…Exploring the role of the prankster as artist, activist and social observer and the significance of the prank in society.
The artist as social provocateur and activist incorporates humor, satire, irony, political commentary and/or direct action to provoke critical thinking. Pranks challenge convention and the status quo and expose prejudices and biases.
Traveling into or out of the United States (and want to be able to travel without the fear of deportation)? Show the authorities that your online activity from the past five years has been pre-screened and approved.
Print your customizable Social Media Compliance Certificate, by artist Joey Skaggs, and keep it with your passport and other important travel documents.
https://joeyskaggs.com/works/social-media-compliance-certificate/.
It’s about time…
“Learn ‘How to Be a Guerrilla Girl’ at The Getty,” by Beverly Press, November 26, 2025.
Coinciding with the Guerrilla Girls’ 40th anniversary, “How to Be a Guerrilla Girl,” on view at the Getty through April 12, 2026, offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look into the inner workings of the iconic feminist art collective.
Drawing from the Getty Research Institute’s remarkable Guerrilla Girls archive, the exhibition highlights the strategies – anonymity, data gathering, protest actions, culture jamming and grassroots distribution – that have defined the group’s groundbreaking practice since the mid-1980s.
The Guerrilla Girls have created a newly-commissioned work for the exhibition that explores the Getty’s own collection of European painting and sculpture. Using comic strip style speech bubbles, they reimagine the voices of women represented in these artworks through a twenty-first century lens. The commission exposes deeply rooted biases in the representation of women in Guerilla Girls characteristic witty style. Read the whole article here.
Dancers protest Trump’s cultural appropriation.
“Protest Dance Outside Kennedy Center Targets Trump’s Attack on Culture,” by Emma Cieslik, Hyperallergic, November 24, 2025.
Dozens of workers have been terminated since the president took over the institution in February.
WASHINGTON, DC — On Saturday, November 22, protestors expanded and crunched their bodies, arms rising and falling with flicked wrists, as they marched in front of the Kennedy Center with stoic expressions. Passersby would be excused for mistaking it for an official performance, but the show outside the nation’s art center was actually a “dance protest” organized in response to President Trump’s rising authoritarianism.
While DC was buzzing with action across the city at the Remove the Regime march and fold-in event at the Lincoln Memorial, the Kennedy Center offered a powerful backdrop for resistance. Days before, the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works launched an investigation into cronyism and corruption at the Kennedy Center under the leadership of Richard Grenell, whom Trump appointed as the institution’s interim president in February. Read the whole article here.
Thanksgiving Dinner 44 years ago.
Joey Skaggs, with the help of friends, students from the School of Visual Arts, and Abyssinian Baptist Choir, created a stark portrayal of a Thanksgiving feast at the United Nations Plaza on Thanksgiving Day.
You better watch out…
“‘Most hated event on the planet’: New movie shows the rise of San Francisco’s SantaCon,” by Dan Gentile, SFGATE, October 31, 2025.
The trailer just dropped for ‘SANTACON,’ which premieres at the DOC NYC film festival on Nov. 13.
There are few San Francisco events as divisive as SantaCon. The yearly, debauchery-filled bar crawl features hundreds, if not thousands, of costumed Santas rampaging through cities across the country, leaving a trail of inebriated chaos in their wake. But it wasn’t always this way.
A new film is set to premiere on Nov. 13 at the DOC NYC film festival and is simply titled “SANTACON,” directed by Seth Porges, whose previous work includes “Class Action Park” and “How to Rob A Bank.” The first trailer, released on Friday, begins with footage of violent Santas and also shows Jimmy Fallon mentioning the New York Police Department’s understanding of the event as “the nightmare before Christmas.” Local news anchors declare that locals want the event to be canceled, and text appears on the screen proclaiming SantaCon the “most hated event on the planet.” Read the whole article here.