TRUTH BE SOLD?

Groundswell Community Mural Project ©
www.groundswellmural.org

Acrylic on Wall
13 x 87 ft
2010

Lead Artist: Katie Yamasaki     
Assistant Artist: Menshahat Ebron
Youth Artists: Ifeatuanya Chiejina, Shianti Bratcher, Rebecca Cocks, Fanta Conde, Eugenie Frazier, Olivia Grabar Sage, Casey Jones, Arielena Pozo, Yasemin aynas, Urantia Rameriz, Hope Tenorio, Kiwelewa Mlimwengu
Location: 2836 Fulton Street, Brooklyn.
Community Partners: Reverend Billy, Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation

 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Collaborating with artists Katie Yamasaki and Menshahat Ebron, 13 young women worked to create an epic mural in Cypress Hills exploring the local and global ramifications of consumer culture. Grounded in a year of research in Groundswell’s Voices Her’d Visionaries afterschool program, the group explored the entire consumer process - from extraction to production, market research and advertising, buying and selling, and finally disposal. Relating the topic specifically to women, the group explored how consumption affects women on unique levels, as so many of our consumer goods are made by women and because young women are huge targets of the ad industry. The main theme of the mural explores how we as a society can move from one that values things over people to a culture that values people over our material possessions. Overcoming obsessions with brand-name goods and advancing toward a commitment to community and life, women are represented in various situations, becoming more colorful and vibrant as they become less consumed with material habits and more involved with nature and family and community.

Truth Be Sold? was featured in 'Caught in the Act', the community media program of BRIC Arts on Brooklyn Independent Television.

 

 

Special thanks to Brooklyn Independent Television, a community media program of BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn, for providing Groundswell with this clip.

The Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation (CHLDC) was formed in May 1983 by a group of activist residents and merchants. CHLDC is a not-for-profit community organization, serving 8,000 residents a year through a comprehensive array of community service programs and neighborhood development projects.

Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping, is an arts organization that uses theater, humor, and grassroots organizing to produce public campaigns that promote participatory democracy, ecological sustainability, and the preservation of vibrant communities and local economies.