Anthropologist Lévi-Strauss said that object is thought solidified. Art and protest collide at Victoria & Albert Museum in London which agreed by delighting us with an exhibition called Disobedient Objects.
Many of the rights and freedoms we enjoy today were won by disobedience. Activist social movements have changed our world from the grassroots up, popularising new ideas and values. The objects made as part of these movements have played a key role in those cultural and political changes.
Disobedient Objects was an exhibition of art and design from below. The objects on show were not made by commercial designers, but by people collectively taking design into their own hands to make a change in the world. The makers often worked under duress with limited resources, driven to out-design authority using imagination and creativity.
From the late 70’s to the present, disobedient making has changed with a new cycle of global social struggles and new technologies.
