Dissident Art

A person who dissents - a dissent is a formal, registered disagreement
Not necessarily revolutionaries (like not really the Founding Fathers)
- When you’re looking to dismantle the entire government and replace it with something else, we usually use the term revolutionaries
Dissidents oppose the policies or some of the leadership but aren’t really trying to dismantle the entire government
Usually not from the places where they dissent about (b/c that would be bad!)
Example: Dalai Lama has not been in Tibet for a long time because he opposes the Chinese occupation of Tibet, Alexei Navalny (the guy in prison)

Art is a way to express that disagreement against authority, whether it be film, drama, music, dance, television, etc.

none of his art is displayed in China because it’s critical of the Chinese government
doesn’t like the secrecy of the Chinese government and stuff
never will be optimistic about actions the Chinese government can take — is optimistic about people of the new generation who are able to get information from the Internet and stuff
thinks that the Internet is very good for China because they live in a very restrictive dictatorship, and the Internet is the only way for them to sense that there’s other people with different information and that is the foundation for a civil society
- says that the Internet offers a potential for social change
- doesn’t like about how people get punished due to having different opinions on the Internet
tries to protect the dignity of life, freedom of expression, and the essence of human rights & values
hopes that one day they realize that it’s a crime to not let individuals speak out their minds

basically got a bunch of Chinese people to make a 100,000,000 porcelain sunflower seeds and filled up the floor of a museum in London
Encouraged people to walk on the porcelain seeds and break and crush them
basically a metaphor that their work is becoming destroyed and stuff like that → message about the mass consumption of Chinese industry and the overexploitation of workers

there was an earthquake in China in 2009, so he is trying to protest the Chinese response to the earthquake
- they tried to cover up the damage
- the region that it affected was not well-equipped to fight against the earthquake
created a mural with a bunch of children’s backpacks with a quote from a mother saying “She lived happily for seven years in this world” (her child died in the earthquake )