𝙼𝙸𝙳𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙼 𝙸𝙽𝚃𝙴𝚁𝚅𝙴𝙽𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽 - 𝙲𝙰𝚃

 STENCIL THE STREETS

stencil before the stencil

A modern-day oligarchy is a system where a small group of wealthy, powerful individuals or corporations subtly controls government policy and public narrative, often through immense wealth, media ownership, and political donations, rather than direct rule, shaping decisions to benefit their interests over the general public, seen in countries like Russia, China, and debated in the USA. It operates through indirect influence, lobbying, campaign finance, and controlling information, with oligarchs often maintaining legal immunity. My project is an art intervention that resists oligarchy through a simple stencil made from cardboard. The word “oligarchy” is sprayed in public spaces, with the letter “o” replaced by the universal “no” symbol.  This design  makes the message direct and easy to understand: a rejection of concentrated power held by a few. By using stencil and graffiti techniques, I connect my work to street art traditions that reclaim public spaces from corporate or government control. The unauthorized, often anonymous nature of graffiti allows artists to defy laws and unsettle the "monopoly" that authorities have over public messaging. Like protest art, the piece is meant to be repeatable, visible, and accessible, turning everyday walls into spaces for political expression and collective resistance. 

Richard Hamilton’s Kent State (1970) is a screenprint that portrays the murder of students protesting the Vietnamese war. It turns into a visual indictment of power and violence. Hamilton used mass-production techniques like screen printing to make a political image, showing how art can act as a form of protest that spreads widely and quickly, much like street art. Amapolay’s Unity is Strength is a contemporary serigraph (screenprint) that explicitly carries a political/social message about collective resistance and empowerment: the idea that people have greater power when organized together. Amapolay’s work draws on popular urban art and print traditions to highlight Latin American struggles and community solidarity, rooting its message in grassroots culture rather than elite institutions. Like Hamilton, I’m using simple imagery to call attention to an unjust power structure. Like Amapolay, I’m drawing on visual language (graffiti/stencils)to make a message about collective resistance legible in public spaces rather than in a gallery. 

Both referenced works show how print and graphic strategies have been used to amplify political critique outside traditional art hierarchies, opening up space for viewers to question dominant power structures. My project continues that tradition by taking a bold, easily reproducible symbol of resistance into shared environments, reclaiming public visual space from corporate or governmental control and aligning with the spirit of protest embodied in these prints. As VICE explains, “a new medium of protest art is reigning: memes. Simple to make and simpler to distribute” (Lazarro, “Memes Are Our Generation’s Protest Art"), suggesting that accessible, reproducible visuals carry power because they spread resistance quickly and directly. A second article states, “activist art is a powerful tool within a long varied history, that can call attention to the most pressing political social issues”, (Graf, “An Introduction to Activist Art”). Like the historic examples mentioned, my stencil invites collective engagement with urgent social issues in public spaces for anyone to see. With a creative twist to traditional graffiti works, my stencil was created with the intention of using "Old English Font" or calligraphy for the letters as it reminds me of the penmanship on the Declaration of Independence.

Kent State Richard Hamilton 1970

Unity Is Strength Amapolay 2024

⊘𝔩𝔦𝔤𝔞𝔯𝔠𝔥𝔶 

slide presentation