualise" the protest poster as an art object, while also providing an "essential tool of modern political activism". They are intended to be used at protests and can be downloaded and printed at home.
A scan of Tilda Swinton's face forms the image for Katerina Jebb's poster
"This edition — comprised of ten images with text addressing the current state of the world — exploits the democratic power of art and the traditional, political imperative of the protest poster," said Visionaire.
"The works in this edition are intended to be used on the streets of our cities and towns to proclaim what we hold dear."
Marilyn Minter's protest poster urges resistance
Among the designs is Nan Goldin's poster on the opioid crisis, which features a backdrop of painkiller tubs with the text, "pain killers" etched in red. "Pain" is crossed out, leaving only the word, "killers".
Multi-media artist Candice Breitz addressed advocating for and delivering services to South African sex workers in her bright orange poster that includes the words, "Sex work is real work" in a bold black text.
Tionna Nekkia McClodden's poster features her portrait and was created with rapper Pusha T
Actor Tilda Swinton worked together with photographer and filmmaker Katerina Jebb to create an imposing poster against gun violence. Jebb's technique is to scan Swinton's face, rather than use a camera, and overlay this with the word "disarm" within her mouth.
Elsewhere, fashion designer and activist Vivienne Westwood focuses on climate change, with a poster depicting a map of the world with all the uninhabitable parts coloured in red, were the earth's temperature is to rise by five degrees.
Martine Gutierrez's poster recreates a shoe ad in the artist's fictional magazine
"People ask, 'What can I do to help save the environment?' In all my time as an activist, I've never had a satisfactory answer," said Westwood.
"If you draw a line parallel with Paris, everything below that is uninhabitable. This means by the end of this century there will only be one billion people left. Global warming is at the tipping point. If we go past it, we can’t stop it. All the methane kicks in. We're there right now. We have to stop it!"
Kim Gordon's contribution features gold dribbling paint and reads "#You don't own me"
For her poster, latinx transgender artist Martine Gutierrez reimagined a shoe advert originally printed in her fictional fashion magazine Indigenous Woman.
"For minorities who sit at the often isolating crux of intersectionality, how do we ensure our voices are not jeopardised by opportunity? How can we work against the very power structures that propagate beauty and normalcy to the masses?" Gutierrez said.
"In the pursuit of personal gain, we look at collaborations as positive opportunities, but for those of us who are minorities, we are almost always objectified, tokenised, and used to diversify or assume ally-ship," she explained.
Zoe Buckman and Hank William Thomas urge for equal voting rights with their poster
Tiona Nekkia McClodden enlisted the help of rapper Pusha T to create a poster on the criminal justice system, drawing on her personal experience of unjust incarceration and railroading.
"Railroading is what happens to first time offenders who are pushed recklessly through the criminal justice system without any thought or delay," she explained.
South African artist Candice Breitz's poster is in support of sex workers
"The criminal justice system in Philadelphia often “railroads” young, black and people of colour first-time offenders through a straight to prison pipeline with no hope whatsoever of fair treatment or reprieve," she continued.
The poster features Tiona holding up a sign that reads, "railroading", with the text "I lived through it" in red.
Vivienne Westwood's poster shows which areas of the world will become uninhabitable if the climate continues to warm
Also in the collection is a protest poster on equal voting rights by artists Zoe Buckman and Hank Willis Thomas, a poster on women's rights by Sonic Youth singer Kim Gordon, a poster by artist Marilyn Minter that urges us to "resist"; and a poster on gender equality by artist Faith Ringgold.
Nan Goldin's poster reflects on the opioid epidemic
Other designers interested in protest design include American designer Shepard Fairey, who produced a pair of posters protesting gun violence in US schools, coinciding with nationwide demonstrations.
Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Elisa Otañez created a bright yellow mobile toilet as a protest against the lack of public facilities for women in The Netherlands.
