Resist! A portfolio of protest art

If art is to be an outlet for human expression then in troubled times you should rightly expect it to reflect when things are fucked. Former Dazed editor Rod Stanley’s publication, Good Trouble, has been celebrating the culture of resistance since 2016’s U.S. election rocked the world into recognising its brutal powert structures and the necessity of protest.

“I think the intersection of art and creativity with politics and protest is timely, important and an often under-covered area of culture. I’ve always been interested in the role of arts and culture to affect political change, and that seems more important than ever at the moment,” explains Stanley.

The images here were submitted in response to the single-word stimulus: “Resist”, and run as a special ‘art dossier’ in the centre pages of the 12-page broadsheet newspaper, featuring work from Jamie Reid, Lara Ogel, Mark Titchner, Koak, Gareth Pugh, Lawrence Lek, and Catherine Opie. Reid submits a variation of his swastika-imposed 1977 image of the Queen Elizabeth II, this time including Donald Trump, and an image of two young women from a Central Park anti-war rally in 1968 is laid behind a painted face from contemporary London in the foreground.

“The aim of Good Trouble is to investigate, tell stories, and ‘celebrate the culture of resistance’, highlight inspiring individuals and groups who are using creativity as a tool to create change,” he said. “It’s meant to be fun and interesting and hopefully occasionally inspiring”.

Buy Good Trouble here.