October 2010
Mary Mack Tremonte at Coca (Pittsburgh)
Posted October 31, 2010 by mary_tremonte
I have a show opening at Coca Cafe this week! Come down this Thursday for fun times; the show will be up for the month of November, so you can eat lots of delicious breakfasts and enjoy positive art vibes.
New Work by Mary Mack Tremonte
Opening Party
Thursday Nov 4th 6:00-9:00
Sweet Jams with Heidi and Jax
Delicious Food from Coca
Beer from East End Brewing & BYOB
Coca Cafe
3811 Butler St
Lawrenceville---Pittsburgh, PA
Legacy of Brutality
Posted October 30, 2010 by icky in Reviews
I got a great used book for my birthday, World Architecture 2 a large picture book of architectural trends from 1965. It contains many examples of Brutalism, an architectural style that was like a more extreme version of Bauhaus-influenced modernism (as a disclosure, I am not terribly familiar with architectural history or theory). In Brutalism the form of a structure followed its function, decorative embellishments were removed, and many of the engineering and functional elements of a building were laid absolutely bare. It was also known for its heavy usage of rebar/concrete as a stylistic and structural element.
MUSHROOM time!
Posted October 29, 2010 by meredith_stern in How-To
Tonight I found many pounds of fresh Oyster Mushrooms that were growing on the same tree as the tree we harvested many nights last year. Halloween weekend is a great time in RI to hunt the delicious beast.
Here is a picture:
My top two reasons for hunting edible mushrooms:
The amazing taste
Knowing that the second largest contributor to greenhouse gas emission is from transportation costs- most of which is food based (the first largest contributor is the Meat industry).
Temporary Conversations: Aaron Hughes of IVAW
Posted October 29, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Interviews
An extensive interview that I recently did with Aaron Hughes of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) has just been published by Half Letter Press (Temporary Services' publishing wing). As is the case with all Temporary Services projects, the attention to detail and the craft is exceptional. This booklet features a dye-cut window, metallic ink cover, numerous photos, and 32 pages of text.
My interview with Aaron covers a myriad of topics including his experiences in Iraq, the artwork he created when he returned, his performances in public space to make people stop and think about the wars, his involvement with IVAW - including the key role he played in helping to organize "Operation First Casualty", IVAW mud stencil actions, and numerous other topics that merge art with activism.
Order your copy here for $3!
http://halfletterpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20_2&products_id=185
Paper Politics Pittsburgh Press
Posted October 29, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
The Paper Politics exhibition in Pittsburgh just came down, but it was a great success. There has been a bunch of positive press on the show, including these three articles here:
1) "Paper Politics shows there's more than one way to shout a message" in the Pittsburgh City Paper.
2) "'Paper Politics' exhibit takes ink-stained jabs at topics" in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
3) "SPACE wrapped up in ‘Paper Politics’" in The Globe, Point Park University's newspaper.
I also wanted to share some photos of the exhibition that Shaun and Mary took, it looked great! Click below to see more photos...
Chevron Must Think We're All Stupid
Posted October 29, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
I'm not sure what one might call this, its created before it could be considered a reappropriation. The Yes Men, Rainforest Action Network, and Amazon Watch install bunk Chevron advertisements.
Well executed.
http://chevronthinkswerestupid.org/chevronthinkswerestupid.org/
From the Chevron Thinks We're Stupid site:
When Chevron rolled out its fancy new "We Agree" ad campaign, we were ready for them. We had only the tiniest fraction of Chevron’s budget — the company typically spends as much as $90 million on an ad campaign like this — but we had the element of surprise, and we were determined to press our advantage.Before Chevron’s press release announcing the campaign could hit reporters’ inboxes, we sent out a press release of our own... on the company's behalf. The company’s own press release was guaranteed to be full of greenwash. We wanted ours to be a bit more truthful. It featured quotes from real employees, but in this case they were describing a campaign we might actually be inclined to agree with:
"Chevron is making a clean break from the past by taking direct responsibility for our own actions," said Rhonda Zygocki, Chevron vice president of Policy, Government and Public Affairs.
Commencé Vers La Fin - Solo Show by Jesse Purcell Opening Tonight
Posted October 29, 2010 by Jesse_Purcell
If you are in Montreal come check my solo show at the Red Bird Gallery.
Opening tonight Friday October 29th from 7-11
135 Van Horne
Montreal, QC
Vanessa Renwick show (PDX)
Posted October 28, 2010 by icky
Longtime Justseeds' ally, filmmaker, and artist, Vanessa Renwick has a new show going up in Portland, titled as easy as falling off a log. The installation will incorporate film, photos and sculpture and is based around the theme of sexuality and nature.
WHEN: November 2nd – November 27th, 2010, 11:00-6:00 Tues. - Sat.
WHERE: “PDX Across the Hall” 925 NW Flanders Street, Portland, OR
She has a nice little write-up about it that you can read here:
California Billboard Correction
Posted October 28, 2010 by jmacphee in In the News
This just in: California billboard correctors have been hard at work again, this time with a round of billboard alterations aimed at defeating Proposition L, an anti-homeless initiative which would ban sitting on the sidewalk. Here's some images of the billboards, and their press release:
ARTISTS SEIZE BILLBOARDS CITYWIDE TO DEFEAT PROP L SAN FRANCISCO, October 26, 2010 – With one week until November elections, a group of artists has liberated six San Francisco billboards and sixty bus shelter ads to defeat Proposition L, a ballot measure that would ban sitting on the sidewalk. The group, calling itself the Sit/Lie Posse, replaced ads throughout the city with handmade prints rendered in the style of corporate advertising. Confronting the backers of the proposition, the posse lavished attention on sites around City Hall, the Chronicle, the Haight-Ashbury district and many other neighborhoods.
recent press
Posted October 28, 2010 by jmacphee in In the News
Justseeds has gotten a small flurry of online press recently, here's a couple highlights:
1) "A Print You Can Believe In" on The Link in Montreal with a focus on Jesse Purcell.
2) A small write-up on Apartment Therapy HERE.
3) A piece by Dara Greenwald in the online journal Affinities: A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture, and Action [Vol 4, No 1 (2010)]. You can read it HERE.
Cranking It Out, Old-School Style: Art of the Gestetner
Posted October 27, 2010 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Lincoln Cushing has just published another great article on the history of social movement printing. This time he sets his sights on the Gestetner machine, an early photocopy technology that lies somewhere between offset and mimeograph, and lives on today in the risograph machines which have recently become more popular. His article, Cranking It Out, Old-School Style: Art of the Gestetner, is well worth the read, and an short excerpt is below:
Every society has its pecking order, and printing is no exception. Equipment matters. At the top of the heap are the big presses—the giant Goss web machines that churn out daily newspapers, the high-speed Solna sheetfeds for beautiful color posters, the elegant Heidelberg Windmill letterpresses for art prints. At the bottom are the lowly duplicators—not even called presses—that are the Volkswagen Bugs of the reproduction world. People of a certain age might remember the two offset workhorses of this stratum, the A.B. Dick 360 and the Multilith 1250. But even below these machines, at the very dark recesses of the reproduction food chain, lie the spirit duplicators and mimeographs. . . .Among the first to experiment with the artistic possibilities of these machines was the Communication Company (Com/Co, or CC), founded in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district by Chester Anderson and Claude Hayward in January 1967. This was the epicenter of the new counterculture, and every movement needs a medium. . . .
Read the rest of the article, and check out a dozen other images, on the AIGA website HERE. The image to the left is “My name is Assata Shakur and I am a revolutionary—a Black revolutionary” by Miranda Bergman, 1977, printed by Jane Norling. (courtesy Jane Norling)
Drawing All the Time: Week 37
Posted October 27, 2010 by colin_matthes
Some of us at Justseeds are working on an upcoming project with IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War). It has been really inspiring to be a part of it. A sketchbook page from thinking about the project.
JBbTC 29: Spanish Civil War Publications
Posted October 25, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
A couple years back I was checking out a Robert Capa exhibition at the International Center for Photography in NYC and they had a small backroom with an auxiliary exhibition of publications produced in Spain during the Civil War/Revolution in 1936-39. The material was extremely interesting and a great insight into modernist design in Spain, and the amount of resources thrown toward propaganda in a time of scarcity. It was a small portion of a much larger show entitled Revistas y Guerra 1936-39, originating at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Catalunya. There was a very expensive exhibition catalog produced for the original show, but it was shrink-wrapped, and I was afraid to spend the money. I eventually went back and got it, and I was definitely not disappointed! It's almost 400 pages of publication covers and design, some of the most interesting and innovative illustration, montage, and in particular typography. Now, for those that can't find or afford the book, there's a great website that catalogs many of the highlights of the exhibit, check it out HERE. The images in this entry are just a small sampling of what's on the site, which itself is only a small sampling of what is in the print catalog. There is more information about the magazines on the website.
Conversations with Contemporary Native Artists and Authors
Posted October 23, 2010 by dylanminer
In Session: Conversations with Contemporary Native Artists and Authors with Dylan Miner and Will Wilson
October 23, 2010 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, 108 Cathedral Place, Santa Fe, NM 87501
In Session: Conversations with Contemporary Native Artists and Authors is an extension of the MoCNA/IAIA’s Vision Project bringing together participating artists, authors, curators, art historians, anthropologists, and cultural workers to discuss their contribution to the Project and the field of contemporary Native Arts. In Session conversations supports MoCNA’s goal of establishing an indigenous arts discourse that reflects the vibrancy and potency of field at its most current level of activity.
In this installment, Metis artist, activist, and historian, Dylan Miner exchanges ideas with MoCNA's Vision Project Manager, Will Wilson (Diné) artist and photographer.
Chicago panel discussion: The Book as Weapon: Agitprop in Print
Posted October 22, 2010 by nicolas_lampert
If your in Chicago tonight, come check out "The Book as Weapon: Agitprop in Print"
panel discussion with Maureen Cummins (Fall Visiting Artist), Steve Woodall and Nicolas Lampert
Friday, October 22: 6PM
Columbia College
Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts
1104 S. Wabash
The term "agitprop" was coined in the Bolshevik era to denote interventionist political strategy designed to co-opt discourse. Over the past 40 years writers and artists have taken up different versions of that same strategy to great effect. In particular, political artists who make prints, posters or books have found it to be one of the most effective means of production and distribution available to them, and they often used shock or humor to make their points. In this program, Maureen Cummins will discuss the ways in which she has strategically used beauty and humor to draw readers and viewers into difficult subject matter. Steve Woodall, director of the Center for Book & Paper Arts, will discuss the work of Zephyrus Image Press, active in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s. Finally, Nicolas Lampert will discuss how his own artistic, and often interventionist, strategies relate to the activist tradition of agitprop.
Justseeds Print Show in South Philly
Posted October 22, 2010 by erik_ruin
I just put up a show of prints in South Philly, with a print from just about everyone in Justseeds- and must say it looks great! It's at a brand-new vegan cafe in South Philly called the Grindcore House.Opening tonight! If you're in the neighborhood, stop by! More events throughout the next couple months TBA.
SILKSCREEN POWER: How To Build a Portable Silkscreen Exposure Unit
Posted October 21, 2010 by mary_tremonte in How-To
A lot of people have been excited recently about mobile silkscreen units, and the possibilities of setting up a simple silkscreen set-up most anywhere...I have done this in storefronts in Pittsburgh for RUST, at community centers and schools in Vitoria and Niteroi, Brazil, and most recently at the Allied Media Conference and US Social Forum in Detroit.
My cohort Heather White came up with this super-lightweight and easy-to-build design for a small, portable exposure unit. I have built several of them, one for an Educator's event at Paper Politics in Pittsburgh. I made a handout for that event, and thought I'd share it here with the Justseeds public.
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B7FeGEfhqgZlOWZiMjc0YWYtMjcwZC00YWQ5LWE2NDktZjA3YjNkMjE2MjU4&hl=en
Convocatoria Gráfica frente a las movilizaciones contra el COP16
Posted October 20, 2010 by santi in Events
Convocatoria para enviar gráfica copyleft para pegotes y esténciles en el
marco de las movilizaciones contra la COP16, bajo la consigna: “No al
cambio climático, si al cambio sistémico, No a la destrucción ambiental,
si a la destrucción del capital”. Cierre de convocatoria: 25 de octubre de
2010. Se imprimirá una selección de las imágenes, y todas se subirán a la
página web de la convocatoria: http://espora.org/adao.
Chris Stain Mural for No Longer Empty
Posted October 19, 2010 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Here is a video of the mural Chris and I rocked out, in four hours, just before the DUMBO Arts Festival.
No Longer Empty is a not for profit organization that orchestrates public art exhibitions in vacated storefronts and properties. Conceived as an artistic response to our present economic condition, No Longer Empty core mission is to revitalize empty spaces and areas around the venues by bringing thoughtful, high-caliber art installations with accompanying programming to the public.
JBbTC 28: Futurist Books pt.2
Posted October 18, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Here's part two of the Futurist books. Marinetti's books in particular get more violent and aggressive in this period, with references to bombs, words exploding across the page, etc. There are also two books by Fortunato Depero, who became involved in Futurism around 1914, but became one of it's most acclaimed adherents, developing stage sets, costumes, furniture, toys, and of course books in a Futurist style. The book on the left is one of my favorites: Fortunato Depero, Liriche radiofoniche [Radio opera] (Milano: Morreale, 1934). Titles are very roughly translated in the [brackets].
Riseup Needs Our Help
Posted October 15, 2010 by jmacphee in Inspiration
It is a little known secret, but Justseeds can only do what it does because groups like the Riseup Collective create online tools that facilitate 25 artists in 14 cities being able to make decisions together. Since we became a coop 4 years ago, we have been using an online platform called Crabgrass to have decentralized discussions and decision making. Crabgrass is a bit like the activist monster child of a wiki, facebook, and google docs, with social networking tools, online image galleries, group file editing, and consensus/decision making applications. Check out Crabgrass HERE.
Right now Riseup needs our help to keep doing what they are doing! They have created a new, improved Crabgrass but to implement it, they need to raise $12,000!! Please, take a minute to go check out what Riseup does HERE, then head over HERE and donate a little bit of money! Every dollar counts!
Once again, here is the link to the most useful way you can donate to Riseup Networks. This allows them the most versatility with the money:
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=26484
f you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation, the best way to do that
is through Riseup Labs. Labs is also the way to go if where you work
provides matching grants for donations.
https://www.networkforgood.org/donation/ExpressDonation.aspx?ORGID2=204204809
If you'd like to send a check or money order addressed to either Riseup
Networks or Riseup Labs, mail that to:
Riseup
PO Box 4282
Seattle, WA 98194 USA
CSPG Party Auction
Posted October 14, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
Center for the Study of Political Graphics' pARTy AuCTION
Live & Silent Auction · Elegant Reception · Great Company & Entertainment
Sunday October 17, 2010
, 3 - 6 pm
Track 16 Gallery · Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 Michigan Ave.
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Emcee: Sandra Tsing Loh
Music: Marcus L Miller w/ Freedom Jazz Movement
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) is excited to invite you to celebrate our 21st birthday! Please join us at the Track 16 Gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, Sunday, October 17, 2010 as we honor these outstanding individuals:
Strangely Familiar Opening
Posted October 14, 2010 by mary_tremonte
Strangely Familiar: Uncanny Works on Paper
is up for the month of October, with an opening reception this Friday.
Featuring the artwork of:
Mary Tremonte * Heidi Tucker * Berry Breene * Matt McDowell * Nils Hanczar * Mario Zucca * Mike Budai * Christian Breitkreuz * Michael Vandegrift * Teresa Martuccio * Jackie McDowell
This event also celebrates the one-year anniversary of Wildcard, a great handmade arts and crafts and cards store right in Lawrenceville. Justseeds' Bec Young and myself sell our prints there.
Matt McDowell and I will be DJ-ing the opening, which is part of Car-Free Fridays Gallerycycle. Come down the street to Justseeds to make a spokecard with Bec and see RESOURCED one more time. Lots to do in Lawrenceville this evening. Fun!
October 1st-31st
Opening reception on Friday October 15 from 7-9pm
at WildCard, 4209 Butler St. in Lawrenceville
Mid America Print Council Conference
Posted October 13, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
I'll be giving a talk about Justseeds at the Mid American Print Council Conference tomorrow, Thursday Oct. 14, at 10am. The talk is in the Humphrey room at the Regis Center for the Arts at the University of Minnesota. If you are in Minneapolis or St. Paul, come check it out and say "Hello!" There is a ton of other great stuff going on at the conference as well, including a workshop by Nicolas Lampert on mud stenciling, a talk by Swoon, and a project by Artemio Rodriguez.
More info on the Conference HERE.
RESOURCED in Make:Craft
Posted October 13, 2010 by k_c_
The Justseeds 2010 portfolio-RESOURCED is included in the Make:Craft exhibition at the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design.
Bronya and Andy Galef Center for Fine Arts
9045 Lincoln Blvd 1st Fl
LA, CA
Kim Abeles, Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Frau Fiber, Garnet Hertz, Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, Seth Kinmont, Liza Lou, David Prince, Mark Newport, Alyce Santoro, Shada/Jahn (Steve Shada and Marisa Jahn), Eddo Stern.
Inspired by the cultural currents represented in the popular magazines MAKE and CRAFT published out of Northern California, MAKE:CRAFT includes contemporary artists who combine handmaking and building techniques to create, engineer and hack unique, mostly functional devices, objects, machines and accessories; making either a sociopolitical statement, creating new markets for individual styled products, or creating inventive ways to experience the tactile world, non-virtual, the “real.”The exhibition is guest curated by Patricia Watts, founder and west coast curator of ecoartspace, who feels that recent trends in the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) movement of making and crafting have empowered contemporary artists and designers to create more socially relevant work that supports sustainable communities.
Drawing all the time: Week 36
Posted October 13, 2010 by colin_matthes
A drawing made for two billboards. This double billboard is sponsored by In:Site, a public art org in Milwaukee. You can see it going west on Capitol Drive (near 32nd st) in Milwaukee.
It is called Internationalocal and references the immediate area, which was once a location of 1000's of manufacturing jobs and now contains vast open spaces and empty buildings. Many of these jobs were lost to manufacturers relocating, one example is Tower Automotive moving much of it's production to Mexico. This area is struggling with poverty and unemployment, like much of Milwaukee, the fourth poorest city in the US, according to the 2009 census report. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/detroit_cleveland_buffalo_poorest_xg9YRt76wF57xG8m1wBIqL
This image also finds beauty in small groups of people performing tasks usually reserved for massive machines and major corporations.
See more images of the project, which includes a Row Boat Lookout Tower and a 18x48' mural here.http://ideasinpictures.org/
The Hidden 1970s
Posted October 13, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
I recently designed a cover for the book The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism, edited by Dan Berger on Rutgers University Press. Dan Berger will be in NYC this coming week doing a series of events related to the book, if you're in the city, check him out:
Book Party for The Hidden 1970s and The War Before
Tuesday, October 12, 7 p.m.
The Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, NYU
20 Cooper Square, 4th Floor
with Dan Berger, Andrew Cornell and Laura Whitehorn
Prisoner Support: Lessons from the 1970s
Wednesday, October 13, 7:30 p.m.
Freebird Books, 123 Columbia St. (btw Kane and Degraw) Brooklyn
with Dan Berger, Andrew Cornell, Victoria Law, Matt Meyer
Book Party for The Hidden 1970s
Thursday, October 14, 7:30 p.m.
Brecht Forum, 451 West Street (btw Bank & Bethune) Manhattan
with Dan Berger, Andrew Cornell, Victoria Law, Matt Meyer, Ben Shepard & Meg Starr
Howling Mob Society/Gregory Sholette/Jim Costanzo presentation (NYC)
Posted October 12, 2010 by shaun
If you're in New York City on Thursday, I'll be presenting on behalf of the Howling Mob Society as part of Not An Alternative's Open Sourcing the City: Invited and Uninvited Participation series. I'm excited to be joining Jim Costanzo (Aaron Burr Society) and Gregory Sholette, who will be speaking about REPOHistory (which was highly influential to myself and the Mob project!). Read a more in-depth description of the themes we'll be discussing here.
Where: The Change You Want To See Gallery, 84 Havemeyer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
When: Thursday, October 14 at 7:30pm
Chip Thomas interviewed by Chris Stain
Posted October 11, 2010 by pete in Interviews
"ben with his favorite cup"
installation for contemporary printmaking show, east carolina university
september 2010
Chip Thomas has worked as a physician on the Navajo nation since 1987; over the years he has photographed many of the people in his community. He has taken to doing large wheatpasted versions of his photos in Navajo lands and beyond. He and Chris Stain were just in Albuquerque NM as part of the "Street Arts" show at 516 Arts. Chris had a chance to get an interview in with Chip:
When did you first get into photography and why?
When I was 12 years old I attended an alternative, Quaker junior high school in the mountains of North Carolina. I was there for 3 years. In retrospect, these were probably 3 of the most important years of my life. It was at this school that I first entered a darkroom, got my own 35mm camera and began shooting black and white film. One of the students at this school was Laurie Winogrand whose dad was Garry Winogrand. Though I didn't know a lot about his work at that time (1969 - 1972), I remember him walking around the school grounds one Thanksgiving wearing a white trench coat, smoking with a Leica M4 around his neck taking pictures of everything.
I think the reason I got into photography is because I'm a visual learner. I've always noticed textures, compositions, shapes and lighting. It's true that a picture is worth a thousand words. Because I stammer when I speak, I've always been more comfortable expressing myself with images. My preference for black and white imagery comes from years of looking at Life and Look magazines as a kid and seeing the work of great photojournalists like Gordon Parks and Eugene Smith. Black and white imagery stimulates the brain in such a way that the familiar becomes momentarily unfamiliar and it's perceived differently. Hopefully new insights can be gained from this.
JBbTC 27: Futurist Books pt.1
Posted October 11, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Now lets take a quick stop over in Italy. When I was in Rome a couple years back for an exhibition (at the excellent House of Love and Dissent), I picked up a cool exhibition catalog for a 2006 show called The Book as a Work of Art at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome. It contains a great collection of avant-garde books, including 21 Futurist books produced over two decades (1911-1934), many of which I had never seen before. Although way out of my depth in both design and art history knowledge, I wanted to share these Futurist covers. Many Italian Futurists yoked themselves to Fascism after World War I, but I am unsure of exactly who did and didn't outside of Marinetti's enthusiastic support for Mussolini (and Mussolini's general disregard for both the Futurists and art in general). I'm going to (somewhat arbitrarily) split these covers up into early Futurist and post-WWI Futurist. By today's standards, some of them look quite staid, but I believe for the time and the printing method (set type), the tilted lines of type, overprinting, and multiple typefaces were pretty innovative. Enjoy part one!
(ps. It is the insides of some of these books that are truly breathtaking, but as this is a blog about covers, I'll stick to the outsides for now...)
Planeta o Muerte! Venceremos! -Together We Will Save the World
Posted October 9, 2010 by Melanie_Cervantes in Art & Politics
Planeta o Muerte! Venceremos! -Together We Will Save the World
Last Spring tens of thousands of people from over 150 nations traveled to the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Evo Morales welcomed the crowd with fervent declaration of "Planeta o Muerte" (Planet or Death). Meanwhile in Oakland I hungrily read reports of the gathering of people declaring their power from the Global South.
I took these words as a call to action. I had to do everything I could to take care of this planet, our mother, not out of some New Age adaptation of indigenous worldview but centered around an understanding that all of us, on this planet, our mother, are in relationship to each other. Not only in relationship to all the people in the world but also in an interdependent relationship that connects us as humans to the her whole network of ecosystems.
Abolish Poverty
Posted October 8, 2010 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
Chris Stain recently caught this from the windows of Amtrak in upstate NY. Evidence of one of our adventures years earlier. Silver paint don't fade...
4 (pretty great) Films About Revolutionary South American Movements Told through the Viewpoint of A Kid
Posted October 6, 2010 by icky in Reviews
This may seem like an obscure genre, but there's a good few of these movies out there.... there's even some I didn't include because they weren't any good! With all of these it's helpful to have the barest of outlines of modern Latin American political history, but not necessary.
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation
tells the story of a little boy whose parents were affiliated with the hard left of Brazil in the late 60s (early 70s?) and who are forced to flee the country. They drop him off at his grandfather's apartment in Sao Paulo...
No Human Being is Illegal/Nungun Ser Humano Es Ilegal
Posted October 5, 2010 by k_c_ in Posters & Prints
To oppose the rising tide of discrimination aimed at the undocumented in the U.S., from Arizona's racist SB1070 anti-immigrant law, to efforts by members of the U.S. Congress to overturn the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (which guarantees citizenship to children born on U.S. soil), Vallen republished his famous poster in August of 2010."No Human Being is Illegal" was first published as a bilingual street poster in 1988 in conjunction with a campaign conducted by the Los Angeles based Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), to secure the rights of undocumented Central American war refugees in the U.S. The 5,000 posters distributed popularized the slogan of "No Human Being is Illegal," a catchphrase that has since entered the lexicon of today's defenders of immigrant's rights.
The poster’s axiom is an emphatic affirmation of the inherent rights possessed by humankind. It cautions that when individuals are stripped of humanity and designated as “illegal,” then even worse abuses cannot be far behind. Not so long ago it used to be said that a child born to unmarried parents was “illegitimate.” I am hopeful that in the future, the opinion that some people are “illegal aliens” will also become an archaic expression.
This graphic has donned many walls as well as articles of clothing. I stayed with many industrious punks in Mexico that reproduced this graphic on t-shirts & patches, long before I ever knew its original source. I'm now excited to get an original!
The 19.5" x 22" offset poster is available from his website for only $5!
http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Sales/http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Sales/vallen_no_human_being_is_illegal.htm
JBbTC 26: Action
Posted October 4, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Let's stay in France this week, and check out the covers of Action, the newspaper developed by the Comités d' Action during May 68. The first Comités were developed as organizational bodies by the striking students of the Sorbonne, but the form spread to other universities, high schools, and even a few factories. Action first appeared on May 7th, and was a weekly paper for the first three issues, but then became daily (on weekdays) for the month of June (when a lot of the action of the May protests was peaking), then settled back into a weekly. Although the covers are neither as graphically efficient or visually compelling as the best of the posters of the same period, they are still interesting, with some nice use of illustrations. Action introduced a new generation of illustrators, including Michel Quarez (who did the cars on #30 to the left), Jean-Marc Reiser, and Georges Wolinski.
Justseeds tabling in Montreal Oct 2-3
Posted October 1, 2010 by Jesse_Purcell in Events
If you are in Montreal this weekend come say hi and check out some new print work at Puce Pop. You can be one of the first in the north to pick up a copy of Firebrands.
October 2nd & 3rd 11-6pm
105 St. Viateur Ouest
Montreal, QC
2011 Certain Days Calendar hot off the press
Posted October 1, 2010 by molly_fair in Art & Politics
Here's the 2011 calendar from the Certain Days Collective in Montreal!
This year's calendar includes artwork and writing by Josh MacPhee, Alvaro Luna Hernandez, Marilyn Buck, Favianna Rodriquez, Daniel McGowan, Santiago Armengod, Akili Castlin, Kevin 'Rashid' Johnson, Herman Wallace, Jackie Sumell, Jaan Laaman, and Molly Fair. I am very honored that they used my print "Words Break Down Walls" for the front cover. Also included is the work of Ray Luc Levasseur, Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez, Sundiata Acoli, Leonard Peltier, Melanie Cervantes, Safiya Bukhari, David Gilbert and Dave Ron.
From the Certain Days website:
"The calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers in Montreal and Toronto, and three political prisoners being held in maximum-security prisons in New York State and California: David Gilbert, Robert Seth Hayes and Herman Bell. The initial project was suggested by Herman, and has been shaped throughout the process by all of our ideas, discussions, and analysis. All of the members of the outside collective are involved in day-to-day organizing work other than the calendar, on issues ranging from refugee and immigrant solidarity to community media to prisoner justice. We work from an anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, queer and trans positive position."
New Mexico #3: Chris Stain in Albuquerque
Posted October 1, 2010 by pete
There's a great show opening this Saturday Night at 516 Arts on Central in Albuquerque. The show is "Street Text; Art From the Coasts and The Populist Phenomenon" Chris Stain is in town for the show and already put up two giant murals!
here's a photo of one:
