October 2012
Josh MacPhee talk at GSVU, Nov. 1st
Posted October 31, 2012 by jmacphee in Events
I'm giving a talk at Grand Valley State University in Michigan tomorrow night, November 1st, for anyone in the area. I've put together a new presentation, digging through a bunch of history related projects I've been involved in over the past decade. I've been here since Sunday working on a 5 color reduction wood block print, which has been a ton of fun! The image to the right is an in-process shot...
An Evening with JOSH MACPHEE
Thursday November 1, 2012
6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Padnos Student Gallery, CAC
Grand Valley State University
Waasawaabaaminaa (Prophecies) at Gallery 101, Ottawa
Posted October 31, 2012 by dylanminer in Events
This last week, I drove ten hours with a smashed canoe on my beat up Jeep. The reason for my late-fall road trip was to install an exhibition at Gallery 101, an amazing artist-run center in Ottawa (Canada's capital, for the US-centrics). The show investigated 2012 and Indigenous prophecies as its point of origin. You can read my longer artist statement at Gallery 101 or on my website.
If you happen to be within driving distance to Ottawa, I will be returning on December 12 for a closing reception and party. So come on out…
Drawing All the Time : Week 60
Posted October 31, 2012 by colin_matthes in Inspiration
Moving On, 2012, 40.25x58.5, ink, acrylic, gouache, and flasche on paper
Thea Gahr's print for "This is an Emergency!"
Posted October 30, 2012 by meredith_stern in Art & Politics
This print is from "This is an Emergency!" a print portfolio on gender justice and reproductive rights.
To purchase a copy, you can click HERE.
To check out the tumblr website for this project, click HERE.
Police on Playback — Copwatch in New York City
Posted October 29, 2012 by molly_fair in Film & Video
Some friends in the New York Video League just came out with a new video:
Police on playback — copwatch in New York City from Waging Nonviolence on Vimeo.
2013 Organizer Production Video
Posted October 29, 2012 by icky in Justseeds Group Projects
Celebrate People's History as a timeline mind-map!
Posted October 27, 2012 by bec_young in Events
I'm really into mind maps, so when given the opportunity to create a show for AIR's annual benefit, I had the idea to make a Celebrate People's History show that's sequential but not quite linear, a little messy. After all, history is a bit messy, isn't it? Untraditionally, I started on the left with things that are happening now, with the arrows extending outward into the unknown future. To the right, the show moves further back in time, ending with the Secession of the Plebs in 494 BC...
(AIR is Artist's Image Resource, the shop where I print and volunteer in Pittsburgh. More info on the event today after the break.)
White Walls Say Nothing Argentina Graffiti Documentary
Posted October 26, 2012 by meredith_stern in Art & Politics
Graffitimundo is an organization in Buenos Aires. They are producing a documentary about art and activism called White Walls Say Nothing.
New 2013 Organizers are available!
Posted October 26, 2012 by shaun in Justseeds Group Projects
Here we go, getting ready for 2013 with another round of offset-printed, spiral-bound organizers, deftly hand-crafted by Eberhardt Press, and featuring work by Justseeds artists in tandem with a clean, user-friendly interface guaranteed to be more intuitive than your smartphone. This time, we're responding to the clamoring masses by offering two sizes: our usual-sized, handy small organizer at a humble 4x5", and (for those of you that just can't stop scheduling meetings) a new larger size clocking in at a very capable 5x8". Get 'em while we've still got 'em, last year we ran out before year's end! (For bulk/wholesale orders of ten organizers or more, we will put you in touch with Eberhardt Press directly.)
Sam Merritt's image for "This is an Emergency!"
Posted October 25, 2012 by meredith_stern in Art & Politics
This print is from "This is an Emergency!" a print portfolio on gender justice and reproductive rights.
To purchase a copy, you can click HERE.
To check out the tumblr website for this project, click HERE.
Art, Culture, and Struggle Presentation in Chicago
Posted October 25, 2012 by jmacphee in Events
I'm giving a talk/in conversation with artist Iván Arenas tonight at Hull-House in Chicago. It should be good, we're going to dialogue about the roles art plays in social movements, and possible nuggets of useful experience to draw from a wide-range of historical and geographic examples. More info about the event HERE.
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
800 South Halsted, Chicago, IL, 60607-4400
7:00pm - 8:30pm
Free, open to the public. Reservations are required.
"Join artists Josh MacPhee and Ivan Arenas for a conversation exploring the connections (and disjunctures) between art, culture and struggle. MacPhee, a Brooklyn-based artist, designer and activist, will present a slideshow based on the content of the newly released Signal: A Journal of International Political Graphics. Arenas, a Mexican-American scholar whose work focuses on the relationship between urban spaces and political subjects, will share insights from his work as an artist and scholar in Oaxaca, Mexico. Together, we will explore the complex ways that art and cultural production affects our communities and our struggles for equality and justice."
Image produced by the Mexican student movement in 1968.
New Test Their Logik song/video
Posted October 23, 2012 by k_c_
Test Their Logik is proud to present “Democracy’s Bankrupt”. This gritty aggressive anti-voting anthem is a timely first single off their upcoming album “Be” which officially drops December 21st.
Filmed and edited by Curtis Nixon & Mike Roy
Celebrate People's History Poster Exhibition in Tokyo
Posted October 23, 2012 by jmacphee in Justseeds Member Projects
Meatscapes: the radio interview
Posted October 23, 2012 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Member Projects
Last week I was interviewed by an Australian radio program about my "Meatscapes" collage series. Here's a link to the five-minute interview:
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2012/s3609364.htm
Olivia Horvath's image for "This is an Emergency!"
Posted October 23, 2012 by meredith_stern in Art & Politics
This print is from "This is an Emergency!" a print portfolio on gender justice and reproductive rights.
To purchase a copy, you can click HERE.
To check out the tumblr website for this project, click HERE.
New writing by Cindy Milstein
Posted October 22, 2012 by k_c_ in Inspiration
The following essay was written for the anthology Revolutionary Love Letters (Minor Compositions, forthcoming in 2013), edited by Jamie Heckert, who kindly and lovingly gave me permission to share it with you now. I originally wrote my “letter” last April, in the bittersweet time of the spring after Occupy, but recently polished it a bit, following an extraordinary summer of social-movement amour in the streets of Montreal, amid the student/social strike. Perhaps what I want to say about love and transformation lies somewhere in between.
The Shades of Love
When I was a little kid, we had this big weeping willow tree in our backyard, and when it was in full bloom, its slender overhanging branches would form a porous pale-green umbrella arching from sky to ground with expansive space underneath. Open space. Yet delicately screened too.
From inside, seated on the gently compacted earth, you could see outside, softly, through the millions of little leaves playing gaily as the wind touched them. You could look outward through tiny peepholes, which in turn let in winking shapes of light like stars on a crystal-clear night, with each glimmer held in the embrace of the shadows cast by leaf after leaf.
I recently asked my six-year-old bio-niece what she meant by the word love, which she says several times a day to her mom, and she responded matter-of-factly, “Love is all that’s good.” She doesn’t have a weeping willow in her Orlando-sprawl backyard; only crunchy-dry grass and a too-small palm tree and blindingly unmediated sunshine.
Still, maybe my niece is on to something.
Graphics Fight Torture
Posted October 22, 2012 by jmacphee in Justseeds Member Projects
I'm in Chicago doing some events. If you can, come out tonight!
Graphics Fight Torture, A screen-printing workshop with Josh MacPhee
Sullivan Galleries, 33 S. State St., 7th floor
Part 1: Monday, October 22, 4:15–7:30 p.m.
Part 2: Wednesday, October 24, 4:15–7:30 p.m.
Reception: Friday, September, 14, 4:30–7:00 p.m.
This two-part workshop features artist, printmaker, author, and activist Josh MacPhee from the Justseeds Cooperative and the Interference Archive in Brooklyn, New York. This workshop is presented in conjunction with the exhibition "Opening the Black Box: The Charge is Torture" now on view in the Sullivan Galleries, and is a Chicago Torture Justice Memorials project.
JBbTC 122a: Coming Soon
Posted October 22, 2012 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
I'm sorryit's been a couple weeks since a Judging Books post. Things have been pretty hectic keeping Interference Archive running, and now I'm off to the Midwest for three weeks for some workshops, talks, making art, and hanging out.
But I've got a bunch of great book cover material in the works! Next up is a jaunt through the entire run of the second series of the British Anarchy magazine (from the 1970s). After that I've been collecting material for a look at the covers of the books by and about Guinea-Bissau revolutionary Amilcar Cabral, a deeper study of the covers for Homage to Catalonia, 1960s and 70s student activism/revolt books, and finally a full survey of the almost 500 unique covers from the Heinemann African Writers Series.
If you're sitting on great covers that touch on any of these subject, let me know! My contact information is in the "About Us" section of the website here. I'd love to get scans, photos, or even the books if you don't want them! All books will go into Interference Archive.
New Video from Submedia- Countdown to Armageddon
Posted October 21, 2012 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Support the Native Youth Caravan to Powershift and pick up a Tar Sands Poster from the Resoursed Portfolio.
Posted October 21, 2012 by Jesse_Purcell
Make sure that those on the front lines can participate in this empowering youth gathering and lead the charge for change in their communities!
Migration Now Portfolio Launch in Montreal
Posted October 20, 2012 by Jesse_Purcell
Come out to Le Cagibi (5490 St. Laurent, Montreal) today for a 5-7 launch of the new Justseeds/Culturestrike portfolio Migration Now. Presentation by Favianna Rodriguez on the making of the portfolio and the art/activism of migration struggles in the U.S..
migrationnow.com
Migration, Prisons and Art: Resistance to Borders and the Prison Industrial Complex With Favianna Rodriguez & No One is Illegal
Posted October 19, 2012 by Jesse_Purcell
Friday, October 19th – 6pm
Leacock 219, 855 Sherbrooke Street West
McGill University (metro McGill)
Part of Culture Shock, co-organized by the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) at McGill and the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU).
Justseeds at Canzine (Toronto)
Posted October 19, 2012 by mary_tremonte in Events
Hey buddies, I will be at Canzine this Sunday with a tiny, jam-packed table of Justseeds goods, especially animal hankies, badges, zines, and Celebrate People's History posters. You know, small things!
Check out this sweet profile Broken Pencil did about Justseeds and me in their hype-up for Canzine, right HERE
Canzine 2012
Canada's Largest Zine Fair and Festival of Independent Culture
Sunday, October 21
918 Bathurst Arts/Culture Centre
918 Bathurst Street
(just north of Bloor)
1 – 7pm
$5 entry includes the fall issue of Broken Pencil
(OCAD students get in for half price, and there might be other deals I don't know about!)
Molly Fair's image for "This is an Emergency!"
Posted October 18, 2012 by meredith_stern in Art & Politics
This print is from "This is an Emergency!" a print portfolio on gender justice and reproductive rights.
To purchase a copy, you can click HERE.
To check out the tumblr website for this project, click HERE.
Eva Weinmayr at Art Metropole
Posted October 18, 2012 by mary_tremonte in Events
If you're in Toronto, come to Art Metropole this evening for the release of the publication from Eva Weinmayr's 24-hour residency at Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU). This publication is in response to (pause) a play that Eva wrote about the curious disappearance/silence of Art in Ruins (info HERE).
Eva Weinmayr: (pause)
Launch Party and Readings:
Thursday October 18, 7-9pm
Art Metropole, 1490 Dundas Street West
OCADU's new Publications Stream & The School of Graduate Studies' IAMD Program, together with Art Metropole & Paper Pusher Printworks, present:
A live reading from an instant publication workshop with Eva Weinmayr and students of OCADU. The event is free and open to the public. Attendees, passers-by, everyone is welcome to join the reading.
RadioActivity! Movie Screening at Interference Archive Oct.18
Posted October 15, 2012 by molly_fair in Film & Video
RadioActivity! Movie screening: Oct. 18th, 2012, 7:30 PM
Interference Archive, 131 8th St. #4 Brooklyn, NY, 11205
This screening is part of the exhibit RadioActivity! Anti-nuclear Movements from Three Mile Island to Fukushima, a collaboration between Interference Archive and Todos Somos Japon which runs until Nov. 4. These movies highlight feminist resistance, direct action, and the creative interventions of collectives in the anti-nuke movement. The event is free, but donations are welcome!
Bec Young's print for This is an Emergency!
Posted October 15, 2012 by meredith_stern in Justseeds Member Projects
This image is printed in "This is an Emergency!" a print portfolio on gender justice and reproductive rights.
To purchase a copy, you can click HERE.
To check out the website for this project, click HERE.
Wisconsin Uprising(s)
Posted October 15, 2012 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Member Projects
Dylan AT Miner recently wrote a short catalog essay for the work that I created in collaboration with Paul Kjelland for the 2011 Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowship for Individual Artists Exhibition in Milwaukee. I asked Dylan to write the essay because of his talents as a writer and a critical thinker, and our shared interest in radical art and radical sports. Below is his writing.
Sewing Freedom
Posted October 14, 2012 by jmacphee in Justseeds Member Projects
Jared Davidson (from Garage Collective, and designer of the Red Feds Celebrate People's History poster) just put out a great looking new book on anarchism in NZ called Sewing Freedom. It's got a bunch of new illustrations in it by my Signal partner-in-crime Alec Icky Dunn. Alec's been showing me drafts and images from the book in process for months, so I know it looks great. Can't wait to get my hands on an actual book!
All Power To The People! (video)
Posted October 12, 2012 by shaun in Film & Video
I've finished up a video that I was collecting images for at the Interference Archive during the end of this last August (right after gathering for our Justseeds planning retreat). Partially an inside joke about predictable tropes in movement posters (born of my years working with political print-makers), and partially a serious meditation on the power of icons and symbols, the basic idea was to scour the archive for all the instances I could find of a raised fist on a poster, print, zine, or book cover, and then string them all together in a rapid-fire looping video...
Meredith Stern's image for "This is an Emergency!"
Posted October 11, 2012 by meredith_stern in Art & Politics
This print is from "This is an Emergency!" a print portfolio on gender justice and reproductive rights.
To purchase a copy, you can click HERE.
To check out the tumblr website for this project, click HERE.
Rad Teen Print of the Week: GSA
Posted October 10, 2012 by mary_tremonte in Inspiration
I haven't worked with teens in a few months, but my tireless totally teen education life partner, Heather White, passed this poster design along to me, from Libby at CAPA. Love the colors on this one!! What are you going to wear on purple day?
Melanie Cervantes' print for "This is an Emergency!"
Posted October 9, 2012 by meredith_stern in Art & Politics
This print is from "This is an Emergency!" a print portfolio on gender justice and reproductive rights.
To purchase a copy, you can click HERE.
To check out the tumblr website for this project, click HERE.
The Milwaukee Commandos - exhibition at INOVA
Posted October 8, 2012 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Member Projects
Paul Kjelland and I recently collaborated on a new series of prints and the jerseys of an imagined team uniform inspired by the Open Housing Marches in Milwaukee in the late 60s, the Commandos, and by Father James Groppi, their advisor during their formative years. The work is now on exhibit at INOVA in Milwaukee as part of the 2011 Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowship for Individual Artists Exhibition. Stop by and see our work - plus 6 other artists - from Wed-Sunday 12-5 (Thur 12-8) at 2155 N. Prospect Ave in the Kenilworth Building. The show runs from October 5th - December 9th.
JBbTC 122: The Burden of Choice
Posted October 8, 2012 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Here's another great find from the foreign language table at a regional bookfair, this one in Poughkeepsie, NY. I was immediately attracted to the book because of the nicely embossed cloth cover (if there was a dust jacket, it was long since gone). Red silhouettes of soldiers run in front of an ornate clock, about to strike midnight. Although not exactly the same, the figures are clearly reminiscent of a similar crowd from Sergei Chekhonin's 1923 cover for Ten Days That Shook the World. My guess is they are re-purposed from a similar source, but I haven't found it. This seemed most likely a book about the Russian Revolution—the red soldiers representing the Bolsheviks, the clock representing the old order, running out of time.
I passed the book on to Alec Dunn, my resident Russian expert, and it turns out it is by Ivan Pavlovich Shegolikhin, titled The Burden of Choice: A story about Vladimir Zagorski, and published in Moscow in 1979 by M: Politizdat from a series called "Ardent Revolutionaries."
War is Trauma portfolio event in Milwaukee 10/7
Posted October 7, 2012 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Group Projects
Tonight - Sunday October 7th, the Justseeds/IVAW "War is Trauma" portfolio will be on exhibit at the Public House in Milwaukee. At 5:00pm the Night School event will feature a discussion with Milwaukee-based Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) members, and Milwaukee-based Justseeds collective members. Join us.
5pm FREE
Public House
815 E Locust st. Milwaukee, WI
More information on the War is Trauma portfolio, here.
A Beautiful Spirit Imprisioned
Posted October 3, 2012 by thea in Art & Politics
As of October 4, 2012, Lumumba will have served ten years. It’s time to set him free!
Lois Harada's print for "This is an Emergency!"
Posted October 2, 2012 by meredith_stern in Art & Politics
This print is from "This is an Emergency!" a print portfolio on gender justice and reproductive rights.
To purchase a copy, you can click HERE.
To check out the tumblr website for this project, click HERE.
JBbTC 121: Three Czech Books
Posted October 1, 2012 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
In early Summer I went with friends from Book Thug Nation to a regional book sale in Pennsylvania. The sale was awesome, thousands and thousands of books packed into a bible college gymnasium, and a surprising amount of really great stuff. The international section was a great success for French books for the store, but mostly schlock otherwise. Until I stumbled upon these three Czech books from the 1960s and 70s. All clothbound with dust jackets, the first couple are mysteries from the publisher Smaragd, the last one a novel by Louis Aragon.
The first book is a crime novel from one of my favorite series, the Martin Beck books by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Sjöwall and Wahlöö were Marxist writers from Sweden who used the form of the crime novel to critique Swedish society and the limits of social democracy. The book, titled Nocní Autobus (literally translated as Night Bus, but actually the novel The Laughing Policeman) was originally published in 1968, and is the fourth in the Beck series. This edition was published in 1974 by the Prague-based Mladá Fronta, and is the 69th book in their crime imprint Edice Smaragd Svazek, or Green Emerald Editions.
