New America Media, Question & Answer, Zaineb Mohammed, Posted: Oct 13, 2011

Ed. Note: New Jersey-native Eddie Colla is a Bay Area based artist whose creations have become some of the most popular artistic images to emerge from the Occupy Wall St. movement. New America Media’s Zaineb Mohammed spoke with Colla on the inspiration for the images, as well as their deeper meaning for the growing movement. Colla’s work can be seen via his Wordpress blog.

What drew you into the Occupy Wall St. movement?

I think there are a lot of common concerns - not just the financial structure of this country and the widening gap between the rich and the middle class, but also a lot of concern about how much control corporations exercise over the political system. That sort of inequity is what drew me to it initially.

And what made you use this mask in your artwork for the movement? What inspired you?

They are Guy Fawkes masks - in the 1600’s he was part of a plot to try and assassinate the king of England. The mask was worn in the 2006 film V for Vendetta. When the protestors were first down there in Lower Manhattan, they were wearing these masks, and that became a symbol of who was at Occupy Wall St.

I put the [American] flag on the mask because I feel like there’s a certain grassroots nature about this that is more democratic than a lot of what goes on in this country. A lot of people don’t like the use of flags because they think it shows patriotism or complicity with government, but that’s not why I used it. I used it to create this idea of an American Revolution.

The numbers 99:1 also appear in your artwork, on sidewalks and on the mask images. What is their significance?

I think they’re pretty good odds, aren’t they? I’d make a bet on something that’s 99:1. I think what’s encouraging about those numbers is that the people who have this disproportionate amount of power only have that power if everybody just rolls over and doesn’t do anything about it. To put it in simple terms, 99:1 is pretty hopeful – it’s a way to encourage people. There are so many more of us than them.

How did it all get started? How did the image expand to include multiple cities?

I put the mask and the 99:1 image up online and then a friend in LA called me and said, they’re putting this together in LA, so maybe you should make one for Occupy LA, and then I did one for San Francisco. And after that, people would send me messages, and just say, “I’m in Miami, can you do one for Miami?” There’s probably like 20 or something. If somebody sends me an e-mail, I’ll make them a version.

We had about 2,000 stickers made and they were gone in 3 days. We’re sending them out all over the country and the world. People can contact me through Facebook, or through my WordPress blog.

Why do you think this mask, this icon with the numbers 99:1 is resonating with people?

It’s a way for people to represent they’re solidarity with the movement. I think it’s important for people to have a way to do that – it’s good when artists can create things that give people who are not necessarily visual artists a way to express something.

It’s also an image that is specific to this particular event, that hasn’t been used before –there’s certain imagery out there that gets used for anything slightly revolutionary, like a raised fist, that sort of thing. But I felt like the mask was specific to what’s going on in Lower Manhattan.

What other images have you seen out there?

There’s quite a bit of stuff with the mask, as well as text pieces that simply say 99%. I’ve seen a lot of things that are sort of local, because these things are all happening on a city basis – landmark images. People have a connection to their city, so when that’s included in the logo, that gives them a closer connection to the movement.

It’s good to have a bunch of images. If you theoretically have a movement that represents 99 percent, there’s going be a huge amount of diversity in that population, so there needs to be a huge diversity in how people can express themselves.