Jamie Hewlett artwork for Extinction Rebellion projected on Houses of Parliament

Artist Jamie Hewlett has collaborated with Extinction Rebellion on a new artwork which was projected on the Houses of Parliament last night (8 October) as part of the activist group’s current action in London. The illustrator, designer and animator known for co-creating the comic book Tank Girl and animated group Gorillaz created the portrait, which depicts a hooded activist with a face mask scrawled with the phrase “Rebel for Life”. The character is also wearing a broken pair of goggles on their head, the Extinction Rebellion logo painted across both eyes.

The portrait was projected on the side of the parliament building in Westminster as part of a series of events over this and last week, organised by Projection Rebellion – a group of video artists, projection mappers and audiovisual production companies which have come together to support Extinction Rebellion with a series of guerrilla projections on prominent buildings and monuments in the UK. Last night saw the group also project an image of David Attenborough alongside his quote “We cannot be radical enough” and the XR logo with the tagline “#EverybodyNow”. Over the past week, the group has also projected artworks on Trellick Tower and the Tate Modern, where the so-called Red Rebel Brigade also staged a performance.

Hewlett said in a statement about the work: “When I was at school, I was told that I was a disobedient pupil and that I would never achieve anything, now it would appear that disobedience is the only way to achieve anything.”

Earlier this year, we spoke to three co-founders of Extinction Rebellion about the creative industries, one of whom said that “we’ve lost our connection with the activism within design.” The group’s action continues this week as it plans to “shut down Westminster” with its peaceful protests for at least two weeks.