A form of peaceful resistance is mocking the devil. It is what the devil hates. Those without power can not do much. This they can do, and it can be effective. Last week two interesting installations of resistance art appeared in the two capitals of the countries that warred in the failed Southern Rebellion of the 1860s. First in the weekend, Project Scholl posted four thousand posters, of seven designs by Robert Russell, in the style of patriotic propaganda against nazism in the District of Columbia. The group was named after a twenty-one year old martyr, Sophie Scholl 1943☨ who was guillotined for treason (as was her brother Hans, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell, Kurt Huber), and for the distribution of anti-war leaflets in Nazi Germany.
A few miles away, a few days later, the art collective, Indecline, made eight dummies dressed as clowns with ku klux klan robes. They hanged them, by rope, in Richmond's Joseph Bryan Park. In 1800, twenty-six slaves were hanged in that park. They had been led by a blacksmith named Gabriel, before “Gabriel’s Rebellion” could be realised, they were found out and captured.
Authorities in both cities were not amused. The posters began to be torn down. The resistance artists came during the night. The police came in the morning and closed the park, and took down the Ku Klux Klowns.
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