April 2005

VR banner for anti-development street party

Posted April 30, 2005 by in Justseeds Collective Projects

Visual Resistance made a banner for last weekend's street party against the city's plan to line the Williamsburg waterfront with luxury hi-rise apartment buildings. The banner went up in an empty billboard frame in a lot on N. 7th st. Our photolog has pictures of the banner going up, as well as the the work-in-progress stages. It took two days to paint the banner on a windy rooftop in Manhattan --- the stencil was cut out of an abandoned window advertisement panel K. pulled from the trash. More pictures of the larger event are coming soon --- Fred Askew also has a gallery up on his site.

For background info on the fight against over-development in Brooklyn, see Community Plan or North Brooklyn Alliance. Related posts on VisualResistance.org:

--- Artists Against Williamsburg/Greenpoint Rezoning Plan

--- The Change You Want to See

--- No Rezone!

A good week for public art

Posted April 29, 2005 by

Last weekend, Los Angeles art collective Heavy Trash installed giant orange "viewing platforms" near the entrances to gated communities:

On April 24, 2005, Heavy Trash volunteers deposited bright orange viewing platforms in front of three Los Angeles gated communities; Brentwood Circle, Park La Brea and Laughlin Park. The purpose of these viewing platforms is to draw attention to the phenomenon of gated communities --- the fastest growing form of housing in the United States. "There are now more than 1 million homes behind such walls in the greater Los Angeles area alone," according to Setha Low, a professor at the City University of New York....

WHY VIEWING PLATFORMS?

Like the historic viewing platforms at the Berlin Wall that allowed Westerners to see into East Berlin, the Heavy Trash viewing platforms call attention to the walls of gated communities and provide visual access to parts of the city that have been cut off from the public domain.

Check out their site here. Their past projects are equally smart and impressive, and the bibliography they've compiled on gated communities is super useful for people nervous about the mall-ing of Brooklyn (and beyond). (Thanks to Zack for the tip).

Speaking of public art and gated communities, VR members rancor & gravel wrote a wonderful short essay on The Gates that touched on similar themes a while back, tying these threads together better than I could do justice to in a short summary. Check it out here.

Meanwhile, 3,000 miles closer to home, photographer Fred Askew brings us the story of one person who put his body on the line to protest the war. From NYC Indymedia:

On Tuesday I came across an anti-war activist standing on traffic signal pole in Astor Place. A sign attached to the pole read, "WAR?" and on his chest was written "All American." The "ONE WAY" signs were changed to read, "NO WAR."

I haven't been able to find any more information on the action or the artist. Anyone with info --- especially regarding charges and legal support --- drop a line in the comments below. UPDATE: Emilio has more pictures on Flickr. Thanks!

Critical Mass tonight

Posted April 29, 2005 by in Events

Critical Mass is tonight --- for folks in NYC, remember that there are now four meeting spots: Union Square Park, Washington Square Park, Tompkins Square Park, and Madison Square Park, all at 7pm. Hopefully we can divide and conquer the cops!

VR folks will be giving out our new, free stickers, just in from the printers last night. Still we ride!

Time's Up needs your help!

Posted April 28, 2005 by

Some of the Time's Up organizers who were sued by the city have posted a fundraising appeal on NYC Indymedia:

As you may have heard, four TIME'S UP! volunteers --- and TIME'S UP! itself --- are being sued by the City of New York. Why are the City of New York and its Parks Department suing a group of environmentalists? For riding bikes, talking about riding bikes to the press, and encouraging other people to use this sustainable, environmentally-sound form of transportation.

Despite police threats, we keep riding every single month. And the police keep arresting. At every Critical Mass since the RNC -- except for December -- the police have arrested bike riders. In March alone, 37 people were arrested simply for riding bikes in a group...

[I]n March, the City of New York, the NYPD, and the Parks Department took the next step. Now they're suing us. They have requested an injunction, which, if granted, would make it illegal for us to talk about or participate in the Critical Mass bike ride. In fact, it would also make it illegal for YOU to talk about or participate in Critical Mass.

This suit is an obvious limitation of our First Amendment rights. We've amassed an incredible legal team, including renowned civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, to defend us and prove that we're right and that this time the city has gone too far. But our defense costs money. Although our attorneys will defend us pro bono, we must raise a significant amount of money to pay for legal expenses. The bottom line: we have until May 5 to raise $30,000.

As stillweride over at Bikeblog wrote a few days back:

If you are at all troubled by this growing attack on free speech and civil liberties…if you fear NYC will be a giant mall within 2 years…it is time to take action.... It is all related. We are losing our rights daily. Are we just going to elect Mayor Bloomberg again for 4 more years of development and his silence on attacks of our constitutional rights?

Time's Up and their legal team have been doing amazing work since the RNC to protect all of our rights to free assembly. You can give back at their legal newswire. Come out to the Speak Out and the ride if you can, and check out our new gallery of Critical Mass art, and help spread the word.

Mayday issue of the RAT hits the streets

Posted April 26, 2005 by in Books & Zines

The good people at NYC's best anarchist newspaper --- the New York RAT --- have put together a special issue of the paper just in time for Mayday:

Our special Mayday issue is full of info about local groups and issues, including the Street Harassment Project, The Greenpoint/ Williamsburg rezoning fight, RNC Legal Victories, the Long Island Freespace plus much more. The RAT also has a special pull out schedule of events for the upcoming "A New World In Our Hearts" Mayday Festival. We have 3,000 copies. We would like to get the majority of them distro-ed before the conference this weekend. Let us know if you can take a few stacks to drop off, hand out, or give away.

They'll need a lot of help with distro, so if you've got some free time, drop them a line at newyorkrat [at] riseup.net. Be sure to check out the schedule for this weekend's Mayday Festival. In additon to presentations from Beehive Collective and Seth Tobocman, there'll be film screenings, concerts, and a wide range of discussions. Oh, and we'll be there too.

Call for Art: Reproduce and Revolt!

Posted April 25, 2005 by in Calls for Art

Josh MacPhee --- author of Stencil Pirates, curator of the Celebrate People History posters, organizer for the Street Art Workers project, and all-around nice guy --- is one of our favorite people.

A few weeks back he sent us an announcement for an ambitious and urgently necessary project: a collection of new, relevant radical graphics to be published by Soft Skull Press. We're reproducing the call in full below:

Reproduce and Revolt!: Radical Graphics for the 21st Century

Edited by Josh MacPhee

Soft Skull Press

Reproduce and Revolt! is a graphic toolbox to be launched into the hands of political activists. The book will contain over 300 new and exciting high-quality illustrations and graphics about social justice and political activism for activists to use on flyers, posters, t-shirts, brochures, stencils or any other graphic aspects of political campaigns. All the graphics will be bold and easy to reproduce, in addition to being open source/anti-copyright. The book will come with clear instructions on how to best utilize the images so as to improve the graphic qualities of political campaigns. It will also contain a short history of political graphics, an archive of political flyers and posters throughout history, as well as information about and a bibliography of further reading for all of the social justice issues the art will cover.

I am now collecting submissions of graphics, illustrations and art for the book, which will be published by Soft Skull Press in late 2006. I will chose for the book according quality of the image, reproducibility, and how well they convey the issues. Not everyone's submissions will be included. I will also be attempting to craft the book to represent the output of as diverse a group of artists as possible, across gender, race, nationality, sexuality, ability, etc. Reproduce & Revolt! is not intended to be a who's who of well known and successful political artists, this call is open to all levels of artists.

This is my second book with Soft Skull Press. My first, Stencil Pirates: A Global Survey of Street Stenciling, was released in July 2004. Stencil Pirates has gotten great reviews and is currently in it's third printing.

Here are the specifications for the images:

--- Black and White/Greyscale.

--- High Resolution: either original artwork on paper or high res digital images, minimum 600 dpi for greyscale, 1200 dpi for line art.

--- A minimum of 6 inches x 6 inches.

--- All mediums are accepted (various forms of printmaking, drawing,

digital design, collages, etc.). The main factor is reproducibility.

Here are the catagories the images should be about (there will inevitably be overlap between the categories, these are simply guidelines and suggestions to help clarify and spark inspiration). In addition, the book will contain graphics in support of positive activities and graphics in opposition to negative aspects of the world, these are both included below (in alphabetical order, not order of importance!):

--- Anti-Authoritarianism (including anarchism, hierarchy, direct action, mutual aid and more)

--- Anti-Racism (including racial equality, institutional racism, attacks on youth of color, white privilege and more)

--- Counter-Globalization (including corporate control, IMF, World Bank, WTO, capitalism, austerity, world debt, alternative economies and more)

--- Education (including privatization, self-education, free schools, liberatory pedagogy, urban inequalities, military recruitment and more)

--- Environment (including environmental justice, environmental racism, endangered species, animal rights, earth liberation, deforestation, strip mining, water rights, bio-tech, organics, community gardens and more)

--- Feminism (including women's struggles, wages for housework, equal pay for equal work, equal rights, gender discrimination, women's liberation movement, sexual assault, men against sexism and more)

--- Government (including bureaucracy, taxes, anti-cop, police brutality, elections and more)

--- Health Care (including disability, mental health, AIDS, access, abortion, aging and more)

--- Housing (including public housing, gentrification, private ownership, abandonment, homelessness and more)

--- International Solidarity (including connections with movements around the world, borders, mutual aid, national liberation, Zapatista support, indigenous solidarity and more)

--- Labor (including unions, work slowdowns/stoppages/sabotage, strikes, bosses, anti-work, economics, maquiladoras, sweatshops and more)

--- Media (including media control, media consolidation, independent media, pirate radio and more)

--- Prisons (including prison reform, prison abolition, racism in the criminal justice system, the death penalty, political prisoners, stopping the construction of prisons, torture, sentencing discrepancies and more)

--- Protest (including marches, protests, direct action, pickets, plowshares, armed actions and more)

--- Queer Liberation (including gay, lesbian, trans, intersex, and bisexual struggle, gender binaries, queer bashing, sexual liberation and more)

--- War (including anti-war, imperialism, militarism, state terrorism, war tax resistance, nuclear weapons, "collateral damage" and more)

I will craft about a dozen chapters out of these categories, and each chapters will be filled with 30-40 new and exciting illustrations and graphics created by dozens of political artists, hopefully including you.

A website of high resolution copies of a large number of the images in the book will also be created, and ideally I will include some of the graphics that don't make the cut into the published volume. People will be able to either photocopy the images or pull them directly into digital files via the website.

I hope this project will both help radical activist projects, but also help boost radical artists by getting our work further out into the world.

I hope to be able to pay a nominal fee for each piece published as well as give each artist access to books at 50% off the cover price.

All material must be submitted by October 31st, 2005. THIS IS THE FINAL DEADLINE. There is no limit to the number of images you can submit.

All images need to be emailed to "reproduce [at] justseeds [dot] org"

or mailed to:

Josh MacPhee/R&R

POBox 476971

Chicago, IL 60647

If you have any additional questions, feel free to write or email the

above addresses.

Thanks,

Josh MacPhee

www.justseeds.org

www.stencilpirates.org

Free food, priceless conversation

Posted April 23, 2005 by in Events

Come one, come all: Visual Resistance is hosting a dinner this Sunday in Brooklyn. Toyshop Collective and friends kicked this thing off two weeks ago with the first in an ongoing series of free dinner gatherings at Rubulad, and challenged us to cook for the follow-up. There will be vegetarian & vegan food for about 40 people, first come, first served. Here's the details:

Sunday, April 24

Rubulad --- 338 Flushing, at Classon, Brooklyn (Map)

G train to Flushing or Classon stations, J,M,Z to Marcy, B61 bus to Flushing

7:00pm doors, 7:30pm dinner

Free (donations appreciated)

Now that you know where and when, you're probably wondering who and why. Find out after the jump:

Grub

A cheap, simple dinner for strangers and co-conspirators.

We are a small group of people who do a lot of other things in New York, like decorate subways and throw parties in the streets. We work with several collectives and art groups, like Toyshop, Madagascar Institute, Visual Resistance and Rubulad. At Grub we're just offering dinner.

Whether you are active in other collectives, your neighborhood, your backyard garden, or just new to town, we invite you to our table. To get a little squishy, we are looking for practical ways to build community. We are particularly inspired by weekly dinners served at squats in Amsterdam and Berlin, where you can get a cheap, tasty meal and catch up with friends in a cozy room. We like parties as much as anyone, but we think there should be places to talk without a pounding sound system.

We are not gourmands nor fancy cooks; we offer simple food simply prepared. We will only be able to serve 40 people, first come first serve. There will be plates for vegans and vegetarians alike. Please come early and hang out.

--- Pulled from suckapants.

Critical Mass Art: An Update

Posted April 22, 2005 by in Art & Politics

A reminder and update about Visual Resistance's Art for Critical Mass call: we've got 5,000 stickers coming next week, just in time for the April ride. We've got a half dozen posters in our gallery ready to be downloaded, printed, and posted. And we're just getting started.

We need more poster and stencil designs, and we need to hear from you folks about getting this out --- and up! We will be distributing our stickers at the next ride, and are starting to print posters and get them distributed. But we'd like this to be an ongoing effort over the spring and summer, using the images you design to help support Critical Mass rides and speak out for the right to free assembly.

Send your designs, plus any ideas, suggestions, or tips to us at visual.resistance [at] gmail.com. Feel free to spread the word, print some posters, cut stencils, and let us know what you think.

New Celebrate People's History Posters

Posted April 21, 2005 by in Posters & Prints

4 new People's History Posters have been created by artists Aprille, Brandon Bauer, Beith Pucinella, and Swoon. Don't just hang them on your walls at home. If you're feeling motivated, make photocopies and put them up in public places. They look amazing lined up on construction walls.