It’s been quite a year for whistleblowers. In the last six months or so, the information that Edward Snowden leaked has changed the world, but Snowden is still hiding in Russia, hoping that some country will grant him permanent asylum and a way to get there. Meanwhile, Chelsea Manning, the whistleblower behind what became the Collateral Murder video and so many other documents released through Wikileaks, was sentenced in August to serve 35 years in a military prison. And just a few days ago, the email of a US government whistleblower was hacked and documents essential to his case were deleted. With the US government taking such a harsh stance against whistleblowers, it is even more essential that we, the people, stand up to support them. With that in mind, I’ve started Whistleblower Art, a tumblr archive of art and design celebrating whistleblowers. Last July, I collected all the Snowden-related street art I could find for a post. Whistleblower Art expands on that post to include all whistleblowers (most notably Manning at this point) and art and design beyond just street art.
For Vandalog though, I’ve put together this update on my Snowden post: Pretty much all the street art, graffiti and murals I could find in support of whistleblowers.
Art by unknown artists as well as DROID 907, SARZ TKG, AMANDA WONG, Thierry Ehrmann, Camo, SLM Art, Bamn, Eclair Acuda Bandersnatch, Art is Trash and Plastic Jesus.
Photos by RJ Rushmore, SARZ TKG, Abode of Chaos, ajehals, lusciousblopster, Dan Nguyen, Bamn, Chris Christian, barbnerdy, svennevenn, mknmv, jamie nyc, Damon Landry, Hrag Vartanian and Equalized Graffiti