Tuesday, 5 November 2019

"Rise Up - The Art of Protest" by Joanne Rippon, Foreword by Chris Riddell (Palazzo Editions)

There has been much need for a creative response to the way the world has been shaping up over the last few years, which makes "Rise Up: The Art of Protest" by Jo Rippon even more timely.

Clad in a fantastic pride-wearing rainbow decorated cover, Jo shows some of the brilliant ways artists and designers respond to breaches of human rights, whether instigated by governments, individuals or organisations across the world.

With a foreword by Chris Riddell, himself no stranger to offering up brilliant cartoons and drawings raging against injustice and the political machinations of ne'er do wells, this is the sort of book that would be utterly fantastic as the basis of a school project in the arts or social sciences, describing how we humans deal with violations of our liberties.

Worked on in collaboration with Amnesty International, the international organisation working tirelessly to protect our basic human rights, and broken up into different sections, the book does not shy away from showing brilliant pieces of protest art about poverty, climate change, gender inequality or sexual preference. It showcases some of the most iconic posters, adverts and designs that artists have drawn up.

Sum this book up in a sentence: As folk who always look out for the amazing signs and placards people come up with for stuff like the Climate Change protests, or the anti-Brexit demonstrations, this book was definitely right up our street.

"Rise Up: The Art of Protest" by Joanne Rippon with a foreword by Chris Riddell is out now, published by Palazzo Editions (kindly supplied for review).