February 2010
JS Posters featured in Hip Hop video by Mexico City MC, Bocafloja
Posted February 28, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Hailing from Mexico city, Bocafloja strives in search of alternative forms of classic hip hop structure in the form of MC. With four solo albums, the production of two compilation albums, one published book and presence on stages that extend all over Latin America and the United States: from SOB'S in New York to the cultural center bank of brazil in Rio de Janeiro, from Venezuela to Cuba, from Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic, from east L.A to Paris—without omitting the innumerable appearances throughout México, during 12 years of constant activity in the Hip Hop scene—Bocafloja was presented with the DJ & Clubbing Awards’ Hip Hop Artist of the Year Award 2006 in Mexico.
I'm super proud of my brotha. His most recent music video, Las Estaciones, features two of my art pieces! Sisterfire and International Migrant's Day Poster, both available for sale on this website.
water signs
Posted February 28, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Environment
I've been spending a lot of time recently thinking about water issues and watching films on the topic - especially on the the issue of privatization. Here are some of my new designs. Feedback appreciated.
short list of documentary films on water issues:
Blue Gold: http://www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com/
Flow: http://www.flowthefilm.com/
One Water: http://www.onewaterthemovie.org/
The Waterfront: http://www.waterfrontmovie.com/
Thirst: http://www.pbs.org/pov/thirst/
Upstream Battle: http://expressive.tv/films/upstream_battle/
School as Art
Posted February 25, 2010 by dara_g in Art & Politics
Since participating in a session called Pedagogies of the Periphery (organized by Rebecca Zorach) a few weeks ago at threewalls Gallery in Chicago I have been thinking through a lot of questions I have about the current trend of the school form as artist project as well as the call for the March 4th student strike. Once I compiled this long but incomplete list, I got kind of excited about all of the mostly grassroots energy it represents towards rethinking what it means to learn. At the same time I wonder who these art projects serve and if they have oppositional possibilities or are just another venue for people with privilege to socialize with each other and engage in "knowledge production"? Some other questions I have are:
What does this type of art practice say about the current conditions of both official education and/or art?
Although each project is different, does this trend indicate a growing critique of official education?
If so, what are the critiques (pedagogical, corporate, curricular, all/none/etc)?
In what ways are these projects different than official education? Is it the spaces they happen in? Different administrators? Content of courses? Cost? Openness?
What are the politics of the discourse of “openness”?
What constitutes participation in these projects?
What, if any, is the relationship between the impetus for these school art practices and the issues inspiring the student strikes?
There are many other questions to ask and discussions to have related to problems of education today….for now here is a list of school art projects, as well as other types of places where classes are offered to the public, and a list of free schools for young people...
ART WORK events in Pittsburgh
Posted February 24, 2010 by mary_tremonte in Justseeds & Member Projects
ART WORK
A National Conversation About Art, Labor, and Economics
Through Feb. 28, 2010 at the Miller Gallery.
Events This Week:::
Feb. 25, Thurs.
8-9:30pm: Discussion led by Marc Fischer (Temporary Services) around issues raised in Art Work: A National Conversation about Art, Labor, and Economics. Food available.
@ The Waffle Shop, 125 S. Highland Ave. at Baum, E. Liberty
Rad Teen Print of the Week: G.Y.T.
Posted February 23, 2010 by mary_tremonte in Inspiration
This is one of the first prints created at Power Up, a new after school program I am teaching, by Shaleia McElligott. This poster is to promote Planned Parenthood of Western PA's G.Y.T., or "Get Yourself Tested" program. The girls have created many graphics for PPWP, and will have a show of their work in their window on Liberty Ave Downtown. Stay tuned!
Art Against Empire
Posted February 23, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
This just in (from Evil Monito, check it HERE):
Art Against Empire: Graphic Responses to U.S. Intervention Since World War II
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
3/10 to 4/18/10
LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) is proud to present Art Against Empire—Graphic Responses to U.S. Intervention Since World War II, curated by Carol A. Wells from the archives of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG). Featuring works by Josh MacPhee, Corita Kent, Jay Belloli, Cedomic Kostovic, Stephen Kroninger, and more.
Art Against Empire uses the power of posters to document 60 years of opposition to U.S. interventions into the domestic affairs of sovereign nations. Political, economic and military interventions, many of them covert, have repeatedly resulted in unacceptable deaths and misery for millions. These posters show hopes and dreams, and the pain of dreams destroyed.
Studs Terkel's Working:a graphic adaptation
Posted February 22, 2010 by k_c_ in Books & Zines
I was given a copy of Studs Terkel's Working: a graphic adaptation by an acquaintance from The New Press, last Summer. I gladly accepted the gift and expressed my intention of sharing my opinion of the book here on the Justseeds blog. There are many familiar contributing artists to the book including Peter Kuper, Sabrina Jones, and Justseeds member Dylan Miner!
In all honesty I have never read Terkels' Working, so this is my first encounter with the material. I am fascinated with people, where they were born, grew up, what kind of formative experiences did they had, etc. I'm interested in the places that shape us into who we are. Like my pal Chris says "everyone's got a story". So I'm curious to hear those of most people I engage with. For those, like me, are not familiar, Working is a collection of accounts, from the 60's, of how ordinary folks in the USA made their living. It is an exploration of what makes work meaningful for people in all walks of life.
While reading the different narratives I found myself realizing that these experiences are not much different than contemporary feelings about work and society. Garbageman, organizers, hooker, and farmworker are some accounts that appear timeless, and would remain so if wages and historical references weren't maintained.
I found Peter Kuper, Ryan Inzana, and Dylan Miner's pieces to be the strongest. Their graphic styles and lettering appealed the most to me. Some accounts feel short, making their inclusion a little confusing. Nevertheless, Working: a graphic adaptation is an indication that Studs Terkel's efforts from the 60's is still relevant and compelling in this new millennium.
Roger Williams and the fight for control of your soul
Posted February 21, 2010 by bec_young in In the News
I'm in Providence, RI, currently the Artist-in-Residence at AS220, a fascinating complex of facilities with a community performance space and gallery, artists' studios, a community printshop, a restauant and bar, and much more. My dad insisted while I was here that I check out the Roger Williams National Memorial. This is a small park with a information building, complete with federal park rangers, in the middle of downtown Providence, dedicated to a pastor who spent much of his life telling folks that if there's any two things in life that should be kept separate, they are Church and State. He also founded the first Baptist church in the country, and was of the belief that people should be baptized when they are adults capable of making that decision, not children with the decision being made by the parents. His term for this was soul freedom, and he said: "...at last to proclaim a true and absolute soul freedom to all the people of the land impartially; so that no person be forced to pray nor pay, otherwise then as his soul believeth and consenteth" (The Complete Writings of Roger Williams, Vol. VII). If you're following the news about the Texas Board of Education rulings on what goes into textbooks then you know that the debate over the separation of Church and State is far from over. As such a large state, Texas holds a lot of sway with textbook manufacturers, so what is created in Texas, Creationism or creativity, doesn't necessarily stay in Texas. Personally, I remember trembling with anger in my highschool history class because of the slant of the textbook, and I sincerely hope that, as a nation, we will stop forcing young people to consenteth to what they don't necessarily believeth.
Clowning at the Armory...
Posted February 20, 2010 by shaun in Justseeds & Member Projects
The Pittsburgh contingent of Justseeds spent a grueling twelve hours tabling the Handmade Arcade early last December. The event was held in an armory in the middle of a well-off Pittsburgh neighborhood, so we spent the day in what amounts to a huge heated shed filled with people hawking their handmade stuff, weird trucks and Hummers and a bathroom that felt like some Boy Scout troop had built it. We took a break from the crafty side for a photo op with the big toys.
WW3 #40 Release Party!
Posted February 20, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
World War 3 Illustrated has just release issue #40 (and is now 30 years old!). Justseeds artists Colin Matthes and Erik Ruin are in the new issue, and WW3 is having a release party in NYC next week, Feb. 26. See info below:
Free Radicals
Posted February 19, 2010 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Jess Baines, whom Dara and I were lucky enough to catch a pint with in London when we were there last Fall, has just published an edited version of a longer piece she has been working on about the evolution of alternative printshops in the UK in from the 60s–80s, with a focus on women's printshops (Baines played a roll in one of the most active women's liberation print groups in London, See Red). The below piece is yanked from Afterall, and definitely check it out on the Afterall site HERE, because their are 18 more images of UK posters and prints! Baines has also created an online and communal repository for information on UK print collectives which can be found and contributed to HERE.
Free Radicals
Jess Baines
Between the late 1960s and 1970s numerous alternative printshops were set up across the UK, with the founding objective of producing, providing or facilitating the cheap and safe printing of radical materials. They were started by libertarians, aligned and non-aligned Marxists, anarchists and feminists, and as such were constitutive of the fractured and fractious politics of the post-1968 left. Emerging mostly at the tail end of, or just after, the 1960s underground culture, they arose in a period that saw not just the extension of political concerns to cultural ones but also the rise of community activism and feminism. Despite their differences in position, those involved in the various printshops shared common left/libertarian ground:
Interview with MaryMack on the Papertrail Interview Series
Posted February 19, 2010 by k_c_ in Justseeds & Member Projects
There's an interview with Justseeds Member Mary Tremonte over at the Paper Trail Interview series site.
interview with mary mack tremonte
02/18/2010
mary is a zinester, deejay, & artist living in pittsburgh. interview originally posted august 18, 2009.
how did you get involved with zines/d.i.y. publishing?
i am one of many women who came of age in the early 90’s and discovered zines through Sassy magazine! i started ordering zines & tapes & records by ladies after reading reviews in there. a crucial discovery was Action Girl, a newsletter of reviews of zines by ladies, i started making my own zine with my buddy leah early on sophomore year (this was 1993). zines gave me a way to connect to like-minded folks in other places—i had a very active pen pal life all through high school, it really saved me from feeling alone and gave me a big outlet for art and ideas.
Read the rest of the interview at Interview series
the paper trail interview series was launched in january 2006, in conjunction with my now-defunct (as of january 2010) zine distro, learning to leave a paper trail. i came up with a fairly wide-ranging set of ten basic questions about zine creation, zine culture, the creative process, history, advice, & philosophies, & started sending the questions around the zinesters i worked with through the distro. they answered & i posted their thoughts on the distro website.
Poster Installation at Sol Collective
Posted February 19, 2010 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
This past week was super productive, i printed four posters and drove up to Sacramento for a poster installation. There are a few prints that we had designed for a trip out to Mexico a couple years ago, the posters had been used in poster installations in various cultural centers in Ecatepec.
Blockadesong
Posted February 18, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Strange and hilarious video I found on RebelArt. Karen Eliot and the Antifa Swingers!
The Story of Cap & Trade
Posted February 18, 2010 by k_c_ in Campaigns
While doing some research on tar sands(see below for info) for the Justseeds 2010 portfolio-Resourced, I came across this video. From the folks that produced the "Story of Stuff", is the Story of Cap and Trade. It was produced for last Decembers UN climate talks that happened in Copenhagen. The website is incredibly user friendly, making materials easily available for download. A good example of how a website can disseminate media for campaigns.
The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.
The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about cap and trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you.
Paper Politics Event in NYC Tonight!
Posted February 17, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today
February 17, 2010
7pm
Bluestockings Books
172 Allen St., Manhattan
F train to 2nd Ave.
A large number of the artists in Paper Politics will be convening on Bluestockings tonight for a freewheeling conversation of politics, printmaking and posters. Come join us and here about what local political printmakers are doing, why, and what they think their work is accomplishing.
Drawing All the Time : Week 20
Posted February 17, 2010 by colin_matthes in Inspiration
This is a detail of the drawing series titled "Bonus Footage about Loving, Leaving, or Existing in a Country that Revels in its Wars." It is installed at the Central Gallery at UMass Amherst as part of the two-person show, "Sailing the Barbarous Coast."
Colin Ward, 1924-2010
Posted February 17, 2010 by jmacphee in In the News
An entire generation of anti-authoritarians are passing on. With Zinn last month, and Colin Ward on Feb. 11 (and Alex Comfort in 2000, Paul Goodman in 1972, and...)... They remind us of the day when anarchists engaged in a more holistic way with society, as urban planners, lawyers, psychiatrists, architects, educators, historians, and engineers, and rooted their politics in a broad participation in the world. Kate from AK Press compiled a nice piece on Ward over at the Revolution by the Book blog, check it out HERE.
Rad Teen Print of the Week: Was It Worth It?
Posted February 16, 2010 by mary_tremonte in Inspiration
Another old skool image here...this silkscreen print was created by Abby Gordon and Kimi Hanauer for a Celebrate Pittsburgh People's History project as part of RUST 2008. This piece is about the construction of the Civic Arena (now Mellon Arena) in the 1950's, and the devastation it wreaked on the Hill District, versus the self-congragulatory nature of the media and the Great White Men who funded and supported the project.
Permaculture for Kids
Posted February 16, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Inspiration
Check out Thurman Oherlihy's blog "Permaculture for Kids." I've known Thurman since he was a little tike (he is eleven now-if memory serves me right) and its great to keep up with his latest project in SW Wisconsin through his blog. His drawings are amazing! (As an aside, Thurman had his first solo show at our old storefront space in Milwaukee when he was two!)
http://permaculturekid.blogspot.com/
'Learning to Labor, Remembering to Resist'
Posted February 16, 2010 by dylan_miner in Justseeds & Member Projects
'Learning to Labor, Remembering to Resist'
Print Media and Installations by Dylan Miner
University Art Gallery | Saginaw Valley State University
15 February - 06 March 2010
I just finished installing some new work at SVSU, a primarily working-class teaching university in Michigan. Using Paul E. Willis' famous book about educating working-class kids as point of reference (Learning to Labor), the work explores the state of Michigan's economic future by investigating local cultural practices. As a Michigander, I turned to different sites of education, particularly those sites where masculinity are commonly taught (such as an ice fishing shanty and deer stand), to re-think ways we may use these spaces and sites of radical pedagogy. I also threw in some references to hockey and sport, the IWW, and the usual prints.
I'd love to hear what you think about the work!!
Call for Peace Posters
Posted February 16, 2010 by jmacphee in Calls for Art
Breakdown Press in Melbourne is putting together their 4th poster series, and are looking for artists to design posters:
The Peace Posters: Breakdown Poster Series #4Wanted: Graphic Artists & Writers to Create Poster Designs for Social Change.
Seeking poster designs to be published on the following fascinating topics:
• Peace Building
• The Arms Trade
• Redirection of Resources
• Towards a Peaceful Society
• Militarisation of Everday Life
• Global Harmony
• Human & Environmental Impact of WarSubmissions due by: 1st MAY 2010
For publication:
Black & White or Colour
Printed A2 Newsprint (42cm x 59.4cm)To find out more about this project email us at: info@breakdownpress.org
email: JPGs to design@breakdownpress.org
post: CD or artwork to PO Box 1283 Carlton VIC 3053To learn more about Breakdown and past poster series, go HERE.
Jakarta Post article about LNG Project
Posted February 15, 2010 by jmacphee in In the News
Justseeds NW (Icky, Pete, and Roger) have been working on a large scale project challenging the building of a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline in Oregon. They have teamed up with an environmental organization, BARK, as well as the Indonesian printmaking collective Taring Padi (Roger is over in Indonesia right now! Hi Roger!). It looks like the story has been picked up by The Jakarta Post, which appears to be the English language Indonesian daily paper. A story about the project, "An Artistic Alliance," was published a couple days back, and you can read it HERE. I'm also embedding it below for those that don't feel like clicking away from the blog (I know you want to stay...)
Against the invasion of their land
Posted February 14, 2010 by Jesse_Purcell in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
This slightly perplexing but kinda mind blowing and very smart.
Check out more photos at the Guardian.
Monday night talk in Chicago on the Artists' Union and the American Artists' Congress
Posted February 14, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Events
If your in Chicago, stop by Gallery 400 at UIC this Monday, February 15th. I am giving a talk from 6:00pm-8:00pm based on the essay that I wrote for the Art Work publication by Temporary Services.
Gabriel Kuhn & the No-Fly List
Posted February 14, 2010 by jmacphee in In the News
My friend Gabriel was denied entry into the country and has had to cancel his US tour. We've got serious problems when artists, writers, and musicians are not allowed into the country because of their political beliefs (as if we didn't already have a nice size stack of serious problems....). There's a good article about it HERE, give it a read...
With Glowing Hearts We Kill the Arts (subtitle: How the Olympics Wreak Havoc on the Host City)
Posted February 13, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Street Art & Graffiti
link to an article on how a mural wall on Beatty Street in Vancouver was wiped out by the Olympic/gentrification machine. The comments posted with article express the frustrations the community is having with the corporate spectacle.
New Gil Scott-Heron!
Posted February 13, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
A handful of us over here in Justseeds NYC have a thing for Gil Scott-Heron, and no shit, he has his first record out in almost 20 years!!! His voice is really haggard, but pretty damn amazing...
Art inspired by Rini Templeton
Posted February 13, 2010 by Melanie_Cervantes in Justseeds & Member Projects
"Wherever she went, she drew what she saw and donated her art to the cause."
Rini Templeton was a prolific graphic artist and huge inspiration to artist like me who strive to serve their communities in their struggles for liberation and a better life. She traveled all over documenting direct actions and demonstrations by drawing beautiful, simple, bold black and white illustrations that she referred to as "Xerox" art because of how easy they could be reproduced. I've heard many stories about Rini attending a protest, capturing a moment from that protest and then handing the illustration over to the organizer's for use on flyers, signs, banners, t-shirts...really anyway they needed.
Man Smashes 29 TVs...
Posted February 12, 2010 by jmacphee in In the News
There is something oddly mesmerizing about this video. I guess a guy just walked into Wal-Mart and started swinging!??! More info HERE.
Berlin Posters
Posted February 12, 2010 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
Last November Dara and I were in Berlin, and I took a lot of photos on the street. Berlin is one of the few cities of been to that still have a somewhat thriving street art/poster scene, with lots of work up and the streets visually changing on the regular. Here's a collection of 20 political posters and stickers I snapped, click on them for larger images:
A dynamic month-long series of radical art exhibits and presentations in West Philadelphia!
Posted February 12, 2010 by k_c_ in Art exhibits/shows
Beginning March 5th, international artists’ cooperative Justseeds presents Bring Down the Walls!, a series of artistic exhibitions and educational events. The series celebrates radical movements that struggle to collapse the boundaries of class, race, gender and generation. The majority of events will take place at two locations, blocks apart on Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia. An Independent Project of Philagrafika 2010, Bring Down the Walls! is organized in collaboration with local activists.
Exhibitions-
At the A-Space (4722 Baltimore Ave.), there will be an exhibition of Justseeds' recent portfolio Voices From Outside: Artists Against the Prison-Industrial Complex and related materials. This project is a limited edition portfolio of original prints that either critique the prison industrial complex or address alternatives to incarceration. Twenty artists from the US, Canada, and Mexico contributed prints, which were then collated and presented to 50 different groups working on prison related issues. Many organizations have organized exhibits and have used the images as tools for educating and discussing incarceration.
At Studio 34 (4522 Baltimore Ave.) there will be a larger and more varied exhibition of prints from Justseeds members. This show will feature dozens of pieces from over 25 artists from across North America, with bold images addressing topics from personal inspiration to environmental devastation.
Justseeds Artists' Cooperative is a decentralized community of artists who have banded together to both sell their work online in a central location and to collaborate with and support each other and social movements.
More Events below!
Chris Stain at work
Posted February 11, 2010 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Chris Stain paints Flowers for January's Take 5ive event. Music by Cory Hillis.
Here's Chris' newest print in the Justseeds store.
You can see a bunch of other new prints Chris has available on his BigCartel store.
Slideshow/Discussion in Providence Postponed...
Posted February 10, 2010 by shaun in People's History!
Hey folks, the talk I was going to do tonight at AS220 in Providence has been postponed to Friday, from 5-6:30, due to pending snow that has everyone freaking out. Please come by if you're in Providence!
"I Brake For Historical Markers"
5-6:30pm, Friday, February 12
Pittsburgh-based artist Shaun Slifer will present a slideshow and discussion of problematic and progressive historical monuments and plaques with an eye towards remembering the often-buried stories of struggles for social justice. Slifer will discuss the Howling Mob Society's 2007 guerilla historical marker series commemorating the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
Reproduce & Revolt in LA High School
Posted February 10, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds & Member Projects
Alex Bodnar and Mark Ayala, art teachers Manual Arts Senior High School in Los Angeles, used Reproduce & Revolt, the book of copyleft images Favianna Rodriguez and I edited (check it out HERE), as the basis for a mural class, and students decorated the school with images from the book. Check it out:
Art and Politics Panel in San Francisco
Posted February 10, 2010 by Melanie_Cervantes in Art exhibits/shows
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Time:7:30pm - 10:00pm
Location: CounterPulse
Street:1310 Mission Street (at 9th)
City: San Francisco, CA
Favianna Rodriguez will host a panel with Bay Area artists:
Jesus Barraza, Melanie Cervantes and Zachary Karnazes
Collectivism After Collapse: Mess Hall show
Posted February 9, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Art exhibits/shows
Collectivism After Collapse: Chicago Activist Art Spaces, Collectives, and Projects
The two-night event at Mess Hall is an open invitation to Collage Art Association conference attendees and the public to come to Mess Hall to informally gather, meet, and learn about Chicago art and activism, including an exhibition highlighting various Chicago-based collectives, collectively-run spaces, periodicals, campaigns, and activist art projects from 2000-2010. Come to Mess Hall and meet many of the people who are involved in this work!
Exhibit opens:
Friday, February 12th 7:00pm-on and Saturday, February, 13th 7:00pm-on.
--
Mess Hall
6932 North Glenwood Ave.
Chicago, IL 60608
Rad Teen Print of the Week: Urban Redevelopment
Posted February 9, 2010 by mary_tremonte in Inspiration
This week's Rad Teen Print of the Week is from Schenley High School Theory of Knowledge class from Spring 2008. This project was a Pittsburgh People's History print, and the first time Shaun and I taught this class together. The image is of the Highland building in East Liberty, a neighborhood that suffered one round of urban renewal in the 1960's, and then again now, with developers even renaming parts of the neighborhood "Eastside," or "East Shadyside," to make a connection to the much more affluent neighborhood on the other side of the railroad tracks (literally!). Pittsburgh has some textbook examples of terrible urban redevelopment schemes that have destroyed the pulse of a neighborhood, from Penn Circle in East Liberty to the Civic Arena in the Hill District to Allegheny Center on the North Side.
We're about to embark upon another round of TOK projects next week. Fresh prints soon!
Mail Art 4 Mumia
Posted February 9, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Our friend Etta Cetera is working hard on a new project to support Mumia, here's the info:
Flood the White House – Mail Art 4 Mumia
Mumia Abu-Jamal—The world’s most well-known political prisoner may be re-sentenced to death.
Demand a new fair trial! Mail your solidarity!
Send your own Mail 4 Mumia to the White House anytime during the week of April 24th 2010
Address:
Barack Obama
The Whitehouse, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,Washington, D.C. 20500 usa
Create Paintings, Prints, Drawings, Collages, Sculpture, Extremely, Beautiful Letters, Anything Mailable, Anything Non Liquid, Non Perishable, Non Hazardous.
All The Instruments Agree
Posted February 9, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
This is an essay written by Eric Triantafillou that is included in Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today. Eric wrote the piece as a provocation to political printmakers, asking all of us to think deeper about what we do, and question whether it is accomplishing the things we think it should or we want it to. I find it challenging and valuable, and want to post it here in hopes of starting a broader discussion. Please give it a read and chime in. I know a number of artists that have read it and have questions and conflicts, so here's the place to raise them!:
All The Instruments Agree
Eric Triantafillou
The façade of a now-defunct police station in San Francisco’s Mission District is plastered with street art. It is a visual cacophony of posters, flyers, stencils, paintings, drawings, and the hand-scrawled responses of passers-by. A remnant of the housing struggles that began in 2000, today this wall is a public commons that transmits information about everything from legal rights workshops to communist party meetings and yoga classes; also occupying its surface are corporate ads cloaked in DIY lino-chic. It is also a screen onto which people project thoughts and feelings about the world they fear and visions of the one they want.
Slideshow/Discussion this Wednesday @ AS220 in Providence
Posted February 6, 2010 by shaun in People's History!
If you're in Providence, Rhode Island this week, please come by AS220 on Wednesday the 10th and participate in the discussion and slideshow I'm putting on! It's free to the public and starts at 6pm at the AS220 performance space on Empire Street:
"I Brake For Historical Markers"
6-8:30pm, Wednesday, February 10
Pittsburgh-based artist Shaun Slifer will present a slideshow and discussion of problematic and progressive historical monuments and plaques with an eye towards remembering the often-buried stories of struggles for social justice. Slifer will discuss the Howling Mob Society's 2007 guerilla historical marker series commemorating the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
ADM Tries to Take Down Funny Video; Big Business Has No Solutions; Now What?
Posted February 6, 2010 by k_c_ in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Davos Annual Meeting 2010 - ADM CEO Patricia Woertz from World Economic Forum on Vimeo.
A legal complaint from agribusiness giant ADM has resulted in the removal from Youtube of a fake video of ADM's CEO making over-honest pronouncements.(The video is still available here, here, and, for download and reposting, here.)
Last week, the filmmaking team behind The End of Poverty? partnered with the Yes Men to create a parallel, imaginary World Economic Forum in which world leaders came up with real solutions to poverty. The leaders seemed, in a series of videos, to be supporting a set of initiatives based on 10 Solutions to End Poverty, a petition for which the filmmakers are trying to get ten million signatures by the end of 2010.
Think Outside the Bomb (Call for Entries)
Posted February 5, 2010 by meredith_stern in Calls for Art
Call for Submissions for Zine
Think Outside The Bomb, a national anti-nuclear youth network, wants to hear from you and your community about the anti-oppression struggles you are engaged in, whether they be against nuclearism, militarism & war, patriarchy, racism, capitalism, etc. This summer we are going on a three-month, 40-city tour of the USA, where we will distribute a tour zine. This zine will feature submitted poetry, essays, photos, action and campaign information, and a tour CD containing spoken word, spoken essays, and music.
How to Submit:
Please send submissions of essays, poems, short stories, information on upcoming and ongoing campaigns and actions, and other written work in digital format by the deadline to: thinkoutsidethebombtour@gmail.com. Songs, spoken pieces, photos, drawings and other digital media can also be sent to the email address. Hard copies of art works to be digitized can be sent to the mailing address listed below.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Please submit no later than March 15, 2010 Email: thinkoutsidethebombtour@gmail.com Mail: TOTB Tour Zine, 1925 Five Points Road SW Albuquerque, NM 87105
A week of solidarity prints
Posted February 4, 2010 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
This week was super busy, I printed three editions and still had time to run around getting supplies and table at an event to sell some prints.
The week started with printing Melanie's Iran solidarity poster, this is one of two pieces in which we both used the same source photo in creating our image. I really like Melanie's poster, it is a very well designed two color print, it has the text in Spanish, English and Farsi using the trilingual approach made popular by OSPAAAL (Organization of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa & Latin America).
new show by Pete Yahnke
Posted February 3, 2010 by pete in Art & Politics
I just hung a show up at Stumptown Coffee on S.E. Division St here in Portland. If you are in town stop by, take a look, and grab a cup of the best coffee in town. There's a wide range of prints in it: everything from a 3" x 4" lino cut to a 3 foot by 5 foot lino cut. The show will be up all of February.
Here's some pictures:
Another Justseeds Member at AS220 in Providence...
Posted February 3, 2010 by shaun in Justseeds & Member Projects
From now until February 14th, I'm more than happy to be the Artist in Residence at Providence's multifaceted AS220. I'll be working exclusively in their letterpress print shop, taking a slight departure from my usual practice and focusing on getting some small prints out of my head and onto paper with the help of their Vandercook No.4 press. I hauled three bags, overladen with reams of new paper, through Amtrak trains and stations all day Monday with the generous help of Providence writer Walker Mettling, himself returning from a month-long residency at Pittsburgh's Cyberpunk Apocalypse. Besides printing and more printing, I'll be doing a presentation on Wednesday the 10th, at 6pm in the AS220 performance space. "I Brake for Historical Markers" will be a slideshow and discussion of progressive and alternative historical markers and plaques.
Bec Young will take over the residency for the second half of February when I return to Pittsburgh. Special thanks to Justseeds cohort Meredith Stern for making this happen for both of us! Look for some new work from Bec and I on this site soon...
Drawing All the Time : Week 19
Posted February 3, 2010 by colin_matthes in Inspiration
This drawing is called Lean To. I made it while setting up the show Sailing the Barbarous Coast in Boston.
I was thinking about symbols of power as theatre, a stage set,...and making a simple useful structure from a fallen part of this stage set. The drawing is on luan scavenged from the basement and spans across the pulpit of an old church. It measures over 25 ft long by roughly 10ft high.
Medium Resistance
Posted February 2, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Art exhibits/shows
Cut and Paint is included in Medium Resistance: Revolutionary Tendencies in Print and Craft - a group show that is part of Philagrafika.
Check out the website here and the show at the Ice Box in Philadelphia.
Opens March 3rd - runs to April 1
Signs of Change in Portland, OR!
Posted February 2, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
Dara and I just finished installing our exhibition Signs of Change in Portland, OR at the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA). We're doing an artist's talk/walk through tomorrow, Wed. Feb 3th, at 12:30 (see HERE), and the opening is Thursday, Feb 4th, from 6-9pm (see HERE). If you are in the Pacific Northwest, please come check it out!
A couple quick notes
Posted February 2, 2010 by jmacphee in In the News
I'm working hard installing Signs of Change in Portland, OR this week (we open on Thursday night!) and wanted to throw a couple quicks items I've run into up here on the blog:
1) Anarchist Author Gabriel Kuhn turned away at US border! Gabriel is great, I've tabled next to him at multiple international Anarchist bookfairs, and am pissed I wont get to see him on his now-cancelled US tour book tour (he has 3 books out or coming out on PM Press—and I thought I was prolific!). Check out more info HERE, and get pissed off.
2) Part Two of Erick Lyle's great story about Art Basel Miami is up on the Bay Guardian website. Read it HERE or you'll be very sad later when everybody is talking about it!
3) I found a nice little write up and set of photos on Swoon on the Indonesian website Cream, check it out HERE.
4) PM Press has just released on CD the amazing discography of the Dutch political punk band the Rondos. The set has 2 cds and 4 books, and is well, well worth getting. The Rondos were engaged politically on a level few bands ever truly are, and have written a fascinating history of 1980s Rotterdam, Dutch communism and anarchism, and the larger punk and squatting subculture. Check it out HERE.
Rad Teen Print of the Week: POWER UP!
Posted February 2, 2010 by mary_tremonte in Inspiration
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This week's rad teen print is a t-shirt design, collectively conceived, drawn and printed by the girls of Power Up, a new after-school youth program I am teaching at the Warhol Museum.
Heather White and I wanted to synthesize some of the best bits of past programs we have done: silkscreen printing (of course!), activism and advocacy, self-actualization, health, feminism, and of course relevancy and FUN.
We are working with a group of seven African American teenage women to teach graphic design and silkscreen printing through health topics. We are working with many organizations and individuals as guest speakers and clients, including the East End Food Co-op, Planned Parenthood, Youth Empowerment Project, The Birth Circle, and more.
Power Up!
Haiti Will Rise Again
Posted February 1, 2010 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
We are very happy to announce the release of the first print Dignidad Rebelde publishes, "Haiti Will Rise Again" designed by EastSide Arts Alliance. This image was created by ESAA to share with the community and featured on their website for people to download and print to show their solidarity with the people of Haiti. We loved the image so much we decided to contact ESAA and see if they were interested in having the design transformed into a screen print and used to raise funds for Haiti, all money raised will go to Haiti Emergency Relief Fund. They were very happy about the idea and we got to work. Now that the print is complete we are putting it up for sale, you can buy the print from the Dignidad Rebelde website or contacting ESAA.
This is the statement written by EastSide:
"EastSide has produced an image to counter the perception that Haiti is a victimized, poor country by their own bad luck and ineptitude. This racist narrative only serves to erase the strength and revolutionary spirit that defines this Black nation, the first liberated Black Republic."
Click here to buy the print on the Dignidad Rebelde website.
Howard Zinn's speech on the necessary rebellion of the archivist
Posted February 1, 2010 by molly_fair in Inspirations
Right now I am in library school, training to be an archivist, so I'm posting this speech that Howard Zinn made about the archivist profession which has really inspired me. Lately the idea of taking a political position within the profession is something that I have been thinking about a lot. I have been doing a lot of research on archives that operate within the realm of the creative commons or partnerships between institutions and communities to preserve collective histories in the effort to encourage people to have ownership and document their ways of life. It is pretty obvious that those in power control access to information, and knowledge is increasingly commodified and privatized.
It is necessary to consider who has access to information in our society, and who controls it. Archivists are told that they must remain professionally neutral, but doing so is inherently taking a political stance. Archivists should not be complicit with institutional powers whose policy it is to restrict access to knowledge and information. Preservation of materials in archives or other institutions like libraries and museums is often privileged over access, and result in exclusionary policies.
It is necessary to examine the biases in our society that reveal why some collective histories are preserved and valued and others have not been collected. It is apparent in many circumstances that artifacts that are held sacred to communities have been taken unjustly, and are displayed and made public in ways that perpetuate imperialism and misrepresentation.
Professionals in information fields may choose to view them as purely scientific or technical, without acknowledging the prejudices and dominant power structures of our society that have shaped and are ingrained in the systems of knowledge organization. In the library field this is reflected in the organization of the Dewey Decimal System or the Library of Congress and their coinciding terminologies and how they have changed over time to be more, ahem, politically correct. Check out activist-librarian Sandford Berman if you are interested in this.
Those in the archivist profession should fight for open access to information, and to protect and make accessible materials documenting the histories of people that have traditionally been silenced and marginalized. I think Zinn's speech is just as relevant today as it is when he presented it and it was published in the 1970s. We still live in an age of information secrecy and repression, and corporate ownership. Simultaneously the Internet has made it possible for people to spread information on a massive scale whether it is classified documents or a bootlegged movie. Ignoring intellectual property rights may be viewed as an act of rebellion, even though the average person may not consciously think about the act of file sharing as a form of resistance. The degree to which archivists participate in acts of resistance is something I wish to explore further.
And now on to Zinn's speech...
SECRECY, ARCHIVES, AND THE PUBLIC INTERESTHOWARD ZINN
Let me work my way in from the great circle of the world to us at the center by discussing, in turn, three things: the social role of the professional in modern times; the scholar in the United States today; and the archivist here and now.
I will start by quoting from a document-an insidious move to gain rapport with archivists, some might say, except that the document is a bit off the beaten track in archival work (a fact we might ponder later). It is the transcript of a trial that took place in Chicago in the fall of 1969, called affectionately "the Conspiracy Trial." I
refer to it because the transcript occasionally touches on the problem of the professional person-whether a lawyer, historian, or archivist-and the relation between professing one's craft and professing one's humanity. On October 15, 1969, the day of the national Moratorium to protest the war in Vietnam, defense attorney William Kunstler wore a black armband in court to signify his support of the Moratorium and his protest against the war. The government's lawyer, Thomas
Foran, called this to the attention of the judge, saying: "Your Honor, that's outrageous. This man is a mouthpiece. Look at him, wearing a band like his clients, your Honor."
Maureen Cummins
Posted February 1, 2010 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
Book artist and print maker Maureen Cummins, who is in the Paper Politics exhibition and book, recently put up a new site of her work HERE. There's a lot of great material up there, and well worth checking out. The image to the left is from her 2000 artist book "Stocks and Bonds."
