99%
Hey folks - this is a new project I launched in November 2011. Please help spread the word! I’ll be starting a Kickstarter in 2012 to raise funds to support the 99% and put some unemployed artists & sign painters back to work. Also, if you have additional languages that you could provide translation for – it would be super appreciated!
Big THANKS to translators and translator connectors: Eliza Barrios, Carolyn Castaño, Sarita Ahuja, Andre Ambrus, Srinivas Kuruganti, Kevin Chen, Violeta Krasni, Peter Haas, Taraneh Hemami, Juan Caguicla, Nano Warsono, Saideh Eftekhari, Christine Ahn, Ramon Murrillo, and Jake Thompson.
99% 99% is a public art/street art project that speaks to the need for a fundamental shift in the status quo approach to current economic models, labor, the environment, human rights, and the health and wellbeing of all. In support of the OCCUPY! movement, I am making a series of hand painted signs (1000 to start) with the statement “We Are The 99%” in different languages (so far I have English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Gujarati, Telugu, Hebrew, Hungarian, German, Roma, Serbian/ Bosnian/ Croatian, Russian, Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesian, Thai, Japanese, French, Italian, Czech, Slovakian, Polish, Dutch, Danish, Yiddish, Haitian, Swahili, Georgian, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Greek, Turkish, Vietnamese, Tamil, Armenian, Urdu, Estonian, Khmer, Burmese, Shoshone, Cherokee, and Sioux).
The signs all have bold black text on a color background painted on ¼” plywood in varying sizes. These are being distributed initially in San Francisco and Oakland to:
1. OccupySF and Occupy Oakland participants to be used at marches and protests – participants will be asked to display the signs in their home windows and/or tents when not in use. 2. Folks who might not have time to participate in the actual occupation, but want to lend support – to place in their windows in solidarity of the movement. 3. Small businesses to place in their windows in support and solidarity of the movement.
I am working to raise the funds to employ assistants (artists/sign painters who are currently unemployed) at $20/hour (a livable wage in the Bay Area) to help create and distribute the signs.
If the project is successful in the Bay Area, I will work to expand it to additional cities around the county and ultimately around the globe.
Until our voices are heard, the call for revolution will grow louder!