WMMNA: Ed Hall, The Art Of Protest Banners

Sorry for being so slow with the updates on the blog this week. This morning i left London unimpressed by the Frieze art fair and took the train to Manchester. The lady at the hotel reception manages to wear two sets of fake eyelashes on top of each other, the weather is lovely and i’m following Creative Tourist‘s recommendation to embark on a Manchester Weekender, three days of celebration of art, literature, music and performances.

One of the exhibitions i was most eager to visit was On The March – An Exhibition of banners Made by Ed Hall at the People’s History Museum.

Ed Hall makes the most amazing, colourful handcrafted banners i’ve ever seen. Before discovering his work at an exhibition curated by Jeremy Deller for the Palais de Tokyo in Paris a few years ago, I had no idea you could still commission someone to design, paint, embroider and stitch protest banners.

Hall used to be an architect but he was also a trade union rep when Thatcher came into power. In the ’80s, he started drawing banners and posters to support Lambeth Council’s protest campaign against government restrictions on the amount of tax councils could charge. That was his first foray into protest art. Nowadays, he’s the UK’s foremost trade union and campaign banner artist.

Continue reading here.

Régine Debatty is the creator of the ‘We Make Money Not Art’ blog and an art show curator. She has also spoken at several conferences and festivals about the way artists, hackers and interaction designers (mis)use technology. Learn more about Régine Debatty.