Alex Dancu, May 29, 2024, The Kids Are Alright.
This collage piece aims to highlight the efforts of college-age and youth activists for the strides made in political equity, involvement, and use of our right to protest. Spurred by the protests and encampments across college campuses of America calling to end the United States aid to Israel and end apartheid for a free Palestine.
This collage was an opportunity to educate not only myself in the process of production, but viewers of this piece, on the genocide in Gaza and what American college students are doing to help. To create this collage I used readymade pictures of protests from magazines and newspapers to cut out and patch together a narrative of current protests for divestments, financial transparency, aid for residents remaining in Gaza, and cutting ties with companies that are readily advancing Israel’s military from their universities. Using printed material from both currently circulated media and past protests such as the Brown v. Board of Education, demonstrations for support of desegregation, Title IX protections, equitable pay, and much, much more sourced from the WWU recycle center. Images of students, children, and young adults, both photographed and artistically rendered, emphasize the intersectionality of people participating in collegiate-age activism and mentorship from collegiate activists that has been proven to support the social and academic development of disenfranchised youth. This piece is layered deeply with many smaller scenes encompassed in the broader work and nods to further activist movements such as antiracism, reform/abolition of police, drug decriminalization, intergenerational activists, etc. I hope to impact viewers through the role of consciousness-raising which aligns with intersectional advocacy that can be seen for centuries in art movements. This piece was inspired by Hannah Höch’s work in Dadaist photomontage and the continuing failure of the U.S. to respond to and put into action the demands of citizens to invoke an immediate ceasefire. I highly encourage viewers of this piece to visit the Free Palestine Master Doc at the following link to further inform and educate themselves on what has been and can still be done: Palestine Doc 1105.pdf