I am fascinated by the political street art of Washington, DC.
Created by (mostly) unknown artists, these posters appear overnight, wheat pasted to construction siding, utility boxes, light poles and just about any flat surface downtown.
They express deep dissatisfaction with the current regime. Their messages are urgent, pointed, political. Dissent lives on in the nation’s capital.
Posted along high traffic areas, like Connecticut Avenue, they’re seen by thousands of people every day. People walking, driving, riding bikes and scooters. Bright, colorful, hard to miss.
It’s an ephemeral, ever-changing art form, subject to decay by wind, rain and sun or through human intervention, as they’re torn down by those angered by the anti-regime messaging.
This kind of art is often remixes or riffs on previous artworks, as we saw in the endless variations on the Sandwich Guy meme, who rocketed to fame last year for throwing a sub at a DHS officer.
And it’s not just political messages that appear on DC streets. Also appearing are announcements about album drops, new products or other commercial messages.
Conspiracy-minded Fox News “analysts” like to cite the existence of this art as evidence of a deep, well-funded, astroturfed resistance organization, some sort of super-antifa with a mysterious head directing these actions.
It’s laughable. These posters are inexpensive to produce and the material to affix them – wheat paste – can be made for pennies. Anyone with basic artistic skills can create street art.
Street art appears and disappears as artists roam the city overnight, putting up posters as the city sleeps.
It’s visual evidence that democracy isn’t dead, a kaleidoscope of images to prick the skin of tyrants and cheer the rest of us.
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