Arizona photographer Sama Alshaibi said Democratic canvassers frequently knock on her door, sometimes up to three times a day. But she said she feels they’re not looking for her vote as an Iraqi-Palestinian in the battleground state’s neck-and-neck race.
“My husband is who they want to turn out the vote for,” Alshaibi told Hyperallergic. “They have never once asked what I’m doing.”
Born in Iraq, Alshaibi became eligible to vote in 2004 during former President George W. Bush’s second-term bid. She believes “the opportunity to vote is absolutely central” and is considering voting for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, whose platform explicitly opposes Israel’s war on Gaza.
“We’re rendered invisible, and I’m not going to help that by not voting, so with the Jill Stein vote there’s a vote for her platform which recognizes Palestine,” Alshaibi said.
Disillusioned with a choice between red and blue candidates, voters like Alshaibi are opting to go third-party or solely participate in local elections.
Hyperallergic asked six artists about how they felt about the candidates running for office, the issues that concerned them the most going into the election, and how they planned to vote.
Some said they are abstaining from voting in the presidential race, citing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s stated support for Israel, while others will vote blue in an effort to maintain civil liberties and protections, and to keep the former Republican President Donald Trump out of office. Among the most important hot-button issues that artists said would define their votes are funding for the Israeli military, immigrants’ rights, reproductive freedoms, and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Alshaibi is also focused on Arizona’s Senate race and ballot measures like Proposition 139, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution. Other proposed measures could change how Arizonans vote in future elections.
“I know my local vote is extremely important,” Alshaibi said. “Those are the most consequential votes in this ballot.”
In Lower Manhattan, photographer William Chan has been tabling for US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and participating in voter registration drives. He said he voted for Biden in 2020, but in this election, he won’t vote for Kamala Harris, US Representative Daniel Goldman, or US Senator Kristin Gillibrand because of their support for Israel.
“I’m not throwing my vote away … I’m just voting my conscience,” he told Hyperallergic. “I don’t want anyone to suffer the way the Iraqi civilians did, and I’m seeing that in Gaza right now.”
A former veteran who served in the US military’s invasion of Iraq, he is considering writing in “Gaza” or the name of a murdered Palestinian child in the ballot box.
“I was in the US Army and part of the invasion of Iraq,” Chan said. “I don’t want anyone to suffer the way the Iraqi civilians did, and I’m seeing that in Gaza right now.”
Celeste Viv Ly, a queer Cantonese-American interdisciplinary artist based in London and New York City, said they are likely not going to vote in this election as “an active choice to resist endorsing candidates” that they don’t support. This is the second general election cycle in which they have been old enough to vote. Among their biggest concerns are Israel’s attacks on Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and abortion rights.
“As an artist, I’m drawn to observe and question systems of power,” Ly said. “I find myself questioning whether the current political options generally represent the sort of transformative vision needed to address today’s current complexities.”
Those who withhold their votes, Ly added, can be pushed to engage in “more continuous and community-driven efforts” to enact change between election cycles.
Kenny Rivero, a Dominican-American painter and assistant professor in Visual Arts at Columbia University, lent his work to Art for Change’s campaign benefitting Michelle Obama’s nonpartisan organization When We All Vote.
Although some of his family members are not voting at all, he told Hyperallergic that he is inclined to vote Democrat on account of key issues relating to reproductive rights, incarceration, and immigration reform. Leading up to the election, Rivero said he’s lent his studio to activists to make banners, including pro-Palestinian protesters.
“There are a lot of people who can’t vote and wish they could vote,” Rivero said. Data have shown that voter disenfranchisement disproportionately affects incarcerated people.
Alicia Grullón, an artist and activist based in the Bronx, will vote in this election but doesn’t yet know for whom.
“I will be voting, and I’m not going to tell anyone to [vote],” Grullón said. On the New York City ballot, there are only two options for president: Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. Third-party candidates must be written in. “It’s a vote that is banking on people’s ignorance,” she continued.
The six propositions on the back of the ballot is where Grullón has focused her attention, particularly Proposition 1 — the state-wide Equal Rights Amendment that protects against discrimination based on factors including race, sex, pregnancy, and national origin. She is also concerned about other measures that would give the mayor more power over some legislative processes.
Grullón is weighing her vote in the presidential race against the prospect of Project 2025 coming to fruition, which will no doubt lead to mass deportations, she said. She’s also concerned with taxpayer money going to Israel.
Brooklyn artist Adama Delphine Fawundu told Hyperallergic that while she plans to vote for Kamala Harris, she is tired of going through election cycles “where we are voting for the ‘lesser evil.’” Her video performance work “In the Face of History Freedom Cape” (2020), which contends with the issue of voting in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, is currently on view at Prospect Park’s Lefferts Historic House through December 1.
Rewatching the piece, Fawundu recounted, gave her “chills.”
“Because it was like, ‘Here we are again with these mixed feelings about our future and who’s going to be the president,’” the artist said. She is still researching the candidates running in this year’s countywide judicial races, and stressed the importance of engaging with local elected officials outside of election cycles.
“I don’t think we should be waiting until it’s time to vote to be so fed up,” Fawundu said.
