The Most Powerful Protest Objects

These art pieces have been used to promote social change.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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London's Victoria and Albert Museum is holding a curious exhibition titled "Disobedient Objects," opening July 25 and on view until Feb. 1, 2015. The show includes a variety of artistic tools that revolutionaries from a wide variety of cultures and time periods have used to help promote their social agendas, like protest signs, graffiti writing, and masks that hide the protestors' identities. Oppression is perhaps one of the best catalysts for innovation, and the exhibition "will demonstrate how political activism drives a wealth of design ingenuity and collective creativity that defy standard definitions of art and design," according to the press release. Here is preview of some of The Most Powerful Protest Objects used across history.

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Guerrilla Girls

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Dolls of the Zapatista Revolution, The Zapatista, Mexico

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L.J. Roberts, Gaybashers, Come and Get It, USA (2011)

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Coral Stoakes, I Wish My Boyfriend Was As Dirty As Your Policies (2011)

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Graffiti Writer (Robot for writing street graffiti), Institute for Applied Autonomy, USA (1998)

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Andy Dao and Ivan Cash, Occupy George Overprinted Dollar Bill (2011)

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Ed Hall, Banner for UNITE the Union, at the march in support of the NHS in Manchester (September 29, 2013)

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Chilean Arpilleras wall hanging: Dónde están nuestros hijos, from Chile Roberta Bacic's collection

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Capitalism Is Crisis banner at the Occupy London Stock Exchange (2009-12)

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Anonymous, Bike Bloc Graphic Poster

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Eclectic Electric Collective in co-operation with Enmedio collective during the General Strike in Barcelona, Inflatable Cobblestone (2012)

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Jonathan Slaff, Tableau of Three Puppets at The Bread and Puppet Theatre

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Bone china with transfers printed in green, bearing the emblem of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU)

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