September 2009
Wolverines! (Red Dawn 2010)
Posted September 30, 2009 by icky in In the News
These are pictures I culled from IO9 of the Red Dawn movie remake (creatively titled "Red Dawn 2010") , where Russia and China invade the old USA. This one, like the first one, seems to be really drawing on right wing fear.
I thought I might be able add something witty to this, but the pictures are kind of fascinating... an aesthetically dumbed-down Shep Fairey with thoughtful slogans like, "Be Disturbed at Not Understanding". I am!
(Pictured: Pontiac, Michigan)
Hurricane Season! TODAY in RI!!!
Posted September 30, 2009 by meredith_stern in Art exhibits/shows
Last night I saw the first performance of Hurricane Season (Alixa and Naima's current performance) at Mixed Magic Theater in Pawtucket RI (6:45pm doors, sliding scale $12-$25). Tonight is one last showing in town! They are travelling around the country, so they may also be hitting your town soon! The performance is transformative and addresses the current state of affairs in the world today (including the unnatural disaster that followed from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans; global climate change, the war in Iraq, and worldwide water shortages). It also has a fabulous participatory nature where everyone begins by pouring water from a small wooden bowl into a large bowl onstage that is used throughout the performance. It's stunning. Emphasizes the power of love and community and togetherness, and the strength that exists within all of us to create the change we need to see around us. Also uses water as an amazing metaphor. They are also connecting local community groups in the performance to explain locally some tangible ways that people can get involved in the local community around them. Personal stories are woven throughout. You gotta go!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92z6Yx_27qs
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs090/1101313484550/archive/1102672101539.html
http://www.hurricaneseasontour.com/html/about.php?psi=33
INTERVIEW: Taylor Stevenson of Red Semilla Roja
Posted September 30, 2009 by icky in Interviews
The Esplanade is a narrow strip of land that lies between the Willamette River and Interstate 5 in Portland (OR). In 2001 the City of Portland remodeled this into a riverfront parkway, with some public art, a partially-floating bike/jog path, and some new boat docks. This area (near rail lines, social services, and with plenty of bridges and overpasses) has also been a long time spot for homeless camps, car campers, train hoppers, and also (of course) skate boarders & graffiti.
I put up a blog posting a couple weeks ago about a public art install, Live Debris, which occurred in this area. It was organized by the group Red Semilla Roja, and one in "a series of international events sharing reuse traditions as a means of reducing stigmas around garbage, poverty and street culture."
I went down late on a Saturday, added some art to the wheat paste wall, sat on a woven-from-garbage hammock, and looked out over the river. I then wandered back down the Esplanade and checked out all the different projects that were part of Live Debris. I was impressed and inspired by the project and interviewed Taylor Stevenson from Red Semilla Roja for the Justseeds blog via email on September 25th, 2009.
(photos taken from Live Debris website)
Drawing: Week 4
Posted September 30, 2009 by colin_matthes in Inspirations
This one is ink on paper, about 10" x 14"
Dirty Pilot "Year One" Booksigning with Chris Stain & others
Posted September 30, 2009 by k_c_ in Events
DirtyPilot.com “Year One Rewind” Book Signing
Artists signing include Chris “DAZE” Ellis, PaperMonster, Chris Stain and Cern YMI at the Printed Matter NY Art Book Fair.
Dirtypilot.com Year 1 Rewind presents the work of 15 of the artists that Dirtypilot.com has showcased in its monthly online exhibitions during its inaugural year, beginning in May 2007. These works embrace a range of movements from graffiti, street and urban art to pop and and outsider art. Rendered in mediums, from spray paint, oil, acrylic, water color and mixed media, to simple pen and ink, graphic, silkscreen and other transfer methods
Friday Oct. 2nd 2-4pm P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center 22-25 Jackson Ave Long Island City, NY SCB ART BOOK COLLECTION – Booth Z-01
Open to the public.
Found this announcement at What You Write
Matzpen CPH Poster Released
Posted September 29, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
A new Celebrate People's History poster has just come out: Matzpen by Joshua Kahn Russell and Dan Berger.
The Israeli Socialist Organization, better known by the name of its publication, Matzpen (Compass), formed in 1962. It was the first organization in Israel founded on principles of anti-Zionism. Its membership joined Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs to resist Israel’s apartheid policies. Matzpen challenged Israeli manifest destiny for twenty-five years, and its legacy continues to animate anti-Zionist organizing within Israel and around the world. The poster was designed by climate and social justice organizer Joshua Kahn Russell and anti-imperialist author Dan Berger. Russell and Berger interviewed each other over the recent Rosh Hoshana (Jewish New Year) about the poster, Jewish radicalism, and Palestinian self-determination.
September 20, 2009
Dan: Hi Joshua. Happy new year!
Joshua: Hey Dan, Shana Tovah. So we made a poster, huh? I hear 5770 is the year of liberation-history education through social movement art.
Dan: Cultural work on a variety of levels has been so important to interrupt the false consensus around all Jews supporting Israeli colonialism.
Joshua: Art is always and important medium and vehicle in social movements, but I think this is particularly so among Jews learning to challenge some of the dominant myths around Zionism. Artists like Israeli-born, Detroit-based rapper Invincible are creating amazing multimedia to tell stories and narratives of the occupation and colonialism, with songs that include extensive interviews with displaced people, footage of demonstrations and military violence, etc. I think this is partly because the subject is still (though increasingly less) taboo; art and creative expression is like the sugar that helps the medicine go down for an uncomfortable subject. We’re talking here about basic Jewish values: self-determination, social justice, freedom, interconnection and interdependence. Unfortunately, talking about them in the context of the harsh realities of the Israeli military and State make it confusing and difficult for Jews to speak frankly and honestly.
Peace Pentagon Competition
Posted September 29, 2009 by dara_g in Calls for Art
Peace Pentagon Competition: A CALL TO ACTION
Friends of 339 invites architects, designers, artists, engineers and multi-disciplinary teams worldwide to participate in a competition to re-imagine and rebuild the Peace Pentagon, located at 339 Lafayette Street in New York City.
This is an opportunity to give a physical form to a name in-use since this building became the center of peace-promoting activism in the 1960s. We are seeking proposals that will support and expand the work of peace activists on several scales: as a financially and ecologically sustainable building, as a means of engaging with a neighborhood that has a rich history of activism and art, and as part of an influential city that can impact thinking in far away places.
Deadline: December 9, 2009
Eligibility. Open to all artists, architects, engineers & students. Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged
ArtCrank opens Thursday
Posted September 29, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
ArtCrank Portland! A poster party for bicycle people!
ArtCrankPortland is set for Thursday, Oct 1 at the ACE Hotel. This will be opening night for the Oregon Manifest Bike Expo. Admission is free, and all posters are $30.
Also note that $5 from the sale of each poster will be donated to Bikes to Rwanda.
(I can) read the writing on the wall-3
Posted September 28, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds & Member Projects
Bushwick, NY
I have been taking a bunch of flicks of the Read fire extinguisher tags, here's one of em. You may see Boans, Reader, Read More, or other stuff. If you find em, let me know. I'd like to compile a bunch more!
ZINE SOUP
Posted September 28, 2009 by colin_matthes in Books & Zines
A new book about zines has been released by the folks who run TTC / Telefon Til Chefen, an art space in Copenhagen.
This 200 pages book consists of material from over 80 zine artist from around the world. Through images and text we present a wide range of artistic and graphic zines and the people behind them.
INTERVIEW: Josh MacPhee from 2003
Posted September 28, 2009 by meredith_stern in Interviews
In 2003, I took to the road and drove around the Northeast and Midwest United States and interviewed about 2 dozen radical artists about their work. I posted an edited section of the interview with Nicolas Lampert (one of our Justseeds members) about a year ago. So, here is the second installment...an interview with Josh MacPhee. Keep in mind that this is six years old, and as such, is dated. I will be posting others over time, so keep your eye out!
These interviews became a rough draft/sketch for the chapter I edited ("Subversive Multiples") in Realizing the Impossible, edited by Josh MacPhee and Erik Ruin and published by AK Press in 2007.
People's Museum In Palestine
Posted September 28, 2009 by icky in Inspiration
YNKB is an arts group in Copenhagen (you may remember them from an old post I did on a trip Josh and I made to Europe). I continue to be inspired by how they blend local, neighborhood concerns with global issues, and also how they approach global issues in a very specific neighborhood-y kind of way. There's also a sense of play and joy in what they do that is pretty scarce in political art projects. One of the projects they have been involved with, The People's Museum (in Birzeit, Palestine), is opening on October 2nd. This is from their website:
"The idea is to create a “from bottom up” museum, which represents a collection of items, histories and memories of the residents in a specific locality in Palestine. The form, the site and the collected items are decided upon through a dialogue between the local residents, local grassroots organisations, art students and artists with connection to the specific locality and the Danish artist groups Parfyme-YNKB.
This project seeks a different approach to the concept of a museum.
It is about how people want to represent themselves.
The role of the artists in the project is to open up the discussion with local residents about what is important in their existence and how to memorize, and retain collective and individual identity. How does people identify themselves? In which way, and through what kinds of objects? The goal of the museum is to collect the history of people, and show it in a museum context."
For more info on the People's Museum click here.
For more info on YNKB click here.
Operation Hey Mackey! in Oakland, CA
Posted September 28, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods has argued that American workers do not deserve a health care system. We believe that heath care should be affordable for everyone, not just rich people.
Operation Hey Mackey! - Whole Foods, Oakland from Jamie LeJeune on Vimeo.
A few last words, from last weeks Climate Week NYC
Posted September 27, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
A group referring to itself as the “Greenwash Guerrillas” claimed credit for the banner, and prior to a hasty departure threw leaflets down onto the stalled traffic articulating their demands:
* We know a highly-developed campaign has been launched in the United States by the worst transnational corporate polluters, Wall Street financiers, and well-funded professional enviros along with their lesser-funded camp-followers to pass a bill, any bill, possessing the namesake of ‘the climate’;
* We hold that polluting corporations have never advocated for anything that would harm their bottom line, their short-term profits or their shareholders;
* We recognize that Wall Street financiers, responsible for a world-wide economic recession due to a speculative bubble collapse, have set their sites on a $14 trillion carbon trading system as a means of reviving their fortunes;
* We know that corporate polluters have effectively defanged the mainstream US environmental movement. Many organizations that appear to publicly support environmental defense are welcoming disastrous policy within the US and the leadup to the December COP15 Climate Talks in Copenhagen. The mainstream environmental movement has become little more than a sounding board for corporate sponsors of profit-generating climate change legislation.As a people, we cannot define the systematic destruction of our environment, the unprecedented exctinction crisis, and oncoming impacts of climate catastrophe as a money-making opportunity. We will not forget or forgive those who mindlessly, selfishly advocate a cap-and-trade system. The False Solutions agenda of the corrupt circles of government at home and abroad will meet resistance.
Signed,
Agent Simple Green
The Greenwash Guerrillas
Bec Young's "Cuttin' Out"
Posted September 27, 2009 by bec_young in Art exhibits/shows
Clara Hardie and Jhon Clark of the Trumbullplex Theater organizing collective were kind enough to insist that I have a final art show in the theater before "cuttin' out" of Detroit. The show is about process; on display are very few final prints, but the actual stencils, papercuts, and lino blocks that I have used to create prints from. Also, there is a shadow puppet stage set up where you can play with some of the shadow puppets I've made over the last ten years.
Tonight, Sunday Sept. 27th, is the closing party along with a show, and there will be a table set up for you to create your own stencil. Music includes Matt Jones and Red Tail Ring of Michigan, and Palmyra of Brooklyn, NY.
Braddock Install
Posted September 27, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
Shawn Gilheeney just sent along these great photos of his exhibition Decaydence at Unsmoke Systems in Braddock, PA:
Inkworks Artist of the Month
Posted September 27, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Inkworks Press has released their latest online newsletter Hot Off the Presses, and this month Bay Area printmaker Doug Minkler is their Artist of the Month. Doug's been making political posters for decades, and can often be found out on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley selling his silkscreens. Check out the write-up on him HERE.
Red & Blue
Posted September 27, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
A great short document of a circus action in Christiania, in Copenhagen. Thanks to Nils Vest (long time Christianian and filmmaker) for sending this along....
Banned Books Week
Posted September 26, 2009 by molly_fair in Free Speech
Celebrate freedom of expression and access to information by reading books that have been challenged and banned for national Banned Books Week, Sept. 26-Oct. 3! For suggested reading check out these lists of top 20th century classics and frequently challenged books in the last decade.
And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell has been at the top of the list 3 years in a row. Apparently the true story of the two male penguins named Roy and Silo at the Central Park Zoo who were sexual partners and raised a chick together just doesn't sit well with some people. It's been challenged for depicting homosexuality, being anti-family, anti-ethnic (are penguins an ethnic group?), having a religious viewpoint (what?!), and being unsuited for it's intended age group. Check out Justseeds artist Mary Tremonte's poster Roy and Silo:Powerful which also tells the penguins' story.
Go U.C.!
Posted September 26, 2009 by molly_fair in In the News
On Thursday, September 24th actions against the budget cuts, fee hikes, layoffs and furloughs at University of California campuses took place throughout the UC system. Workers, graduate student employees, staff and faculty held a strike, walked out, and demonstrated in defense of public education and fair labor practices.Under the cover of the summer months, the UC administration pushed through a program of fee increases, enrollment cuts, layoffs, furloughs, and increased class sizes that harms students and jeopardizes the livelihoods of the most vulnerable university employees. According to one analysis, with the next round of proposed fee increases (32% over the next year) UC would be funded more by student tuition than by the state, effectively making it a private university. Even with furloughs going ahead for many UC employees, management is laying off workers, cutting services, and planning to reduce in-state student enrollment to make room for nonresidents.
from indybay.org
The strike continues...
A Factory Like a City
Posted September 26, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
A Factory Like a City
By David Bacon
from TruthOut.org
Last month Toyota announced it would close the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, California, after General Motors annnounced it was withdrawing from the partnership under which the plant has operated for over two decades. The plant employs 4500 workers directly, and the jobs of another 30,000 throughout northern California are dependent on its continued operation. Taking families into account, the threatened closure will eliminate the income of over 100,000 people.
People have spent their lives in the NUMMI plant in Fremont, probably more time with the compressed-air tools at their workstations than with their families at home. The plant is like a city, thousands of jobs and thousands of people working in a complicated dance where each one's contribution makes possible that of the next person down the line. And like a city, it supports the people who work in it.
Oct 15th Resistance week
Posted September 26, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
I blogged a poster a couple days back by Jared Davidson in New Zealand for an exhibition of "Explosive Expression." Below is the info about the actual exhibit/events:
Creative resistance against colonial and state oppression will be celebrated in Wellington with an art exhibition and auction at Thistle Hall Gallery, Cuba Street in Wellington. October 15th Solidarity invites everyone to Explosive Expression.
The opening night of the exhibition on October 13th will be followed by a week of events, which will be an opportunity for discussion and debate about the raids on Te Urewera and communities around Aotearoa, the 'war on terrorism', colonisation and resistance. The auction is also an opportunity for the community to support creative resistance and assistance with funds for people affected by the raids.
Blu & David Ellis timelapse collaboration
Posted September 26, 2009 by k_c_ in Inspiration
If you haven't checked it out already, David Ellis and BLU have created a collaborative timelapse video while partaking in the Fame Festival in Italy.
COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.
Both artists have produced similar videos, David, having collaborated with a group called the Barnstormers as well as many of his own projects. This was the first time these two artists have worked together. The video is interesting and enjoyable, visually. There is so much context and information that I wish was available along with the it. I have obvious questions about the logistics of such a piece and place, as well as the purpose and intention behind the collaboration. Maybe there's an interesting interview out there somewhere that will explain everything I have to inquire about...
Fuck the Buff: Rest in Peace Gary King Jr.
Posted September 25, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
This just in from Not My Government:
Paul Barron’s community memorial mural of Gary King Jr. was buffed by BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) September 24th, 2009. The mural was painted at the end of 2007, after police officer Patrick Gonzales beat, tazered, and shot 20 year old, unarmed and innocent, Gary King Jr. in the back. Gary passed away in hand cuffs next to this pillar, while his young cousin had to watch, unable to put pressure on the wounds because officer Gonzales put a gun to his head and said that he would kill him if he touched Gary. Gary ran a construction company with his father and was a productive member of the community. His life was stolen before he got to see the birth of his baby girl.
350 in NYC for Climate Week
Posted September 25, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
While the G20 is meeting in Pittsburgh right now, the General Assembly has been meeting at the United Nations in NYC. This week, Sept 20-26 has been called Climate Week NY by folks organizing various kinds of symbolic actions and demonstration.
I was asked by the 350.org campaign if I could make some last minute placards for a demonstration. I hadn't heard much about the organizing or demonstrations for the week, which probably should be taken note, since any outreach on activity like this would come across my radar. Anyhow, I was happy to be able to support and participate from the periphery. 
Impressions for Change
Posted September 25, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Impressions for Change:
35 Years of Political Posters from Red Sun Press
This anniversary exhibit of posters printed by Red Sun Press highlights progressive activism of the past thirty five years – focusing on peace, justice and a sustainable world.
Jamaica Plain Open Studios
September 26-27, 2009
11 am-6 pm
94 Green Street, Jamaica Plain, MA
Reception
Saturday, September 26, 6-8 pm
Movimientos: Two Generations of Chicana Artists installation
Posted September 25, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds & Member Projects
Get inspired. Photos from the wall installation by Favianna Rodriguez, Ian Kualii, and Orlando Reyes. The work is amazing and part of “Movimientos: Two Generations of Chicana Artists” that features the installation and prints by Ester Hernandez, Favianna Rodriguez and Melanie Cervantes.
Justseeds at Baltimore Book Fest
Posted September 24, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds & Member Projects
Erik Ruin will be representing Justseeds at the Radical Bookfair Pavilion as part of the Baltimore Book Festival this weekend. He'll be there all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so visit him and say Hello!
Radical Bookfair Pavilian
Mount Vernon Place
600 block North Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21201
Friday Sept. 25, 12-8pm
Saturday Sept, 26, 12-8pm
Sunday Sept. 27, 12-7pm
it looks like a lot of great stuff is going on in Baltimore over the weekend, organized by the totally awesome Red Emma's crew. Check it out!!!
Other Men: Portraits of Transmen
Posted September 24, 2009 by mary_tremonte in Events
Ebba has been working on this project for quite a while---they sold cookies at Sappho one month to raise funds to travel and photograph transmen in other cities. A final senior photography show will be displayed at The Space Upstairs, above Construction Junction, at the cross roads of Thomas Blvd. and 214 N. Lexington St in Point Breeze. (Also only a few blocks from The East End Co-op). There will be a door person to help you with where to park, and locating the correct entrance.
It will be open Thursday and Friday, September 24-25, from 6pm-8pm.
Closing reception on Saturday, September 26, from 5pm-8pm, catered by The East End Co-op.
For any questions, directions or comments, please contact ESchmid @ Chatham.edu or 412-735-8888.
Good Mob-Pony Pedro
Posted September 24, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
My friends Pony Pedro in Berlin have a new show up pulled from a public postr project they recently completed in Johannesburg:
Good Mob
Is freedom part of order, or is obedience the most important virtue of every citizen? Does the mob spontaneously bond together, to demand change for its own purpose? Does change drive society? An intervention and poster project, 'Good Mob' by Pony Pedro (Berlin/Germany) and Artist Proof Studio has explored communication processes in public spaces in Johannesburg (South Africa).
Bus-Factory
3 President Street
Newtown, Johannesburg
South Africa
September 16th-30th, 2009
Movimientos: Two Generations of Chicana Artists
Posted September 24, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds & Member Projects
The Union Art Gallery in Milwaukee continues its long standing tradition of hosting exhibitions with vital political and social content. A show featuring the work of Ester Hernandez and Justseeds members, Favianna Rodriguez and Melanie Cervantes opens tomorrow night at the Union Art Gallery. Stop by if you are in the area!
Opening reception: Thursday, September 24, 5-8pm
Gallery Talk with Favianna Rodriguez : Friday, September 25th, 4pm
September 24 - October 16
Union Art Gallery
Campus Level, Room W199
2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.
Milwaukee, WI 53211
414.229.6310
Hours: Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri & Sat 12-5pm; Thu 12-7pm
Scientists, Activists Protest Corporate Control Over Climate Policy
Posted September 23, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
From the Mobilization for Climate Justice:
Bryant Park – Climate SOS, New York Climate Action Group, and members of Rising Tide North America protested what they called “a greenwashed U.S. climate agenda” at the opening of NYC Climate Week. Activists distributed their version of the ACESA (American Clean Energy and Security Act) bill to event attendees and media in the form of fake $2 trillion bills which subtly depict a collusion of prominent Green NGOs (NRDC, the Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense Fund among others) with corporate backers of the bill (BP, Shell, Dow, and others). Climate SOS organizers Dr. Rachel Smolker and Dr. Maggie Zhou engaged ceremony patrons with a pointed critique of the bill’s corporate-friendly implications.Citing the overwhelming embrace of business CEOs at the upcoming climate summit, largely closed to the public, Smolker states:
“At the national and international level, special interest corporate lobbyists have held a stranglehold on climate policymaking. “Solutions” being offered are those most profitable and convenient to corporate polluters and their acquiescent faux ‘Green’ NGO allies. The panoply of cap-and-trade, emissions offsets, genetically engineered organisms, and carbon capture and sequestration technology (CCS) form a pipe-dream constellation of false solutions. That these proposals are not met with the critique or rejection offered by scientists and grassroots movements illustrates the privileged access of corporations to the halls of the US Congress and the UN.”
Drawing All the Time : Week 3
Posted September 23, 2009 by colin_matthes in Inspiration
Another drawing in the group I post each Wednesday at 8am.
Explosive Expression
Posted September 23, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Another nice poster from Jared Davidson/Garage Collective in New Zealand. This one is an announcement for an upcoming art exhibition. Those in the NZ, check it out and let us know how it is!
Bookstock Library Benefit
Posted September 22, 2009 by mary_tremonte in Events
As a follow-up to the Sustain Our Libraries poster I put up here last week...
BOOKSTOCK
benefit, art auction + dance party
REMEDY 5121 Butler St, Lawrenceville (x 51st Street)
Thursday, September 24th
8:30pm-1:30am
Featuring artwork, homemade wares and services for auction, live silkscreening with D.H.
crazygood lady DJs Mary Mack, Drop That, ja(m) (bo)x
video projections by Blissy
music by Dean Cercone
Renée Alberts waxing poetic
library-themed coloring books, and more!
Sliding Scale admission $5-10 (no one turned away for lack of funds)
Beehive Collective in Pittsburgh
Posted September 22, 2009 by mary_tremonte in Events
this just in:
The Beehive Collective presents their innovative True Cost of Coal graphic—
a visual exploration of Mountaintop Removal Mining and Resistance
TWO Presentations in Pittsburgh:
Tuesday, September 22, 4:30 @ Carnegie Mellon University Quad
Thursday, September 24, Noon @ 3 Rivers Climate Camp, Schenley Park Overlook
A swarm is coming! The Beehive Design Collective, a non-profit, volunteer driven, political arts organization based in eastern Maine, is headed this way. They are out to “cross-pollinate the grassroots” by creating collaborative, anti-copyright images that deconstruct complex global stories for use as educational and organizing tools.
Fiesta Beneficio de la Zona Autonoma Makhnovchina
Posted September 22, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Fiesta en Beneficio y de Inaguracion en la "ZONA AUTÓNOMA "MAKHNOVTCHINA"
Nuevo espacio Autonomo en la Ciudad de Mexico.
El proximo Viernes 25 de Septiembre del 2009.
9pm
Habra musica, comida, cerveza y convivencia.
La fiesta sera en la Z.A.M. que se encuentra en:
Calle Xola #181-A, casi esquina con Calz. de Tlalpan
A 2 calles de la estacion del metro Xola y a una calle del la estacion del
Metrobus Xola.
Billionaires for Wealthcare
Posted September 22, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
The Billionaires for.... are a street theater group that have been present during the election cycles of the last ten years. Here's some media pieces about the Billionaires current adaptation.
The latest incarnation of the "Billionaire" meme, "Billionaires for
Wealthcare" struck again this weekend, as Healthcare Inc. CEOs in tuxedos and gowns "thanked" Tea-baggers for coming out for Glenn Beck's March on Washington from Sept 12th. Tea-baggers eagerly joined in on Billionaire chants of "Bring Back Bush!" and “Fight Socialism! Abolish Medicare Now!”, but the greatest crowd pleaser (and provoker) of the day, was a stirring rendition of their original song "Let's Save the Status Quo" sung to the tune of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and memorably captured in this music video:recently featured by Rachel Maddow.
CALL: Lilla Jewel Fund for Women Artists
Posted September 21, 2009 by meredith_stern in Calls for Art
CALL TO ARTISTS
Lilla Jewel Fund for Women Artists
McKenzie River Gathering Foundation, Oregon's leading social justice funder, announces a call to women artists in Oregon.
MRG Foundation will commission three women artists to each create new art that represents Oregon's social justice movement. This will entail conversations with MRG grantees and an art committee. The new works, as well as previously created pieces, will be exhibited at MRG's annual event, Justice within Reach, on Saturday, April 10, 2010.
CALL: The Arts Politic
Posted September 21, 2009 by meredith_stern in Calls for Art
Call for Submissions!
The Arts Politic, Issue 2: Fall 2009
theartspolitic.com
The Arts Politic is a quarterly print-and-online magazine dedicated to solving problems at the intersection of arts and politics. For the Fall 2009 issue, The Arts Politic welcomes your essays, opinion articles, visual art, poetry, creative fiction and non-fiction, reviews, calendar listings, letters to policymakers and other content at the intersection of arts and politics. The submission deadline is Saturday, September 26, 2009.
The End or Future of Capitalism
Posted September 21, 2009 by k_c_ in Events
I've been hoping for an event asking this for the last two years! The End or Future of Capitalism. I was particularly unimpressed with the sentiments of the immediate response, "save capitalism", of the participating speakers right after the bank failures, a year ago. It was a moment, I felt, the world could really daydream, but was stifled by the fact there was an metaphoric gun to our head. I am really interested in their perspectives now, unfortunately I'll be outta town.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 7.30pm Proshansky Auditorium CUNY Graduate Center 365 Fifth Ave & 34th StDAVID HARVEY, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography; Author of The Limits to Capital (Verso, 2007) in conversation with
ALEXANDER COCKBURN, Editor of CounterPunch and columnist for The NationModerated by LAURA FLANDERS, GRITtv
(I can) read the writing on the wall-2
Posted September 21, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds & Member Projects
In memoriam: William J. Adelman, Chicago labor historian
Posted September 21, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Inspiration
Labor historian William J. Adelman has passed. His walking tours of labor sites in Chicago, his books, his union organizing, and vision inspired and educated many generations of activists and made sure that the labor struggles of the past are remembered and carried into the present. Below is tribute to his legacy.
"William J. Adelman, 1932-2009: Teacher formed a union at school, became labor history expert
By Joan Giangrasse Kates
Special to the Tribune
September 21, 2009
When it came to the labor movement in Illinois, William J. Adelman was not only a fierce advocate at the ground level but also a devoted historian and preserver of its legacy.
The longtime Oak Park resident got firsthand experience helping organize fellow teachers at Morton West High School in Berwyn during the 1960s.
"He'd teach all day and then conduct union meetings at night," said his son Marc.
Mr. Adelman later became a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, during which time he penned a series of walking tour books on significant sites involving the labor movement in Chicago. In 1969 he also co-founded the Illinois Labor History Society in Chicago and was its vice president.
New Work at Portland Show
Posted September 21, 2009 by pete in Art & Politics
Icky A, Roger Peet and I will have some work in the show "I think therefore I am" at the Goodfoot Lounge in Portland. The opening is this Thursday Sept. 24. I thought I would post images of the 2 large new prints I will have up at this show as it may be awhile till I get these on the Justseeds site.
the first is:
"Home Is Where the Cart Is" which is inspired by some of the folks at Dignity Village here in Portland and the many folks that survive living in Forest Park or in the nooks and crannies of Portland. I have seen many amazing bike carts used to carry everything from scrap metal to full size couches. I've even seen a few carts that people pull around and then sleep in at night. When I got a tour of Dignity Village last year out tour guide was extremely proud of the cart bike cart he built and used as his main hauling device for all his living needs at Dignity. This image celebrates these folks.
Rectl: Cabaret of Creative Resistance
Posted September 21, 2009 by mary_tremonte in Events
For those looking for something empowering to do during the G20 summit this week in Pittsburgh...
Revolting Enthusiastic Creators for Total Liberation! (RECTL)
A Cabaret of Creative Resistance!
September 24th Thursday 7 pm sharp!
Public Health Auditorium/Pitts Campus-Oakland
On the corner of 5th and Desota, btwn Bouquet and Atwood (with a big sculpture of a man out front with outstretched arms).
Profound Poetics! Political Satire! Uplifiting Affirmations! Serious wit!
Spoken Word! Songs! Dance! Expressions! Motivational Speakers!
RECTL PRESENTS:
—Terry Vanween and Annie Danger!
Coming from a hotbed of RECTL activity in the Bay Area, this the dynamic duo boasts inspirational Advances, high tech pronunciations and more wildly effective metaphors then you can shake a nightstick at! Come prepared for personal growth.
Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund Donated
Posted September 20, 2009 by mary_tremonte in In the News
this just in down the wire:
FOUR YEAR LEGAL BATTLE ENDS WITH SUBSTANTIAL DONATIONS TO CIVIL & HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS
CAE Defense Fund donated to Center for Constitutional Rights & New York Civil Liberties Union
Buffalo, NY—After a widely watched four-year legal battle, the CAE Defense Fund was officially dissolved last week, with its remainder of unexpended funds donated in two substantial gifts to the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU).
The CAE Defense Fund was originally created as a mechanism to raise funds for legal bills incurred by Dr. Steven Kurtz and Dr. Robert Ferrell in what its members argued was a politically motivated attack by the Department of Justice—one which threatened the constitutional and fundamental rights not only of the two defendants, but also of everyone, due to legal precedents that would have been set by an unfavorable outcome.
In response, thousands of people worldwide organized demonstrations and raised money for the two men’s legal defense through fundraisers and a variety of other grassroots efforts.http://caedefensefund.orghttp://caedefensefund.org
Interview with Martin Lux, anti-fascist activist (UK)
Posted September 20, 2009 by icky in Interviews
Food for thought from the always excellent Kill Your Pet Puppy blog:
Thought anti-fascism was all about bearded sociology lecturers waving ‘Never Again’ banners? Not in London’s East End in the mid-to-late 1970s when the National Front’s London election results put them in position of 4th largest political party, with a street presence – translated into racial attacks – to match the votes.
The now uber-trendy streets of Hoxton were then the stomping ground of a home-grown Ubermensch and every week they’d flow with the blood of violent confrontations between the fascists and their foes.
This is the setting for a book, “Anti-Fascist” by Martin Lux.
350 Campaign and Tck Tck Tck
Posted September 19, 2009 by k_c_ in Campaigns
I recently met with one of the organizers of a creative campaign that hopes to influence this years round of climate talks in Copenhagen.
While petitioning world governments isn't my ideal of social change I understand that a variety of efforts need to be applied to change our behavior. There is hope that whatever groundwork is laid during this organizing will be useful for future campaigns.
They will be doing a handful of actions in the next week concurrent with the UN General Assembly in NYC. While you're at it you should check out tck tck tck there are a handful of events and actions in NYC for Climate Week
Spectres of Liberty at Conflux
Posted September 18, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Dara Greenwald, Olivia Robinson and I are presenting at the Conflux gathering in NYC this weekend:
Date: Saturday Sept. 19th
Start Time: 10:00am
Location: Einstein Auditorium, Rm. 105
Barney Building, New York University
34 Stuyvesant Street
A multi-media presentation with Dara Greenwald, Josh MacPhee, and Olivia Robinson about projects that intervene in public amnesia and memory. Followed by discussion.
In this session we will present documentation from several public projects that attempt to make visible histories of struggle that are submerged from public memory. The projects we will present raise important questions about the representation of both history and the present in the urban landscape, how public memories are created, how the control of public spaces reinforces dominant histories and the impact of that on the here and now.
more info HERE.
Live Debris::Street Art Event::Portland (OR)
Posted September 18, 2009 by icky in Events
Live Debris presents installations and interventions about garbage and social inclusion, from Rio de Janeiro and Portland, Oregon.
When: September 19-26, 2009. All day opening event on September 19th (schedule below), works on display until September 26th . Installations will start to be built on September 17th.
Where: Between Burnside and Hawthorne along Portland’s Eastbank Esplanade.
Live Debris 2009 is a series of international events sharing reuse traditions as a means of reducing stigmas around garbage, poverty and street culture. Live Debris has taken place in Beirut, Lebanon, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and now Portland, Oregon. Exchanging and comparing world perspectives on garbage and the people who work closely with it, Live Debris explores ways that collaborative reuse can affect how we see garbage and each other. This event is organized by Taylor Cass Stevenson of red semilla roja, with help from Portland City Art, the Black Rock Arts Foundation, Outside In, Chinook Book and Oregon Electric Group.
Opening Schedule- September 19, 2009:
9am Free Breakfast. Bring a mug if you want coffee
12-1pm Trashtastic garbage-related performances
1-2pm Trash Mash-Up Parade
All Day (10am-5pm):
Clothing Exchange- bring used clothes
Sewing Station - transforming old t-shirts into bags, bring t-shirts
Interactive Garbage Weaving -bring clean trash
Public Paste-Up wall- make a contribution with paper
Public Crafting Party - bring a craft project
Link to Live Debris' website
(Pete Yahnke and I are heading down on Saturday- see you there!)
Peter Kuper at MoCCA
Posted September 18, 2009 by k_c_ in Art exhibits/shows
I went to Peter Kuper's presentation of his recently published book Diario De Oaxaca: A Sketchbook Journal of Two Years in Mexico on PM Press. The event was an opening for Peter's current exhibit up at the MoCCA Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, at 594 Broadway, Suite 401
"MoCCA is pleased to present Peter Kuper's Diario de Oaxaca: A Sketchbook Journal of Two Years in Mexico. This exhibition is in conjunction with the release of his book published in a bilingual edition from PM Press in the US and Sexto Piso in Mexico. Diario de Oaxaca is Kuper's chronicle of his experiences in Oaxaca, Mexico during the political uprising of 2006 and its aftermath. The exhibition includes sketches, illustrations and comics, capturing both the light and shadows that defined his time there."
The exhibit is really simple and stark. I started to notice how Peter was using the nationalistic colors of Mexico in the wall text. It then occurred to me that the wall to my right was painted red, to my left, green, and the wall in front of me had an eagle eating the serpent on the cactus. He incorporated simple elements like the Mexican flag along with stenciled slogans from the streets of Oaxaca on the walls amidst his journal sketches. There are two large screens in the gallery one, a multimedia collage of Peter's stenciled "Day of the Dead" self-portrait, and another displaying dozens of slides he took while living in Oaxaca. The images range from the immense amount of graffiti and visual culture produced in the streets as part of the uprising to buses, which were commandeered and burnt to provide barricades in street battles against the Federal Police, to snapshots of his daughter in front of a line of riot police.
Fiji Water and its Discontents
Posted September 18, 2009 by roger_peet in In the News
Bottled water! Emblem of assholery. None more so than the Fiji Water brand, with its deceptively idiotic campaign to seem ecologically sound and socially responsible. This despite the fact that they exist to sell aquifer water, mined from a dirt-poor South Pacific nation, in super-thick plastic bottles, and under the supervision of a military dictatorship, to the effete snobs of the western celebrity elite and their lickspittle public. There was a great article in Mother Jones recently that tears the enterprise to pieces. In response, Fiji posted a rebuttal on their site that lamely managed to sound wounded and hard done by, only to have Mother Jones editor Clara Jeffrey respond and continue to widen the rift that had been made in their cleft. The comment thread that unspools below that provides further amusement, if only for the eerie automated quality of the respondents "Fiji Media Gal" and "Fiji Green Gal". This uncanny feeling- of being soothed by gentle zombie capitalist hippy P.R. robots- is what the Dead Kennedys were trying to evoke in "California Uber Alles". Zen fascists, 100% natural, indeed.
Wisconsin is weird and incredible
Posted September 18, 2009 by pete in Inspiration
After our justseeds retreat in Pittsburgh in August I took a trip to my homeland of Wisconsin. Now I am sure most people don't daydream of Wisconsin imagining how amazing it is, but truly it is a special place. I was taking a little road trip to visit friends in the rolling hills and bluffs of SW Wisconsin when I realized I was passing the infamous "House on the Rock". Growing up in northern WI I had heard of this place before but like many things in my home state hadn't thought much about it. I assumed it was maybe an old church on the top of the hill or maybe an old world heritage type of place, basically something I wasn't going to be too excited to go out of my way for. I only recently had learned that the "House on the Rock" might be worth checking out when I heard they had a few of the amazing sculptures of Dr. Evermore, the creator of the Forevertron (another reason WI is the best). I assumed if they had some of his work there it most certainly was not a church and was likely going to blow my mind. It did. If you are ever in the Spring Green area of WI (West of Madison) go there, smile nice at the elderly ticket man, give him your $30, just do it don't think twice, and enter the overly sensational experience that is HOUSE ON THE ROCK!....
Sustain Our Libraries!
Posted September 17, 2009 by mary_tremonte in Posters & Prints
I made this print in grassroots support of the public library system of Pittsburgh. Most of the posters I printed include the Pittsburgh-specific informational text at the end of this entry. I printed a few without the text to sell on Justseeds to recoup my costs and pay my library fines! (seriously). Dig the rubylith-cut children's book illustration-style, hearkening back to my own childhood, when I would walk to the library every day in the Summer!
Public libraries are so crucial for folks in all walks of life, and their services are becoming even more crucial with increased unemployment, cuts to youth programs, access to computers and continuing education...Libraries fulfill all these roles and more; for many disinvested communities, their public library branch is a community center. The Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh, our public library system, is really incredible; they order good progressive-to-radical books, have a spectacular graphic novel section, a very active teen section and programming; a zine collection in both the teen and adult sections(!); the Pennsylvania Room is an incredible resource for doing local research, including a bangin' photo archive; the library also hosts concerts, film screenings, zine readings, classes and more...
LISTS: Twenty Poster Books of Note
Posted September 16, 2009 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
I was making out a list of books for a friend, and realized I could share it with all our blog readers. For those that don't know, I'm both a book nerd, and a poster nerd. For years I've been collecting every book about political poster art I can find. Here's a list of what I think are the 20 best books about post-WWII political posters. They are in alphabetical order by author, not importance. A handful of them are out of print, or painfully expensive to get in the US, but most are still available and findable on sites like ABE Books:
Arnulfo Aquino & Jorge Pérezvega, eds. Imágenes y Símboles del 68: Fotografía y Gráfica del Movimiento Estudiantil. Distrito Federal, México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2004.
The best book available on the political graphics produced during the Mexican student upheaval in 1968. Unlike Europe, where screenprinting became the poster production method of choice in 68 and into the 70s, in Mexico the block print was most widely used. In part this was likely due to the graphic history of Mexico, and the political printmaking traditions of the Taller de Gráfica Popular. This book captures a ton of the graphics produced, as well as a lot of photo documentation of banners, marches, and the student propaganda brigades, which produced and distributed a lot of the prints. The only drawbacks to the book is that it's in Spanish (a bummer for us English-only idiots), and the images are all black & white or a brick red duotone, which looks nice, but doesn't give us a full feel for how the color posters actually looked.
Dana Bartelt, Yossi Lemel, Fawzy El Emrany, and Sliman Mansour. Both Sides of Peace: Israeli and Palestinian Poster Art. Seattle, WA and London: University of Washington Press, 1996.
So far the best collection of posters from the Palestinian-Israeli struggle. The Israeli posters tend to be more polished and "designed," and although the majority are critical of Israeli policy, there are a number of zionist pieces. It is one of the largest collections of Israeli David Tartakover's designs (at least available in English), and we get to see how effective he marshals the raw tools of the collage and photocopy in creating anti-occupation posters. The Palestinian work tends to be more raw, many of the posters photo-reproductions of paintings and drawings. A lot of the posters are created by the PLO, or celebrate the Intifada. Stylistically many mirror Cuban political posters, showing the aesthetic aspects of Third World solidarity.
Eduardo Castillo Espinoza. Cartel Chileno 1963-1973. Santiago, Chile: Ediciones B Chile, 2006.
This one is particularly hard to find, but well worth the search. Kevin actually brought this back from Chile for me. First, it's giant, 11"x15", so you almost get the full feel of what these images actually look like as posters. The focus here is on the Allende years, and there are a couple framing essays in Spanish. The real treasure is the posters, over 90 full page images, and on top of that there are a half dozen images of some of the posters in development, from rough pencil sketches to colored marker proofs. This is a rare insight into historical poster production, all of these made before computers were used for design. Interestingly, most of the posters here were created by a handful of designers, including Vincente Larrea, Waldo González Hervé and Mario Quirez, but commissioned by a wide array of organizations, from unions to universities, political parties to musicians, film houses to student organizations.
Drawing All the Time : Week 2
Posted September 16, 2009 by colin_matthes in Inspiration
This drawing, Spectators, is from my sketchbook.
I will post a random drawing each Wednesday at 8am.
"Potato Patch" Pingree stencil in Detroit
Posted September 14, 2009 by bec_young in Street Art & Graffiti
A bold new stencil can be seen all over Detroit, one which may remind us that urban agriculture is not such a new thing. Hazen "potato patch" Pingree was Mayor of Detroit from 1890 to 1897, and followed with a stint as State Governor. Originally a shoemaker from Maine, it's said that Pingree won the election because of his physical resemblance to Prince Edward. What won the admiration of Detroiters, however, was his persistent attempts to create affordable, publicly-owned public transit ~ trolleys, which were later bought and decommissioned by GM and Ford. He's even more famous for his advocacy of gardens in the city. When over 10 % of workers were unemployed, Pingree's solution to alleviating hunger was to make unused lots available for gardens. He assisted in raising money for seeds and tools, and hundreds of working-poor families grew their own food.
Now, after more than a century of growth and decline, Detroit is in a strikingly similar position. The unemployment rate is even higher, and there are more vacant lots than ever before. It seems unlikely that current Mayor "I'm going to run the city like a business" Bing will hold fundraisers for lettuce seed. I don't know for sure, but I'm willing to bet that this new stencil is not an effort to make any particular elected official take charge of the dichotomy between empty lots and empty stomachs. Because Detroit's urban agriculture scene is already so vibrant, so connected, and so grass-roots, the poster seems to me to be saying, to take a quote from Grace Lee Boggs, "We are the leaders we've been looking for."
(I can) read the writing on the wall-1
Posted September 13, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds & Member Projects
Like Colin's weekly drawings, I decided, to post a weekly photo up here on the Justseeds Blog. I got glasses when I was in first grade, but I've always been able to read the writing on the wall. I'll be posting new and old photos I've got of the things I come across in my day, in my home, of NYC, and in my travels.
This first installment, is clearly on an awning,
Houston St, NY.
Mary Mack Zine Interview
Posted September 13, 2009 by mary_tremonte in Justseeds & Member Projects
ally reeves and me---this is very zine-y, right?
Ciara Xyerra, the proprietress behind Learning to Leave a Paper Trail zine distro, did an interview with me a few weeks ago, and it is up on their site.
Go to http://www.papertraildistro.com/ and click on "dossiers" at the bottom of the page. There are lots of other zine folk interviewed with the same ten questions in that section of the site, many of my favorites. Good company! You can order my zine there as well as from justseeds, but there are heaps of other wonderful zines on this site. Support d.i.y. publishing!
Check out the full interview with miss mary mack down here:
Pictures from Erik Ruin installation at the Dirt Palace
Posted September 12, 2009 by erik_ruin in Art exhibits/shows
The Dirt Palace site just posted some nice-looking pics from my installation in their window, which just came down. You can check it out in slideshow format on Flickr.
The focal point of my installation were the banners i had printing during my residency at AS220. I also created with my dear friend the amazing Andrew Oesch two life-size painted-and-cut-out figures on red rosin paper and scores of painted clouds (with additional help from Susan Sakash).
The Dirt Palace window is a great place to exhibit as it faces onto the main square of the Olneyville neighborhood in Providence, and thus attracts the attention of a great number of random passers-by. I even had one enthusiastic fellow step into the window with me to chat while I was installing!
Big thanks to everyone who made my time in Providence such a dream- including all of Building 16 and AS220, Meredith Stern, Jean Cozzens for print help, Xander Marro, Andrew, Susan and Walker Mettling for delicious opening food & beverages.
Art for Healthcare Reform
Posted September 12, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Patricia Dahlman and Michael Dal Cerro have put up the 14 pieces of art they received in response to a call for art on health care reform. There's a couple nice pieces and block prints. Check out the art HERE. The above image is by Deborah Harris, "To Your Health."
Fresh Faces from YZ
Posted September 11, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
YZ just sent these images of faces they put up in Paris. Interestingly, one is of William Casby, who was one of the last living African-Americans that had been born into slavery. He was photographed in 1963 by Richard Avedon (see photo HERE), and has also been a popular subject for Chris Stain.
Snippets of Nuart on Brooklyn Street Art
Posted September 11, 2009 by k_c_ in Art exhibits/shows
Theres a handful of flicks of Justseeds members, Chris Stain & Swoon with friends at the Nuart Festival. The following links are from Brooklyn Street Art It begins here, continuing here, Swoon-ing here, growing here, to here with its most current post.
(photo by Logan Hicks)
Grand Prix at the International Biennial of Graphic Arts
Posted September 10, 2009 by dylan_miner in Justseeds & Member Projects
As many of you may know, Justseeds is currently exhibiting work in Slovenia at the 28th International Biennial of Graphic Arts. Check Josh's previous blog post to find out all of the amazing artists that are also showing at the Biennial.
Kevin just found out that Justseeds has been awarded the Grand Prix at the Biennial. What this exactly means is unclear at the moment, but the jurors have uploaded this video discussing some of the selection process and why they chose our work.
German Politicians Create Their Own Mini-Utopias
Posted September 10, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
Friends at the Center for Urban Pedagogy and Lize Mogel tipped me off to this great story about German politicians their own versions of mini-utopias at Hamburg's Miniature Wonderland, the world's largest model-train set up! The story is at Spiegal Online, and you can read it HERE. Make sure to check out the slide show on the left hand side. The image I've posted here is from the Green Party model, where punks and cops get along!
Humor aside, I actually think this is quite brilliant, and a great way to concretize and visualize possible ways political policies could play out, and start conversations about them. It's so simple and direct, and has the potential to speak to really wide sections of the public. Of course it would be much less interesting in the US as there are only 2 major political parties, but maybe if we got them, plus the Green Party, a representative from labor, a couple Maoist and Trotskyist sects, born again christians, the Ayn Rand lunatics, green anarchists, the IWW and anarcho-communists all to make models.....
From Istanbul: "What Keeps Us Not-Alive?"
Posted September 10, 2009 by shaun in In the News
This came down the wire this week, a response from Resistanbul to the 11th Annual Istanbul Biennial, which opens this week, and the IMF/World Bank meetings in Istanbul Oct. 1-8:
An open letter to the curators, artists, participants of the 11th
International Istanbul Biennial and to all artists and art-lovers:
“We have to stop pretending that the popularity of politically engaged
art within the museums, magazines and markets over the last few years
has anything to do with really changing the world. We have to stop
pretending that taking risks in the space of art, pushing boundaries of
form, and disobeying the conventions of culture, making art about
politics makes any difference. We have to stop pretending that art is a
free space, autonomous from webs of capital and power.It’s time for the artist to become invisible. To dissolve back into life.
The People Suck
Posted September 9, 2009 by roger_peet in Inspiration
The world is over.
A goat with its throat slashed may buck against its bonds, but the blood will drain out and it will die. A gentle hand might give it a pill to ease the suffering. Like the goat, we've swallowed the pill, and so it comes to this. Buy an efficient lightbulb. Drive a "hybrid" car. We have eaten the host that was laid on our tongue, the host embossed "HOPE". We've supped from the poisoned chalice to wash it down.
Our sad flapping jaws will keep on hurking out positive affirmations like trained seals clapping for the ringmaster. Our prating of determination and principled struggle and positivity of all sorts sounds now as do the grunts of a dental patient turned loose to the street with a toothless gape and gums full of anaesthetic. For it's Hope that has killed us these many long years, and it will continue to kill us, though it will seem like famine, and it will seem like war. It's hope that strangles the life of the earth, hope that fills the land and water with poison, the hope that something might be better for our children, and the hope that our pestilential children might somehow impossibly behave other than humans have ever done. Hope places around our necks the thin, piano-wire garrotte of sustainability, and chuckles in syncopation with our breathless gasps. Hope throttles us with our efforts to bring "justice" and "peace", to fight "oppression", for we stand in the shadow of one hundred thousand years of world-rending growth and ecological annihilation and proclaim that without darkness, we would never have been able to understand the properties of light.
Drawing All the Time : Week 1
Posted September 9, 2009 by colin_matthes in Inspiration
I draw obsessively and was recently asked if I would blog drawings now and again. I will be posting a random drawing to the justseeds blog every Wednesday at 8am.
I sent a drawing to my cousin everyday for the last 30 days he was in prison. One goal was for him to receive mail everyday to help pass the time. This is one of those drawings. It is about making hot pot burritos in his cell.
Chick Pea Radio
Posted September 8, 2009 by mary_tremonte in Justseeds & Member Projects
chick pea radio is back on the airwaves and internet-waves!
I've been doing this radio show on and off, with or without partners, and under various names for close to 13 years! post-punk-new-wave-crust-peace punk-mid-90's hardcore-riot grrrl-queercore-revolutionary dance jams and more
Wednesdays 10pm-midnight Eastern time
You can tune in to 88.3fm if you are in Pittsburgh or listen live over the interweb at www.wrct.org worldwide! I used to get occasional calls from Australia!
Check playlists online too, and holler at me for requests on the WRCT hotttline: 412-621-WRCT
happy listening!
here is a sample playlist: (last week's show)
Bikini Kill - new radio
Joy Division - transmission
R.E.M. - radio free europe
Radio Birdman - non stop girls
Wipers - up front
Wire - mannequin
Young Pioneers - meeting over yonder
Big Boys - complete control
Karl Blau - mockingbird diet
My Bloody Valentine - thorn
The Vaselines - monsterpussy
Pylon - the human body
Au Pairs - it's obvious
ESG - it's alright
Black Eyes - deformative
Erase Errata - owls
Essential Logic - collecting dust
The Magnetic Fields - no one will ever love you
Tender Forever - tiny heart and clever hands
The Blow - jet ski accidents
Mirah - recommendation
Os Mutantes - a minha menina
Sonic Youth - star power
My Bloody Valentine - when you sleep
The Vaselines - on of a gun
Huggy Bear - no sleep / can't kiss
Heavenly - p.u.n.k. girl
Red Monkey - in her own write
The Slits - so tough
zounds - dancing
Pylon - gyrate
Cat Power - he war
Palace Music - new partner
Art Hazelwood at Inferno
Posted September 8, 2009 by jmacphee in Art exhibits/shows
Art Hazelwood
September 11 - November 13, 2009
Reception: Friday, September 11, 7 - 9 pm
INFERNO Gallery
4401 San Leandro Street
Oakland, CA 94601
510-798-7637
San Francisco Impresario, Artist, Instigator: Art Hazelwood brings us his recent works covering the issues in a Post-Bush world. Hazelwood has been creating paintings, prints and public art around the country as well as Germany and Japan since 1984. His work is in art collections from New York to California.
He has curated a multitude of art shows, written articles and engaged in creating art work that strikes at the very heart of political and social issues in our country. He is the co-founder of The Art of Democracy http://www.artofdemocracy.org which gathers together political artists and develops exhibitions across the country to speak out against injustice and motivate the populous through art.
EveryBody! Visual Resistance in Feminist Health Movements, 1969-2009
Posted September 8, 2009 by shaun in Art exhibits/shows
“Our feelings will lead us to our theory, our theory to our action, our feelings about that action to new theory and then to new action.”- Kathie Sarachild of Redstockings Radical Feminist group, presented at the First National Women’s Liberation Conference, Chicago, November 27, 1968
Curated by our cohort Bonnie Fortune, and including Justseeds artists Favianna Rodriguez and Meredith Stern as well as Pittsburgher Hyla Willis (subRosa), "EveryBody!" opens this Friday at I Space Gallery in Chicago. For address, hours, images, and more info on the show including links to artists and organizations involved, head over to Bonnie's site!
Exhibit runs until October 10.
2010 Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar is now available!
Posted September 7, 2009 by Jesse_Purcell in Art & Politics
Support indigenous resistance!
I just got an email today from the folks at Certain Days announcing the completion of the 2010 calendar. A number or justseeds members contributed work, it's an honor to participate in such a worthwhile and timely project.
It is available now at www.certaindays.org and it will be arriving at Just Seeds headquarters later this week
Global Indigenous Resistance
Indigenous resistance to colonialism is a fundamental aspect of any struggle for liberation taking place on stolen native land. Prisons are an integral part of the colonial web of domination – evidenced in the over-representation of indigenous people in both the Canadian and U.S. prison systems – and political imprisonment continues to be a key tool of repression against anti-colonial movements.
While this theme is a fitting one for a political prisoner calendar at any time, we chose to highlight it this year when the call went out from Coast Salish territory for Resistance 2010. In February, the Winter Olympics will be held on the unceded indigenous territory which Canada claims as the province of British Columbia, with dire implications for the people and the land. An impressive indigenous-led effort is underway that also includes opposition to the G8 Leader's Summit, and a meeting of NAFTA leaders as part of the so-called "Security and Prosperity Partnership." Resistance 2010 organizing
seeks to bring together analysis and resistance against colonialism, imperialism, and global capital.
Crude:The Real Price of Oil
Posted September 7, 2009 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Crude: The Real Price of Oil will be screening in NYC at
September 9-22, 2009
IFC Center
323 6th Ave at W3rd St
With dates all around the USA and Canada between September through December. Look at First Run Features to see if its playing near you.
Three years in the making, this cinéma-vérité feature from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet. The inside story of the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case, Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film subverts the conventions of advocacy filmmaking, exploring a complicated situation from all angles while bringing an important story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.The landmark case takes place in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador, pitting 30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest dwellers against the U.S. oil giant Chevron. The plaintiffs claim that Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – spent three decades systematically contaminating one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, poisoning the water, air and land. The plaintiffs allege that the pollution has created a “death zone” in an area the size of the Rhode Island, resulting in increased rates of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and a multiplicity of other health ailments. They further allege that the oil operations in the region contributed to the destruction of indigenous peoples and irrevocably impacted their traditional way of life. Chevron vociferously fights the claims, charging that the case is a complete fabrication, perpetrated by “environmental con men” who are seeking to line their pockets with the company’s billions.
The Metropolis and Common Life
Posted September 7, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
The Metropolis and Common Life
Michael Hardt and Neil Smith in dialogue on the themes of Commonwealth, Hardt and Negri's newest book.
Thursday, September 17th
7PM (doors at 6PM)
ABRONS ARTS CENTER
Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street)
New York, NY 10002
Free and open to all
Signing Afterwards
Commonwealth will be available for purchase (before its official publication date)
Sponsored by THIS IS FOREVER event and discussion series and Bluestockings Bookstore
We Rise Up From The Earth
Posted September 7, 2009 by Jesus_Barraza in Indigenous Resistance
In September I worked on a series of three screen prints for a artist exchange project that I have been part of this year. The exchange has taken me across the United States, Guatemala and Colombia totaling five weeks of traveling with a group of 20 artist 14 of them from indigenous communities in from Guatemala, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador. These trips were very inspiring and helped me gain a better understanding of the world we are living in, especially in the global south where there is a movement rising to change the neo-colonial relationship with the first world.
Now that the exchange has been completed all the artist have created new artwork that reflects their experiences, this artwork will be collected for a traveling exhibit that will open in June of 2009 in Bogota, Colombia at the Museo del Banco Nacional. It is very exciting to have this work travel in through out north and the south and reach so many.
This is the artist statement for the triptych:
We Rise Up From The Earth
I first learned about the prophecy of the Eagle and Condor in 1996, which foretells the reunification of the Northern and Southern continents and will aid in healing the relationships between and within indigenous communities toward the goal of becoming whole again. I think that this process of healing is one that will take as long as it took for the sickness, that colonialism and imperialism left behind, to take hold and that there will be many meetings of indigenous people that will facilitate this healing.
Pretty Revolutionary
Posted September 6, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Karen Fiorito of Buddha Cat Press is working with Monet Clark to produce a series of silkscreens about the role of women in the recent Iranian protests. More info at the Buddha Cat website.
Tucson Weekly Review of 'Confronting the Capitalist Crisis'
Posted September 4, 2009 by dylan_miner in In the News
"To Change the World: This traveling exhibit of works by radical artists has a refreshingly old-fashioned air"
by Margaret Regan
Tucson Weekly
03 September 2009
Fabian Garcia Rios was the last known migrant to die in Arizona in the month of July.
The 24-year-old perished in the furnace known as the Tohono O'odham nation on July 31. His cause of death: environmental heat exposure. The young man was one of nine migrants whose bodies were found over six days during the last week of July, and one of 37 who died and were found in Southern Arizona during the whole month.
Fabian is no. 162 on the annual death list compiled by Kat Rodriguez of Tucson's Coalición de Derechos Humanos. He's the last one named on her count at the moment, but Kat will soon be adding more. During sweltering August, in the weeks since Fabian suffered in the ghastly heat, 21 more bodies have been found.
The August dead put Kat's total for fiscal 2009 at 183. With five weeks still to go until the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, those 183 corpses already equal the number of migrant dead for all of fiscal 2008. And those are only the bodies that have been found.
Young Fabian could easily have served as the model for a poignant work on view in a show of political art at the UA's Joseph Gross Gallery.
Guatemala
Posted September 4, 2009 by Jesus_Barraza in Inspiration
This Summer has been crazy, it started in May with a three week trip through the U.S. with Latino and Indigenous artist from New York, Oaklahoma, Guatemala, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador. The trip was part of a artist exchange titled SALPICA, it was organized by ITD which operates out of Amherst. We travelled through Amherst, Boston, DC, New York, Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Los Angeles. It was a blast we visited museums, tourist sites, the beach and even a Indian casino all the while discussing art, culture and the many realities indigenous people occupy through out this hemisphere. I will remember those three weeks for the rest of my life, but it was just the beginning.
After returning from my trip, Melanie and I begun to prepare for our exhibit at Galeria de la Raza. Titled Dignidad Rebelde: Art in Action, this was the first of three exhibits that make up the Contrabando Series, which invites artist to take over the gallery space and transform it into their studio. We took full advantage of this studio in the Mission, we printed 4 editions and about 500 1 color posters ranging in issues from Honduras, El Salvador, Iran and Immigration.
As the exhibit came to a close it was time for the second leg of the SALPICA artist exchange, this time the US based artist travelled to Latin America. Melanie and I, along with three artist from New York travelled to Guatemala to spend some time with artists from the country. This was one of the greatest weeks in my life, we had the opportunity to travel trough the whole country, checking out the big city, galleries, tourist spots, the mountains, cultural centers and ancient temples.
Creative Violation
Posted September 4, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
Chris Stain, Shaun Slifer and I are all featured in Creative Violation, a cool short film about street stenciling made by Andrew Stevenson that's quietly been making the rounds at small and progressive film festivals. It's now showing at Urbanity, a film series in Calgary put on by the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers and Truck Contemporary Art Society.
Here's a trailer for the film:
Decaydence tonight
Posted September 3, 2009 by jmacphee in Art exhibits/shows
My friend Shawn Gilheeney and friends have a show opening tonight, a big installation show out of found materials, at Unsmoke Systems in Braddock, PA.
Decaydence
Friday, Sept. 4, 7-11pm
UnSmoke Artspace
1137 Braddock Ave.
Braddock, PA 15104
REVIEW: Street Art San Francisco
Posted September 2, 2009 by jmacphee in Reviews
Annice Jacoby for Precita Eyes Muralists, ed.
Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo
Abrams, 2009
I gotta say, at the first crack of the spine of this book I was immediately nostalgic for San Francisco, strangely enough a city I've never even lived in! There was something extremely powerful about the streets of SF between 1997-2004, even for a visitor and outsider like me. Coming to the city, and the Mission District in particular, was like walking into a giant, explosive, exciting car crash of ideas, experiences, ideologies and people. The walls literally dripped with the shrapnel, covered with the remnants of 1970s & 80s murals, anti-gentrification screenprinted posters, art student graffiti, Latino gang markings, weirdo street artists, anarchist slogans, and billboards triumphantly announcing the dot-com and real estate booms. And for the most part this book does a great job of capturing that energy and feeling, carrying us through the blur.
Although Street Art SF is broken into sections, they are fairly hard to distinguish, which in many ways is a good thing, allowing the reader to flow from one style to another, fade between histories, jump between artists, just like a pedestrian on Valencia, Bryant or Mission streets would. Don't let the title fool you, this isn't just another edition pulled of the seemingly endless conveyor belt of dull "Street Art" book cash-ins. Likely a smart marketing move to put street art first in the title, this is really a mural book that understands and values the contributions that street art and graffiti have added to the brew of public expression.
