Political art
Increasingly artists are using the well accepted format of the book to deliver a political message, reflecting opinions of their society and times. War is a fertile ground for artistic comment but other political issues including social and foreign policy and race relations are all open to the artist's interpretation.
Ian Howard's Action man story, subtitled 'a parable about a universal soldier and his public', is a first person narrative of a soldier at war using World War II imagery. Noga Freiberg and Peter Lyssiotis' Homeland explores the green lines that divide their respective homelands and was produced at the beginning of the Iraq War. Lesley Pople and Sue Anderson in Australia Unfair use the protest media of graffiti and stencils to comment on a range of government policies. The messages are powerful, but compared to other forms of protest art, the small editions in which these works are made limits their potency as agents for social change.
Noga Freiberg (b. 1962)
Peter Lyssiotis (b. 1949)
Homeland
Burwood, Vic: Masterthief, 2003
Edition: 3 of 20 copies
Australian Library of Art
State Library of Queensland
ALAAB FRE
Lesley Pople (b. 1943)
Sue Anderson (b. 1948)
Australia unfair
Sydney: Lesley Pople and Sue Anderson, 2007
Edition: Unique
Australian Library of Art
State Library of Queensland
ALAAB POP
Karen Hanmer (b. 1961)
Patriot alphabet
Chicago: K. Hanmer, 2004
Edition: 9 of 20 copies
Australian Library of Art
State Library of Queensland
ALAAB HAN
Last updated: 29th November 2011
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