March 2009
Justseeds Exhibit at Sewanee University
Posted March 31, 2009 by shaun in Events
Greg Pond at Sewanee University of the South put on a show at the rural school's art building which included a hefty selection of Justseeds prints this past month. Greg has been on the road with his own projects so we just recently got a couple of photos of the exhibit, which includes a wall of the Celebrate People's History posters.
Art of Protest Exhibit in Berkeley
Posted March 30, 2009 by Melanie_Cervantes in Events
Join us for the opening reception of our two-person show in Berkeley this Friday!Friday, April 3rd at the Pueblo Nuevo Gallery in Berkeley, CA. This exhibit will feature some of the most recent work Melanie and Jesus have created in partnership with grassroots organizing efforts on issues such as ending State violence like ICE raids and police brutality, efforts for decolonizing education through access to Ethnic Studies and prints celebrating the ongoing resistance to Neoliberalism by the Zapatistas.
Dignidad Rebelde is a project created by activist-artists Jesus Barraza and Melanie Cervantes. It acts as a space for collaboration and artistic skill-sharing that is grounded in a Xicana worldview and is fueled by a collective desire to support grassroots organizing and social justice. Working through a print collective in Oakland, Barraza and Cervantes are committed to producing and distributing screen printed political posters and fostering resurgence in the screen printing medium for social change.
Pueblo Nuevo Gallery
1828 San Pablo Ave. Suite 1 • Berkeley, CA 94702
Opening Reception:
Friday, April 3rd, 6pm-Midnight
Music, Food and Poster sale
Artist Talk and Closing Reception:
Sunday, April 26th, 2-5pm
2009 Indigenous People's Night of Resistance
Posted March 30, 2009 by Melanie_Cervantes in Events
UC Berkeley will be hosting its third annual Indigenous People’s Night of Resistance this Thursday, April 2nd from 5:30 to 10:30 pm. For the the third year Jesus Barraza and I will be participating in the event. This year we will be tabling and continuing our support of Indigenous students at Berkeley.
Indigenous People’s Night of Resistance is a night to honor all people who walk with the earth to protect and defend it. Indigenous peoples from Africa, Asia, Native America, and the Pacific Islands are not of the past but continue to live with dignity and continue to hold a great responsibility in sharing the knowledge of our ancestors who resisted colonialism in order for us to be here today. We envision a world without borders and seek to unite all marginalized communities through the intellectual, cultural and spiritual resistance that runs in our veins. Through our music, dance, art and spoken word we will share our experiences in hopes of building a more inclusive world-view within this university and all social systems at large.
Date: Thursday, April 2, 2009
Time: 5:30pm - 10:30pm
Location: Pauley Ballroom (MLK Student Center)
Street: corner of Bancroft & Telegraph
City/Town: Berkeley, CA
ALL AGES WELCOME!
THIS IS A COMMUNITY EVENT. ABSOLUTELY NO DRUGS OR ALCOHOL. NO COLORS - NO RED OR BLUE.
MCs (our very own xinaxtli guerilleras): Crissy Gallardo & Alison Dorantes-Garcia
opening prayer by:
Spirit Drum
Performing Live:
Danza In Xochitl In Cuicatl
Gaby Erandi Rico
Lorna Dee Cervantes
Los Poets del Norte
Olmeca
Sistahailstorm
Ise Lyfe
& many more to be announced!!
Speakers representing:
Indigenous Premaculture Project
Indigenous Identity & Muxeres from El Salvador documentary
Vendors:
Dignidad Rebelde
Chiapas Support Committee
Xinaxtli
Huaxtec
Inkza Crafts
Brown Berets
& many more!!
**t-shirts will be available for a small donation to complete the funding of this event, please be generous**
if you'd like to volunteer, please e-mail crissygallardo@berkeley.edu or j.cerritos831@gmail.com
Artist Call: 101 Damnations
Posted March 29, 2009 by jmacphee in Calls for Art
This just fell into the inbox:
angry artworks is looking for submissions from artists / visual creators for an exhibition/publication in 2010. 101 Damnations will be a collection of detourned/re-appropriated/subverted imagery based on logos, graphics and slogans which attacks, belittles, challenges, identifies, mocks, questions, satirises and generally scorns capitalism and neoliberal globalisation in its various forms - from greedy corporations, polluting industries and war profiteering enterprises to sweatshop encouraging companies, union busting businesses and media manipulating multinationals... etc! Although this project is about a visual reaction to the forces of capitalism it is also a resource for those trying to understand it and fight it - so it is hoped each image (or group of images) will have an accompanying weblink to a resource - e.g. an organisation, a solidarity campaign, reading materials, documentation of previous struggles or current direct actions...
Guidelines and Specifications
* This project is open to all artists / visual creators - students, self trained, 'professional' or 'amateur'.
* Work can be made in any medium, not necessarily computer generated - as long as it is submitted as a 2D still digital file - (i.e. a scan of a drawing).
* Images should be 300 dpi and no smaller than 100mm x 100mm.
* All artwork should be saved and sent as rgb or b+w digital files in one of the following file formats - jpeg, tiff, psd, pdf, eps.
* Work can be new or existing, previously exhibited or not.
* You can send multiple submissions - (If multiple images are to be viewed as a set please send as one submission, otherwise send as separate e-mails).
* Please indicate if you want the work to be attributed to your name, a pseudonym or for it to be marked as anonymous.
* All work should be marked as no copyright, anti-copyright, copyleft, creative commons or copyright of the artist.
* Each submission should have an accompanying URL - an up to date link to a web page - this resource link can be directly or indirectly linked to the image - (There are some samples below).
* There is no entry fee, no funding available and no prizes.
* First deadline - 31st August 2009.
* Send submissions to info@angryartworks.com - please put '101 damnations' in the subject to ensure e-mails are received.
* Angry artworks and invited selectors will decide the final artwork to be used in this project - this will be based on all the work submitted. As we are looking for a broad cross section of work covering the 101 Damnations theme we may not be able to use all work sent in. This does not necessarily have a bearing on the quality of the individual work submitted.
* All artists will be informed if work is going to be used or not.
* We regret we will not be able to enter into a dialogue with you regarding work which is not accepted.
* Initially all work accepted will form an online web exhibition.
* It is also planned to have a physical exhibition and/ or publication of the works sometime in 2010.
* All artists will be sent information regarding any exhibitions and a copy of any publications produced.
machine-animal paintings
Posted March 28, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds & Member Projects
The Justseeds install in Milwaukee inspired me to try my hand at turning some of my prints into large-scale paintings and five new images are currently up at the Armoury Gallery in Milwaukee. The exhibition "Night Work" includes two collaborative teams, Nathaniel Stern & Jessica Meuninck-Ganger and Shana McCaw & Brent Budsberg, as well as new 2D work by myself and recent work by Sonja Thomsen.
Opening Reception:
Friday, March 27th 6:00 – 10:00 pm
Show runs: March 27 – May 2
Gallery Hours: Saturdays 12:00 – 5:00 pm
1718 N. 1st Street, Milwaukee, WI
414-265-2806
www.thearmourygallery.com
Hugh D'Andre
Posted March 28, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Inkworks Press has just put up a nice write-up on Bay Area artist Hugh D'Andre, with a number of nice images of his work, including a half dozen posters he has done for the San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair. Check it out here. You can see more of Hugh's work here. A large percentage of Hugh's work is Creative Commons licensed and free for people to download, remix and reuse.
OakBook Interview: Favianna Rodriguez
Posted March 27, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds & Member Projects
Justseeds member Favianna Rodriguez recently did a long, in-depth interview with on the OakBook Blog. Read an excerpt below, and the whole thing here. Check it out:
The stories of immigrants, of working class folks of color, of single mothers, of young black and brown men being locked up day after day at alarming rates – those stories are left out of the “art world,” and yet, these are the majority of the stories in the country, in the world. This demonstrates to me that the art world continues to be an elitist body and that it caters mostly to the needs of white men. When I make work, I talk about the things I see in my own community, in the lives of the people around me. My work addresses themes of globalization, war, immigration, women, sexuality, and prisons. When I talk about those themes, my work gets labeled as political. It actually also gets labeled as women’s art, Latino art, Chicano art, propaganda art, and a host of other terms.Those terms don’t really bother me.. My intention is to change the conditions of the communities I represent. I have been given a tool to do that and it’s through art. I view art as a tool for education, agitation, and social critique. Through an artistic practice, it is possible to confront the multitude of images of disempowerment fed to us by mainstream media.
Temporary Services in NYC
Posted March 26, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
If you're in NYC tomorrow night, roll on down to Bluestockings and check out Brett Bloom discussing the new Temporary Services book Public Phenomena:
Friday, March 27th @ 7PM - Free at Bluestockings Bookstore (172 Allen Street btw Stanton and Rivington)
Reading: Brett Bloom “Public Phenomena”
Temporary Services produces exhibitions, events, projects, and publications. Join Brett Bloom for a reading and discussion of Public Phenomena, a multi-city examination of informal modifications of every day public space and their implications for changing city use.
In addition to Public Phenomena, Brett Bloom will present four booklets in their Temporary Conversations interview series: Kawabata Makoto, Tim Kerr, The Dicks, and the latest: Jean Toche / Guerilla Art Action Group.
Temporary Services is Brett Bloom, Salem Collo-Julin and Marc Fischer. We are based in Illinois and have existed since 1998. We produce exhibitions, events, projects, and publications, making no distinction between art practice and other creative human endeavors.
Temporary Services seeks to create and participate in ethical relationships that are not competitive and are mutually beneficial. We strive towards aesthetic experiences built upon trust and unlimited experimentation.
Up Against the Wall - Berkeley Posters from the 1960s
Posted March 26, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
This show looks like it's going to be great, mark your calendars!:
Up Against the Wall - Berkeley Posters from the 1960s
Exhibition 4/19 through 9/26, 2009
the Berkeley Historical Society
1931 Center St.
Berkeley, California (510) 848-0181
Opening April 19, 3:00-5:00 PM
As 1950s America woke up from the deep chill of McCarthyism and the Cold War, a new genre of popular culture blossomed in the streets of Berkeley during the mid-1960s. Spurred by the success of local rock and counterculture posters, political posters were vibrant public documents that promoted a wide range of social issues. This exhibition documents Berkeley's unique role in the evolution of this medium, and includes examples of works on such diverse issues as gay liberation, people's health care, opposition to the Viet Nam war, support for political prisoners, demand for alternative educational models, and community control of police. The show covers the "long 1960s" (1964-1974) and explores the complex interaction between local activists, artists, publishers, and distributors that made this cultural explosion possible.
Curated by archivist and poster scholar Lincoln Cushing, this exhibition is drawn from a unique private Berkeley collection of over 25,000 political posters assembled by Free Speech Movement activist Michael Rossman.
Due Process: An educational exhibit about the many processes of printmaking
Posted March 25, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Our friends at PEEL sent along this announcement for a cool looking show:
Due Process: An educational exhibit about the many processes of printmaking
Curated by: Kevin Orlosky
First Friday Opening Reception April 3rd 7-11pm
Exhibit runs through April 28th
Gallery5
200 West Marshall Street
Richmond, Virginia 23220
Printmaking is one of the most versatile forms of art making. It has been used by artists for thousands of years. It has had tremendous advancements over the years while the traditional techniques are still being used. Artists are usually drawn to its methodology, intimacy, and subtlety. One advantage to printmaking is that prints can be editioned so that multiples of the same image may be sold. Because of this, printmaking has been used in the reproduction market. Unfortunately outside of the fine art and collector world, a reproduction is what is generally thought of when someone mentions the word "print." This is mostly due to the size of the greedy art reproduction industry. "Due Process" aims to end this stigma that has hindered the reputation of fine art prints to the general public. Fine art prints are original artwork that has been produced by the artist's hand. Due Process will showcase not only the end result of the artist's works, but will exhibit and explain the steps, tools and materials involved in each print process.
Artists included in the show: Deberah Chaney, Robert brown, Beth Grabowski, Kevin Haas, Keith Howard, Martha Oatway, Andrea Olson, Kevin Orlosky, Judith O'Rourke, Justin Rice, Deepa Swanson, Dan Weldon, Team8 Press
Reading by Anarcho-surrealist Ron Sakolsky (Portland)
Posted March 24, 2009 by icky in Events
Reading Frenzy Hosts Book Release for Anarcho-surrealist Author Ron Sakolsky
At 7pm on Wednesday, March 25, Reading Frenzy will host a book release event for anarcho-surrealist author Ron Sakolsky's new book Swift Winds, published by Eberhardt Press of Portland.
Sakolsky's new book is a backpocket compendium of subversive texts, marvelous manifestos, mutinous rants, outrageous ideas, utopian dreams, impossible demands and incendiary broadsides strategically aimed at countering the pathos of miserablism with the uncontrollable laughter of the insurgent imagination.
Sakolsky will be at the event to read selections from Swift Winds and will sign copies of the book, his second anthology of essays and poetry.
Sakolsky is a widely-published author whose essays have appeared in an array of dissident publications such as Alternative Press Review, Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed, Fifth Estate, Green Anarchy, Black Sun, The Oystercatcher, and many others. Swift Winds is Sakolsky's sixth book. His previous books include Creating Anarchy (2005); Surrealist Subversions, which he edited for Autonomedia (2002); Sounding Off: Music as Subversion/Resistance/Revolution, edited with Fred Wei-Han Ho (Autonomedia, 1996); and Gone to Croatan: Origins of North American Drop-Out Culture, edited with James Koehline (AK Press, 1993). An active proponent of underground radio broadcasting, Sakolsky also edited Seizing the Airwaves: A Free Radio Handbook with Stephen Dunifer (AK Press, 1998).
Swift Winds features etched illustrations by renowned artist Anais LaRue. The book is being offset printed and bound at the Eberhardt Press print studio in Portland.
Reading Frenzy is located at 921 SW Oak Street. For more information on the event, call 503-347-1048, email info@eberhardtpress.org, or see www.eberhardtpress.org.
Exile Infoshop: Prison Justice Week
Posted March 24, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
I'm a little late to catch this, as the week is half over, but friends in Ottawa at the Exile Infoshop are hosting a great week of prison activist events, including an exhibition of our Voices from the Outside portfolio.
Prison Justice Week
March 20 to 27, 2009
Exile Infoshop
256 Bank St. (second floor), Ottawa, ON.
reg. hours: Wednesday-Saturday, noon-8pm; Sunday noon-5pm
Featuring the Justseeds art exhibit “Voices from Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex” and nightly events!
All Events @ 7PM,
Free, but regrettably not wheelchair accessible
* Friday March 20th - Kick-off Prison Justice Art exhibit w/DJ
* Saturday March 21st - Panel Discussion: From Prisons to Colonialism : Global Apartheid w/ Jaggi Singh, Abdullah Al-Malki, Yavar Hameed (representing Abousfian Abdelrazik). Abdullah Almalki is a Canadian citizen who was detained, interrogated and torture in Syria because of information that could have only originated from Canadian government agencies.Yavar Hameed is a lawyer representing Abousfian Abdelrazik. Mr. Abdelrazik was abducted, illegally detained and held in captivity by Sudanese authorities for approximately two years at the recommendation of CSIS. While in detention, Mr. Abdelrazik was subjected to coercive interrogation and torture by Sudanese officials with direct Canadian involvement. For the past five years, the Canadian government has been illegally blocking Mr. Abdelrazik’s right to return to Canada. Jaggi Singh is a no borders, anti-capitalist, migrant and indigenous solidarity organizer based in Montreal. He is currently active with No One Is Illegal-Montreal, Solidarity Across Borders and other groups.
* Sunday March 22nd - Prisoner Letter Writing and Crafts Night
* Monday March 23rd - Film Night - Life Inside Out, NFB production, a vérité-style documentary that takes us inside the walls of Grand Valley Institution for Women.
* Tuesday March 24th - Panel Discussion: Indigenous People and the Criminal Injustice System featuring: Kim Pate - Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies; Sheila Grantham - Researcher on The Aboriginal Women and Stigma Project
* Wednesday March 25th - Prisoner Letter Writing and Crafts Night
* Thursday March 26th - Speaker Event and Journal for Prisoners on Prisons Issue 17 Release w/ Sophie Harkat, Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee
* Friday March 27th - Fundraiser Costume Dance Party.
Of the Danger of Love, Refusal of Labor, and the Beauty of Autonomy
Posted March 24, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Of the Danger of Love, Refusal of Labor, and the Beauty of Autonomy
"Proliferating and losing oneself. This was the sense of the collective enterprise that the movement was attempting in Italy at the time." –Franco Berardi
Please join The Change You Want To See Gallery for a conversation with renowned philosopher, media activist and cultural agitator Franco Berardi (aka Bifo) and media theorist MacKenzie Wark, author of Game Theory and A Hacker's Manifesto.
The Change You Want To See Gallery
Monday, March 30th, 7:30pm (free)
84 Havemeyer St, at Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(L to Bedford; G to Metropolitan; J/M/Z to Marcy)
Bifo has been a pivotal figure in Italian social movements for that past 40 years. He co-founded the legendary Radio Alice (1977), the first pirate radio station in Italy, the magazine A/Traverso (1977-81), and Rekombinant (2000), an online network environment that focuses on radical philosophy, urban conflicts, media activism, networking art, knowledge economy, western psychopathology, autonomous universities, and institutions of the common. More recently he produced the autonomous street television network Orfeo TV (2002), which sparked a national network of pirate micro TV stations to counter the media monopoly of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
This event marks the long awaited publication of the first two Bifo’s books in English: Felix Guattari: Thought, Friendship, and Visionary Cartography (Palgrave, 2008); and Ethereal Shadows: Communication and Power in Contemporary Italy (with Marco Jacquemet and Gianfranco Vitali, Autonomedia, 2009).
The evening will be moderated by Marco Deseriis, member of Not An Alternative and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU.
Stencilada
Posted March 23, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Stencil Archive and CELLspace present:
Opening Grill Out
Saturday, March 28
1 to 5 pm
2050 Bryant St.
b/t 18th and 19th Sts.
SF, CA 94110
FREE (one day only, inside if raining)
Food on the grill, bevs in the cooler, music on the boombox, and art on the walls
(some food and beverages will be provided while supplies last)
Featuring eight panels of art by:
Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza
Russell Howze with Hugh D’Andrade
John Koleszar (AZ)
James S.
Crystal Townsend
Scott Williams
Peat Wollaeger (MO)
with special stencils on paper by Tiago DeJerk (OR)
Bring your own cut out stencils to add to the ongoing collection of stencil art at CELLspace (some paint provided)
CPH Re-Use
Posted March 22, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
Chris from 56A Infoshop in London just sent me a hilarious conversation going on over at UK Indymedia regarding a poster which re-purposes my Durruti Column Celebrate People's History poster. Anarchist Militias, indeed.
Landfill from the studios of Brian Ponto
Posted March 20, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
I got this from Brian Ponto today:
On this first day of spring we are proud to launch LANDFILL--an annual publication made in collaboration with our friend, the environmental printer, Greg Barber Co. Each issue explores a conceptual approach to its printed components. Second Chance's theme, 100% post-consumer papers and non-toxic toners, was made in partnership with Mohawk Fine Papers and the vendor Digital Connection.After the interviews, our stories of second chances were printed using non-toxic toner onto paper containing flower seeds and buried throughout New York City. Brooklyn Photographer Luke Barber-Smith photographed these burials. As the sprouts reach the topsoil, the first lives push through the earth and grow into real wild flowers for the spring.
Printed copies begin to mail next week from both Mohawk Fine Papers and Brian Ponto. Thanks for your time reading, and here's to new beginnings in a hopeful new year.
This goes out to those who dig Detroit...
Posted March 19, 2009 by bec_young in Justseeds & Member Projects
Recently I reprinted my little print of two hands holding a sunflower. When I first made the sunflower print, the idea of having a community garden in which to grow things was just an nice idea. Last spring this idea brought many of my neighbors out of their houses and into an empty lot, one of many in Detroit, to try to make something together. A bench and compost bin were donated, one neighbor built a tree-swing. The non-profit that owns the land built a fence around the garden and installed a water spigot in the apartment building next door. The Garden Resource Program, an awe-inspiring program connecting gardeners in Detroit to other gardeners, to plants and tools, and to education, gave us a huge head start. Folks built a dozen raised beds, and planted everything from asparagus to zucchini. Those neighbors who made it through the summer, carefully attending to the watering schedule, became the tried-and-true keepers of the garden. The work paid off, and not just in fistfuls of kale and dirt-encrusted potatoes. Although it sounds corny, I'm not lying when I say that the true prize was our relationships with each other, and with the neighborhood children that came, every day, to see if they could hold the hose and to ask us, again, to explain what an eggplant tastes like. Now, mid-March, it's beginning to feel like Spring again in Detroit, and any minute now we will all be out there with our hands in the soil, digging.
A New Way Forward-Organizing site to protest bank bailouts
Posted March 18, 2009 by k_c_ in Events
I came across a website today called A New Way Forward. Its a website set up to encourage folks in the USA to organize demonstrations in their cities on April 11th.
It’s time to stop giving huge handouts to banks and start creating systemic change that helps everyone. We demand a new way forward now.We are sick of bailouts that are enriching bankers without restructuring a broken industry. Join us on April 11, 2009 as we rally for systematic change based in fairness and intelligent economics. Nationalize, Reorganize, Decentralize.
The site looks like a good resource and tool for people who haven't been involved in activists campaigns.
A New Way Forward is made up of national protests that will take place all over the country in major cities on April 11, 2009. This site was set up to help people and groups organize around a progressive approach to economic recovery in a ground up, localized organizing effort. People from all backgrounds will come together to influence national policy and organize their own rallies in their own city on April 11.The site allows anyone to sign up their city for a rally and begin working out the details with other local protesters in designated forums. Though each rally will be executed differently by different groups of people, the website provides a national community that will help draw attention, support and resources to the local efforts.
I am unaware of how long this has been online, yet it will be an experiment in people taking leadership and organizing outside of their previous networks. That also depends on how well this site is distributed, with networks like Facebook, Twitter, and a host of other new trends, it could be interesting.
Solidarity with the People of Palestine-NYC
Posted March 18, 2009 by k_c_ in Events
I read an article a few days ago on the International Solidarity Movement's website about an old aquaintence of mine, Tristan, who was critically injured on Friday March 13th by Israeli troops during protests against against construction of the annexation wall through the West Bank village of Ni’lin. He was hit in the forehead by a new type of high velocity, extended range teargas projectile, and has been transferred to Tel Hashomer hospital, near Tel Aviv with severe head injuries. A resident from Ni’lin was shot in the leg with live ammunition.
There will be a demonstration in NYC
Friday, March 20, 4-6pm
Solidarity with Tristan Anderson and the People of Palestine
Vigil at the Israeli Consulate
800 2nd Ave (btn 42nd&43rd St)
Please join us in our vigil to show our solidarity with Tristan and the people of Palestine.
Stain & Mode wall in Bed-Stuy
Posted March 17, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds & Member Projects
Chris Stain and Billy Mode spent a mild Sunday evening painting a wall in Bed-Stuy. Folks in the neighborhood were intrigued and expressed support to the artists as they worked into the night. A good amount of guys stopping to make mention of how they used to paint trains and played the "do you know so-and-so" with Chris and Bill, finding they had friends in common. Police took no interest in the two entitled artists. Chris mentioned the only person perturbed by their painting was an older woman who harassed them for a moment and took their pictures. Other Folks like Bed-Stuy Banana and Bed-Stuy Blog were less aggressive in their phototaking.
It turns out writer Goal was painting a legal wall, with some friends, down the street on a restaurant. Apparently a perfect day to be out painting.
Tea: A performance. A discussion. Thoughts from a veteran’s return voyage to Iraq
Posted March 17, 2009 by molly_fair in Events
A friend of a friend, IVAW member Aaron Hughes will be performing in Tea, part of the benefit exhibition 2,191 Days and Counting at Powerhouse Arena for Iraq Veterans Against the War.
March 19, 2009 1-4 PM
Powerhouse Arena 37 Main St. Dumbo Brooklyn, NY
TEA - chai - الشايtea |tē| noun • a hot drink made by infusing the dried, crushed leaves of the tea plant in boiling water.
Tea: A performance. A discussion. Thoughts from a veteran’s return voyage to Iraq
243 detainees left in Guantánamo
243 Styrofoam flowers
Tea is an ongoing dialogue that traverses a variety of landscapes. From the tea sipped on in this instillation, to a quaint coffee shop in the Lower Eastside, to a cage in Guantanamo Bay, to a motor pool in Iraq; tea is not only a favored drink but a shared moment that transcends cultural divides and systems of oppression. That is not meant as a clichéd utopian statement, but as a reminder of a shared humanity that is so often overlooked.
The project consists of three parts the installation, the performance, and an ongoing growing dialog. The installation is composed of all the needed materials to make, sit, enjoy, and commune over strong black tea. The performances consist of a series of monologues/stories shared by activists, Iraqis, veterans, and myself that reflect on the traumas of war. These monologues and the ephemera of the installation are designed to foster and grow the dialogue the third element aspect of the project.
Aaron Hughes served in the Illinois Army National Guard and in 2003 he was involuntarily deployed to Kuwait and Iraq with the belief he would provide humanitarian relief for the Iraqi people. As a truck driver he traveled throughout much of Iraq and quickly came to the realization that he was not providing any type of humanitarian relief, but in stead was contributing to the oppression, destruction, and dehumanization of the Iraqi people. Following a fifteen-month deployment Aaron returned home guilt stricken and committed to end the occupation.
This March Aaron, as a representative for Iraq Veterans Against the War, returned to Iraq in an important step in focusing more attention on the rights and needs of the Iraqi people. Since the U.S. occupation began, Iraqi unions have resisted oppression by organizing for worker rights and the creation of new unions. But under occupation, Iraqi workers have been targeted in an attempt to suppress the population and control Iraq’s natural resources. Independent labor unions are banned; labor leaders have been killed, tortured, beaten, and imprisoned; worker’s wages have been suppressed and their rights have been routinely violated; and union bank accounts have been frozen. Iraqi labor unions and workers have been among the leading non-sectarian forces defending Iraqi sovereignty and democracy by exercising their collective power through strikes to increase wages, resist privatization of Iraq’s oil industry, and stand up to foreign contractors who threaten their livelihoods.
So please sit and have tea with me…
Questions for Dark Times?
Posted March 16, 2009 by meredith_stern in Inspiration
What can I say? The Justseeds installation was totally fun and I feel a bit of post-installation depression or something being back in my daily routine... Finding myself a little more pessimistic than usual and thought maybe other people may either be thinking similarly and i won't feel so alone, or, be more positive and put my downturn in check. I find myself with more questions than answers these days... So, read below and respond if you have your own thoughts or ideas on these ridiculous questions... or some good reading that relates to some of these ideas?
2666: A Review
Posted March 15, 2009 by bec_young in Reviews
Here's the beginning of a review Justseeds friend Erick Lyle wrote for the SF Bay Guardian about the book 2666 by Chilean author Robert Bolaño:
There is a wry but hilarious scene near the very end of Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 912 pages; $30), in which a French literary critic finds a German writer, Archimboldi, lodging at what the critic calls "a home for vanished writers." After checking into a room at the large estate, the elderly vanished writer wanders the grounds, meeting with the other vanished authors, residents whom Archimboldi finds friendly but increasingly eccentric. Gradually it dawns on Archimboldi that all is not as it seems. Walking back to the entrance gate, he sees, without surprise, a sign announcing that the estate is the "Mercier Clinic and Rest Home — Neurological Center." The home for vanished writers is an insane asylum.
As we enter the Obama era, with all its promise of "change," I've found it impossible to read 2666 without being haunted by the memory of those who vanished into the lunatic asylum of the long George W.Bush years — not just the nameless and unlucky left to rot in the Bush administration's secret torture cells throughout the world, but also those who disappeared right here at home. For instance, a guy I worked with a couple of years ago. One day he was training me on the job, and a week or so later he was in a federal prison, labeled a "terrorist" — which in his case meant that he edited a Web site called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty.
Now read the rest of the review while trying not to be distracted by all the flashing ads...
Torture/Impeach
Posted March 15, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
More Midwest political freight graffiti! One of my favorite things about doing thi blog is when cool art like this flys into the mailbox, makes me feel like people are fighting out there:
Right Wing Street Art?
Posted March 14, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
I recently was asked a series of questions by about why there is so little right-wing street art by Paul Schmelzer (editor for the Minnesota Independent) for his Eyeteeth Blog. He crafted a post around my answers, and here it is:
At the 2009 Conservative Political Action (CPAC) conference this weekend, The Daily Beast's Max Blumenthal found a rare kind of artist: a conservative hip hop musician. Self-defined "Republican rapper" Hi-Caliber says he takes inspiration from the likes of Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh to lay down lyrics like: "A socialist in the White House / what have we done? / You think Bush was bad? / Now the real fun has begun / The Democrats want to take my gun..."But what Blumenthal found at CPAC, I haven't had much luck in finding in the visual arts: interesting street art coming from a right-of-center perspective. In my search, raised in my Thursday post, "Where's all the rightwing street art?," I got in touch with artist Josh MacPhee, who founded Justseeds, an artists' cooperative, online store, and blog. He couldn't offer examples of artists, but he shared his thoughts on the topic of why they're so hard to find.
He says the American political Left draws from a long history of visual agit-prop, whereas conservatives have used other vehicles. "When [the Right] is marginalized, it has built itself through local radio broadcasts, direct mailings, election to local office, etc.—channels that appear to be legal, mainstream, and legitimate," he says. "The Left has no problem appearing to be speaking from the margins (even if they are speaking from a position generally held by the vast majority, i.e. the anti-war position right now), but the Right always wants to speak from the center, to claim they are being marginalized, but simultaneously appear to be legitimate and supported by the majority."
He posits that illegal or guerrilla art has long been a way for people whose voices aren't represented by corporate media channels to be heard. "For most of the history of this country, and more specifically for the past eight years, the ideas and opinions of the right wing, and even the extreme right wing, have been common currency. They are seen in daily newspapers, heard on the radio, even spread across billboards," he says. "There is much less of a need for right-wing graffiti, when the right wing speaks to the hundreds of millions from TV screens and evangelical church pulpits."
Rhizome Collective/Bikes Across Borders Benefit-Austin, TX
Posted March 13, 2009 by k_c_ in Events
Sadly, because of a city of Austin enforced eviction, this weekend will be the last Rhizome Collective event for the forseeable future. Go say goodbye at a joint Rhizome Collective/Bikes Across Borders benefit
Saturday, March 14th, 8pm-2am
Rhizome Collective
300 Allen St.
Austin, TXbands performing include:
THE BLUE HIT
TIL WE'RE BLUE OR DESTROYTIL WE'RE BLUE OR DESTROY
BUSCANDO EL MONTE
WINO VINO
THE BIKE BANDFood by Ararat, Adult Beverages
Bike Art, Slideshow and Video Projections, DJs, dancing and more
$5-500.00
All residents of the Rhizome and it's 10,000sq. ft. of warehouses and gardens will be evicted. also evicted will be Bikes Across Borders, Food Not Bombs, Art and Revolution, KPWR.ORG, and the Inside Books Project.
Rhizome has existed since 2000 on Austin's eastside, has been host to dozens of benefits with thousands of people, and raised 10's of thousands of dollars for non-profits, independent musicians and radical groups in Austin and around the country.
the members of the Rhizome Collective are hoping to eventually raise enough money to make city-enforced repairs and purchase our building in the future. Your participation and donations will help us reach this goal !!!!!
Justseeds at the San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair this weekend
Posted March 13, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Roger and I will be tabling all day Saturday and Sunday at the San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair, so if you are in the Bay Area, come on down and say hello. We'll be tabling with the awesome San Francisco Print Collective. Here's the info:
14th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair
March 14, 2009 (10am-6pm)
March 15, 2009 (11am-5pm)
SF County Fair Building
Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way
Golden Gate Park
Directions here.
In the main hall about 60 vendors (booksellers, distributors, independent presses and political groups, from the local area, the west coast and North America) will be displaying books, pamphlets, zines, t-shirts and other merchandise and information. Two local worker-owned co-ops will be food and beverage vendors this year: Arizmendi on Sat 3/15, Other Avenues on Sun 3/16.
Speakers: Judith Levine, Bruce Anderson, Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Barry Pateman, Michael Flores, Mark Anquoe, Cheb i Sabba, Andrej Grubajic, Victoria Law, Diane DiPrima, Stevphen Shukaitis, Richard Kempton, Jen Angel, James Tracy, Diana Block, Crudo, Cris Carlsson, Summer Brenner, Robert Ovetz, Osha Neumann, Clif Ross, Iain Boal, David Kubrin Josh MacPhee, Fly, Sara Brodzinsky, Bo Brown, Audrey Goodfriend, and many others, including panel discussions, Sex Workers, and Surviving the Economic Meltdown, Defend the RNC 8, plus film screenings & more. Bios, descriptions and additional information posted on the Schedule page.
Our Spring Break
Posted March 13, 2009 by k_c_ in In the News
I was listening to Democracy Now! yesterday and heard mention of this anti-war campaign:
Our Spring Break is a student and youth initiated and led alternative spring break. It is the foundation of last year's Our Spring Break, showing that we still march forth to end the illegal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, we are working towards ending the use of torture by the US in Guantanamo, and we advocate a shift towards a new foreign policy that is based on human rights and justice for all peoples of the world. We strive for a better world with the motto: "Our Spring Break Will End Your War"
May ’68 in Paris and the Student Movement in Ljubljana, 1968–1972
Posted March 13, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
For our far flung friends in Eastern Europe, if you can, a trip out to Ljubljana for this exhibition seems well worth it!:
May ’68 in Paris and the Student Movement in Ljubljana, 1968–1972
Posters, Film, and Photographs
29 January – 22 March 2009
International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC)
Grad Tivoli, Pod turnom 3
1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
The protests and strikes by students and workers in Paris and other French cities in May and June of 1968, which challenged the traditional values of society and destabilized the regime of Charles de Gaulle, left an indelible mark on the history of the second half of the twentieth century. The protests, which soon spread across the world, encompassed Yugoslavia as well, including Ljubljana. French artists, some inspired by Guy Debord, acted as a kind of propaganda machine for the uprising. They occupied universities, established people’s studios, became agitators and activists, and exhibited their work on the streets and in factories.
The exhibition will present around eighty posters, loaned by the Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image imprimée in La Louvière, Belgium. They were created for the events in Paris, and their image has become synonymous with the urban struggle. The student movement in Ljubljana, from 1968 to 1972, will be documented by a film by Majda Širca, as well as the student newspapers Tribuna and SP (standing for slovensko podzemlje – “the Slovene underground”), leaflets and announcements, and photographs by Tone Stojko, Edi Šelhaus, and Žare Veselič, from the Museum and Galleries of the City of Ljubljana and Slovenia’s National Museum of Contemporary History.
Urgent Needs from Austin, TX
Posted March 13, 2009 by k_c_ in In the News
As a result of some violations of building codes the Rhizome Collective will have to vacate the premises of their warehouse in East Austin, TX. The building houses a handful of people and many incredible projects like the Inside Books Project, Austin Food not Bombs, KPWR, and Bikes Across Borders.
I spoke with a friend from the Inside Books Project Tuesday night. He told me about the circumstances leading to their eviction and listed off plenty of work that needs to get done if they are to move out of the space by the date the City says they will seal the building.
The Rhizome warehouse was always a destination in my visits to Austin over the last decade and its a serious loss for the radical community of Austin and our network. If you can help out financially monetary donations to help the Rhizome Collective can be given here. The various projects have sites where you can donate as well. The Inside Books Project has existed due to the work of some incredibly dedicated folks and they could use any help you can offer, specifically:
+ a low-rent or donated space which is central and accessible to all volunteers
+ temporary storage until we find a new space
+ monetary donations (as we will probably not find as inexpensive rent as the Rhizome offered)
+ your overall support.We will also need help with preparing a mailing of thousands of packages waiting to be sent on Thursday, March 19 and packing/moving through the weekend
Below is the Rhizome's latest press release.
SILENT AUCTION FOR SWIMMING CITIES OF SERENISSIMA: Secret Project Robot
Posted March 12, 2009 by kristine_virsis in Events
March 14th, 2009
Secret Project Robot - 210 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211 (at Metropolitan)
March 14th - Benefit Silent Auction 7:30pm - 10pm, Dance Party 9pm - 3am
swimmingcities.org
secretprojectrobot.org
Secret Project Robot will host a silent auction to benefit SWOON's latest nautical art project Swimming Cities of Serenissima. The benefit will take place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on March 14th. The bidding begins at 7:30pm and ends promptly at 10pm. Dancing and Djing by The Paw and Dirty Finger will follow the silent auction. Here is a selection of the participating artists:
SWOON
Blek Le Rat
The London Police
Faile
David Ellis
Maya Hayuk
Monica Canilao
Chris Stain
D*Face
Gaia
Tony Bones
Elbow-Toe
Brad Downey
Martha Cooper
Imminent Disaster
C. Damage
Cyclops
Michelle Handelman
Santiago Mostyn
Mike Houston & Martin Mazzora- Cannonball Press
D-Dock & 5003 of Hobby Horse
Matt Small
Dennis McNett
A better "we" through art?
Posted March 12, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
Justseeds friend and AREA Chicago editor Daniel Tucker has just published an interesting post on the Art:21 blog. You can read his post "A better 'we' through art?" here. Here's a couple paragraphs to get you started:
Last Wednesday, while speaking on a panel discussion entitled “Relocating Art and its Public” at the CAA conference here in LA, I was compelled to think through the work that I care about and am involved with as it relates to audiences and participants. I realized I could not clearly talk about any of this without spelling out what kind of relationships I wanted to have in this world, in a broader sense. That is not to say that the work I’ve been involved in has always succeeded in creating those relationships which I desire and want others to have. But the work that I do is so informed by a political concern about people’s potential to self-actualize in a world which stifles that possibility that I have to be up front about it. This is how I intend to address the question posed on this blog.I concluded my presentation by recounting the provocation put forth to me by my friend Chris Carlsson in San Francisco: that the challenge for those opposed to capitalism and in favor of a different (”anticapitalist”) organizing principal for life and economies is to take the “anti” part of our perspective and make it into something that we can all strive for together. A further elaboration would be that a challenge for anticapitalist cultural work is to articulate and represent a life better than the competitive and commodified social relations that currently dominate how most of us relate to one another. One step in that direction would be to create contexts that allow us to see our relationships in ways that both benefit from our diverse experiences and insights needed to face everyday challenging situations, and that also allow us to be powerful enough together through organization so we can tackle the big stuff we all face. I honestly think that most of us barely know what free feels like or looks like. We need each other to figure out how to know how to get there. In the last eight years, most of the projects that I have been involved with have had some component that was about articulating a different kind of “we” or collective toward the ends described above. Admittedly, they are on a pretty micro scale. To the extent to which any transformed social relations are actually realized, the impact beyond the people directly involved is limited, rendering it primarily symbolic and experimental.
read the rest here. Give him some feedback, too.
The Pirate Bay on Trial!
Posted March 11, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
The fight over intellectual property rights, and the demand to keep our ideas in the commons, is one of the most important struggles we face. The Pirate Bay, the world's largest torrent tracker site, is on trial in Sweden, fighting for the ability of all of us to freely share, use and reuse information. Their trial, which they've dubbed "Spectrial," has begun, and they are using the trial as a forum (within the "'spectacle") to discuss intellectual property, copyright and piracy issues. Follow what's going on at their website trial.thepiratebay.org. For those who are new to internet filesharing, piracy, torrenting, and the revolution of peers, check out these links:
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Steal this Film
Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture
Anti-Copyright on Wikipedia
The Hunker Down To Rise Above Cinema Show (Portland)
Posted March 10, 2009 by icky in Events
The Oregon Department of Kick Ass presents
The Hunker Down To Rise Above Cinema Show
A slew of shorts curated by Vanessa Renwick focusing on folks taking matters into their own hands, be it within bike culture, hobo culture, kitchen culture or just plain ol’ falling in love.
Go to this link for more info on each of the films.
http://www.odoka.org/the_work/hunker_down_to_rise_above/
Friday March 13th 2009 at 7 pm
$5 dollars admission
The Waypost
3120 N Williams Avenue
Portland, Oregon
503-367-3182
More Fairey Blues
Posted March 10, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
Friends in Pittsburgh recently sent along an article from the Pittsburgh City Paper about Shepard Fairey sending a cease and desist letter and threatening to sue a local designer. Once again Fairey gives us a road map of capitalism in motion. His commodification of ideas and knowledge leads directly to an intense need to protect the alleged ownership of that knowledge. From Disney to Hollywood to Fairey, the entertainment industry in this country is built on the seizing of ideas, images and technology for one's own, using this material to accumulate wealth, and then using the weight of the state (the legal system) to bludgen anyone smaller than you that attempts the same process.
March 5, 2009 Steelerbaby Blues BY CHRIS YOUNGShepard Fairey is the creator of the iconic Obama "Hope" poster. He's been admired by critics and guerilla artists, and just weeks ago he was the subject of a profile on CBS Sunday Morning. But Pittsburgh graphic designer Larkin Werner has a different perspective. To him, Fairey is the guy who is "picking on a baby."
The baby in question is Steelerbaby, a blue-eyed kewpie doll clad in a knit black-and-gold uniform. Steelerbaby became an online hit -- he boasts more than 2,000 friends on Facebook -- after Werner created a Web site for the doll during the NFL playoffs in 2005. The following year, he started designing and selling Steelerbaby merchandise at the online store cafepress.com to satisfy demand for the doll Werner describes as "slightly creepy."
But early last month, Werner learned that Fairey's company, Obey Giant Art Inc., sent cafepress.com a cease-and-desist letter, informing the online store that Steelerbaby's merchandise marked with the word "Obey" was infringing on the artist's trademark.
The notice came as a surprise to Werner. For one thing, he says, Steelerbaby's line didn't pose much of a threat to Fairey. According to cafepress.com, Werner had made less than $70 in the previous three months for the sale of 16 items, 10 of which had "Obey" written on them.
But Werner says he's less concerned with the legal issue presented by the cease-and-desist letter -- he has no plans to fight Obey Giant Art about the trademark -- than he is with its hypocritical nature. Fairey, he argues, has bolstered his own career by appropriating images and infringing on the trademarks of others.
read the rest of the article here.
Tamms 10 Petition
Posted March 10, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
This is not something we do here on the blog, but I wanted to post this up for the people who have been organizing their asses off fighting a control unit prison in Illinois. Tamms Year Ten is the culmination of years of organizing to fight the torture happening at the Tamms super maximum security prison in southern Illinois. Beginning as a project where artists and family members wrote letters containing poetry to all the prisoners held at Tamms. A good example of how art can start a process that leads to real change, the simple gesture of writing the letters has turned into a full-blown political campaign, with a bill introduced to stop human rights abuses at Tamms.
Please take a minute, click this simple link, and sign the online petition. It's simple, and the more people that click, the more backbone the Representative that introduced the bill might have to follow through! Click here:
Current Tendencies Opening March 12 at the Haggerty Museum of Art
Posted March 9, 2009 by colin_matthes in Justseeds & Member Projects
This Thursday at 5pm is the opening for Current Tendencies at the Haggerty Museum of Art in Milwaukee, WI. I am working on a wall drawing called Winners Circle for the exhibit. So far so good, I am real happy with where it is at, and hope to finish it by tomorrow night. More information is below and you can check out images of the drawing as it progresses here
HAGGERTY MUSEUM OF ART
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY
presents
Current Tendencies: Ten Artists from Wisconsin
March 12 – June 14, 2009
Opening: Thursday, March 12 at 5:00 p.m. at the Haggerty Museum of Art
The Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University presents the exhibition Current Tendencies Ten Artists from Wisconsin that features recent work and new installations by contemporary artists from Wisconsin. As these artists work in a variety of media and on disparate themes, each artist or pair of artists will have a dedicated space within the museum for their work. The art in the exhibition will range from paintings, drawings and photographs to mixed media.
Site specific works are being created by Jennifer Angus, Colin Matthes and the duo of Shana McCaw & Brent Budsberg specifically for this exhibition. In addition to these installations, one gallery will be dedicated to the work of the late Peter Bardy, a self-taught artist from Milwaukee who transformed his home into a private world. New work by photographer Sonja Thomsen and paper cuttings by Xiaohong Zhang will be featured in the exhibition along with variety of mixed-media works by Anne Kingsbury and paintings by T.L. Solien and George Williams, Jr.
Programs offered at the Haggerty in conjunction with the exhibition:
The State of Art –
Open forum about the visual arts in Wisconsin Thursday, March 26 7 p.m.
Panelists:
- George Tzougros, Executive Director, Wisconsin Arts Board
- Polly Morris, Director of Development, Marketing & Outreach at the University of
Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts, Milwaukee Arts Board member
- Jane Simon, Curator of Exhibitions, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
- Deb Brehmer, arts writer, owner of Portrait Society Gallery and art history instructor at
the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design
Lunchtime Learning Sonja Thomsen (photography) Wednesday, April 8 11:30 a.m.
Gallery Talk T. L. Solien (painting) Wednesday, April 15 6 p.m.
Gallery Talk Anne Kingsbury (mixed media) Wednesday, April 22 6 p.m.
Gallery Talk George Williams, Jr. (painting) Wednesday, April 22 6 p.m.
Lunchtime Learning Jennifer Angus (installation) Wednesday, April 29 11:30 a.m.
For more information, call 414-288-1669 or visit www.marquette.edu/haggerty
Images of the African Diaspora in New York City Community Murals
Posted March 9, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
A great looking exhibit in NYC, with an opening tomorrow night:
Images of the African Diaspora in New York City Community Murals
OPENING RECEPTION
TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2009
6:30 - 8:30 PM
Harlem Stage @ Aaron Davis Hall/
The City College of New York--Lobby
Convent Avenue at 135th Street
more info in the image below, or click here:
'In the Name of the Blood Shed' Exhibition Fotos
Posted March 9, 2009 by dylan_miner in Art & Politics
After the Just Seeds install, I took off for Mérida, Yucatan. I just got in yesterday, but I haven't seen any exciting (street) art, yet. Send me a shout out if anyone knows some artists or areas to check out here in the Yucatan.
In the mean time, here are a couple of flics from the show I curated, 'In the Name of the Blood Shed.' Photographers Antonio Turok and Edith Sánchez Morales were in the house. Street Art collectives Lapiztola and Zzierra Rrezzia will hopefully be in Michigan conducting workshops for the closing. Stop by if in Michigan before the end of the month.
Origins of the Peace Sign Fist
Posted March 9, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
I'm sure there are more political graphics nerds like me out there, as well as people smart enough to know that the history of our images gives us great insight into how people organize, visualize and make social change. Thankfully we have Lincoln Cushing, political poster archivist extraordinaire. His Docs Populi site is chock full of amazing bits of graphic history and knowledge, including a new piece on the history of the Peace Sign Fist, as developed in connections to the 1970 US Student Strike. Check it out here!
Red Feds CPH Poster Released
Posted March 8, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds & Member Projects
Jared Davidson, the artist behind the Garage Collective in Christchurch, New Zealand, has designed the latest Celebrate People's History Poster. His poster, Red Feds, is a celebration of early labor union organizing in New Zealand, and discusses the connections between New Zealand radical labor and the Industrial Workers of the World. I asked Jared to write up a bit about the inspiration behind the poster, and he sent along this text, which was also published in the New Zealand Labor History Project. Give it a read and check out the poster:
I never wanted to be a graphic designer — at least not in the traditional sense. An important part of my artistic practice has been to explicitly avoid the design industry and all that it encompasses — advertising, profitability, marketing, consumption, and ultimately, the advancement of our current exploitative and illogical system: capitalism. By setting myself up independent of this mainstream conception of design, I've been lucky enough to participate in projects which have been far more worthwhile and productive than encouraging profit margins, consumer culture and an elitist design minority. Work for the Labour History Project — in the form of the Blackball '08 and May '68 posters — as well my recent poster for the 'Celebrate People's History' project initiated by Justseeds (a collective of USA-based printmakers and illustrators) relects the sort of artistic endeavours I see particular value in.
As my interest in the role graphic and cultural work can play in political agitation and education has grown, I've come into contact with other like-minded practitioners at home and abroad. Justseeds Visual Resistance Artists' Co-Operative, like myself, realise that cultural production plays an integral role in the continuation of the values and systems that prevail today — including our sense of identity, and equally important, our understanding of history. Hence the 'Celebrate People's History' project — an ongoing collection of educational and agitational posters designed to illustrate aspects of our past which are often marginalised, overlooked and outright ignored.
When I was asked to contribute to the project I immediately knew that I wanted to concentrate on an aspect of Aotearoa's past, or more specifically, our vibrant labour history. A poster on the 'Red Feds' and the influence of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) in Aotearoa seemed a natural choice.
Evoker's apt. burns, help him out!
Posted March 7, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
Our friends at PEEL Mag. just sent this over. A street artist and supporter just lost his apartment to fire, and needs any help he can get. I had an apt. in Chicago burn back in 2002, so I know how much this sucks. I hope he can bounce back...here's the info from PEEL:
This past weekend our long time friend and supporter Evoker lost his apartment to a fire. Everyone was OK, but a lot of his stuff was fire/smoke/water damaged, and he now has to find a new place to live. Evoker has been a friend of PEEL for several years and has been a pioneer in the sticker art community with his Urban Wallpaper project. His online gallery of stickers helped to gain exposure and recognition for the artform long before there were books dedicated to the medium of stickers. His efforts have assisted countless street artists to distribute their stickers all over the world through his sticker exchange. Back in the day exchanging our ban comic sans stickers through his Urban Wallpaper site (as well as a few others) inspired us to start PEELzine. He’s also a talented and dedicated artist and a great guy. We are grateful for the pioneering work he’s done to build the sticker art community and we would like to do what we can to support him in this difficult time. Through the month of March all sales from our online shop will be donated to Evoker to help him rebuild. If you would like to donate a piece of work, packs of stickers, etc. to be sold on the site with all proceeds going to Evoker, please send to the address below and include a note that it’s for Evoker. We’ll have a special gift (to be announced) for someone who donates work to support Evoker.PEEL c/o Combs
3404 B Oliver Ave
Indianapolis IN 46241
Details from "Which Side Are You On?" Install in Milwaukee
Posted March 7, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds & Member Projects
Death Row. Water Buffalo.
More Photos from the "Which Side Are You On?" Install in Milwaukee
Posted March 7, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds & Member Projects
1 photo from the opening, 4 from the following day... More to be posted soon.
Swimming Cities of Serenissima Benefit
Posted March 5, 2009 by kristine_virsis in Events
Glowlab Benefit Exhibition for SWOON’s Swimming Cities of Serenissima at Fountain NY
VIP/Press Preview: Thursday March 05; 11am–7pm
General Admission: March 06-08; 11am–7pm
Reception for the Artists: Friday, March 06; 7pm–midnight
Location: Pier 66 at 26th St in Hudson River Park NYC
Admission: Suggested donation of $5 at the door for all-weekend access
Event Link: http://www.glowlab.com/glowlab/swimming-cities-benefit-glowla/
http://www.swimmingcities.org/
Glowlab is pleased to announce it will host benefit exhibition for a nautical art project pioneered by the artist SWOON. Swimming Cities of Serenissima is a fleet of three intricately hand crafted vessels that will navigate the Adriatic Sea from the Karst region of Slovenia to Venice, Italy in May of 2009. Designed by the visual artist SWOON, the floating sculptures are descendants of the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea (Hudson River, 2008) and the Miss Rockaway Armada (Mississippi River, 2006 and 2007).
The benefit will take place in New York City during Armory Show week, March 05-08, as part of Glowlab’s exhibit space at Fountain, the alternative art exhibition known for presenting cutting-edge and independent art galleries. Fountain will be located at Pier 66 at 26th St in Hudson River Park. Participating artists include Swoon, Maya Hayuk, The London Police, Martha Cooper, Monica Canilao, Dennis McNett, Imminent Disaster, Eric White, Tod Seelie, Molly Crabapple, C. Damage, Elbow Toe and many more.
Glowlab Director Christina notes, “We’re thrilled to host this benefit for our long-time collaborator SWOON’s latest project, the Swimming Cities of Serenissima. It’s an ambitious project with an incredible creative spirit that, in the most physical way possible, engages contemporary art in the development of culture and community. I believe it’s critical to support projects like this, especially now, and we’re excited to help launch these beautiful boats in the spring.”
Photos: Final Day of the Justseeds Install in Milwaukee
Posted March 5, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds & Member Projects
The Justseeds install at UWM in Milwaukee opens tonight! (Thursday, March 5th from 5-8pm) The Gallery is located in room W199 on the Campus Level of the Union, 2200 E. Kenwood Boulevard.
The show runs through April 3rd - hours are Monday thru Wednesday 12-5pm, Thursday 12-7pm and Friday thru Saturday 12-5pm.
Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance
Posted March 5, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance: An Urban R/evolution
Opening Friday, March 6, 2009
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Degraves St. underpass to Flinders St. Station
Melbourne, Australia
"No, painting is not done to decorate apartments it is an instrument of war".
-Pablo Picasso, 1945.
Resisting Subversion of Subversive Resistance features the works and collaborations of four contemporary arts-activists. Romantic illusions of freedom fighters aside, serious business meets tongue-in-cheek as survivalism and critical masses meet conscious
consumption, sign language and political awareness in this diverse and eye opening exhibition. . .
Tom Civil
Marc De Jong
Paul J. Kalemba
Van Rudd
till march 27th
Photos: Day Four of the Justseeds Install in Milwaukee
Posted March 5, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds & Member Projects
We are not in the least afraid of making a mess.....
Photos: Day Three of the Justseeds Install in Milwaukee
Posted March 4, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds & Member Projects
Here's some photos of day three of the Justseeds install "Which Side Are You On" that opens at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Thursday, March 5th. Slowly but surely it is all coming together. Much thanks to everyone who is assisting us with this project-our friends, the students who are helping out, and all at the Union Art Gallery who have been so amazing to work with. We're excited to see what the next two days bring forth.
Hand Crafted Seed Art Packs
Posted March 3, 2009 by kristine_virsis in Environment
Look at these beautiful seed packs!!! The second one down on the right hand side is one that my friend Michael Truckpile drew for friends Ken and Doug. They have been busy for a long time working on their seed company/ library. If you are planning a garden for this year, check out their selection of seeds. They sell them in regular paper envelopes too. Many of the seeds are local and all are organic and heriloom. They are having TWO openings for the art packs and the info is below! I unfortunately won't be able to be there but I will be growing their seeds in my garden this year and I wanted to send along the info about The Hudson Valley Seed Library, the art show, and the fact that Ken and Doug have hundreds of envelopes full of seeds that are just dying to sprout in your garden this spring!
seedlibrary.org
Pack Art
Heirloom Garden Images Past and Present
Two Gallery Shows
Gardiner Library: March 2nd- 30th
Opening Reception and Talk: March 8th, 2-4pm
Catskill Mountain Foundation: April 11th- May 17th
Opening Reception and Talk: April 11th, 4-6pm
Soul'd Roots
Posted March 3, 2009 by Melanie_Cervantes in Events
Sisters of Color United for Education & Annie E. Casey Foundation Presents
SOUL'D ROOTS
Food & Media Justice Institute
Promoting Solidarity and Sustainability in Our Communities
March 12 - 15, 2009
Denver, CO
Jesus and I will be participating in this Institute next weekend so if you are in the Denver Area and interested sign up! Click through for contact info and more info.
More Photos from Day Two of the Justseeds Install in Milwaukee
Posted March 2, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds & Member Projects
...stay tuned..three more days of work until the show opens on Thursday, March 5th...
Photos from the Justseeds Install in Milwaukee: Day 1 and 2
Posted March 1, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds & Member Projects
The Justseeds install in Milwaukee is off to a roaring start. 15 plus members from the collective and a host of Milwaukee friends are busy working on the six day installation from Friday, Feb. 28th-March 5th. If your in Milwaukee or nearby, stop by the exhibition preview (Tuesday, March 3rd 5:00-8:00) the opening (Thursday, March 5th 5:00-8:00), and a presentation by Josh MacPhee (Monday, March 2nd, 7:00-9:00) on political printmaking. Details are posted below and more photos of the install will be posted soon!
Which Side Are You On?
Exhibition featuring work from the Justseeds Radical Artists’ Cooperative
MILWAUKEE, WI — From March 5 through April 3 the UWM Union Art Gallery will present Which Side Are You On?, featuring the work of 20 plus artists who are part of the Justseeds Radical Artists’ Cooperative. The exhibition reception is on Thursday, March 5 from 5-8pm. An exhibition preview will take place on March 3 at 5pm. All events are free and open to the public.
Justseeds (www.justseeds.org) is a decentralized radical art cooperative consisting of 20 plus artists who live in Brooklyn, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Portland, Milwaukee, and other cities across North America. Together they work on a myriad of projects where art is used as a tool to serve social justice movements. Justseeds is best known for their political prints, a blog that serves as a home for socially engaged street art and news, their group installations, and a recent portfolio project in honor of the 10-year Anniversary of Critical Resistance (a grass roots organization committed to opposing the prison-industrial complex.)
In early March, the Justseeds Radical Artists’ Cooperative will create a massive floor-to-ceiling, all encompassing installation that combines elements of street art, sculpture, video, and other mediums. Which Side Are You On? examines the use of walls as physical and mental barriers that create de-facto segregation, whether it is the walls that divide nation states, the streets that separate one side of town from the other, or the barriers that separate humans from the environment. Which Side Are You On? challenges these barriers while envisioning a more just and sustainable future.
At 5pm on Tuesday, March 3, an exhibition preview will take place at the Union Art Gallery. Stop by for a chance to see the Justseeds installation in progress. During the walk through, meet and talk with the artists involved in the installation.
In conjunction with this exhibition, Union Programming is hosting an evening with Justseeds founder, Josh MacPhee, on Monday, March 2 at 7pm in the Union Fireside Lounge. In his talk, The Walls Are Talking: Street Art and Social Movements, MacPhee will present an in-depth discussion about street art and graffiti and their role at four historical times, between 1968 and 2003. The lecture is free and open to the public. Josh will also lead a printmaking workshop in the Union Studio Arts and Craft Centre on Saturday, March 7 from 12:30-3:30pm. Call 229-5535 for information on the fee and to register.
Which Side Are You On? is cosponsored by UWM Students for a Democratic Society.
Gallery hours are Monday thru Wednesday 12-5pm, Thursday 12-7pm and Friday thru Saturday 12-5pm. The Gallery is located in room W199 on the Campus Level of the Union, 2200 E. Kenwood Boulevard.
