If you’re at a loose end in Lambeth this weekend, you should take yourself along to From Nope to Hope: Art vs Arms, Oil and Injustice. The exhibition, which was scheduled to end on September 23, reopened on Tuesday, September 25, and will now run until Sunday September 30 thanks to support from Lambeth council. The works that are now on display at the Brixton Recreation Centre originally made up a third of the Hope to Nope exhibit at the Design Museum.
The rebel exhibition showcases over 250 pieces of art, which were removed by 40 artists on August 2, 2018, following news that the Design Museum had hosted an event for Leonardo, a major global arms company. Leonardo has armed and supported human rights abusing regimes around the world, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Philippines.
From Nope to Hope: Art vs Arms, Oil and Injustice also displays other pieces of activist art that have tried to influence politics and call out injustice. Shepard Fairey, the Guerrilla Girls, Peter Kennard, Tania Bruguera, Gee Vaucher, Milton Glaser and Jonathan Barnbrook are some of the artists who have their works on display.
The artist Peter Kennard, who contributed a banner of his piece ‘Union Mask’ said in a press release: “Artists are the canaries down the mine; they think and act in times of emergency. Now, across the world, artists are campaigning against institutions that take money from the arms, fossil fuel and the tobacco industries. I withdrew my work ‘Union Mask’ from exhibition in the Design Museum permanent collection in solidarity with the Hope to Nope artists who are uncompromising in their belief that the art they make is not separate from the ethical values they hold.”
Entry to the exhibition, which is in the Brixton Recreation Centre (27 Brixton Station Road, SW9 8QQ) from 12:00 - 20:00, is free.
