All The Instruments Agree
Posted February 9, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics | Comments (2)
This is an essay written by Eric Triantafillou that is included in Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today. Eric wrote the piece as a provocation to political printmakers, asking all of us to think deeper about what we do, and question whether it is accomplishing the things we think it should or we want it to. I find it challenging and valuable, and want to post it here in hopes of starting a broader discussion. Please give it a read and chime in. I know a number of artists that have read it and have questions and conflicts, so here's the place to raise them!:
All The Instruments Agree
Eric Triantafillou
The façade of a now-defunct police station in San Francisco’s Mission District is plastered with street art. It is a visual cacophony of posters, flyers, stencils, paintings, drawings, and the hand-scrawled responses of passers-by. A remnant of the housing struggles that began in 2000, today this wall is a public commons that transmits information about everything from legal rights workshops to communist party meetings and yoga classes; also occupying its surface are corporate ads cloaked in DIY lino-chic. It is also a screen onto which people project thoughts and feelings about the world they fear and visions of the one they want.
Slideshow/Discussion this Wednesday @ AS220 in Providence
Posted February 6, 2010 by shaun in People's History! | Comments (0)
If you're in Providence, Rhode Island this week, please come by AS220 on Wednesday the 10th and participate in the discussion and slideshow I'm putting on! It's free to the public and starts at 6pm at the AS220 performance space on Empire Street:
"I Brake For Historical Markers"
6-8:30pm, Wednesday, February 10
Pittsburgh-based artist Shaun Slifer will present a slideshow and discussion of problematic and progressive historical monuments and plaques with an eye towards remembering the often-buried stories of struggles for social justice. Slifer will discuss the Howling Mob Society's 2007 guerilla historical marker series commemorating the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
ADM Tries to Take Down Funny Video; Big Business Has No Solutions; Now What?
Posted February 6, 2010 by k_c_ in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting | Comments (0)
Davos Annual Meeting 2010 - ADM CEO Patricia Woertz from World Economic Forum on Vimeo.
A legal complaint from agribusiness giant ADM has resulted in the removal from Youtube of a fake video of ADM's CEO making over-honest pronouncements.(The video is still available here, here, and, for download and reposting, here.)
Last week, the filmmaking team behind The End of Poverty? partnered with the Yes Men to create a parallel, imaginary World Economic Forum in which world leaders came up with real solutions to poverty. The leaders seemed, in a series of videos, to be supporting a set of initiatives based on 10 Solutions to End Poverty, a petition for which the filmmakers are trying to get ten million signatures by the end of 2010.
Think Outside the Bomb (Call for Entries)
Posted February 5, 2010 by meredith_stern in Calls for Art | Comments (0)
Call for Submissions for Zine
Think Outside The Bomb, a national anti-nuclear youth network, wants to hear from you and your community about the anti-oppression struggles you are engaged in, whether they be against nuclearism, militarism & war, patriarchy, racism, capitalism, etc. This summer we are going on a three-month, 40-city tour of the USA, where we will distribute a tour zine. This zine will feature submitted poetry, essays, photos, action and campaign information, and a tour CD containing spoken word, spoken essays, and music.
How to Submit:
Please send submissions of essays, poems, short stories, information on upcoming and ongoing campaigns and actions, and other written work in digital format by the deadline to: thinkoutsidethebombtour@gmail.com. Songs, spoken pieces, photos, drawings and other digital media can also be sent to the email address. Hard copies of art works to be digitized can be sent to the mailing address listed below.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Please submit no later than March 15, 2010 Email: thinkoutsidethebombtour@gmail.com Mail: TOTB Tour Zine, 1925 Five Points Road SW Albuquerque, NM 87105
A week of solidarity prints
Posted February 4, 2010 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics | Comments (0)
This week was super busy, I printed three editions and still had time to run around getting supplies and table at an event to sell some prints.
The week started with printing Melanie's Iran solidarity poster, this is one of two pieces in which we both used the same source photo in creating our image. I really like Melanie's poster, it is a very well designed two color print, it has the text in Spanish, English and Farsi using the trilingual approach made popular by OSPAAAL (Organization of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa & Latin America).
collage of the week (17)
Posted February 4, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds & Member Projects | Comments (0)
new show by Pete Yahnke
Posted February 3, 2010 by pete in Art & Politics | Comments (1)
I just hung a show up at Stumptown Coffee on S.E. Division St here in Portland. If you are in town stop by, take a look, and grab a cup of the best coffee in town. There's a wide range of prints in it: everything from a 3" x 4" lino cut to a 3 foot by 5 foot lino cut. The show will be up all of February.
Here's some pictures:
Another Justseeds Member at AS220 in Providence...
Posted February 3, 2010 by shaun in Justseeds & Member Projects | Comments (0)
From now until February 14th, I'm more than happy to be the Artist in Residence at Providence's multifaceted AS220. I'll be working exclusively in their letterpress print shop, taking a slight departure from my usual practice and focusing on getting some small prints out of my head and onto paper with the help of their Vandercook No.4 press. I hauled three bags, overladen with reams of new paper, through Amtrak trains and stations all day Monday with the generous help of Providence writer Walker Mettling, himself returning from a month-long residency at Pittsburgh's Cyberpunk Apocalypse. Besides printing and more printing, I'll be doing a presentation on Wednesday the 10th, at 6pm in the AS220 performance space. "I Brake for Historical Markers" will be a slideshow and discussion of progressive and alternative historical markers and plaques.
Bec Young will take over the residency for the second half of February when I return to Pittsburgh. Special thanks to Justseeds cohort Meredith Stern for making this happen for both of us! Look for some new work from Bec and I on this site soon...
Drawing All the Time : Week 19
Posted February 3, 2010 by colin_matthes in Inspiration | Comments (1)
This drawing is called Lean To. I made it while setting up the show Sailing the Barbarous Coast in Boston.
I was thinking about symbols of power as theatre, a stage set,...and making a simple useful structure from a fallen part of this stage set. The drawing is on luan scavenged from the basement and spans across the pulpit of an old church. It measures over 25 ft long by roughly 10ft high.
Medium Resistance
Posted February 2, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Art exhibits/shows | Comments (0)
Cut and Paint is included in Medium Resistance: Revolutionary Tendencies in Print and Craft - a group show that is part of Philagrafika.
Check out the website here and the show at the Ice Box in Philadelphia.
Opens March 3rd - runs to April 1
Signs of Change in Portland, OR!
Posted February 2, 2010 by jmacphee in Events | Comments (5)
Dara and I just finished installing our exhibition Signs of Change in Portland, OR at the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA). We're doing an artist's talk/walk through tomorrow, Wed. Feb 3th, at 12:30 (see HERE), and the opening is Thursday, Feb 4th, from 6-9pm (see HERE). If you are in the Pacific Northwest, please come check it out!
A couple quick notes
Posted February 2, 2010 by jmacphee in In the News | Comments (0)
I'm working hard installing Signs of Change in Portland, OR this week (we open on Thursday night!) and wanted to throw a couple quicks items I've run into up here on the blog:
1) Anarchist Author Gabriel Kuhn turned away at US border! Gabriel is great, I've tabled next to him at multiple international Anarchist bookfairs, and am pissed I wont get to see him on his now-cancelled US tour book tour (he has 3 books out or coming out on PM Press—and I thought I was prolific!). Check out more info HERE, and get pissed off.
2) Part Two of Erick Lyle's great story about Art Basel Miami is up on the Bay Guardian website. Read it HERE or you'll be very sad later when everybody is talking about it!
3) I found a nice little write up and set of photos on Swoon on the Indonesian website Cream, check it out HERE.
4) PM Press has just released on CD the amazing discography of the Dutch political punk band the Rondos. The set has 2 cds and 4 books, and is well, well worth getting. The Rondos were engaged politically on a level few bands ever truly are, and have written a fascinating history of 1980s Rotterdam, Dutch communism and anarchism, and the larger punk and squatting subculture. Check it out HERE.
Rad Teen Print of the Week: POWER UP!
Posted February 2, 2010 by mary_tremonte in Inspiration | Comments (0)
front
back
This week's rad teen print is a t-shirt design, collectively conceived, drawn and printed by the girls of Power Up, a new after-school youth program I am teaching at the Warhol Museum.
Heather White and I wanted to synthesize some of the best bits of past programs we have done: silkscreen printing (of course!), activism and advocacy, self-actualization, health, feminism, and of course relevancy and FUN.
We are working with a group of seven African American teenage women to teach graphic design and silkscreen printing through health topics. We are working with many organizations and individuals as guest speakers and clients, including the East End Food Co-op, Planned Parenthood, Youth Empowerment Project, The Birth Circle, and more.
Power Up!
Haiti Will Rise Again
Posted February 1, 2010 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics | Comments (0)
We are very happy to announce the release of the first print Dignidad Rebelde publishes, "Haiti Will Rise Again" designed by EastSide Arts Alliance. This image was created by ESAA to share with the community and featured on their website for people to download and print to show their solidarity with the people of Haiti. We loved the image so much we decided to contact ESAA and see if they were interested in having the design transformed into a screen print and used to raise funds for Haiti, all money raised will go to Haiti Emergency Relief Fund. They were very happy about the idea and we got to work. Now that the print is complete we are putting it up for sale, you can buy the print from the Dignidad Rebelde website or contacting ESAA.
This is the statement written by EastSide:
"EastSide has produced an image to counter the perception that Haiti is a victimized, poor country by their own bad luck and ineptitude. This racist narrative only serves to erase the strength and revolutionary spirit that defines this Black nation, the first liberated Black Republic."
Click here to buy the print on the Dignidad Rebelde website.
Howard Zinn's speech on the necessary rebellion of the archivist
Posted February 1, 2010 by molly_fair in Inspirations | Comments (0)
Right now I am in library school, training to be an archivist, so I'm posting this speech that Howard Zinn made about the archivist profession which has really inspired me. Lately the idea of taking a political position within the profession is something that I have been thinking about a lot. I have been doing a lot of research on archives that operate within the realm of the creative commons or partnerships between institutions and communities to preserve collective histories in the effort to encourage people to have ownership and document their ways of life. It is pretty obvious that those in power control access to information, and knowledge is increasingly commodified and privatized.
It is necessary to consider who has access to information in our society, and who controls it. Archivists are told that they must remain professionally neutral, but doing so is inherently taking a political stance. Archivists should not be complicit with institutional powers whose policy it is to restrict access to knowledge and information. Preservation of materials in archives or other institutions like libraries and museums is often privileged over access, and result in exclusionary policies.
It is necessary to examine the biases in our society that reveal why some collective histories are preserved and valued and others have not been collected. It is apparent in many circumstances that artifacts that are held sacred to communities have been taken unjustly, and are displayed and made public in ways that perpetuate imperialism and misrepresentation.
Professionals in information fields may choose to view them as purely scientific or technical, without acknowledging the prejudices and dominant power structures of our society that have shaped and are ingrained in the systems of knowledge organization. In the library field this is reflected in the organization of the Dewey Decimal System or the Library of Congress and their coinciding terminologies and how they have changed over time to be more, ahem, politically correct. Check out activist-librarian Sandford Berman if you are interested in this.
Those in the archivist profession should fight for open access to information, and to protect and make accessible materials documenting the histories of people that have traditionally been silenced and marginalized. I think Zinn's speech is just as relevant today as it is when he presented it and it was published in the 1970s. We still live in an age of information secrecy and repression, and corporate ownership. Simultaneously the Internet has made it possible for people to spread information on a massive scale whether it is classified documents or a bootlegged movie. Ignoring intellectual property rights may be viewed as an act of rebellion, even though the average person may not consciously think about the act of file sharing as a form of resistance. The degree to which archivists participate in acts of resistance is something I wish to explore further.
And now on to Zinn's speech...
SECRECY, ARCHIVES, AND THE PUBLIC INTERESTHOWARD ZINN
Let me work my way in from the great circle of the world to us at the center by discussing, in turn, three things: the social role of the professional in modern times; the scholar in the United States today; and the archivist here and now.
I will start by quoting from a document-an insidious move to gain rapport with archivists, some might say, except that the document is a bit off the beaten track in archival work (a fact we might ponder later). It is the transcript of a trial that took place in Chicago in the fall of 1969, called affectionately "the Conspiracy Trial." I
refer to it because the transcript occasionally touches on the problem of the professional person-whether a lawyer, historian, or archivist-and the relation between professing one's craft and professing one's humanity. On October 15, 1969, the day of the national Moratorium to protest the war in Vietnam, defense attorney William Kunstler wore a black armband in court to signify his support of the Moratorium and his protest against the war. The government's lawyer, Thomas
Foran, called this to the attention of the judge, saying: "Your Honor, that's outrageous. This man is a mouthpiece. Look at him, wearing a band like his clients, your Honor."
Maureen Cummins
Posted February 1, 2010 by jmacphee in Books & Zines | Comments (0)
Book artist and print maker Maureen Cummins, who is in the Paper Politics exhibition and book, recently put up a new site of her work HERE. There's a lot of great material up there, and well worth checking out. The image to the left is from her 2000 artist book "Stocks and Bonds."
Journal of Aesthetics & Protest #7
Posted January 31, 2010 by jmacphee in Books & Zines | Comments (0)
The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest #7 is out now, and chock full of material that looks both interesting and is by a bunch of solid people that have been friends in past and present. You can read it online HERE, or buy a print copy HERE. Here's the table of contents:
Justseeds show in DC
Posted January 29, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds & Member Projects | Comments (0)
I just got some photos of the Justeeds (and friends) exhibition at the Hillyer Art Space in DC, and notice that the closing party is TONIGHT! A closing party for the Justseeds show and a fundraiser for Mountain Justice organizing at Hillyer Art Space from 7-11, Friday Feb. 29th.
"Join us for an evening of multimedia resistance featuring Appalachian Old Time music with "Here's to the Long Haul" and a screening of the film "Mountain Top Removal".
Also Featuring:
*A new limited edition screen print by DECOY
*New photo works by Emma Cassidy and Chris Eichler
*Anti-Mountain Top Removal artwork and design by RVLTN
$5 admission, FREE for those attending Funk the Warming! Proceeds will benefit Mountain Justice and Hillyer Art Space's local art programming. Look HERE.
Red de Espionaje
Posted January 29, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics | Comments (0)
A little while back I got an announcement from Magdalena Jitrik, one of the Argentine artists that had organized the Taller Popular de Serigrafía (who had designed and printed for the occupied factories and community assemblies during the Argentine crisis/rebellion of 2001-2005), that she had a new show up at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bahia Blanca. I clicked through to the info about the show, and the images are stunning! The exhibition, titled Red de Espionaje 2009 (or Espionage Network 2009), appears to be a trip through the creative work of the crisis period as reinterpreted through the utopian, particularly Russian, aspects of early modernism, with references to Constructivism, Suprematism, and Situationism. More information about the show can be found HERE, and lots more images HERE. References to art history in the US tend to be so depoliticized and abstracted, it is almost shocking to see such a direct connection made between contemporary political cultural work and historical attempts at liberation through art. I can't wait to see more...
collage of the week (16)
Posted January 28, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds & Member Projects | Comments (0)
What is a Trade: Donald Fels and Signboard Painters of South India
Posted January 28, 2010 by jmacphee in Events | Comments (1)
Vanessa Renwick sent along info about this interesting looking show up in Portland right now:
What is a Trade: Donald Fels and Signboard Painters of South India
Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art
0615 SW Palatine Hill Road, Portland, OR
January 21 to March 14
gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11am to 4pm
Studio Time
Posted January 28, 2010 by Jesus_Barraza in Justseeds & Member Projects | Comments (5)
This week has been great, I was able to spend most of the week in the studio working on a couple prints, one of Melanie's designs and one of my prints. It is a lot of fun having all this time to make art, it makes me feel very fulfilled as an artist and increasingly I will be spending more time in the studio. The decision was made because Melanie and I have been designing so many prints and posters but we have not had enough time to print them all. On top of this we have projects coming up and need time to be able to focus on those. In the coming months I will be posting more about the prints we are working on, documenting all the art we are making and sharing it with our community.
Remembering Howard
Posted January 27, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Inspirations | Comments (1)
Howard Zinn changed my life. In 1999, I first read “A People’s History of the United States” and read it cover to cover, fascinated by his words, his sense of optimism, and belief that ordinary people can and have organized and challenged powerful institutions throughout history.
In 2003, I was so fortunate to meet him and strike up a correspondence and friendship. I remember sending him the full set of Josh MacPhee’s “Celebrate People’s History” posters as a gift to let him know that us young radical artists were attempting to visualize many of the histories that he wrote about. He responded by thanking me for the posters and said that they were too important to remain in his house, on his wall, in a drawer – that he would find a community space where they could hang, a place where people could see them.
That embodied his spirit. Such a genuine person who was always teaching, always inspiring, and always encouraging people to speak out and become active.
Howard Zinn reminds me of Grace Lee Boggs - two people who always remained radical - whose kindness drove their activism. Both have such a fierce determination to fight for social justice and both have so much confidence in the horizontal movements of today and the younger generations to create a better world. They remind us that being an activist is about never giving up and always about pulling more people into the movement.
I remember sending him some writing that I had done on radical art history and his response was, “Keep going! Write with conviction!, Write standing up!” That type of encouragement from someone that I admire so much continues to fuel me.
I sent him the manuscript for the book, “Peace Signs: The Anti War Movement Illustrated” a collection of anti-war posters and graphics that responded to the start of the Iraq War in 2003 and he wrote the forward. Included, he wrote,
“I have always been immensely impressed with how the artist can speak with a special force and passion, saying, with a few strokes of the pen, accompanied with a few words, what we call ourselves writers cannot possibly do with such economy, And when this talent is used on behalf of a profoundly important message, about war and peace, life and death, then it is especially welcome.We all know that the machinery for dispensing words and images (in newspapers, on radio, on television) has been seized by giant corporations, hugely wealthy, possessed of enormous power, and determined to use that machinery to protect and enhance that wealth, that power.
We are in great need on an opposing power, one that does not depend on money and position, but on talent, determination, and moral courage. Art gives us that – as through history it has always placed itself at the service of the poor, the oppressed, the victims of war, the targets of racial and national hatred.”
Howard, thank you for believing in the power of art to change the world and thank you for inspiring us.
Howard Zinn dies. (1922-2010)
Posted January 27, 2010 by pete in Inspiration | Comments (0)
Just heard the sad news, Howard Zinn died Wednesday of a heart attack. I know all of us here at Justseeds were inspired by this great historian. These are some big shoes to fill...
image by Rober Shetterly
Amor y Resistencia graphic on the cover of Critical Moment
Posted January 27, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics | Comments (0)
a newsprint magazine working to provide a forum for education, debate, and dialogue around the political issues affecting communities in the Southeast Michigan areahas used Amor Y Resistencia's contribution to the Justseeds portfolio Voices From Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex
You can download the first six pages at issue 31
Graphics from Voices From Outside may be downloaded for use by groups working on incarceration related issues at Voices From Outside-Images. Artist credit is always appreciated.
Drawing All the Time : Week 18
Posted January 27, 2010 by colin_matthes in Inspiration | Comments (0)
Hopeless
Posted January 27, 2010 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti | Comments (0)
Our friend Klutch has recently expressed his dissatisfaction with the first year of Obama with this "Hopeless" print. To be hopeless assumes you once had hope, which might be a stretch for me and electoral politics, but I can still vibe on the frustration...If you want one of these lovelies to hang over your bed, go HERE.
Finally, Some Street Art with Something to Say!
Posted January 26, 2010 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti | Comments (0)
Last week, on Jan. 19th, two groups from St. Petersburg, Russsia, Autonomous Action and Anarchist Artists, carried out a large scale street art action on the outside of the State Museum of Political History. They wheatpasted what looks like about 30 ft. of collaged posters in memory of murdered civil rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and anarchist journalist Anastasia Baburova. The action can be seen in the film below, more images if you click to the following page, and more info can be found HERE and HERE.
Boycott of Iran Film Festival
Posted January 26, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video | Comments (0)
Iranian filmmakers have called for a boycott of this years Fajr Film Festival in Tehran, Iran in hopes of pressuring the government to ease up on repression and release political prisoners, some of whom are filmmakers. Other international artists are supporting the boycott, including Ken Loach, one of my favorite contemporary directors, whose new film "Looking for Eric" was supposed to play the fest. More info can be found HERE and HERE.
Women's Lib Posters video
Posted January 25, 2010 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints | Comments (0)
Dara recently found this very strange video on YouTube, it appears to be homemade music video for the 1960 song "Cantata della donna nubile" by Italian singer Edmonda Aldini. It's entirely constructed from late 60s/early 70s feminist movement posters, many are from the Chicago Women's Graphics Collective, but some I have never seen before. Ahhh, the things you find on the internet...
PTP #8 Video Review
Posted January 24, 2010 by jmacphee in In the News | Comments (0)
Billy da Bunny, of Loop Zine Distro, has started putting up very strange, yet engaging, video zine reviews on the We Make Zines website. He recently put up a set of reviews that includes my zine Pound the Pavement #8. It's the last zine he reviews, and he says some very nice things about Justseeds:
Luba Lukova at Qbox Gallery
Posted January 23, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics | Comments (1)
In recent years I keep coming across the graphics and posters of Luba Lukova, and have been increasingly impressed with their clarity, directness, and graphic efficiency. Lukova edited and designed the 2010 War Resisters League calendar, "Sparking Change: Poster Art & Politics" and I just got an announcement for her upcoming solo exhibition in Greece. More info on Sparking Change can be found HERE (we are also selling a number of vintage/historical WRL posters on Justseeds HERE), and more info on the Qbox Gallery show can be found HERE.
EXTENDED time limit for Freedom for all Political Prisoners /// Graphic Campaign Call for sumbissions - Presxs políticxs libertad /// Convocatoria Gráfica
Posted January 22, 2010 by santi in Calls for Art | Comments (0)
Chrysa Koukoura-overfishing designs
Posted January 22, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics | Comments (0)
I came across these designs, by Chrysa Koukoura, while researching campaigns for the upcoming Justseeds Portfolio-Resourced.
We are hoping to pair each participating artist with an organization/campaign to create a graphic image and poster. We are working with a broad theme, resource extraction, and I am curious about current campaigns tackling the harvesting of fish from the ocean.
If you have any advice please contact
blog at justseeds dot org
ROAD DAWGS
Posted January 22, 2010 by mary_tremonte in Inspiration | Comments (0)
This is a little slice-o'-life blog entry.
the van, all done up in front of the ranch
Justseeds Artists Cooperative have a collective wealth of skills beyond making radical prints. One skill that many of us share, including Shaun Slifer and myself, is the art of ROAD DAWGGIN. We have logged thousands of miles on road trips between the two of us, often together. Shaun is also very adept at cutting and installing vinyl text and graphics. We took these skills to the road last week, when we drove an extended passenger van from Pittsburgh to Austin, logging over 1700 miles in three days! The purpose of this kinda hairbrained trip was to decorate and deliver a van to my brother Chris, who purchased it for his Endurance Ranch triathalon training camp.
