{"id":17820,"date":"2020-07-21T06:45:38","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T10:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=17820"},"modified":"2020-07-21T06:45:38","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T10:45:38","slug":"protest-icons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2020\/07\/21\/protest-icons\/","title":{"rendered":"The Protest-Artists Behind The Icons To George Floyd,\u00a0Breonna Taylor,\u00a0Ahmaud Arbery"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It’s one thing to see someone’s name, but to see their face, it’s a reminder that the people are people,” says\u00a0Xerxes Butt, one of the artists behind the portable portraits of\u00a0George Floyd,\u00a0Breonna Taylor,\u00a0Ahmaud Arbery,\u00a0Philando Castile,\u00a0Tamir Rice, Mubarak Soulemane and Fred Hampton that have appeared at recent\u00a0Black Lives Matter protests in Cambridge and Boston.<\/p>\n

The larger-than-life-sized portraits depict the dead with gold halos around there heads,\u00a0like holy icons to martyrs murdered by people needing to enforce the lie of white supremacy.<\/p>\n

“They used to be alive,” says\u00a0David Fichter, another of the artists.<\/p>\n

“They didn’t deserve to die,” Butt says.<\/p>\n

\"Protest<\/a>
Protest icon of George Floyd at The Movement Continues rally at Cambridge Common, June 7, 2020. (Courtesy David Fichter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The project began, Butt says, when “David just called up a couple people and said, ‘Let’s make some interesting protest signs.'”\u00a0The Cambridge artist invited people who’d helped him create the\u00a0Mystic River Mural Project\u2014which\u00a0runs for hundreds of feet along Mystic Avenue in Somerville showcasing the area’s history and nature\u2014and other murals and mosaics.\u00a0Fichter says he aimed “to infuse art into the marches and rallies and get it on a scale that can be seen from a distance.”<\/p>\n

They painted the portraits about 4 or 5 feet tall, on pink foam insulation board that’s sturdy, but lightweight for portability. They added gold mirror on some. And as protests began at\u00a0the Whole Foods Market\u00a0in Cambridge,\u00a0where employees have protested being sent home without pay for wearing Black Lives Matter masks while working at the\u00a0River Street business,\u00a0they painted a new icon depicting a store worker wearing a coronavirus mask reading “Black Lives Matter.”<\/p>\n

“People are really happy to see them whenever we bring to demonstrations,” Butt says. “They’re happy to see other people supporting the same cause.”<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/a>
Painting the protest icons. (Courtesy David Fichter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Back in the ’80s, I used to make protest signs. A lot of the protests then were about Central America and there was the nuclear freezingse, which was to stop nuclear weapons,” Fichter recalls. He’d paint portraits of people killed in Central American wars, “the Reagan wars.”<\/p>\n

“When these events happened,” Butt says, “I just felt like I need to do something, but I wasn’t sure what. I feel like a lot of my activism is through my artwork. … I’m showing my solidarity through my artwork.”<\/p>\n

\"Xerxes<\/a>
Xerxes Butt works on a mosaic with David Fichter at Cambridge’s Moses Brown Youth Center, July 6, 2020. (\u00a9 Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Butt, a painting major at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, is being supported by foster care in Connecticut. She told her social worker about creating the protest signs. “I sent her a picture of what I’m working on. She was so touched and proud of me for protesting and making art about it.” The social worker shared the photos with her superiors in the Connecticut Department of Children and Families.<\/p>\n

“One of the higher ups wanted to put the picture on the DCF website,” Butt says. “People are saying they want to abolish the police and replace them with more therapists, psychiatrists and social workers. … Their jobs are really important. The police didn’t help me get into a better home. It was these social workers, these women who believed me.”<\/p>\n

Pictured at top: David Fichter (right) with the protest icons at The Movement Continues rally at Cambridge Common, June 7, 2020. (Photo: Marc Levy \/ Cambridge Day) Thanks to Cambridge Day<\/a> for permission to use their photos.<\/em><\/p>\n

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If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

All content \u00a9 copyright by Greg Cook or its original creators.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Protest<\/a>
Protest icon at Whole Foods Market in Cambridge, where workers have protested being sent home without pay for wearing Black Lives Matter masks while working at the River Street business. (Courtesy David Fichter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Protest<\/a>
Protest icons seen behind Bishop Brian Greene of Pentecostal Tabernacle as he speaks at the Movement Continues rally at Cambridge Common, June 7, 2020. (Photo: Marc Levy \/ Cambridge Day)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Protest<\/a>
Protest icons at Whole Foods Market in Cambridge, where workers have protested being sent home without pay for wearing Black Lives Matter masks while working at the River Street business. (Courtesy David Fichter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"David<\/a>
David Fichter holds protest icon of Tamir Rice. (Courtesy David Fichter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"David<\/a>
David Fichter (right) with the protest icons at The Movement Continues rally at Cambridge Common, June 7, 2020. (Courtesy David Fichter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Protest<\/a>
Protest icon of George Floyd. (Courtesy David Fichter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Painting<\/a>
Painting the protest icons. (Courtesy David Fichter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“It’s one thing to see someone’s name, but to see their face, it’s a reminder that the people are people,” says\u00a0Xerxes Butt, one of the artists behind the portable portraits of\u00a0George Floyd,\u00a0Breonna Taylor,\u00a0Ahmaud Arbery,\u00a0Philando Castile,\u00a0Tamir Rice, Mubarak Soulemane and Fred Hampton that have appeared at recent\u00a0Black Lives Matter protests in Cambridge and Boston. The larger-than-life-sized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,100],"tags":[91,798],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17820"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17873,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17820\/revisions\/17873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}