JANUARY 2021
CENTER GALLERY
I Protest | Michael Conti
The images in I Protest were made with anger and desperation and anxiety and hope, from both subject and photographer. This document records expressions of dissent and peaceful protest by people across cultures and borders and classes and genders, in word and deed, individuals and groups, in both public and private.
Artist Statement
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution declares that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
In the spirit of that document, these images record the expressions of dissent and peaceful protest by people across cultures and borders and classes and genders, in word and deed, individuals and groups, in both public and private.
These images were made with anger and desperation and anxiety and hope, from both subject and photographer. There was a shared sense of purpose in these voices of dissent against violence and oppression and environmental destruction and economic exclusion and disenfranchisement.
This series of images were made in 2016 going forward. It is fitting that they should show four years later in January of 2021.
Artist Bio
Michael Conti is a photographer, mixed media and video artist based in Anchorage, Alaska. He earned a BFA from the University of Alaska Anchorage and an MFA from Lesley University College of Art and Design. In 2016 he mounted a solo exhibition at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art at Rasmuson Center. His video work has been shown at the Nam June Paik Art Center in Seoul, South Korea, ContainR at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada and won awards at the Anchorage International Film Festival. In May and June of 2016 he was an artist in residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute.
He received a project award from the Rasmuson Foundation in both 2006 and 2015 and is a Connie Boocheever Fellow from the Alaska State Council on the Arts in 2011. He presently teaches printmaking, photography and video art at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
