Juan Downey

Juan Downey, ‘Chile Sí, Junta Nó’ (Chile Yes, Junta No) T-shirt, designed and printed for a demonstration against the Chilean military dictatorship in New York, 1974." alt="Juan Downey, ‘Chile Sí, Junta Nó’ (Chile Yes, Junta No) T-shirt, designed and printed for a demonstration against the Chilean military dictatorship in New York, 1974.

Juan Downey, Contact sheet of photographs from a demonstration against the Chilean military dictatorship in New York, 1974.

Juan Downey – CAVS Fellow 1973, 1975

Chilean artist Juan Downey was a Fellow at CAVS in 1973 and 1975. The 1973 military coup in Chile occured while Downey was at MIT. Downey worked across several media and is recognized as one of the pioneers of video art.

The Video Trans Americas (V.T.A) Series was a video-installation composed of videos recorded with a Sony portapak during Downey’s travels from North to Central and South America between 1973 and 1976, including living among the Yanomami Indians in the Amazon Rain Forest for a year.

Juan Downey, Footage of Video Trans Americas, courtesy of Centro de Arte Digital Juan Downey.

Juan Downey, Artist's statement, n.d.

The Delano grape strike was a 5 year long labor strike organized United Farm Workers (UFW) Organizing Committee protesting the exploitation of farm workers, specifically against the grape growers in Delano, Ca. Downey created the shirts below, which were given to local supermarket employees for free, as well as selling a limited edition of shirts to benefit the UFW.

Sally Quinn, "Dressing Up a Boycott", Washington Post, September 20, 1969.

Juan Downey, Silk screened shirt in support of Cesar Chavez’s strike against grape growers incorporating the symbol of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, 1969. 200 copies of the shirt were printed and given to local supermarket workers in Washington, DC.