“As a collective group of Australian artists, we have been driven to reclaim public advertising space with posters speaking to the Australian government’s inaction on climate change and the devastating bushfires. We do not accept that this situation is ‘business as usual’. We are making these issues visible in our public spaces and in our media; areas monopolized by entities maintaining conservative climate denial agendas. If the newspapers won’t print the story, we will!”
The statement above comes from BushfireBrandalism, a new initiative that just launched in Australia last week, following the footsteps of the global and ongoing Brandalism movement. In well-coordinated actions across 3 major cities, 78 advertising posters have been replaced with bespoke thought-provoking images and messages created by local artists and creatives, speaking to the current climate crisis seen via devastating drought and unprecedented bush fires. Focusing on a range of subjects including the fossil fuel industry, the bravery of the local firefighters, and the destruction of the country’s unique flora and fauna, the works promote direct access to the relevant information and over 30 charities combating the issue via QR code. Some of the behind the scene action can be seen in the video published by the initiative:
#BushfireBrandalism Across Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane
Beyond the bushfires, the intervention speaks more broadly to the use of conventional advertising space in Australia. With one entity controlling 59% of all daily newspaper sales, the campaign wanted to question the position of the media landscape and its coverage of issues concerning climate change as well as other relevant topics.
The artists and creatives that contributed to this initiative include Georgia Hill, Tom Gerrard, Sarah McCloskey, Amok Island, Andrew J Steel, Blends, Callum Preston, Cam Scale, Damien Mitchell, Dani Hair, DVATE, E.L.K, Ed Whitfield, FIKARIS, Fintan Magee, HEESCO, JESWRI, Ghostpatrol, Leans, Lluis fuzzhound, Lotte Smith, Lucy Lucy, Makatron, Michael Langenegger, Peter Breen, The Workers Art Collective, Stanislava Pinchuk, The Lazy Edwin, Thomas Bell, Tom Civil, WordPlay Studio, Peter Breen. Thanks to the many participating artists and creative professionals who chose to remain anonymous, 20 volunteers, MilkBar Print, Brandalism UK , Bill Posters, Sasha Bogojev, Ian Cox, KGB Crew, Public Access, Nicole Reed, Luke Shirlaw, Jordan Seiler, After Midnight Film Co, Everfresh Crew, The Culprit Club, The Peep Tempel, Waste, Wing Sing Records, Adam Scarf, NCCP, Gabby Dadgostar, James Straker, Partier Bresson, and Charlotte Pyatt
comment