For Freedoms is an artist-led organisation using billboards as a catalyst for civic engagement, discourse and direct action. Eric Gottesman, Hank Willis Thomas, Michelle Woo and Wyatt Gallery started the initiative in the run up to the 2016 US election. Since inception, they have collaborated with over 1,000 artists, from Carrie Mae Weems and Theaster Gates to Ai Weiwei and Jenny Holzer. This is their first comprehensive monograph, with over 550 signboards created between 2016 and 2023.
If there’s one piece that directly sums up the spirit of this volume, it’s Christine Sun Kim’s Words Shape Reality (2018). Her work took on profound significance in the wake of AAPI hate amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Verbal and written expression have real and potentially destructive consequences. However, there is a glimmer of hope: the way we communicate also has the power to build a better tomorrow.
One striking example of this is Derrick Adams, Michele Pred and Willis Thomas’ Ode to Bayard Rustin (2018). Cars zipping up the Miami highway would’ve seen the profile of the African American civil rights leader looking at the imperatives: “Ride, Walk, Drive, March, Vote.” It prompts drivers to think about the activists that have come before and their own ability to enact change. In a skyline filled with varied messages – the poster in the background advertis- es a Florida Gun Show – this is one crucial call to action.
For Freedoms’ book offers revealing new insights with every page, from powerful protest slogans to the rejected boards that point to the “collective pain points” of the United States. It’s a place to see the important campaigns that have dotted the American landscape and sparked endless critical conversations.
For Freedoms: Where Do We Go From Here? | Phaidon
Words: Diana Bestwish Tetteh
Image Credits:
- Marilyn Minter, If Not Now When?, Boring, OR, 2020 2020 Awakening In Collaboration with McCourt Global Photographed by Lincoln Barbour Courtesy of the Artist.
- Christine Wong Yap, How do you keep your heart open? (For Susan), Omaha, NE, 2020, 2020 Awakening, In Collaboration with McCourt Global, Photographed by Jeff Scroggins.
