Activism takes on many forms, but rather than using speeches and campaigns, many students use art to convey their message. Artist activists use varying mediums to educate people and mobilize change.

Junior Nora Kempainen used her photography skills in an art activism project on rape culture and sexism last year.  She developed the idea in photography class for an assignment called a Power Project, meaning the students had to use photography to convey their stance on an issue regarding traits such as gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status. “I chose to photograph sexism/rape culture because it’s an issue that is very important to me and I don’t think that enough people are really aware of it,” Kempainen said.  

Rape culture is a phrase to symbolize the actions many people participate in everyday which promote or validate sexual violence in society, specifically targeting women. Examples of this would be catcalling, victim blaming in events of rape and harassment and objectification. “Women are so often objectified and put down by society and by their peers … So many people, even in our own community, think that rape jokes are funny and that it is okay to treat women a certain way because of [their appearance] or certain decisions that they choose to make,” Kempainen said.

It’s normal for anybody who puts their opinion out in public to face backlash, but Kempainen states that she wasn’t concerned about people acting defensively about her project. “I think if people are truly educated on the issue then they won’t react negatively to it, and if they do get defensive, they likely don’t fully understand the issue.”

One of her main motives behind choosing this topic, besides her strong personal opinion on it, was to raise awareness. “Making people aware that it is a problem is the first step towards fixing it,” she said.

Similarly, junior Maya Edstrom created an art activism project called Not An Object which also focused on rape culture, specifically the objectification of women. “I was starting to educate myself about feminism and other social justice issues .. it’s an important issue as I and many other [people] face daily,” Edstrom said. Her project included photographs of women in her class with the phrase “Not An Object” written across their foreheads paired with handwritten notes detailing their personal experiences with objectification.

Edstrom states that she learned a lot as she did research and gained more experience over the years following her project. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is that as a white person, my thoughts surrounding feminism aren’t the same as everyone’s, especially women of color .. because they are dealing with things like systemic racism and oppression,” she said. After learning more about social justice issues, Edstrom’s views and knowledge of these problems developed.

Much like Kempainen, Edstrom realized that many people are uneducated about the focus of her project. “Some people, especially those who do not experience objectification, mainly those people who do not identify as female, don’t actually think it affects their classmates, and I wanted them to see on a personal level that it does,” Edstrom said. Artist activism like these two projects – using members of the school community – ensures that the message is loud and clear.