OUGD505 / Studio Brief 01 / Research / Protesting with faeces

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/a-brief-history-of-people-protesting-stuff-with-poop-197?utm_source=vicefbuk

'In fact throughout history, whenever oppressed masses have dropped their shit as arsenal,

rulers have been shaken because it often marks the beginning of a social uprising.'

'In 2011, at least one protestor seemed to think it was a good idea to squat on a cop car at the Occupy Wall Street protests (despite all the flak and heat protestors were taking for poor sanitation at their campsites and the plethora of other avenues of effective dissent open to them.)

In 2012, members of the Continuity Irish Republic Army imprisoned in the high-security Maghaberry facility outside Belfast launched a "dirty protest" against new full-body search protocols, smearing their cells with stink streaks in a meaningful callback to the strategies of IRA prisoners held in abysmal conditions in North Ireland's Maze prison in the early 1980s.

In 2013, protestors in Cape Town, South Africa perhaps planted ideas in the heads of the current student protestors by launching a mass (bowel) movement, pinching and pitching loafs onto the provincial legislature building, the international airport, the bus transporting the regional premier, and throughout a series of low-income settlements to protest poor sanitary conditions and economic disparities. The same year, a similar tactic spread to Zimbabwe, where a man spared a free speech charge by using a campaign poster from dictator-President Robert Mugabe's political party to wipe his wide load. Even Texans may have joined in, as highly contested reports emerged that summer that 18 jars of waste were confiscated from pro-choice protestors demonstrating outside of the state senate as it debated stringent new abortion restrictions.'

This portrait of Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is painted in faeces by Amerian artist Katsu; his rationale for the work:

'"Mark is Mark. He's this mutation, this gross aspiration everyone idolises. His face has reach. He deserves to be ridiculed," the artist told Gizmodo at the time. "There are some that are fighting to protect privacy, anonymity and freedom and those who are trying to control, monitor and make profits. I want to let people know my beliefs."' 

'A portrait of Mark Zuckerberg painted from human faeces is being exhibited in New York as part of an exhibition commenting on technology's effects upon humanity.'