Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority

Protestors, rows of riot cops, tear gas lobbed into crowds—these are the images that easily flood into the mind when one thinks about a gathering to protest the IMF, the WTO, a meeting of the G8, or the war on Iraq. The movement against corporate globalization has brought anti-authoritarian politics into the forefront of world consciousness, but what do we know—and what have we seen, really—of the cultural and aesthetic sides of these and other rebellions against the status quo? To date, precious little has been written by anarchists and anti-authoritarians about the role of art and culture in society, and in revolutionary movements like these.

Realizing the Impossible is an inclusive and sprawling collection of art and writings that addresses this gap in our understanding of revolutionary movements. Do-it--yourself printmaking, Zapatista video, street art in Argentina’s popular uprisings, radical puppetry, the monuments to Haymarket martyrs, turn-of-the-century Australian Industrial Workers of the World printmakers, illustrator Clifford Harper, and wobbly poet Carlos Cortez are just a few themes in this collection that bridges time and geographical and cultural boundaries.