ARTISTS
An Incessant Unknowability: An Archive of Protest Inspired Typography and It鈥檚 Open Source Use
An Incessant Unknowability: An Archive of Protest Inspired Typography and It鈥檚 Open Source Uses is an exhibition created for ICA LA鈥檚 Annex gallery in conjunction with the Bookshelf Residency with GenderFail. The installation is based entirely on a publication of the same name published in early 2024 by GenderFail and presents the ongoing series of open source fonts sourced from and inspired by protest signs of events since the Stonewall Riots in 1969.
This exhibition features 19 risograph printed font specimen posters to showcase 10 protest fonts created since 2018. Every time these fonts are used in a poster, publication or graphic, its original source is incendiarily linked to its source materials鈥攆onts sourced from protests for Free Palestine; the historic Seize Control of the FDA action for ACT UP; The Brooklyn Liberation March for Black Trans Lives in 2020 during the pandemic; protests for fair union contracts for adjunct or support staff at RISD and Parsons; 鈥痶he unending protest signs of black people murdered by police or a single protest sign stating 鈥淢OTHER NATURE IS A LESBIAN鈥� and 鈥淚 AM YOUR WORST FEAR I AM YOUR BEST FANTASY鈥�. The history of these events live on each time the font is used by future generations of Queer, trans and non-binary people.
Recommended for you
An Incessant Unknowability: An Archive of Protest Inspired Typography and It鈥檚 Open Source Uses is an exhibition created for ICA LA鈥檚 Annex gallery in conjunction with the Bookshelf Residency with GenderFail. The installation is based entirely on a publication of the same name published in early 2024 by GenderFail and presents the ongoing series of open source fonts sourced from and inspired by protest signs of events since the Stonewall Riots in 1969.
This exhibition features 19 risograph printed font specimen posters to showcase 10 protest fonts created since 2018. Every time these fonts are used in a poster, publication or graphic, its original source is incendiarily linked to its source materials鈥攆onts sourced from protests for Free Palestine; the historic Seize Control of the FDA action for ACT UP; The Brooklyn Liberation March for Black Trans Lives in 2020 during the pandemic; protests for fair union contracts for adjunct or support staff at RISD and Parsons; 鈥痶he unending protest signs of black people murdered by police or a single protest sign stating 鈥淢OTHER NATURE IS A LESBIAN鈥� and 鈥淚 AM YOUR WORST FEAR I AM YOUR BEST FANTASY鈥�. The history of these events live on each time the font is used by future generations of Queer, trans and non-binary people.
Contact details
