In the summer of 2012 myself and Jonathan May set up the Trojan Protest Agency. The main aim of the Agency was to fulfil requests from the general public to protest on their behalf – essentially we were being paid to protest! Protests during 2012 included; demonstrating for a four day week, objecting to frozen school dinners and a Pussy Riot Protest Weekender Package (only £9.99).
The Protest Agency was a playful, provocative and ironic piece of subversion which blurred the boundaries between art and activism. We set up the Agency as a way of looking at protest and responsibility – as protest is reduced to pushing a button on Facebook and environmental responsibility to carbon off-setting what role does protest play in everyday lives?
In reality the outcomes of the Agency both personally and artistically was very different than expected and the public response to Trojan (both good and bad) made us reflect much more about ideas of labour and what we do for money.
At Least We Tried
In October 2012 we had a three night run at the Yard theatre in London with a performative lecture called “At Least We Tried†about our experience setting up and running the Trojan Protest Agency. The piece itself was part performative lecture and part personal exploration.