Wednesday, April 30, 2025

final intervention project - fatima flores

 quotes from the book

ch 9: utopia, the art of activism

“The joy of making our own free party instead of paying for over-priced drinks at a club was a lot of fun, but there was a political objective as well: to change people’s perspective about their everyday urban experience.”


ch 3: history, the art of activism

“The Civil Rights Movement taught a generation of activists about the power of image and performance, and these lessons were passed on…”


this is what i know about art

“They ask big questions and propose even bigger solutions. They show us that no matter where we come from or where we’re going, we can all take part in changing the communities around us. Because the possibilities of how we can use our space for good are endless.”


ch 1: the art of activism

“In our workshops, we are interested in finding out about the moment that people decided to become activists or socially-engaged artists, or just to give a damn. We ask them to recall the first time they realized that the world needed changing, and felt stirrings within themselves to be part of that change.”


my project is the concept of a memorial, a living/walking memorial for innocent victims being murdered by police. the idea for my project was to have people write on a piece of tape and put it over my body, while i walk around the mall and sit in the visual arts building. i made two signs, holding one against my shirt and a picket sign to carry in my purse and walk around in public with it. i have chosen this topic because it’s important for people to understand that, innocent people who were murdered by police, for simply, existing, will be forever be forgotten. and, i wanted people to write names of victims that were killed at the hands of police violence, for them to acknowledge that their names are never forgotten. when a piece of tape (with a name written on) is placed on my body, the person that wrote the name, will hopefully feel a sense of sadness, and for them to understand that, the victim will remain in everyone’s heart. i wish that someday, the family of murdered victims, will get their justice and their names will be known.

i published this project, in a semi-busy area at the mall. people have looked over my sign that i made, i got some questionable looks, others walked by and paid no mind, others whispered amongst themselves. it kind of disheartening to see that even with my signs, no one genuinely acknowledges about the amount of black people murdered. the support of the blm movement seemed to dropped drastically, it may be the one of the reasons why i didn’t really receive any feedback or have anyone acknowledge my signs.

this project fits into my professional aspirations, because this can help individuals understand the amount of black people being murdered, that their presence is fading, justice. even in an art class, its important to know that black live do matter. whether it’s representing the victims by painting a mural or writing a poem of the victims. showing that people can remember the victims, how creating art and with meaning behind it, can be considered as performance art. 

an artist that influenced me to create this performance was an artist named maya lin, who designed the vietnam veterans memorial in washington d.c. it was really intriguing to to seem maya lin’s memorial, because it’s known to everyone around the world. and, i wanted to incorporate the idea of the memorial, but instead of a statue, i’d make myself be the memorial; people would come up to me, write a name and place the name, so their names are never forgotten. another one of my influences in my project was an artist names hung liu. her gallery, ‘hung liu: living memorial’ is painted portraits of people who were on the verge of being forgotten in life. i thought it was a meaningful gesture, to making paintings of the people being forgotten after they’ve died. the black lives matter movement is a resource that has influenced me to make this project. during the blm protest, in the death of george floyd, activists shouted out names of black people who were killed into a megaphone. 

a couple of researches that had helped me the most was black lives matter movement website, black artists that organized an intervention and performances, statistics of the support of the blm movement that had dropped, and the protests of the blm movement during covid and beyond. the reason behind this was, there was so much i haven’t learned about blm. even during george floyd’s murder, the amount of activism from people around the country cared and educated themselves to know that black live matter, supporting grieving families that lost loved ones, supporting black-owned business and etc. and the amount of people seemingly ignoring to educate themselves the importances of blm movement and its resources. even though i’ve learned so much about the movement during my midterm project, i’d like to educate myself more with blm and try in incorporate it in a classroom, one day. 




also decided to post on instagram




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