Visual Messaging in Support of Justice for All, El Tecolote, commentary by Megan Wilson
From 2011 to 2016, as part of the Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP), I painted five large murals on the alley.
All five murals spoke, directly or indirectly, to the critical need for a fundamental shift away from capitalism that puts profit before all else and negatively impacts the health, environment, and wellbeing of all.
The response to each of these public works was, and continues to be overwhelmingly positive. I still meet people, who when they learn that I work with CAMP, will pull out their phones and show me an image of one or more of these murals, often being used as their screensaver. I’m also regularly contacted by students and academics who want to interview me, write about the murals, and/or use images of the work in books or articles.
Thankfully too, the murals rarely got tagged with graffiti, and when they were, it was fairly innocuous and easy to repair, with the exception of CAPITALISM IS OVER! If You Want It, which I encouraged during its final month as part of its conceptual framework.
While flattering to have one’s work hit a nerve among diverse and global audiences, more important to me is that the attention coincides with a shifting consciousness on the views of capitalism among youth.
According to a comparison of Gallup polls between 2010 and 2018, in 2010, 68 percent of youth ages 18-29 polled had a positive view of capitalism; in 2018 that percentage had dropped 23 points to 45 percent. Additionally in 2016, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) had 5,000 members. In 2019 that number has grown to 56,000.
In fall 2018, I replaced the “Stop The Corporatocracy” mural with one that now reads “End Apartheid B.D.S.” in large stylized letters in the foreground with slightly smaller, narrower text recurring in the background that reads “Boycott Divest Sanction.” The entire mural and pavement in front are adorned with my signature flowers. Like the five other murals, this one advocates for social justice and speaks to global systems of colonialism, imperialism, and development. More specifically, the work speaks to Israel’s oppression of Palestinians as an apartheid state. This claim is not just my personal belief; in 2017 the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) released a report on the treatment of Palestinians by Israel that concluded: “The weight of the evidence supports beyond a reasonable doubt the contention that Israel is guilty of imposing an apartheid regime on the Palestinian people.” Additionally, the mural directly advocates for the use of a non-violent economic response to human rights abuses.