protest art – Postcards from Barton Springs

Postcard from London, England: Sunflowers bloom amidst Shoreditch street art

January 16, 2024February 6, 2024 postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment

Sunflowers are heliotropic. To obtain their brilliant golden hue, their stalks turn, embracing the sun as it crosses the sky. Symbols of optimism and hope.

In 2014, a florist in Taiwan donated 1,000 sunflowers to students protesting a trade agreement between Taiwan and China. The Taiwanese students adopted the flower for their namesake – the Sunflower Student Movement.

Of course, the students cannot publicize their objections in China. But in 2022, some 17,000 tourists from China visited Great Britain. So what better spot to slap them in the face with symbolic murals they will recognize instantly – the trendy Shoreditch district in East London – its streets not shirking away from international protest art.

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Postcard from Oaxaca, Mexico: ‘Nobodies’ populate walls

February 21, 2023February 28, 2025 postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment

Above: Detail of “Los Nadies,” or “The Nobodies,” woodblock print murals by the Colectivo Subterraneos in the Xochimilco barrio of Oaxaca

Existimos, porque resistimos. Por los oprimidos, por los invisibilizados, por aquellos que quisieron enterrar, los subterraneos, existimos.

We exist, because we resist. For the oppressed, for the invisible, for those who wanted to bury, the underground, we exist.

Artist Statement of Colectivo Subterraneos

The one-story building at the corner of Calle Jose Lopez Alavez and Calle Bolanos Cacho, Barrio de Xochimilco, was a deep burnt red color until a team of enthusiastic artists armed with rollers gave it a new coat of deep pink this fall. They quickly papered the rough stucco canvas with a series of large, exquisitely detailed woodblock prints the young artists created as part of Colectivo Subterraneos.

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Postcard from Oaxaca, Mexico: More street art and signs of protests

January 30, 2015 postcardsfromsanantonio1 Comment

Randomly combining more photos of street art encountered during our month in Oaxaca with signs of protesters. Sometimes the messages seem the same.

The pulse of everyday comings and goings downtown seem barely affected by the those encamped in the middle of the Zocalo round the clock. Garlands of holiday decorations encircled graffiti. Band concerts continued. El Dia de los Rabanos went on much as planned, artistic displays surrounding the tents in their midst. Radish carvings were replaced by the return of the authorized shoeshine stands, bearing their own messages of peace and tolerance preached by the city.