OCCUPY ART // Occupy.Inside.Out Puts Faces With A Movement

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

Last week we relayed a call from Brooklyn photographer Steven Greaves and the folks at TED.com, who needed volunteers to help wheat paste Greaves' 99 portraits of everyday people involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement throughout Downtown Manhattan. The project, occupy.inside.out, was staged as part of photographer JR's global Inside Out endeavor.

We're happy to report that the wheat pasting was a massive success. Greaves sent along some photos of the portraits going up and told us more about the project. "We wanted to offer people a way to share their stories," he says. "The Occupy Wall Street movement has been portrayed as a mob of discontent. While there are definitely complaints, that's not the whole story. What we've experienced is much to the contrary: veterans, priests, doctors, lawyers and other everyday people who are more than just angry. These people work every day of their lives and are starting to become empowered to do something about the injustices that they see around them and in the system."

Check out photos of the occupy.inside.out wheat pasting after the jump.

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

image courtesy of Charles Meacham - http://www.charlesmeacham.com/

-- John Ruscher

OCCUPY ART // Occupy Wall Street Art: From Shepard Fairey To Vampire Squids

Zuccotti Park has been the rallying point for the Occupy Wall Street protests here in NYC for the past month, but the movement's energy has traveled quickly, not just via the news and social media, but also through the increasing number of artists taking up the cause. For instance, Shepard Fairey designed the invitation for this past Saturday's Occupation Party, which asked people to congregate in Times Square for "music, performance and a message that the people of this country — not the banks, not the corporations — hold the true power." 

We heeded that call, heading up to the Great White Way with thousands of others. The music took the form of a brass playing amid the crowd and, later on, a massive sing-along to "This Little Light Of Mine." Performance came in all sorts, from the invitation's request that people where white as a symbol of hope, to someone posing as Lady Justice against, to blood-covered "corporate zombies" from NYC's annual Zombiecon.

Check out photos from The Occupation Party after the jump, along with a breakdown of some of our favorite Occupy Wall Street-related art.

"No Comment" - This exhibition of art inspired by Occupy Wall Street was staged in the belly of the beast, at 23 Wall Street, once the headquarters of banking giant J.P. Morgan.

OccupyWriters.com - This fast-growing collection of authors and writers who support Occupy Wall Street has published original works by a few of them, including the excellent "Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance."

Vampire Squid - Illustrator Molly Crabapple created this downloadable poster inspired by Matt Taibbi's description of Goldman Sachs as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity" in a Rolling Stone article.

Adbusters Designs - The Canadian magazine that sparked Occupy Wall Street also has a nice collection of downloadable poster designs.

"What Does Occupy Wall Street Mean For Art?" - A Village Voice article by art critic Martha Schwendener that examines art's role at Zuccotti Park and the art world's complex relationship with wealth and social change.

And now for more Occupation Party photos:

-- John Ruscher