The artist plans to upon the size and change the subject of her art in the future.
Armed with the phrase, “My art isn’t attacking you; it’s just something that you are looking at,” an anonymous political artist has taken to campus, provoking widespread chatter. Because of the artist’s choice of locations, the Lanphier Center, the Science Center, the PMAC, and the Humanities Building, you have undoubtedly seen these controversial pieces around campus.
The artist agreed to speak to The Choate News only on the condition that their identity not be revealed to ensure the continuation of their work without personal and possibly offensive or demeaning backlash. “My only goal with the public art is that sometimes looking at certain images and words can make you consider something a bit differently. There are a lot of different ways to fight for what you think and believe in, and they don’t all have to be arguing.”
After the election, the artist began displaying their work because of a political environment on campus that she felt was dire. They decided that posting nonviolent art would make people think about opposing views without the option of overheated reactions. “Because my work is visual and you are only looking at it and reading it, you’re a lot less likely to get defensive. I’m not an extroverted person, so I would rather argue with people in my own visual way.”
“I love it,” Zara Harding ’18 said. “Whichever side of the political spectrum you fall on, you have to just admire the art. There is no way you can look at this art and just see politics because this artist is also displaying the entire human experience.”
Katie Lee ’18 agreed. “The art definitely makes me stop and think while I’m walking from class to class. I think it’s really cool that the artist stays anonymous because being unidentified makes the art more impactful.”
Nonviolent protest through art and other means of expression has inspired many on campus to take on their own projects. One new club in particular, the Choate Nonviolence Resistance club, has aligned their club with the political art of our campus Banksy to show how much change can be derived from people coming together and using visuals to communicate effectively.
The artist said, “Even though we have a lot of amazing organizations at Choate, many of them are focused on being more informed on campus. What we want is to make people’s interests go a little bit further than debating. We want action. We want to allow people to get involved in political resistance as easily as possible in a real world kind of way.”
In terms of the future, the artist’s main goal is to get more people involved in their work; they explained, “I think people have a weird idea that it’s not something they can do, but people should definitely know that they can do whatever they want, especially being at Choate.” With spring coming, the artist’s new collaborative projects will focus on women, photography of actual protests, and an expansion of her work beyond the confines of school buildings to the outdoors.
