Art & Politics
Hundred Story House
Posted February 3, 2012 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Leon Reid IV, intelligent street artist and cohort of Justseeds' Chris Stain, is working on a new project called The Hundred Story House (with Julia Marchesi). It's based on an idea true to me, that Brooklyn is a great place for a lover of books, and that we can do more to circulate these amazing objects to more and more people. They're building a mini-house to distribute books out of in public parks. Check out their fundraising campaign HERE.
Panther Lunch Club
Posted February 2, 2012 by mary_tremonte in Art & Politics
Alec "Icky" Dunn, Josh MacPhee, and myself each designed a place mat for Edith Abeyta's Panther Lunch Club, part of the Food For Thought exhibition at Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamunga, CA, on view now through March 23rd.
Capital Offense: The End(s) of Capitalism
Posted February 1, 2012 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Our LA and Southern California readership might want to check out the new exhibition Capital Offense curated by Jennifer Gradecki and Renee Fox that opened this past weekend (and runs through the second week of March) at the Beacon Arts Building in Inglewood. The show has a great line up of artists and scholars, including a number of Justseeds artists. The exhibition itself is dedicated to Dara Greenwald and features her 2011 essay "Does Corporate Culture Still Suck?" Other Justseeds work includes prints by Josh MacPhee and Pete Yahnke Railand, and a sign project by myself (must say this is one of my all time favorite placements for my sign work.) Other artists in the show include the Aaron Burr Society, Bankster Games, Critical Art Ensemble, Steve Lambert, and Holly Crawford, among many others. Congrats to Jennifer and Renee for curated one of the most promising exhibitions of the year.
Painting 2 Banners in Acteal; 14 Years of Impunity
Posted January 19, 2012 by santi in Art & Politics
For a while I’ve been going to Acteal in the municipality of Chenalhó, in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. Acteal is a small Tzotzil community who were victims of the 22nd of December 1997 massacre by a PRI party sponsored Mascaras Rojas paramilitary group.
I have encountered lots of people who mistake Acteal as a Zapatista Community. One key difference is that Las Abejas (The Bees) is a pacifist and religious organization. Despite those differences, Las Abejas have vocally expressed their support for the EZLN and their demands. It was this link with the Zapatistas which led to the massacre of 45 members (4 of them pregnant) of Las Abejas. The members were murdered inside a small church praying, in an environment filled with fear of the EZLN growing stronger.
Sue Coe: Art of the Animal
Posted January 10, 2012 by shaun
Our Hen House recently posted this short video interview with Sue Coe, wherein she discusses the powerful motivation behind her work. It's part of their "Art of the Animal" series of videos, articles, podcasts, etc. Take a few minutes to watch it, and then take a few minutes to dive into their website, which is loaded with "resources that you can use in order to find your own way to change the world for animals." There's a podcast with some more of the Coe interview here.
What Do We Want?
Posted January 9, 2012 by roger_peet in Inspiration
When my friend Katherine Ball was being interviewed by the Oregonian here in Portland during the Occupation this fall, she asked me to write up something to address the so-called lack of demands on the part of the occupiers. This is what I came up with: the paper didn't run it, but I think it works. Demand the Impossible! Impunity for All!
What do we want?
Empathy. Generosity. Solidarity. Creativity. Mutual Aid. Personal Responsibility. Inter-ethnic, trans-gender, omnisexual and pan-national notions of kinship and respect. A demolition of materialism and crass consumption. A washing away of bad fear. An end to the brute conversion of the glories of the natural world into abstract quanta that serve no purpose except to warehouse crude and gloating power. A notion of connectedness to the networks and webs of life. An end to our humanist hubris, our presumption of supremacy and dominance. A new rule of nature to supersede the rule of law- you must not take what can't be replaced. More importantly even than that- you shall not lie to yourself about the good you are able to do, whether by action or by inaction or by refusal. You cannot buy your way out of a burning world. We want all of this and we want it yesterday, or better still we want it ten thousand years ago, and forever.
photo: Getty images
An interview with Santiago Armengod and The 555 Collective
Posted January 5, 2012 by santi in Art & Politics
The Following is an Interview I did with the 555 Collective. You can visit their web page here and the Interview here
Santiago Armengod is an artist residing in Mexico City. His works embody a striving for justice and a sense of hope. HIs answers to our five questions reflect a rare mixture of compassion and intellectual bravery.
Ghosts in the Machines
Posted December 28, 2011 by roger_peet in Film & Video
Adam Curtis, the BBC filmmaker behind a series of amazing documentaries like The Power of Nightmares and Machines of Loving Grace, has a great entry on his blog this week. He calls it a "ghost story for Christmas" and it's typical Curtis: insightful dissection of the weird realities that our spectacular culture creates and feeds to itself in strange ways. This entry in particular is about a BBC TV show called Ghostwatch, a fictional drama about poltergeists and ghost-hunters that provoked a massive reaction from the British public when it was shown in 1992: people thought it was real, just as happened with the War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938. Curtis breaks down the social psychology of this phenomenon in his inimitable way, demonstrating that the ghosts we fear now live inside our media, populating the fictions we build there, feeding our fear back to us like a shrieking amplifier.
Posters for the Port Shutdown
Posted December 17, 2011 by roger_peet in Justseeds Member Projects
Last Monday, people in cities up and down the West Coast came out to try to shut down the ports. My friend Chris and I put together some posters for the event here in Portland, which had pretty great turnout and succeeded in actually shutting down several terminals at the port for the day, as well as Schnitzer Steel. The call to shut down the port in Portland was directed primarily at SSA Marine, an unscrupulous union-busting subsidiary of Goldman Sachs that operates the terminals here in PDX. Tendrils of solidarity were also extended to ILWU workers struggling at the nearby port of Longview. While the local ILWU leadership eschewed any notion of endorsement of the shutdown, rank-and-file workers showed up with pizza for the occupiers.
Morning Crush: "Immigrants Know Your Rights" Poster Pack
Posted December 8, 2011 by colin_matthes in Justseeds Member Projects
I really like these two posters and this seems like a cool project. 
English Translation:
Neither Discrimination Nor Abuse, We have Rights, Rights to a Lawyer.
Photos From War Is Trauma Opening at Booklyn
Posted December 6, 2011 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Booklyn has posted some photos of the War Is Trauma opening on their Booklyn Flickrpage. Pictured above is the portfolio cover, made by the Combat Paper Project, out of uniforms from active-duty soldiers. It was a really fortunate weekend to have the opening since the IVAW Board of Directors were in town for a meeting, and attended the opening! Come out and see:
War is Trauma: Justseeds & IVAW Dec. 3–Jan. 8. 2012 @ Booklyn Art Gallery
Overpass Light Brigade
Posted December 2, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Signs of visual resistance matter. Wisconsin is a battle-ground state, a battle between anti-Walker and pro-Walker supporters. Over the past week the Recall Walker movement received a huge boost when nearly double the expected number of signatures were gathered during the first week of the signature drive, demonstrating just how disliked Walker is in the Badger state. Not surprisingly, Walker is countering with a host of threats and "rules" to make gathering signatures and mass protests more difficult. Things are tense but that should be expected. Bullies become more repressive when they realize that their grasp on power is crumbling.
Still a chance for the Occupy Movement to Party with the Ruling Class!!
Posted December 2, 2011 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
I am kicking myself for not taking the chance to express my disdainful sentiments on my favorite themes until now.
The party has started at Art Basel Miami Beach, and many people I know will glean off the decadence of the members of ruling class that the festival caters to. I have little judgement towards them, many of them spending their time opening crates and hanging work.
I want there to be some clarity for the duration of the weekend. And I want everyone to be honest about the intentions behind Art Basel-Miami Beach. The originating event, in Basel, Switzerland displayed an estimated $1.75 Billion worth of artwork last July. Miami Beach is allegedly almost twice as much, $2.5 Billion.
(I can) read the writing on the wall-18
Posted December 2, 2011 by k_c_ in Justseeds Member Projects
Pepper spraying cop on the Bowery, November 2011, NYC, NY
Look at Pepper Spraying Cop for more.
Pepper Spraying Cop
Posted November 22, 2011 by k_c_ in Inspiration
I'm enjoying the memes coming out of the Occupation movement. here's one inspired by the UC Davis officer that used "less than lethal" weapons on students last week.
More at Pepper Spraying Cop.
Indigenous Cultural Delegation to Australia
Posted November 20, 2011 by dylanminer in Art & Politics
In late-December and early-January, I will be traveling to Australia as part of an Indigenous delegation attempting to establish an exchange program between Indigenous communities in the Great Lakes (on both sides of the US-Canada border) and our cousins in Australia. The delegation includes Anishinaabeg singers and dancers, Xicano danzantes (my partner and our kids), and a Métis artist (that’s me). If any Justseeds readers are familiar with powwow music, they’ll be happy to know that three of the guys from Grammy-nominated drum group Bear Creek will be in the mix, as well many other rad folks.
Recall Walker LED sign!
Posted November 19, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Milwaukee-based Lane Hall is on a mission: improve night time activism. One way: LED signs!
Bat Signals and Floating Tents
Posted November 18, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Two great creative actions from NYC to the Bay on the two-month mark of the Occupy Wall Street Movement:
From NYC: The "bat signal project"
11/19: "Which Side Are You On? Book Release
Posted November 17, 2011 by k_c_ in Events
Brooklyn based artist Christopher Cardinale presents slides of his artwork and process for the children's book Which Side Are You On? written by George Ella Lyon.
Saturday November 19th, 1pm
Bluestockings Books
172 Allen Street (btw Stanton & Rivington)
Banners for the Eviction
Posted November 14, 2011 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Occupy Portland has been uprooted from its two downtown parks, and begins a new phase - whether that means a new location or a new course of action.
Since I returned from Slovenia, I've been working on art projects related to the Occupy phenomenon, designing posters and flyers and graphics.
I met with two colleagues, Katherine Ball and Chelsea Peil, to hatch a plan to create a more powerful graphic presence at the camps, something to complement the piles of damp cardboard covered in sharpie hatching. 
JBbTC 84: The Man Who Was Thursday pt.2
Posted November 14, 2011 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Here is part 2 of the covers of G.K. Chesterton's 1908 anarchist exploitation novel The Man Who Was Thursday. You can see the first 17 covers from last week HERE. This weeks first cover (to the left) is from the 2008 edition from the Crime Classics series of Atlantic Press. Atlantic is a young UK independent publisher, and this series of books is generally gorgeous. White borders, duotone printing, and the simple sans serif publisher/line/series name at the top set the style, and then each one is illustrated uniquely. A little digging online shows the designer of the series is Wallzo. The Thursday cover is fabulous, and really captures the spooky, underground adventure aspects of the novel I was talking about last week.
Freedom Rider Cantastoria
Posted November 11, 2011 by molly_fair in Art & Politics
Fellow artist and activist Ethan Heitner told me about a great project he is helping with. I asked him to do a guest blogpost about the whole process of making art for the action. Here's what he wrote:
Jewish Voice for Peace asked me to make large images for a solidarity action that will take place on Tuesday, November 15th in New York City and hopefully other cities supporting a new phase of popular struggle in Palestine.On November 15 Palestinian activists are going to assert their right to basic human needs: freedom of movement, access to their holy sites in Jerusalem, equality. In the tradition of the Freedom Riders of the American South, 50 years ago, who faced violent segregationists with the power of their bodies and their presence, they are going to attempt to peacefully board and ride settler buses.
Jewish Voice for Peace wanted to create a toolkit for a creative demonstration that could be held in front of, for example, bus stops around the country. Rabbi Alissa Wise, who is helping organize the actions, explained to me they were thinking about cantastoria, a very old human storytelling tradition of singing a story while gesturing to large illustrations.
Dept. of Space & Land Reclamation interview
Posted November 11, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friend Daniel Tucker is working on a new research project about art and activism called "Never the Same: Conversations About Art Transforming Politics & Community in Chicago & Beyond." Over the summer he did a long interview with Emily Forman and myself (Josh MacPhee) about our involvement in organizing in the overlapping spaces of culture and politics in Chicago in the early 2000s. Most of the interview focuses on a project we did called the Department of Space and Land Reclamation (DSLR), which was was a weekend campaign (April 27, 28, and 29th, in 2001) that attempted "to reclaim all the space, land and visual culture of Chicago back to the people who work for it, live in it and create it." It's a good interview, give it a read HERE. (Image is of original DSLR poster designed by Kevin Dresser, which can be found HERE.)
Artist Talk at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts
Posted November 10, 2011 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
This coming weekend we will be visiting Santa Fe, New Mexico with a few presentations and workshops. These are in conjunction with the "Counting Coup" exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Native Art. The poster above was designed for the workshops in Santa Fe at the MOCNA and SFAI this weekend. I wanted to design something about local issues and was told about the campaign to shut down PNM's coal powered plant.
Just a couple facts:
PNM's San Juan coal plant uses 9.3 billion gallons of clean fresh water every year and produces that much toxic water which then contaminates our air, soil and streams.
PNM fights all progressive legislation and regulation (carbon pollution reduction rule, renewable portfolio standard - they wanted to cut it in half during the last legislature, while many other states are moving in the opposite direction - to increase the renewable requirements.)
OWSJ Poster Folio Out Now!
Posted November 10, 2011 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
A handful of us here in NYC have been hard, hard at work on an all poster edition of the Occupied Wall Street Journal, and it has finally hit the streets! Me and Molly from Justseeds were involved, but the real heavy lifting over the past couple weeks was done by Jesse Goldstein. (Thanks, Jesse!!!) If you are in NYC, head down to Liberty Park and pick up a copy!!
JBbTC 83: The Man Who Was Thursday pt.1
Posted November 7, 2011 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
A couple months ago I was looking around a great local Brooklyn new/used bookshop, Unnameable, and I stumbled on a book cover featuring an cool looking illustration of a riot scene, an illustration that looked really familiar. It was an image by Félix Vallotton, a late 19th century Swiss avant-garde printmaker with deep sympathies towards anarchism. It turns out that the book was a new Penguin edition of GK Chesterton's 1908 thriller The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (see right).
On the one hand, the image is quite fitting, it is from the period of the book, and could be illustrating a scene straight from its pages. On the other hand, Valloton fell far on the other side of the political fence from Chesterton. While anarchists and police are the subject of the novel, Chesterton shows no sympathies to the rebels. Valloton did quite the opposite, regularly satirizing the police. The placing of the two texts literally on top of each other is a fascinating rewriting of history, both humorous, but also in a way stripping both historical figures/artists of their beliefs, and flattening them out into a period "style."
The Sussiya Book of Embroidered Local Knowledge
Posted November 4, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friend Aviv from Barcelona is trying to fund a cool new project called The Sussiya Book of Embroidered Local Knowledge. According to Aviv, they will be spending a couple months in the South Mount Hebron area of Palestine, "documenting all of this culture (past and present) using a collaborative method we call real-time documentary embroidery. Basically, it involved sitting around and embroidering with whoever is interested and letting the conversation evolve naturally. We usually do this in public, everyone is invited. We embroider what we see and what we hear, leaving behind a document, a textile representation of the experience we all shared." They will be working with local groups and organizations, and this seems a really unique and interesting way to conceptualize the intersections of cultural and solidarity work. More on the project is HERE, please help them out if you can!
Occupy the Boardroom
Posted November 3, 2011 by jmacphee in In the News
A creative action here in New York pulled together by Occupy the Boardroom.
The Mythological Quarter
Posted November 1, 2011 by mary_tremonte in Art & Politics
Shaun Slifer and I recently had the great pleasure of visiting Brett Bloom and Bonnie Fortune in Copenhagen. They organized an exhibit of the Justseeds Resourced Portfolio and related prints at YNKB, a really amazing collectively organized arts space that happens to be right next door to Brett & Bonnie's apartment. I hope to do some more posts about our time in Europe over the next few weeks, but for now I want to urge you to check out their blog: The Mythological Quarter.
Recent entries include an interview with Kerianne Quick, about her Source Matters series, the Resourced show at YNKB, and Brett's recent public signage project, Giving Harbor, about immigration in Denmark, installed in the harbor---all topics that we encountered during our week's stay. There are also heaps of downloadable pdf's and links to other sites of interest.This blog is rich with new content often, check it out!
JBbTC 82: Sha’un Falastiniya
Posted October 31, 2011 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
About a month ago I started getting emails from my friend Charles, who works for the Journal of Palestine Studies. He started digging up old issues of an Arabic language sister journal Sha’un Falastiniya, with amazing covers. According to Charles, "Sha’un Falastiniya (Palestinian Affairs) was first released by the PLO’s academic department. in 1971—in Beirut—called the Palestine Research Center. It was edited for a while by the legendary Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish, before it and its staff were eventually pushed into exile in Cyprus with the rest of the PLO, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It finally stopped publishing in 1993 in Cyprus. It contained political, literary and academic articles, analysis, criticism, and book reviews."
Although I only have these ten issues to draw from, the early issues have a similar vibe to some of the design work in the Cuban journal Tricontinental (produced by OSPAAAL, the solidarity organization well known for its poster design). They are diverse and open in color scheme, and use a lot of found imagery, mixing things that otherwise wouldn't go together (for example, 18th or 19th century landscape etchings with photographs of Palestinian guerrillas!). At the same time the clean masthead and limited palette (most are duotone or tritone, not cmyk) combine with the classical print imagery to generate a very clean, efficient, and almost conservative design.
General Strike in Oakland
Posted October 28, 2011 by Jesus_Barraza in Downloadable Graphics
A new 8.5 x 11 downloadable poster available. Click HERE to download.
I was inspired to make this poster after leaving the General Assembly at Oscar Grant Plaza in Oakland last night, I was really moved by the people the people sharing their stories and calling for a General Strike. There was one father there who told the crown about his four sons that were arrested on Tuesday night during the police riot in downtown Oakland, and how proud he was of them. He then started to chant Strike! Strike! Strike! and everyone started chanting with him. It was very powerful. I wanted to make design an announcement, something people can use to post and encourage as many people as possible to show their power and stand united under the call of a General Strike. I think this movement can be very powerful, I hope this inspires other General Assemblies across the country to call for a Strike in their city.
Frans Masereel's The Idea, Animated
Posted October 27, 2011 by molly_fair in Film & Video
For many political graphic artists, illustrators, and printmakers, the work of Frans Masereel is a huge inspiration. He pioneered the "novel without words", books consisting solely of his woodcuts, a predecessor of the graphic novel which has influenced artists such as Clifford Harper and Eric Drooker.
One of his earliest novels The Idea depicts a writer who summons forth an idea manifested in the form of a nude woman springing from his head. She escapes into the world, challenging the social order and inciting passionate action.
I stumbled onto an animated adaptation of The Idea, which is absolutely phenomenal, directed by the visionary animator Berthold Bartosch.
JBbTC 81: Fizz
Posted October 24, 2011 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
This week I'm going to jump back to Germany in the 60s and 70s, and look at Fizz, an antiauthoritarian political paper which split with Agit 883. Editors from Agit left that paper in 1971, and produced Fizz, which lasted for 10 issues. Since I don't know much German, my research into this has been limited, but it appears as if one of the main reasons for the split were that Fizz wanted to more whole-heartedly support the RAF. In many ways Fizz looks and feels like Agit, with a head-spinning mix of montage, illustration, news clippings, re-purposed photographs, and other cultural detritus. On the other hand, Fizz embraced more traditional anarchist imagery, with lots of bombs and black and red flags (which is interesting in the context of the split with Agit, as the RAF were far from antiauthoritarian). Each issue also featured a poster in the center, usually honoring a "hero," from Bakunin to Leila Khaled. I believe most of these issues were banned by the West German government. [I apologize for the low-quality images, I had to take them on a cell phone and try to touch them up. Hopefully at some point I'll be able to replace them with better versions.]
¡Cesen Deportacion!
Posted October 22, 2011 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
In July Melanie Cervantes and I teamed up with Rupert Garcia to produce a print to use as a fundraiser for the Ethnic Studies College at San Francisco State University. We were really happy to have Garcia pick the 1973 ¡Cesen Deportacion! print to reproduce for this project. Thirty-eight years later and the statement is extremely relevant, in the past year President Obama administration has a record 1 million deportations.
I wanted to share a little bit of the process...the print is 32"x25" and the edition is of 99 prints with some artist and studio proofs.
What the Market will Bear
Posted October 21, 2011 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
In all of the imagery I've seen used to promote the Occupy movement, I haven't seen any bears. I think that is a glaring omission! The Bear is the symbol of the market in recession, of investor timidity, fear, and the collapse of profit. The Bull, garishly betesticled symbol of Wall Street, is its counterpart. I made this graphic to celebrate the bears, metaphorical, and literal: the triumph of wild nature over domestication.
Download a high-resolution PDF of this image to print out for yourself by clicking HERE. Josh points out that the bear is often seen as a necessary part of capitalism, correcting the excesses. Not if it kills and eats the bull, I say!
OWS Animated GIF
Posted October 19, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Justseeds fellow-traveler Brandon Bauer just sent me a cool animated gif he made from one of my Occupy posters. I actually can't figure out how to embed the damn thing here, but you can see the animation by clicking HERE. Check out Brandon's site HERE. He created it in response to a call from F.A.T. Lab to occupy the internet with pro-OWS gifs. The call is HERE.
JBbTC 80: New Anarchist Review
Posted October 17, 2011 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
About three years back I bought a small collection of cheap, but relatively handsome, UK Anarchist pamphlets under the title New Anarchist Review. They stretched from 1984 into the early 1990s, and were largely composed of reviews and lists of recently published anarchist books, advertisements from antiauthoritarian publishers, and a short article here and there. I was initially drawn to them because they seemed a humble heir to the Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review of the late 70s, which had similar content, but was much more comprehensive and completest.
It turns out that New Anarchist Review (NAR) was published by the same consortium of anarchist groupings that put together the early London Anarchist Bookfair, including the publishers involved in A Distribution (such as Pheonix Press, Freedom Press, and Rebel Press), the Anarchist Book Service, and the anarchist bookshops Freedom and 121 Centre. There is a really nice history of the London Anarchist Bookfair and the New Anarchist Review that you can read HERE. I don't think it is intended to be anonymous, but I couldn't find an author attribution anywhere!
Calculus of forms: building and erasing utopias
Posted October 15, 2011 by jmacphee in Events
My friend Adrian Blackwell has been working for years in Toronto on an antiauthoritarian analysis and practice of architecture and public planning. He's got a new project that just went up, and I wish I was in Toronto to see it!
Calculus of forms: building and erasing utopias
Adrian Blackwell and Jane Hutton
October 14 – December 31, 2011
Opening reception: Friday, October 14, 7-10 pm
G Gallery, 134 Ossington St, Toronto, ON M6J 2Z5
Calculus of forms examines the relationship between the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of urban form. Cities have certain shapes which hold us in particular ways and allow us to move along specific paths. They are historical, changing over time according to political and economic vicissitudes.
The Silent Scream: Political and Social Comment in Books by Artists
Posted October 12, 2011 by colin_matthes in Books & Zines
I just got this book in the mail. It is a companion to an exhibition at Monash University Rare Books Library, Melbourne, Australia.
From the dust jacket, " a journey through some of humanity's most inhumane and hypocritical moments. The catalogue provides insights into 77 influential books and works presented in book form, of the past 90 years."
Octopi Wall Street!
Posted October 8, 2011 by jmacphee in In the News
Mother Jones just put up a cool article entitled "Octopi Wall Street!" about the historical use of the octopus as a representation of capitalism. Worth clicking over and reading it HEREhttp://motherjones.com/mixed-media/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-octopus-vampire-squid, including checking out the half dozen great historical images!
Occuprint Everything!
Posted October 7, 2011 by molly_fair in Art & Politics
Here's Justseeds collaborator Jesse Goldstein's poster for Occupy Wall St.
Click on it to get the bigger version.
And here are his reflections on his experiences printing with folks:
This last few days I’ve been screen printing down on Wall Street with Josh MacPhee, David Spataro and a host of new friends who’ve offered their help in one way or another. Its been a great process – the first night we printed, Josh and I set up with a few screens, a squeegee some ink and not much of a clue as to how things would work out – especially considering we hadn’t brought anything to print on. So we started with some test prints to get the ink flowing (apparently Bob Avakian’s paper does have some use after all!) and got a few people interested – but it was cold and getting dark and there was nothing to print on. Then a young occupier wandered by and saw the problem. He said to us, “Why don’t we just buy some shirts?” He followed this up by pulling out a pocket of cash and said – I’ve got money to spend on this sort of thing, I’ll throw 40$ dollars at it.” So Josh and I – thankful for his common sense, added some cash and then Josh ran out to clean the local drug store out of tee shirts.
Designs for Occupation
Posted October 1, 2011 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
I've been trying to synthesize some of the ideas (and add some of my own) coming out of Occupy Wall Street here in New York City in order to try to create some better-designed messaging, possible posters, images for people to use, etc. I'm going to start posting some of these designs here on the blog, and I'd love feedback to help narrow down which ones work best. I hope to start printing some soon, once I get a handle on which are communicating.
The trick with doing this is that there has been little clear messaging out of the movement, especially with content I find compelling politically. Many of the signs at the occupation, and the Occupy Wall Street statement, reference a "THEY" as an amorphous bad guy? Capitalism is an economic system, one in which we all participate to varying degrees—and are all largely beholden to for survival—whether we are janitors, artists, or CEOs. When we start anthropomorphizing this system as a set of people, things get really slippery, and politically questionable, really fast. There is only a couple degrees between labeling the "Bankers" as the bad guys before we slip into the evil "Masons," "Lizard People," or "Jews." I ain't going there.
Anyway, here are some early designs, let me know what you think. Once I get some feedback, I'll start putting up higher-res versions for people to use and print out.
Signs of Wall Street
Posted September 26, 2011 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
At some point during the first 48 hours of the occupation of Wall Street (or to be more exact, the encampment at Zuccotti Park, north of Wall Street), people there began painting and drawing signs on pieces of discarded cardboard. These signs, most of them simple slogans on old pizza boxes, have been laid out on the ground across a good quarter of the park, a cacophonous patchwork of words and images, many contradicting each other, some even contradicting themselves. When at the occupation, the first thing I am struck by is the explosion of people—talking, drumming, screaming, laughing, sleeping—but it is these signs that are the most striking graphic element. They contain some of the few visible graphics, but they are also some of the few messages easily read by those not engaged in the occupation itself, so there is regularly a diverse crowd of visitors and passersby viewing, discussing, and critiquing the signs. Stylistically some are witty and clever, some bold and direct, some naive and simple, some awkward, confused, and misspelled, but what content do they communicate? To me they represent the complicated jumble of ideas and motivations swirling in the background of this action. These signs represent the voices of hundreds of individuals. In some ways this is a refreshing contrast to a typical leftist event, where we are used to hearing or seeing the more controlled and crafted messages of the array of organizations that are often the backbone of political action (be it community groups, electoral parties, unions, or socialist cadre organizations—who often create mass-produced signs and distribute pre-printed newspapers and flyers).
Red in black and white
Posted September 23, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Lincoln Cushing has just put online a new essay about U.S. New Left printshops that accompanies the new exhibition Peace Press Graphics 1967-1987: Art in the Pursuit of Social Change. His essay starts out with an Associated Press quote below, and then you can and should read the rest of it HERE.
"Red in black and white: The New Left printing renaissance of the 1960s – and beyond"
by Lincoln Cushing
"The information officers of the New American Left have rediscovered an ancient political ally: print power. All over the country, radical and "movement" organizations have spawned their own print shops run by their own pressmen to churn out an increasing number of posters, pamphlets, handbills, and flyers. Whether it's to mobilize a march on Washington, explain the advantages of "Free Speech” for GIs, or advertise courses at "Omega U. - an alternate university," the rebel presses are rolling. By the thousands, their folded-and-stapled brochures, decorated with crude graphics, are being given away at hastily set up campus tables or sold in the standard subculture outlets: Barbara's Bookshop in Chicago, the Granma in Berkeley, the Militant Labor Forum in New York, and scores of others."
image: “Glad Day’s biggest press, a Chief 126.” Photo from “Left Profile: Glad Day Press” in Liberation Support Movement News, Winter 1978.
Justseeds installation in Ljubljana finished!
Posted September 22, 2011 by shaun in Justseeds Collective Projects
We've just wrapped up our installation for the 29th Graphics Biennial in Ljubljana, Slovenia at the Alkatraz Gallery in amazing Metalcova! I've posted a ton of new photos on our Flickr just now, have a look...
GAAG book re-released
Posted September 22, 2011 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
Just saw this, Printed Matter is reissuing the amazing book GAAG, The Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969-1976, which has been out of print for almost 30 years. There was a pdf of this book floating around for awhile, but it is great that it's going to be in print again. I don't think I can describe GAAG better than Printed Matter, so here's their info about the re-release:
Printed Matter is very pleased to announce the reissue of our long out-of-print publication GAAG: The Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969-1976: A Selection, first published in 1978. The book serves as the primary text to the significant work of the activist artist group GAAG (Jon Hendricks, Poppy Johnson, Silvianna, Joanne Stamerra, Virginia Toche and Jean Toche), both as a document of the group’s ideological and logistical concerns, and more broadly as a historical record for 52 of the many political art actions they carried out through the late Sixties and early Seventies.Guided by their belief that art and culture had been corrupted by profit and private interest, GAAG formed in October 1969 as a platform for social struggle. Their work asked how artists could work effectively towards meaningful change, most often through direct provocation and confrontation—symbolic, non-violent actions staged in protest and ridicule of the ethical failures by the art and media establishments, as well as the US government. Their activities defied the brutal, close-minded workings of an artistic/political system that traded in dirty money, served the elite, established a trivial cultural canon, and perpetuated bloody wars abroad.
Ljubljana installation coming together fast...
Posted September 21, 2011 by shaun in Justseeds Collective Projects
Today Colin showed up after a couple days on trains and planes, and we've started pasting images on the walls! Everyone present brought multiple images of migrant humans and displaced animals - we have dozens of multiples of about 50 different images, each reflecting the individual styles of various Justeeds members. They're being pasted in vast "swarms" all over the room, surrounding this shipping container that we're still hammering away at. It's coming together pretty rapidly at this point, so stay tuned for new uploads on our Flickr page throughout the rest of the week! Photostream here, Slovenia-specific collection here. The opening is tomorrow night, Thursday, at 9pm at Galerija Alkatraz, Metalkova - if you're in Ljubljana, Slovenia, come on by!
More work in Ljubljana...
Posted September 20, 2011 by shaun in Justseeds Collective Projects
We're rolling out of our second full day in Ljubljana, with a shipping container created out of scrap wood and the walls washed and dotted with "obstacles". Tomorrow we're set to start pasting a mad number of prints all over the place. Posting new photos on our Flickr collection every few hours, check in often for updates as the whole thing comes together! Sorry if these posts are vague, I'm hoping the photos will fill in the gaps that I don't otherwise have time to write about...
Ljubljana - in progress!
Posted September 20, 2011 by shaun
We're deep into the installation of our work for the 29th Graphics Biennial in Ljubljana, Slovenia! As a customary first step, we're currently washing the walls with watered down wall paint. Twelve of us are here working in the Alkatraz Gallery in the Metalkova social center - we're still feeling our way through the whole process but things are moving rapidly. I'll be posting new photos here each day, but the majority will be in regular uploads to our Flickr page for those who want to follow from afar...
Hokusai: Traditional Japanese Woodcut Printing Demo
Posted September 19, 2011 by santi in Art & Politics
I was recently in Berlin with my partner, and we got to catch the awesome Hokusai exhibit at the Martin-Gropius-Bau museum. Which according to what the people in the museum said, “the works of the master print maker had never left Japan before”.
Pittsburgh Biennial Opens This Weekend...
Posted September 13, 2011 by shaun in Justseeds Collective Projects
We're getting ready to debut our huge installation in Pittsburgh this weekend as part of the 2011 Pittsburgh Biennial! We worked a lot throughout the summer, with one heavy group work week this July, to produce a series of immigration-themed billboards in the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University. Above is a slideshow of our in-progress install shots from our Flickr site - have a scroll-through! The installation was coordinated by Pittsburgh-based Justseeds members, exhibition curated by Astria Suparak. Stay tuned for more details, and visit the overall Biennial website here (details specific to the Miller Gallery show are here). The opening reception is this upcoming Friday, Sept.16 - please come by if you're in the neighborhood! Opening is 6-8pm, but there's an exhibition tour with all the artists (not just us) at 5pm.
War, Materials & Lies, Part 2
Posted September 9, 2011 by jmacphee in Events
There is going to be a sneak peak of four prints from the Justseeds/IVAW portfolio, War Is Trauma, at the upcoming exhibition, War, Materials & Lies, Part 2, in Hudson, NY. Prints from the portfolio by Kevin Caplicki, Molly Fair, Josh MacPhee, and Chris Stain will be included in the show!
War, Materials & Lies, Part 2
Time & Space Limited
434 Columbia St, Hudson, NY
(518) 822-8100
Opening reception 5:00 - 7:30 Saturday, September 10th.
Gallery Hours: Mon - Fri: 11am - 3pm; 1hr before weekend events and by appointment from Saturday, September 10th to Friday, November 11th
Hobos to Street People
Posted September 2, 2011 by jmacphee in Events
A couple years back on a trip to San Francisco I was lucky enough to check out a then new exhibition entitled Hobos to Street People: Artists' Responses to Homelessness from the New Deal to the Present. It was a great show, using the history of American social realist art to illustrate the plight of the marginalized in society. Now the curator Art Hazelwood has new book out which catalogs the exhibition! The book, also called Hobos to Street People, is available from the publisher Freedom Voices, and there are a series of upcoming events celebrating it's release:
September 15, book release party at Alliance Graphics
September 22, Exhibition opening reception at de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University
September 29, Panel Discussion and book release party at de Saisset Museum
More information can be found on Art's site HERE.
John Greyson's BDS Videos
Posted September 1, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
John Greyson, a Toronto-based filmmaker and activist, has been making a series of great videos in support of the BDS Movement (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions against Israel). He's also been on the flotilla's to Gaza. (There is an interview with him HERE.)His videos are a great amalgamation of found footage, pop culture, documentary, and activist video. This one here is one of the best:
Does Corporate Culture STILL Suck?
Posted August 30, 2011 by dara_g in Art & Politics
Once upon a time (in the 1980's & 90's) there was a sticker and a T-shirt that said "Corporate Rock Still Sucks" (also the slogan of SST records). The first time he was on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine (1992), Kurt Cobain made a hand scrawled T-shirt with the words, "Corporate Magazines Still Suck." This act gestured toward the difficulty of trying to stay independent in our society with all of the contradictions and seductions of corporate culture. These days I'm becoming increasingly confused about my/our (independent cultural producers) relationships to corporations. The cooptation of anything cool or resistant into visual advertising has been going on for decades. Although that can be frustrating, I find it less confusing than the recent crop of branded "community" and "space" making which seem to function a bit differently than the creation of advertising images. What I am talking about are the numerous, branded initiatives that offer people participatory and social experiences. Levi's offers free filmmaking, photo, and printmaking workshops, Van’s hosts shows with some great musical acts, Urban Outfitters and Levi’s have a touring DIY bike shop, and Converse even has "a community based recording studio" (their words). Part of the ideals of independent and DIY culture is both access to the tools/means of production and to free spaces for creativity and communication. Are these corporate ventures really giving us a gift? Or are these poison gifts—and at what cost and to whom—since we know corporations main goals are their bottom lines?
Support Milk Not Jails
Posted August 29, 2011 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
MILK NOT JAILS is a consumer campaign to mobilize NY residents to support the dairy industry and the long-term sustainability of the rural economy. It is a political campaign to advocate for criminal justice and agricultural policy reform that will bring about positive economic growth. MILK NOT JAILS insists that bad criminal justice policy should not be the primary economic development plan for rural New York.
MILK NOT JAILS has made significant headway over the past year, and we are now at a critical moment in our efforts to build a new urban-rural relationship in New York State. We have mobilized farmers to help us achieve our political demands and we are working with them to build a political line of dairy products. We hope to make significant policy changes in New York and create a new model for social change that other groups around the country can utilize.
RESOURCED exhibit at the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture
Posted August 23, 2011 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Last April, Roger Peet and myself, traveled up to northern California immediately after the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair. Justseeds was invited to exhibit the RESOURCED portfolio and A Crisis in Common, at the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture, in Weed, CA. It's in a gorgeous place and the exhibition was hung in an antique refrigerated train car from 1923.
I have finally uploaded some images up to our flickr account, check them out at Justseeds/Visual Resistance. 
Thanks to everyone that I met in that adventure, Crackbox (who played in the adjacent railcar), Austin/the flopbox, and to everyone at BBCRC for making the exhibition possible.
The Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture was founded in 2008 as a way to support and develop a community-building institution focused on railroad culture in the western United States. The BBCRC is located on the site of a long-abandoned junkyard amid several acres of forest, chaparral, and wetlands directly adjacent to Black Butte Siding, the junction of the Union Pacific and Central Oregon and Pacific railroads right on the southeast edge of Weed, California.
NYC Residents Band Together to Prevent Eviction of Elderly Bed-Stuy Homeowner
Posted August 22, 2011 by k_c_ in In the News
There is a successful campaign going on in Brooklyn right now. Last Friday supporters of, 82 year old, Mary Ward prevented Federal Marshals from evicting her from her foreclosed home. When I say prevented, I mean that the Marshals did not bother to arrive at the home, while 200+ people assembled outside her home. The elderly homeowner and her legal team also negotiated a meeting with her purported landlord, and are attempting to arrange an agreement. Organizing for Occupation will continue supporting Mary Ward, by gathering at 320 Tompkins Ave, Monday, August 22, 9am.
The Press release for last Friday:
NEW YORK, NY – Ms. Mary Lee Ward, an 82 year-old African American grandmother who resides at 320 Tompkins Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn, is facing a foreclosure related eviction from her home of 44 years this Friday the 19th at 9am.
Street Art of the Revolution
Posted August 16, 2011 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Themba Lewis has a great gallery of pictures of street art from the revolution in Egypt on his website. His photos captured an explosion of public art onto the walls and sidewalks of Cairo as the revolution surged through the capital and swept Mubarak's regime into the Nile. From portraits of martyrs to the participation of Cairo's sign-painting guild to ominous warnings of the revolution's betrayal, this is an amazing document of ephemeral visual communiques.
Aug. 9, BIG MOUTH: contemporary voices in feminist art + illustration
Posted August 5, 2011 by molly_fair in Events
I'm part of this art show, BIG MOUTH: contemporary voices in feminist art + illustration. I will be showing my prints and illustrations from Firebrands: Portraits from the Americas. Come check it out!
OPENING Tuesday, AUGUST 9, 6pm-9pm
@ Brooklyn Fireproof
119 Ingraham St (at Porter Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11237
A group show featuring: Suzy Exposito, Molly Fair, Kim Funk, Kathleen Hanna, J. Morrison, Adee Roberson, & Gabby Schulz
Curated by Kate Wadkins & Lauren Denitzio
BIG MOUTH: contemporary voices in feminist art + illustration is a platform for unpopular visual opinions. Feminist movements have historically grown out of interventions within radical communities in the face of silence, anger, and often, violence. Still, these conflicts and contentions are fought with the utmost passion and humor in hopes for a radical resolution. BIG MOUTH illustrates the ever-evolving search for feminist/queer identities and communities. This group show places feminist narratives at the center of radical art-making, where often our voices are poorly represented or left out altogether. BIG MOUTH is a celebration of our pluralism, our goofiness, and a proclamation of defiant love.
We Are Wisconsin : The Book
Posted August 2, 2011 by colin_matthes in Books & Zines
Here is a link to check out a book project about the uprising in Wisconsin.
The book is edited by Erica Sagrans.
Deterritorial Support Group
Posted July 28, 2011 by jmacphee in In the News
I've been meaning to repost this for weeks, so better late than never. I stumbled across this short article on and set of images by the Deterritorial Support Group, a London-based artist/hacker grouping making graphics for the student/austerity protests in the UK a couple months back. The article is on Dazed online, and well worth taking 5 minutes to check out HERE.
Groups & Spaces: A web portal for indepedant artists & groups
Posted July 27, 2011 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
Groups & Spaces is an online platform that gathers together information on people making art in groups and collaborative situations, groups that run art spaces, and independently run artist spaces and centres. The site serves as an opensource portal for artists, educators and citizens to learn more about these working methods and connect with resources in their area. The platform aims to facilitate dialogue about community engagement, collaborative practices and provide educational resources for new audiences.
Concept
Groups and Spaces is framed as a dynamic learning resource, providing a unique visualization of how art spaces and groups engage communities. In so doing, the Groups and Spaces site provides an evolving database of techniques and strategies in which to draw from and potential partners to collaborate with. From organizations, collectives, collaboratives and projects to artist run spaces, the practices and inspiration these models provide are invaluable in addressing emerging social issues and the need for collective action. Groups and Spaces in this sense builds a bridge between aesthetics and community engagement by providing a platform for restorative social practice.
VIDEO: Exhibit featuring Pro-Migrant Artwork, 1 DAY only in LA! Fri. July 29
Posted July 26, 2011 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Art & Politics
The Sound Strike Art Exhibit Promo - July 29, 2011 from Favianna Rodriguez on Vimeo.
If you are want to see some of the freshest artwork by artists from around the country who are dealing with the subjects of immigration, xenophobia, borders, and pro-migrant activism - then DON'T MISS the 1-day only show in Los Angeles, California - this Friday, July 29th @ 6 pm.
The SOUND STRIKE Presents: A Pro-Migrant Art Exhibit
Friday, July 29, 2011, Starting @ 6 pm
SEIU - 828 West Washington Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90015-3310.
LA vs War: Art for Peace in the Hope Era
Posted July 23, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friends out in Los Angeles are putting together another great LA Vs. WAR event this coming September. Growing out of the Yo! What Happened to Peace? exhibitions that traveled the world over the past decade, LA vs. War is a print show and multi-media event, and they need a little help to make it work. They've set up a kickstarter campaign, check it out HERE.
Justseeds-IVAW essay in The Veteran
Posted July 16, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Collective Projects
I recently authored an account of the November 2010 Justseeds-IVAW street art action in Chicago for the Spring 2011 issue of The Veteran, a publication by Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Check it out here.
Also, keep an eye out for a number of new collaborations between Justseeds and IVAW that are in the works, including an "Operation Recovery" booklet and our third portfolio project War is Trauma that is scheduled to be released in the late Fall and will feature over 30 prints by Justseeds artists, IVAW artists, and five invited guest artists.
Stop the Raids
Posted July 15, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Raoul Deal, a Milwaukee-based artist and long time friend to Justseeds, just completed a massive 40" x 60" woodcut based on the May Day parade/Immigrant Rights March in Milwaukee a few months back. Deal is currently working on an extensive series of woodcuts that address border and immigrant rights issues. I will post more images as they arise.
Veterans for Peace Broadsheets
Posted July 8, 2011 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
I was recently commissioned by the Portland chapter of Veterans for Peace to design some images for their convention in August: It was a fun assignment. These linocuts will be made into polymer plates and letterpress printed on Combat Paper. Click through for all three images, and see them here on Flickr.
The Graphic Impulse at MoMA
Posted July 6, 2011 by k_c_ in Reviews
I finally made the trip up to the Museum of Modern Art for German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse. The exhibition will only run until July 11th. The Neue Galerie has offered many opportunities to view Expressionist works, I was fortunate to attend the Otto Dix and Brücke exhibitions there. The current MoMA exhibit has a variety of mediums but most interestingly, to me, are the portfolios and books. I enjoyed seeing Kandinsky, Beckman, Grosz works and how incredibly printed all these works are. An exhibition should be dedicated to the master printers and print shops of this period.
The two artists I was most excited to see were Otto Dix and Kåthe Kollwitz. The German Expressionists have had strong influence over many Justseeds artists, as well as our projects. The War (Der Krieg) Portfolio by Otto Dix is an incredibly dark and visceral depiction of the destructiveness of battle. Drawn from his memories of World War I is the fear and horror that soldiers, dead or dying, experience. According to the MoMA's website the publisher, Karl Nierendorf in Berlin,
circulated the portfolio throughout Germany with a pacifist organization, Never Again War, though Dix himself doubted that his prints could have any bearing on future wars. Despite the intensive publicity, Nierendorf sold only one complete portfolio from the edition of seventy.
(It's hard to imagine a contemporary body of work selling nothing yet making it into a Museum collection...)
New CDC Billboard Corrections
Posted July 1, 2011 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
This just in from the California Department of Corrections:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 1, 2011 - San Francisco, California
Liberated Ads Salute America Following the Death of Osama bin LadenThe California Department of Corrections (CDC) has unveiled a new campaign of bus shelter ads to celebrate America's assassination of Osama bin Laden.
Released prior to July 4th, a total of ten ads in MUNI bus shelters throughout San Francisco were apprehended, rehabilitated and discharged without incident. The ten liberated ads represent each year in the long decade spanning the declaration of the War on Terror by President Bush and the eventual demise of al-Qaeda's elusive leader.
CDC CorrectionJoining in celebration with millions of US civilians after the demise of bin Laden, the red, white and blue advertisements not only pay patriotic tribute to our country, but also celebrate the unsung history of American assassinations.
Roger Peet and Garrett Price at Flight 64
Posted June 29, 2011 by roger_peet in Events
Tomorrow! Last Thursday, the 30th June, at Flight 64 print studio (down the alley off NE Alberta between 29th and 30th, behind Bella Faccia), an opening of new print work by Roger Peet and Garrett Price. Steel etchings, screenprints, and blockprints of corroded superstructures, insects, ships, sharks, and slogans. If you're in Portland, come on by between 5 and 10!
We Agree Closing in Portland
Posted June 29, 2011 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Tonight, 7pm, at the Fresh Pot on NE Mississippi in Portland OR, we're having a closing for the big Anti-LNG blockprints from this project. Stop by for some coffee, presentations from Amy Harwood and Olivia Schmidt about the threats still posed by LNG development plans, and a presentation by Roger about the project.
New Left Turn Summer Issue Out Now!
Posted June 25, 2011 by k_c_ in Books & Zines
“There is a restlessness within our souls that keeps us questioning, discovering and struggling against a system that will not allow us space and time for fresh expression....” - Gil Scott-Heron
Gil Scott-Heron inspires the title of this issue – "Winter In America -- The Reluctant Welfare State.” Scott-Heron, who passed away in late May of this year, used winter as a metaphor to describe the bleak, challenging, and ofttimes depressing period in US history we find ourselves trudging through today. Do not despair. Though winter is hard it is also a time of coming together.
A great need for a joining of forces is brewing and cannot be ignored. Both dominant political parties in the US are forging budget policy that will forever place the burden of a balanced budget on the backs of the poor and vulnerable. Corporations plead poverty and policymakers listen, cutting taxes for the wealthy and programs that aid the poor. Many forces are gathering to protect public welfare, but more is needed. While it is sometimes an unsavory or uncomfortable position for leftists in the US to be in, the time to demand more government aid to the poor is now.
Families both rural and urban will bear a large brunt of cuts to social spending. Without assistance many families simply cannot survive. A thoughtful and poignant discussion of families and where they fit in to the movements for liberation and justice takes its rightful place in this issue. As Cynthia Oka and Vikki Law point out, our organizations often miss the mark when it comes to multigenerational organizing both ideologically and practically, as in providing kid and youth-friendly spaces at radical events.
Viande de Brousse Opening
Posted June 18, 2011 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
The Bushmeat Food-cart is opening today, in Downtown Portland, on the third floor of Pioneer Place Mall! Corner of SW Fifth and Morrison. Come and check it out between 6 and 9 pm. It is pretty unnerving, and the fact that it is in the mall makes it even more so. For more information, click this link.
Mud Stenciling the Rich
Posted June 15, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
A few days ago pro-labor activists mud stenciled and chalked the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin for their support of Gov. Walker and his assault on all things public. What did WMC do? They went crying to the police that they were victimized by vandals and they posted a press release here. Apparently, the police laughed at them as they investigated the mud and chalk and concluded that it was not vandalism. The follow-up report is posted below. The lesson to WMC: stop treating working class people like dirt and you won't be targeted with activist art, and be thankful you are not in Greece where a general strike is raging and workers would not use chalk and mud to voice their dissent: they would use molotov cocktails.
Don't Mourn-Organize!
Posted June 14, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Joe Hill where are you when we need you. Welcome to Wisconsin – a state that is sinking faster than the Titanic. Our iceberg is Gov. Walker, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, and the Koch Brothers. Together they have turned Wisconsin into Fitzwalkerstan and handed over the public sector to their corporate donors.
6/14/11 will remain as a day in infamy in Wisconsin - the end of collective bargaining rights for public unions, a day that marks the dismantling of 60 plus years of labor gains. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 against Judge Sumis ruling that barred implication of the union-busting bill. No matter what the court ruled – the Republican controlled Senate and House were going to ram through the bill tonight or tomorrow in an extraordinary session that equated an extraordinary assault on workers rights and democracy. Gov. Walker, who from here out should only be called Mother F*cker, was determined to crush public unions and we (the vast majority of Wisconsinites) must collectively admit that we lost this battle, but not the war. This is all out class war and we need to be more vigilant in the weeks, months, and years to come.
I, and many others, have been very critical of union leadership in this struggle. I believed that the focus on recalls and electoral politics was suicidal and attention should have been placed on escalation, civil disobedience, and strikes back in March when the movement had momentum and 150,000 people plus in the streets of Madison.
Action Alert: Mass Demo in Madison, WI on Tuesday, June 14
Posted June 13, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
D-Day in Wisconsin. Below is an urgent action alert and plea for all those concerned about worker's rights and democracy in Wisconsin and beyond to come to Madison on Tuesday to demonstrate against what appears to be a callous attempt by the Republicans to pass the bill against collective bargaining.
Rally Against the Budget
Tuesday, June 14
11:00 a.m.: marches begin at Walkerville
5:00 p.m.: rally program begins at the corner of State St. and the Capitol Square, Madison
From Wisconsin State Representative Mark Pocan (D-Madison) writing in The Progressive:
"Walker’s now infamous union busting tactics of March and April, currently stalled in the state’s Supreme Court, set the table for a state budget battle that will play out over the next week or so, this time under a whole new rule book. Rather than use the legislature’s traditional rules, Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, aka the Fitzgerald brothers, have decided to fast track Wisconsin’s budget under an “extraordinary” session.
Portland BDS Coalition Flash Mobs
Posted June 11, 2011 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
These flashmobs put a smile on my face. They are creative, fun, great pop parodies, and opportunities to engage with folks that may be unaware of the issue.
May 29, 2011
New Seasons, Portland, OR
pdxbds.org
bmediacollective.org
Marie Mason Benefit T-Shirts
Posted June 6, 2011 by erik_ruin in Art & Politics
I created this image a while back for my old friend Marie Mason, who's currently serving out a 22-year prison sentence for charges related to two acts of property destruction that occurred in 1999 and 2000. Noone was injured in either attack -against a facility researching/developing GMO crops- but Marie got swept up in the Green Scare hysteria- and is now serving a disproportionately long sentence as a result.
The good folks at Support Marie Mason recently printed up these t-shirts as a benefit and if i do say so myself, they look pretty sharp and are darn comfortable to boot. You can buy them directly from their site here- and i highly recommend you do.
No Quit in the Badger State: Civil Disobedience and Walkervilles
Posted June 3, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Three updates from Wisconsin on recent actions and demos planned for the upcoming week to fight back against budget cuts and the attacks on workers and unions:
1. Civil Disobedience at the Joint Finance Committee hearing in Madison, Wisconsin (6-02-11)
2. (From Defend Wisconsin) "Join the Walkerville – a ‘city’ of tents around the Capitol square calling attention to the devastating state budget cuts to education, health care and other programs benefiting Wisconsin’s working families.
The Hoovervilles of the Great Depression were marks of the failed policies of unregulated speculation which helped lead to the collapse of financial markets. The establishment of a Walkerville marks the failure of a budget to provide for its citizens and for the state.
The action near the Capitol will begin the evening of Saturday, June 4, at 7 p.m. and will continue throughout the state budget process. Each day will focus on one area that will be harmed by the governor’s extreme budget."
Viande de Brousse
Posted May 23, 2011 by roger_peet in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here's a new project: a bushmeat food-cart. The project is called Viande de Brousse, the French translation of bushmeat, meaning simply wild meat hunted from the forest, or bush, as it's referred to in much of Sub-Saharan Africa. I (Roger) and my colleague Ryan Burns have built a small mobile food-cart which will be selling the severed hands of Chimpanzees to the horrified public in Portland, debuting at PLACE gallery downtown next month. This is the result of years of attention to and research in the history, economy and environment of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congo is a vast pentagonal tranche of Sub-Saharan Africa, and has been a grim laboratory of capitalism's extractive priorities since Belgium began its colonial project there in the late 1800's. The stories of Congo's debasement and butchery at the hands of the Belgians, the Americans, the Chinese, assorted homegrown tyrants and the murderous throngs of small armies that swarmed through it during the African World War of the 90's-early 00's are woefully underreported. The history is nearly invisible. This is our attempt to dig our fingers into that steaming pile and pull it reeking into the light.
High Peaks, Low Coal
Posted May 23, 2011 by k_c_ in Events
Our friend and collaborator Laura Scheinkopf is putting on this benefit tomorrow for the March on Blair Mountain. Come check it out!
Tuesday, May 24
7-10pm
@ The Commons
388 Atlantic Avenue, between Bond and Hoyt
High Peaks, Low Coal
New York Loves Mountains hosts a screening of the new documentary Low Coal, an exploration of the sacrifices made by Appalachian communities living with deep mining and Mountaintop Removal. The film's director, Jordan Freeman, along with former union coal miner and environmental activist Chuck Nelson, will be present for a talk-back after the screening. The discussion will be followed by a concert featuring local musician Morgan O'Kane (who played the score for the film).
Funds raised will be directed towards the March on Blair Mountain, a unifying rally in West Virginia from June 5-11th, 2011, which calls for historical preservation of Blair Mountain and an end to Mountaintop Removal.
This year commemorates the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest open class war in U.S. history, when 10,000 coal miners rose against the rule of the coal operators and fought for the basic right to live and work in decent conditions.
For more information visit www.appalachiarising.org.
$10 suggested.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=214345141918646
Medios Caminantes - Caravan to the Allied Media Conference.
Posted May 17, 2011 by santi
Two Shows Showing
Posted May 12, 2011 by roger_peet
I've got two show up in Portland right now; if you are in town you should go and check them out! The first one is at Land Gallery, at 3925 N. Mississippi Ave. That one's closing this Sunday, so hurry! It's a nice space and I have packed it with prints. The other is at Extracto Coffee, in Northeast at 2921 NE Killingsworth. It's up until the end of May! Also, next month I'll be hanging the big anti-LNG blockprints at the Fresh Pot on Mississippi at Shaver, and will be debuting the Bushmeat Foodcart at Place gallery in the weird art zone in the Pioneer Place mall (!). More updates soon!
The PIC Is...
Posted May 10, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I recently got an email from the folks at the Chicago PIC (Prison Industrial Complex) Teaching Collective, and they've just put out a great zine called The PIC Is... The zine is a solid introduction to what the PIC is, how it functions, and how it effects different communities. There are about a dozen fabulous illustrations inside, all by the artist Billy Dee. It is well worth checking out, whether you are an organizer, educator, or just someone who wants to learn more about how prisons work in our society. You can download the zine for free HERE.
Gavin Grindon in NYC
Posted May 10, 2011 by jmacphee in Events
Thursday, May 12, 7:30pm
@ No-Space (formerly called The Change You Want To See Gallery)
84 Havemeyer St, at Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
With the wave of opposition to austerity measures in the UK, many new creative political groups and projects have appeared. Not only the high-profile actions of UK Uncut, but others such as the University of Strategic Optimism, Arts Against Cuts, Precarious Workers Brigade, the Really Free School, and the Free University of Liverpool.
This informal talk will present stories and films from recent groups and activities that experiment with new creative approaches to activism’s materials and performance. From the Book Bloc’s very literate means of protecting crowds from police batons, to The University of Strategic Optimism’s critical theory lectures in high-street banks; from Liberate Tate’s oil spills inside the Tate galleries to encourage them to drop BP sponsorship, to the Space Hijackers driving a tank into an arms fair, and the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination's reverse-engineering of hundreds of bikes into a swarming mass of direct action machines.
Gavin will introduce some of these groups and activities, tell some ridiculous stories of general trouble making and daring misadventure, show some videos and do his best to answer any of your questions.
Censorship, Corporate Values, and the Destruction of the American Working Middle-Class
Posted April 28, 2011 by mary_tremonte in Art & Politics
My friend and DJ/collaborator Cara Erskine just had an article published in Dis Magazine's Labor Issue. She writes about Tea Party-backed Maine Governor Paul LePage's removal from the lobby of the Department of Labor of a recently-commissioned mural by Judy Taylor depicting Maine’s labor history.
From the article:
Paul Le Page, a Tea Party-backed Republican candidate who was elected Governor of Maine with only 38 percent of the vote, has been a labor antagonist in his first ninety days in office. Le Page praised his Tea-Party colleague, Gov. Scott Walker for his success in stripping Wisconsin public employees of collective bargaining rights. Le Page has pledged to make Maine a “right to work” state, and ordered the removal of a recently-commissioned mural depicting Maine’s labor history from the lobby of the Department of Labor.1 Le Page’s actions define him as anti-union, anti-worker, and anti working middle-class. “Right to work” means non-union workers have the same protections and benefits of union workers, but without paying union dues. This means union legal responsibilities are increased while their economic resources are diminished. “Right to work for less” is designed to spread labor union resources so thin that the union breaks down entirely.
While Gov. Le Page seeks to destroy unions, he also is taking aim at art that doesn’t reflect his administration’s pro-business agenda. On March 23, Le Page ordered that a mural depicting Maine’s labor history be removed from the Department of Labor. The next day, which coincided with the one-hundred year anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City which killed 146 people, mostly women and girls, hundreds of protesters flooded the Department of Labor to protest the planned removal of the labor-themed mural from the building’s lobby. Despite the protests, the mural was removed over the weekend of March 25 and is currently being stored at an undisclosed location. One week after the mural was taken down, an artist’s group called “BrokeFix” projected video footage of the mural on the façade of the Department of Labor building, in a subversive act of art and protest dubbed “video-bombing” (see also “yarn-bombing”). The “BrokeFix” artists, who agreed to be interviewed by The Huffington Post on the condition of anonymity, criticized the partisan and ideological divides in politics, but also took a strong stance against the notion that labor unions bear responsibility for U.S. economic problems. “Even if the most severe of allegations against the labor unions were true, the money cost to the taxpayers is negligible when compared to the taxpayer cost of supporting the true parasites of our social, political and economic systems,” they argued.
More HERE
Art and Repression in Russia
Posted April 25, 2011 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Russian art interventionists Voina (whom you might recall from this wonderful action and it's hilarious world-upside-down aftermath) have donated a portion of the funds that Banksy gave them for bail money to a trio of young activists recently arrested for altering an anti-STD billboard. The action involved pasting images of Russia's political establishment in among the cartoony monsters of Herpes, Gonorrhea, and Syphilis. The STD campaign copy asks: Do you really want friends like these?
Formerly Incarcerated People's Movement Event in NYC
Posted April 20, 2011 by k_c_ in Events
Formerly Incarcerated People's Movement Event
We gather for an evening of discussion and movement building aimed at the prison crisis sweeping our communities. Come add your voice and your hands to our effort to kick the forces of repression and division out of our homes, schools, and streets!
Saturday, April 23, 7-10pm
LaundPad
721 Franklin AVE
Brooklyn NY
This will be a multi-part event of:
Report back from FICPM organizational meet-up
Video Screening
Poetry Reading
Art by JUST SEEDS
With free healthy food provided by Kalabash Co-op
No cost to attend (though donations will be accepted at the door)
RESOURCED Portfolio Project in Montreal
Posted April 12, 2011 by Jesse_Purcell in Environment
The Justseeds Resourced portfolio is up in the concert hall at Casa Del Popolo and will be there until July 31st. If you are in Montreal come check it out at 4873 boul. St-Laurent.
Last weeks opening event was a 5 à 7 and discussion with local environmental activists, myself and members of The Dominion who were launching A People's Forecast, a special issue on climate justice.
More photos and and links below.
Thanks to Keith Race for all the photos
RESOURCED Exhibition at the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture
Posted April 11, 2011 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
RESOURCED Exhibition Opening and Boxcar Music Show at 6pm
Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture
800 Black Butte Rd.
Weed, California
We will have an opening for the exhibition RESOURCED, a production of the Just Seeds screen print cooperative, which will be on display in our "reefer" gallery through June. It focuses on resource extraction and climate issues, major issues in our region, and includes 26 artist prints. See RESOURCED for more info. The show will also feature work by two of the individual Just Seeds members, New York City-based "Kevin Caplicki" and Portland-based "Roger Peet".
Later in the evening we'll have a boxcar music show with "Crackbox" (punk), featuring some BBCRC supporters and frequent visitors, on tour from New Orleans, making a stop at Black Butte.
Carlos Cortéz and Allied Artists Exhibition Photos
Posted April 8, 2011 by colin_matthes
Here are a bunch of photos of work at the Carlos Cortez show in Milwaukee.
By Cortez
New Website for Judy Seidman
Posted April 7, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Judy Seidman is an artist that has been involved in the social movements of South Africa for almost 40 years. She was involved in the amazing Medu Arts Ensemble, which launched the anti-Apartheid screenprinted poster movement in the early 1980s, many trade unions, women's organizations, and more recently with HIV/AIDS activist groups. I was lucky to work with her and meet her while organizing the Signs of Change exhibition back in 2007/2008. She has just put up a new website of her work, including posters, graphics, murals, drawings, and publications. Take a minute to check it out HERE.
image: J.A. Seidman, June 14 memorial, silkscreen, Gaborone 1985
Weiwei Works Here
Posted April 6, 2011 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Ai Weiwei is missing! The provocative Chinese artist was arrested at the Beijing airport on April 3 2011 and hasn't been seen or heard from since. My friends Amy Harwood and Ryan Pierce of Signal Fire have started a campaign for artists to show their solidarity with him and their opposition to China's ongoing crackdown on dissent. The site is weiweiworkshere.org and features downloadable graphics for people to print out and post in studios, public spaces, galleries; wherever art appears. Do it now. You're next.
Josh MacPhee presents at Justseeds HQ (Pittsburgh)
Posted April 5, 2011 by shaun in Justseeds Collective Projects
Josh MacPhee is coming to our Pittsburgh Headquarters this weekend! Josh will present a short presentation/discussion entitled "Visualizing History from Below". The event is also the closing party for a solo exhibition of his prints. We hope to see you there! We are also now open on Sundays 2:00-6:00 pm! You can still email us at store at justseeds dot org to visit us at other times as well.
Josh MacPhee Talk & Closing Party: Visualizing History from Below
Saturday April 9th
7:00-10:00pm
Justseeds HQ
3410 Penn Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15201
At Doughboy statue. Enter at the back on Spring Way. Bike Parking Available...
BYOB & Snacks
Prints, posters, and books available for sale!
Jeff Koons Must Die!!
Posted April 4, 2011 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Jeff Koons Must Die!!! The Video Game from Hunter Jonakin on Vimeo.
"Jeff Koons is one of the most polarizing and well known contemporary artists living today. He attempts to elevate the banal by constructing large metal sculptures that resemble balloon animals, oil paintings that contain subject matter derived from digital collage, and large-scale pornographic photographs featuring the artist and his former wife, to name a few. All of Koons’s art is constructed by assistants. In general, viewers love or hate Koons and his work, and that is why he was chosen as the subject matter for this piece."
It's critiques like this that give me a real appreciation for video game makers. Koons is the best example of the times we live in. Art production so influenced by the market, its sole purpose is to accrue value. Totally vapid and devoid of anything to say, it reflects the content of large box stores and parking lots across the USA. Who the hell wants any of that crap anyhow? Baffles me.
Another game worth checking out is Faith Fighter, by MolleIndustria. Enjoy.
NO to Celebrate Peoples History Posters in San Cristobal, Chiapas.
Posted April 1, 2011 by santi in Art & Politics
Strangely enough, there have been savage attacks on the picturesque streets of beautiful San Cristobal de las Casas. Chiapas.
The perpetrators wheat pasted posters and images of old forgotten stories that we would rather keep that way. All posters and images incorporated a rather tasteless phrase that stated, “CELEBRATE PEOPLE’S HISTORY”. The subject matter of the posters ranged from supporting the local rebel terrorists to promoting further vandalism of the pristine streets.
We the First World International Tourist Liberation Movement (FWITLM) condemn these violent acts of contempt against helpless concrete.
We call on our fellow tourists to send letters of complaint to coordinator of these “Celebrate Peoples History” posters, Mr. Josh MacPhee and ask any eyewitnesses to come forward with leads to find these vandals and criminals.
Together let’s say no to defacing the world’s sacred colonial buildings!
No to Celebrating People’s History!
No to wheat pasting!
Yes to maintaining tourist havens clear of locals and undesirables!
First World International Tourist Liberation Movement (FWITLM)
*The following are pictures that were anonymously sent to our Headquarters in Palm Beach, FL.
Right Wing Governor Removes Labor Mural
Posted March 31, 2011 by icky in Art & Politics
"Gov. LePage ordered the removal of a 36-foot, 11-panel mural by Maine artist Judy Taylor from the foyer of the Maine Department of Labor in Augusta because, he claimed, it is "too one-sided", pro-union, and anti-business."
More information on this is all over the place, but I found it difficult to find a full set of images of the mural itself, so all 11 panels can be viewed by clicking here.
Judy Taylor's website has a thorough explanation of the mural here.
Carlos Cortéz and Allied Artists Exhibition
Posted March 29, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Events
Walker's Point Center for the Arts (WPCA) in Milwaukee is hosting a timely show this Friday that celebrates the art and life of Carlos Cortéz. Included in this show are prints by his allies in the labor movement/Chicana rights/anti-war/radical art community - many of whom are part of Justseeds. Prints by Favi, Josh, Nicolas, Dylan, and Collin are included in the exhibition. (Dylan also included some text and long-time friend to Justseeds, Susan Simensky Bietila, helped co-organize the show.) Many might recall that WPCA hosted the Paper Politics exhibition when it was in Milwaukee, so please come out and support this important show and vital art space that is at the epicenter of the community arts scene in Milwaukee.
Exhibition runs: April 1 – May 14, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, April 1 from 5 – 9pm
Spring Gallery Night: Friday, April 15 from 5 – 9pm
JBbTC 51: Arbeiter Ring's Semaphore series
Posted March 28, 2011 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
After filling the last 3 months with two different five-week series (prisons and Kropotkin), I'm ready to jump into something completely different. For the most part over the past year I've been focusing on book covers from the turn of the 20th Century to the 1980s or 90s, so I thought it would be cool to try to look as some more contemporary cover design work.
About 5 years ago a series of books being produced by a small independent publisher from Canada started catching my eye. The series is named Semaphore, and the publisher is small collectively-run press named Arbeiter Ring. The series kicked off in 2002 with a book by Ian Angus, and reached eight titles at the end of last year with Grammar Matters by Jila Ghomeshi. I haven't read all the books (though I have read a couple, and they were quite good!), and the insides aren't my focus here, instead this is a review of the outsides.
Solidarity Knows No Borders
Posted March 28, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
I created this graphic in response to the events of 2011 which connects the Mideast to the Midwest: the people's movements in Tunisia, Egypt, and Wisconsin.
Listing only three locations is an oversimplification as we all know that movements are taking place in other countries and states, but these three locations have become symbolic - much in part to the global media attention. Many of us in Wisconsin were humbled and overjoyed when we heard that demonstrators in Egypt were holding signs in solidarity with us in Madison.
"Everything that the earth gives will be contaminated...and it will be like that for thousands of years..."
Posted March 27, 2011 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
ENGLISH VERSION of Tenemos Todo y Nos Falta Todo from Palabra Radio on Vimeo.
A short video about a community in Southern Mexico organizing resistance to future mining projects. They have set up a valuable tool: a community radio station to disseminate information to the surrounding areas. Radio is an incredible resource for indigenous communities and their resistance to the insatiable industrial system. While the video makes the usual activist media mistakes (like presuming viewer awareness), I encourage folks to further research.
The CRAC is a community police force and alternative justice program. I was fortunate enough to visit one of their assemblies, years ago, and witnessed successful attempts to create a system that responds and is accountable to its constituents. Anyone interested in restorative justice and incarceration alternatives should explore what these municipalities are doing in Guerrerro, Mexico.
Is Wisconsin in America?
Posted March 26, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Unfortunately yes.
Worse, Republicans want to model Wisconsin after Arizona. Voces de la Frontera, a large immigrant rights organization in Milwaukee held its first emergency meetings last Sunday to inform the public that Representative Pridemore (WI Assembly Republican from Hartford) is now circulating his Arizona-style immigration enforcement bill for co-sponsors in Madison. Over 500 concerned members of the community showed up (in Milwaukee and Racine) to stratigize on how to defeat this bill, which would be devastating for the Latino community and others, as it would legalize racial profiling and lead to more deportations.
In other not-so-enlightening news, the Legislative Reference Bureau has published Walker's anti-union bill despite a court order preventing publication on grounds that the bill’s passage likely violated Open Meetings laws.
How this will play out is anyone's guess. Already the Walker administration and the State have been sued multiple times, so I expect a drawn-out court battle.
To learn more: click here
In more inspiring news, the activist spirit in Wisconsin has not dimmed. Protests, rallies, organizing, recall drives, etc are taking place all over the state. One question to the union leaders: How far do the Republicans have to go in destroying public unions and the working class before you call a strike?
Images for Michigan
Posted March 23, 2011 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Here's a couple of images in solidarity with the people of Michigan that were forwarded to us by Kathleen Judge:
Roger Peet lecture on Justseeds and more...
Posted March 20, 2011 by pete in Art & Politics
Here is a great talk given by Roger Peet at the Portland State University Monday Night Lecture Series back in January of this year. Roger gives a great overview of Justseeds, his work, and his thoughts on a couple problems in the world. It's over an hour long; skip the first 5 minutes as they are just setting up the sound and camera. There are also other PSU lectures worth watching here.
Roger Peet/Just Seeds from PSU MFA on Vimeo.
VOICES FROM OUTSIDE An Art Exhibit & Benefit Auction to send books to prisoners
Posted March 18, 2011 by k_c_
JustSeeds & Books Through Bars present, VOICES FROM OUTSIDE
An Art Exhibit & Benefit Auction to send books to prisoners
Saturday, March 19th, 7 PM
Doors at 7PM, bidding ends at 9pm, party till 10pm.
At Not An Alternative/Change You Want To See Gallery
84 Havemeyer Street, Williamsburg Brooklyn
FEATURING:
The complete Voices From Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex created by the JustSeeds Collective for the 10th anniversary of Critical Resistance.
AND Artworks by:
Bill Mazza, Chris Cardinale, Vikki Law, Vandana Jain, Audrey Dantzlerward, Mac McGill, Elizabeth Hamby, Antonio Serna, Mónica Félix, William Wulff, Eric Doeringer, Luis Martin, Priska Wenger, Sevonna Brown, Laura Whitehorn, Carey Lamprecht, Megan Books, christina armas, Kelly Savage, Kevin Hong
Guest speaker from the Justseeds Artists' Cooperative
Music by Avani Mehta & DJ Duncan
Refreshments available
All funds raised will be spent on postage to send books to prisoners.
Learn more about Books Through Bars
Albina
Posted March 16, 2011 by icky in Art & Politics
I just finished up my final project for my mapping class:
The Mission and the revolution, as lived and told by Roberto Vargas
Posted March 16, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I'm a little late in reposting this, but our friend Erick Lyle (creator of the fabulous Scam zine which we sell on the site HERE) recently had a nice long-format piece of writing published in the Bay Guardian about Nicaraguan/American Bay Area poet and revolutionary Roberto Vargas, and through him, a great social history of the San Francisco Latino political poetry scene of the 1960s-80s. Rather than republish it here, you should just head over the the Bay Guardian website and read it HERE.
More Poster Ideas for Wisconsin (& Beyond)
Posted March 15, 2011 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
I've been trying to work through some visual ideas around the Wisconsin struggle, and have come up with some beta designs I figure I might as well test here on the site...below are 3 different designs in progress. They all are based on the same idea, the general strike, but the first is the most developed, trying to clarify that we don't need a strike to maintain the status quo (losing benefits, pay, and "rights" while maintaining a legalistic definition of collective bargaining), but to exercise the on the ground power of workers and communities. Please feel free to leave feedback, and I can put up high-res versions of these if people are interested:
More Wisco Posters and Downloads
Posted March 12, 2011 by jmacphee in Downloadable Graphics
Our friend Brandon Bauer just sent along these 2 new Wisconsin graphics, you can click on them, then save the image to your desktop as high-res:
I also got sent this great pdf by my friend Nathan. It's a poster by the Little Friends of Printmaking. I couldn't find any info about it on their site, but hopefully they'll be cool with me re-posting it here. You can download the pdf by clicking HERE.
Visual Dialogues: Public Art and Social Transformation
Posted March 8, 2011 by k_c_ in Events
My friend Katie Yamasaki is a really talented mural artist and will be giving a presentation this Friday, in NYC.
Her work is devoted to the idea that everyone should be free to grow and experience their lives on their own terms, liberated from a power and material-driven society that so often values things above people. By helping to provide a visual platform where different communities can have a public voice, Katie is committed to the idea that art can play a major role in social transformation.
Visual Dialogues: Public Art and Social Transformation
Friday, March 11, 6-8pm
Asian American/Asian Research Institute
25 W. 43rd Street,
(btn 5th & 6th Ave)
Room 1000
Printing for a Cause- on Printeresting
Posted March 8, 2011 by k_c_ in In the News
Thanks to Jason Urban for giving what's going on in Wisconsin more exposure over at Printeresting!
Most of us are watching events unfold in Wisconsin from a great distance but Nicolas Lampert and Colin Matthes of Justseeds are in the eye of the storm. The two have been screen-printing their support for unions non-stop and disseminating their images in Milwaukee and Madison...
Check out the rest on Printeresting.com
Also there is currently an exhibition called SolidARTity, "that reflects the incredible breath of creative voice that exists RIGHT NOW in Madison",
at
The Project Lodge
817 E. Johnson St
Madison WI
New World Border Exhibition
Posted March 5, 2011 by jmacphee in Events
I just got an announcement for this great looking exhibition coming up in the Bay Area:
New World Border
ARTISTS RESPOND TO US/MEXICO BORDER WALL
March 3 – April 30
Reception: Saturday, March 12, 3:30-5:30 pm
La Peña Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705 USA
510-849-2568
The wall, now being constructed across the length of the US/Mexico border is like a knife cutting off neighbors, wildlife, indigenous people, and families. The wall is inflaming hatred and contributing to an atmosphere of vigilantism and oppression. While the US walls itself off from the world in the name of “security” what is it sacrificing? A group of artists respond to the wall with imagery from a variety of viewpoints.
The artists represent a wide cross section of approaches to the printed image, from esteemed Latino Poster Movement artist Malaquias Montoya, to Black Panther Minister of Culture Emory Douglas, Kearny Street Workshop icon Nancy Hom, New York political illustrator Frances Jetter, co-founder of the California Indian Art Movement, Frank LaPena, as well as powerful work by many other artists. The wall is destroying and dividing families, communities, eco-systems, and indigenous lands. The wall is part of a national move towards increased militarization of all aspects of society. The time to speak out against it is now.
Georgia: Take a Stand Against Racial Profiling
Posted March 5, 2011 by Melanie_Cervantes in Downloadable Graphics
Download Georgia: Take a Stand Against Racial Profiling Poster by clicking HERE
Today HB87 passeds out of the Georgia House of Representatives 113-56. The multi-state plan conceived of by the far-right group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is well underway with bills similiar to Arizona's anti-immigrant, anti-human right SB 1070. If you would like to read more about how these bills are not merely "copy cat" actions but a strategy that has been in the works for some time now I recommend reading the well researched blog posts by the Applied Research Center's Seth Wessler and Katrina Hurtado. They have kept mapping the bills and laws as they pop up in more and more states.
If you are in one of these states and would like to have this graphic adapted to apply to your state please send an email to Melanie HERE
Closed For Democracy
Posted March 2, 2011 by colin_matthes in Downloadable Graphics
Yesterday at the protest in Madison, Wisconsin union supporters were banned from entering the State Capital. Only a few supporters were allowed to stay inside. The vast majority of opposition to Scott Walker and his bill to end collective bargaining rights for public workers was locked outside this public building. The energy at the protest was great; more defiant and angry than the past few weeks.
Here is a graphic response. Download a high res version in red
Download a high res version in black
This is also drawing all the time : week 46.
Solidarity Now! Join the Protest Movement in Wisconsin
Posted March 2, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
The protest movement in Madison, Wisconsin over collective bargaining rights for public employees has reached day 16 and more solidarity is needed. The stakes are high. Defeat Governor Walker and his right-wing corporate agenda and the labor movement will have achieved one of the most significant victories of the past 50 years. Lose and watch the dominoes fall as public employee unions crumble in Wisconsin and beyond. Lost will be the power of public unions - one of the few remaining structures that can compete and organize against the GOP corporate machine.
Imagine if workers win. We can because this is an obtainable victory. A two-week 24-hour occupation of the Capital Building, daily protests – some that have reached 100,000 people, and the courageous actions of the 14 Democratic Senators who fled the state to block quorum have provided a strong foundation for a potential victory.
This is hands-down one of the most significant people’s movements against corporate power that has taken place in decades. This reminds one of the 1999 Seattle WTO protests. Tens of thousands of Wisconsin workers have come together and displayed incredible levels of solidarity for weeks on end. Firefighters who were exempted from the cuts have marched in solidarity with the teachers, nurses, sanitation workers, snowplow drivers, and others who stand to have their unions lose collective bargaining rights and have their pension and health care costs double. Police officers who were also exempted from the cuts have held up signs that read, “Cops for Labor.” How often does one see this? Private union members in Wisconsin have come out in massive numbers to show support for workers in public unions. This is a moment were unions have demonstrated their strength and have put the labor movement back to where it belongs: at the forefront of a social justice movement.
Support: The History and Future of Squatting in the US Book on AK
Posted March 1, 2011 by mary_tremonte in Art & Politics
My buddy Hannah Dobbz is currently researching and writing a book to be published on AK Press on the history of squatting, land struggles, and property law in the United States.
She has a Kickstarter to raise money for travel to research and write. There are some sweet incentives. Check it out!
Blight!
Posted March 1, 2011 by icky in Art & Politics
I'm taking a class in GIS at the local community college and it's super fun! I just made my first map (it's of Portland, OR, by the way):
Posters in Support of Wisconsin Workers : Downloadable Graphics
Posted February 28, 2011 by colin_matthes in Downloadable Graphics
Here are six downloadable copyright free images about Wisconsin Labor Protests. Feel free to use images for posters, signs, flyers, patches, etc.
Download Recall Image by Nicolas Lampert
Download Super Bowl Image by Colin Matthes
Solidarity with workers the workers in Wisconsin
Posted February 25, 2011 by Jesus_Barraza in Downloadable Graphics
This is a poster we want to share, please feel free to download and print your own copy.
Click here to download: Solidarity with workers the workers in Wisconsin
Over the past couple weeks I have been hearing about the Workers in Wisconsin who are fighting to stop the passage of AB11, a bill that would strip workers of collective bargaining and cuts to other things like their pensions and health benefits. In the crazy economy we are living through, we see the response by government to cuts to social services, we see the tuition hikes in our public universities. And we look around and see that the rich are still getting richer and paying less and less taxes. While this is happening we see working people under attack for being greedy and demanding too much in these hard economic times, a perfect time to attack workers and take away what has been won by the Labor Movement. The worst is seeing attacks on Unions by idiots who call their members unamerican, hearing people on the radio call the protestors thugs. Hearing the Governor of Wisconsin who was recorded on a telephone call with a blogger pretending to be one of the Koch Brothers talking about how he has contemplated sending agent provocateurs to undermine protesters efforts. This was what really pushed me to make a solidarity poster, I think that in these though economic times we need to support workers when they demand fair treatment so they can survive these times.
Wild and Neglected Like Me: John Clare the Peasant Poet
Posted February 25, 2011 by molly_fair in Art & Politics
A long time in the making, my collaborator Jesse Goldstein and I just finished a 10 color print called "Wild and Neglected Like Me". The piece refers to line in a poem by John Clare the Peasant Poet of Northamptonshire (1793-1865). It is a love poem written to a weed, and its untamed beauty.
Here is an essay by Jesse about the piece and Clare's lament about the destruction of the commons.:
Ah cruel foes with plenty blest
So ankering after more
To lay the greens and pastures waste
Which profited before
(John Clare, The Lamentations of Round Oak Waters)
Recently, Molly and I made a print based on a line from John Clare’s poetry: a love poem written to a weed. The poem offers some interesting insights into commoning as a way of life, and in particular how unused, unnoticed, and untamed natures – which capitalists saw as wasted resources, were a source of value to the commoners that lived on them. Commoning was an entirely different way of relating to the world, than what comes to be naturalized through our capital-infused culture. There’s so much interest in the idea of commons today – whether digital commons, cultural commons, political commons – but less attention is spent on understanding commoning and private property as qualitatively different relationships to the world.
So, I thought it could be a good idea to use Clare’s poem as an entry point, to go back to the history of English commons and reflect on this way of life, especially some of the different sorts of ‘values’ and ‘wastes’ that it entailed. These are values and wastes that are still with us today, and appreciating them in a new light might help us find some of the radical possibilities that lurk in the most mundane and overlooked corners of our social lives and landscapes.
CPH in Okinawa
Posted February 25, 2011 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Okinawa has long been a site of struggle against U.S. militarism and occupation. Recently activists have been fighting against a U.S. Army helipad. You can read about this struggle HERE and HERE. A group of the activists posted Celebrate People's History posters along the fence around the helipad as part of the struggle!
Anti-Advertising Agency Archive
Posted February 24, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
The full archive of the projects of the Anti-Advertising Agency (2004-2010) have just been put up online, including Dara Greenwald and my contribution, the Samaras Project, an exploration into alternative economics. You can check out the archive and projects HERE.
More Signs from the Labor Movement in Madison
Posted February 23, 2011 by colin_matthes in Art & Politics
This week for drawing all the time I am picking some of my favorite hand drawn signs from the Capital in Madison WI.
Saving the best for first:
I love the I blame Favre sign.
JBbTC 46: Kropotkin pt.1
Posted February 21, 2011 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Given the last 2 months of book covers relating to prisons, I thought it would be nice to take a little break and go off on some tangents. To start, I've been collecting a bunch of classic 60s and 70s anarchist book covers, and some of favorites have great illustrations of the old bearded protagonists of anarchy, so lets take a jaunt through some cool Kropotkin covers. Who doesn't love a big white beard! This first week is my favorite Kropotkin beards, next week I'll tour more Russian facial hair, and then some other non-bearded Kropotkin covers.
The above left is one of my all-time favorites, largely because the illustration is so unique. Anyone with a even a small shelf of anarchist classics at home knows that the same handful of images of Kropotkin, Bakunin, Proudhon, Goldman, etc. get recycled over and over. The source photo for this cover is actually a much used image of Kropotkin (check out next week for many more permutations), but the artist has used some creative license to fabricate a younger Peter, which is rare. The almost regal cross hatching on his balding head makes it look like this image was created to put on currency, but then the duotone black and red in the beard is totally trippy, a seeming product of the times (this edition was produced by Grove Press/Evergreen in 1970). Unfortunately the art and design are uncredited.
Signs from Madison: Working Class Solidarity and an Occupied Capital Building
Posted February 21, 2011 by nicolas_lampert
The massive labor demonstrations in Madison, Wisconsin have reached day six and some patterns have emerged that are as recognizable as they are unexpected. First and foremost, this is a protest movement unlike one that I have ever seen before. This is not a leftist movement, a student-dominated movement, or a fringe activist movement. Instead, it is a mainstream, middle class movement.
The people that have gathered around the State Capital Building are everyday people - school teachers, nurses, health workers, sanitation workers, high school students, college students, fire fighters, and others. Even some police officers have joined the ranks of protesters, some with signs that read "Police for Labor."
This is a movement of middle class people who are pissed off and taking to the streets because Governor Walker's proposed bill will economically hurt them. This is a labor movement that is fighting for it's very life. Win now and make a major stand against corporate power or watch Wisconsin become a "right to work" state and watch the dominoes fall, watch as other Republican governors attack collective bargaining rights for public employee unions in Ohio, New Jersey, and beyond.
Appalachia Rises Again! March on Blair Mountain!
Posted February 19, 2011 by shaun in Art & Politics
The March on Blair Mountain will be June 5 to 11, 2011 in West Virginia. It commemorates the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, when 10,000 coal miners rose against the rule of the coal operators and fought for the basic right to live and work in decent conditions. Today, Blair Mountain is threatened with obliteration by mountaintop removal (MTR) mining. It is here that a new generation of Appalachians takes a stand to preserve Blair Mountain, abolish mountaintop removal, defend worker's rights, and begin a just transition to a sustainable economy in Appalachia.
Political Poster Jam
Posted February 18, 2011 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
I designed this for poster for the Political Poster Jam happening at the Oakland Museum next week.
From 8 to 11pm on February 25, 2011, the Oakland Standard will honor the history of political posters in the Bay Area, and the Museum’s acquisition of the All Of Us Or None (AOUON) collection with an evening of printmaking and conversation.
The Oakland Standard has invited the San Francisco Print Collective, Great Tortilla Conspiracy, and street artist Eddie Colla to host informal drop-in workshops.
Visualizing Radical History
Posted February 15, 2011 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
For those in NYC this Thursday, I'll be having a "public conversation" with filmmaker John Gianvito regarding the representation of, and cultural engagement with, history:
Thursday, February 17 · 6:30pm - 9:30pm
CUNY Graduate Center, James Gallery
365 5th Avenue, New York, NY
Join artist Josh MacPhee and director John Gianvito as they discuss the triumphs and challenges of Howard Zinn’s "A People’s History of the United States," which famously re-wrote American history through the eyes of the common people rather than political and economic elites.
John Gianvito's hour-long 2008 documentary "Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind" will be screened. There will be a one-night exhibition of the posters from Josh MacPhee's new book, "Celebrate People’s History: The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution."
You can find the event on facebook HERE.
Portable Utopia
Posted February 15, 2011 by mary_tremonte in Art & Politics
In lieu of Rad Teen Print of the Week, here is Rad Post-Teen Project of the Week!
From Johannesburg, South Africa: check out this rad portable project organized by Kevin Clancy, who I worked with in a class I taught at the Mattress Factory several years ago.
From his website:
Portable Utopia is a mobile resource library and expandable social space initiated by Kevin Clancy in partnership with Keleketla!Library in Johannesburg, South Africa. The mobile unit will circulate through the city and surrounding townships in January and February of 2011, providing a transient platform for learning, sharing, making and discussion.
The mobile unit will contain a library of books, a computer, flat files for prints and works on paper, a micromuseum, a collapsible stage for lectures and performances, and an inflatable geodesic dome gathering space.
Portable Utopia is an open platform that will adapt to the energy and desires of the community.
The photo is from Good News!, an interventionist silkscreening project with young people:
Good News! subverts the omnipresent headlines that line the roads of Johannesburg to provide moments of hope and optimism in the urban landscape. Expired headlines are collected each day, recycled into new handmade paper, printed with wishful headlines, and reinserted back into headline frames.
We lead Good News! workshops with primary school students in Sebokeng, teaching them about paper making, silkscreen printing, artistic interventions, and environmental issues. The students generated the headline "PLANT TREES", in conjunction with a tree planting ceremony and lesson about environmentalism.
more info, please check out www.portableutopia.org
(i can) read the writing on the wall-14
Posted February 14, 2011 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Happy Valentines Day!
Brooklyn, NY 2011
Why the media (and particularly Wiki leaks) is importantPublishing improves transparency, and this transparency creates a better society for all people. Better scrutiny leads to reduced corruption and stronger democracies in all society’s institutions, including government, corporations and other organisations. A healthy, vibrant and inquisitive journalistic media plays a vital role in achieving these goals.
He(art) of the Revolution
Posted February 11, 2011 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
"heART of the revolution" is an online exhibit displaying art from around the world in support of the recent uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East. Website presented by elev8. elev8 aims to educate and empower through the arts.
If you would like to submit artwork for the site, please email sidroos (at) gmail.com
* Videos - please include url link.
* Photos - at least 72dpi
Due to the high volume of emails, submissions without a bio/description/artist name will be disregarded. We would like for all artwork to be credited to the artist as well a short description. Thank you!
Remembering Reagan, ugh.
Posted February 10, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Mark Vallen has published a nice piece remembering the terror of the Reagan years, and has included a great collection of political flyers he made during the 80s. Here is the first couple paragraphs and a flyer from 1986, and you can read and see the rest HERE.
Ronald Reagan would have turned 100 on Sunday, February 6, 2011, and many U.S. citizens are celebrating this centenary from coast to coast with frenzied idolization, praise, and adulation for the “Great Communicator.”As my beloved country undergoes another bout of historical amnesia that is every bit as debilitating as the Alzheimer’s disease our acclaimed 40th President was known to have suffered from, a comforting blanket of forgetfulness descends upon the land. As Reagan himself affirmed in 1988, “facts are stupid things,” but oh what the passage of time and a little bit of corporate propaganda can do to wipe away silly truths. Memories of Reagan supporting the rightist lunatic Generalissimos and terrorist death squads of Central America have been banished. Likewise, all recollections of his financing, training, and arming Islamic fundamentalists to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan have been forgotten; so too his support of the white minority racist regime in South Africa. All unhappy episodes from the B-actor’s mediocre career have been erased, and America is once again stuck in “Re-Ron” mode.
Theodore Harris Artist Talk
Posted February 9, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
A nice video of an artist talk by Theodore Harris, one of my favorite political collagists working today. The show he is talking about is "COLLAGE and CONFLICT: The Anti-Imperialist Art of Theodore A. Harris" which is on view thru April 1st at Philadelphia Community Access Media in Philadelphia, PA. More info about the show can be found HERE.
Victory to those who struggle for their liberation
Posted February 6, 2011 by Melanie_Cervantes in Downloadable Graphics
I created a downloadable poster in the tradition of OSPAAAL (Organization of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa & Latin America) a Cuban political movement with the stated purpose of fighting globalization, imperialism, neoliberalism and defending human rights. The have created a vault of political posters to support freedom fighting world wide and promoted Third World solidarity.
This is a poster we want to share, please feel free to download and print your own copy.
Click here to download: Solidarity with Tunisia and Egypt
The Burning World: a map
Posted February 4, 2011 by roger_peet in Environment
I've got a new print on the site called "The Burning World". It's based on a graphic device called a radial tree of life, which is a method of depicting the incredible diversity of life on Earth and the ways in which those life-forms are related, and when they diverged from each other. Here's the tree of life with it's radii labeled. You can click on the image for a larger version.
OPERATION EXPOSURE KANSAS
Posted February 4, 2011 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
OPERATION EXPOSURE KANSAS
PERCOLATOR Lawrence, KS
Friday, February 11th 5-9PM (reception starts at 6PM)
ONE NIGHT ONLY
Operation Exposure: War is Trauma - a collaboration between the Justseeds Artists' Cooperative and veterans and supporters from Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). It is a direct response to the suicide epidemic and violation of GI's right to heal within the active duty community. The work focus is on a veteran led movement called "Operation Recovery" - a new IVAW campaign aimed to stop the redeployment of traumatized troops and focus public attention on Military Sexual Trauma, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Traumatic Brain Injury.
Paths Through Utopias
Posted February 3, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I just got this in from my friend John Jordan in the UK:
Dear friends, rebels and fellow utopians, We are delighted to invite you to the Launch of our new book-film published by La Découverte, Les Sentiers de l’Utopie (Paths Through Utopias), which will take place in Paris from February 11th to 15th. As the global financial crisis surfaced in 2007, we journeyed for 7 months across Europe to investigate and experience examples of post-capitalist living - from a direct action Climate Camp set up illegally on the edges of Heathrow airport to a hamlet squatted by French punks, an off grid low impact permaculture community to occupied self-managed Serbian factories, a free love commune in an ex Stasi base to a farm where private property had been abolished, we shared different ways of loving and eating, producing and sharing things, deciding together and rebelling. We were not looking for escapist Neverlands, blueprints for a perfect future or universal systems, but communities who simply dare to live differently, despite the catastrophe of capitalism. From this experience came our film-book, fusing reflective travel writings with an attached DVD. Whilst the book is a rich travelogue, analyzing the communities, their practices and their histories, the film is a magicorealist road movie set in an imagined post-crash future but shot in the style of a fictional documentary during the journey.Watch the trailer here:
In the News & New Reviews
Posted February 2, 2011 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
There is an article about Colin Matthes' Carlos Cortez mural at OnMilwaukee.com:
Mural project is a work of admiration and kindred consciousness
"The campaign increased my desire to make something really graphic with a specific message but it also made me want to focus on something that celebrated something a little more than 'Stop this. Or no that.' I wanted to do something celebratory about someone I admire and don't hear much about and that is how I got to Carlos Cortez," Matthes said.
There is a review of Justseeds book Firebrands: Portraits From the Americas on the ElevateDifference.com by Clarisse Thorn:
I was initially unimpressed by Firebrands, but that was because I approached it wrong. I tried to sit down in my living room and read it cover-to-cover, and that's not what this book is for. It's a pocket-sized compendium of amazing people—people "left out of the schoolbooks because they were too brown, too female, too poor, too queer, too uneducated, too disabled, or because they daydreamed too much." Each firebrand gets a page-long description, a lovely illustration, and a number of suggestions for further reading.
Read the rest at: Elevated Difference Firebrands Review
Over a Week of Protests, Egyptians Still Demand Mubarak Step Down
Posted February 1, 2011 by k_c_ in Inspiration
I'm still following the Egyptian demonstrations with an incredible amount of excitement. Almost 2 million people demonstrating in Tahrir Square in Cairo, with hundreds of thousands of people in many other cities around Egypt. Demonstrators from across all social and class boundaries are out in the streets demanding Mubarak "step down".
You can live stream Al Jazeera news at:
Al Jazeera Watch Now.
There is finally a position forming in USA foreign policy with Senator John Kerry saying
"President Hosni Mubarak must accept that the stability of his country hinges on his willingness to step aside gracefully to make way for a new political structure."in an op-ed in todays New York Times.
Anarchist Film Archive
Posted January 29, 2011 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Stuart Christie has relaunched his Anarchist Film Archive, it is much easier to use, and has a ton of rare and hard to find material. Check it out now, HERE!
Indestructible women trust their inner voice
Posted January 28, 2011 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Art & Politics
I've been trying to simplify my life and that includes simplying my stuff... getting rid of things I do not need that create clutter, including files on my computer. As I sorted through my old art archives, I ran into this piece that I completed more than 5 years ago. This work represents an early stage of my character development (as in the people I draw), which has now evolved to a more confident line stroke.
In this drawing, I'm experimenting with my circular lines and triangular edges that intersect into each other. Two years later, I would do a piece titled De Avion en Avion, which would really take this curvacious, thick, bold line to a whole new level.
Here's how my process went down for this one. I started with a drawing:
Printing Extincion 3
Posted January 27, 2011 by santi in Art & Politics
These are some pictures from the printing of Extincion 3. This last December I sent half of the 33-print edition to JS HQ in Pittsburgh but black magic spells were cast on the print and the store entry disappeared... also the remaining prints in Pittsburgh apparently turned to dust.
Nevertheless I recently sent the remaining half of this run (and the remaining half of Extincion 1) to our Headquarters for the JS wizards to make available again.
To make this print I had to go through the excruciating experience of going to the Mexico City Zoo to sketch both the Mexican Gray Wolf and its skull counter part. Though sad it was a good reminder why we need these beautiful creatures in the wild.
I got to print this lino cut with my friends at Grafica Chaparral. If you're ever in Mexico City and want to check out a cool workshop and studio don't hesitate to get in touch.
Black Metal influenced Extincion 4 is in the works and an edition of 33 will soon be out there!
Thats right... Black Metal.
(i can) read the writing on the wall-13
Posted January 27, 2011 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Brooklyn, December 2010.
Carlos Cortez Mural
Posted January 26, 2011 by colin_matthes
I recently completed and installed a mural of Carlos Cortez.
Stop The Budget Cuts-Download
Posted January 26, 2011 by k_c_ in Downloadable Graphics
We recently received a request for the "Stop the Budget Cuts" poster created by a friend a couple years back.
You can see the original blog post of the print at,
Biggest Middle Finger
Since the economic crisis continues to effect the allocation of monies in the world, we are making this graphic available for download.
To download an 8.5" x 11" file control+click: Download file
Babylon Falling Tumblr
Posted January 25, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friend Sean Stewart ran a bookstore in San Francisco for a couple years called Babylon Falling. He's since moved to NYC, and is hard at work on a new book, On The Ground: An Illustrated Anecdotal History of the Sixties Underground Press in the U.S. (due out on PM Press in the Fall)
He's currently got a great tumblr/website up HERE. It's a stroll through political counter-culture, from the 60s to the present. The image to the left I pulled off his site, it's from the 1969 Harvard Student Strike.
Watershed install photos 2
Posted January 23, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Environment
The install for the Watershed show in Milwaukee is getting closer to completion. Six days to go.. Here are some photos of the progress. The show opens Friday, January 28th 5:00-8:00 if you're in the Milwaukee area.
(foreground) "The Future of Farming" (aquaponic sculpture/fish-vegetable farm system by Sweet Water Organics.)
Art Censorship Protests Against LAMoCA
Posted January 20, 2011 by k_c_ in In the News
Regular viewers of the Justseeds blog will remember Nicolas' essay on the censorship of street artist Blu's mural, a short while back. Recently a group calling itself LA RAW have executed a few actions against the LAMoCA, and director Jeffrey Deitch. They recently handed out the above condoms, and had this to say, on ArtInfo.com:
The action at the Fowler Museum consisted of passing out labeled "Deitch" condoms which said "Don't be Blu, Practice Safe Art" to people prior to them entering a panel discussion titled "How Does Street Art Humanize Cities?" The use of the condom as a product that speaks of how the artwork of an artist that challenges the current state of affairs is handled, and how the message of an artwork can be watered down in order to be deemed appropriate for the public by various institutions and/or individuals. The purpose of this action was to provoke a dialogue for those attending the panel, keeping the issue from being safely tucked away without addressing the dangers of impeding freedom of expression.
Affinities: Radical Imagination
Posted January 17, 2011 by icky in Art & Politics
Affinities has a new issue out, and they used my art ('the idea') for their cover image. Affinities is a web-based journal that strives to: "strengthen the links that exist between academic, activist, and artistic communities, and to aid in the creation of new links wherever possible. We are therefore committed to publishing both academic and activist writing, as well as other forms of radical cultural production."
This issues has a host of articles that I think would be interesting to any Justseeds blog followers. Check it out here!
Watershed install photos 1
Posted January 17, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Environment
Busy days in Milwaukee. Here are a few install photos of the Watershed exhibition that opens in Milwaukee on Friday, January 28th at the Union Art Gallery at UWM (same space that Justseeds created an installation at in 2008.) Watershed: Art, Activism, and Community Engagement addresses the shifting ecological and political dimensions of water. This project, organized by Nicolas Lampert and Raoul Deal brings together artists, scientists, and urban farmers and uses art as a form of activism to comment on water issues in Milwaukee and the Great Lakes Basin, and their impact on the world at large. It tackles issues such as water shortages, notions of abundance, water privatization, invasive species, industrial pollution, and water as a human right.
Street Art Blu's
Posted January 3, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Street Art & Graffiti
In February 2009, the Pentagon decided to lift the two-decade long ban on photographs of flag-draped coffins. Somewhere down the line the military brass reasoned (or was forced to admit) that it was contradictory to champion “Operation Iraqi Freedom” while denying the media the freedom to publish images of soldiers returning home in caskets. Apparently, Jeffrey Deitch missed the memo that censoring anti-war images of coffins is something that democratic societies do not take kindly to.
(i can) read the writing on the wall-12
Posted January 3, 2011 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
4th Avenue, NYC.
Winter 2010.
This is a terrible cellphone picture.
I took it cos I like the interrogation and think it is incomplete and should end with "...the way they are?"
Right?
When my heart gets separated from my body
Posted December 30, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Art & Politics
Four years ago in 2007, around this time, I could hardly muster the energy to do anything except lay in bed. I was in one of the lowest and most difficult points in my life. Two moments collided that Christmas. My relationship of seven years had ended and my beloved was in another state - so we were in anguish in opposite parts of the country. My dear cousin of only 20 years old died that holiday as well, he had fallen from a mountain he was climbing. I could not stop crying, and the holidays made it worst.
Since then, every time the winter holidays come around I brace myself for some hard moments.
Simplifying my Brain
Posted December 29, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Art & Politics
As the year wraps up, I've been speding time organizing the loose ends that will help me have a more simpler 2011. I'm deleting and throwing out loads of stuff, deleting emails that I wont respond to, eliminating megabytes of photos, deleting files, giving away loads of books, and most importantly, mentally preparing myself for better ways to juggle my art making that won't kill me or cause me a nervous breakdown.
The stress and fast-paced work life I endured is 2010 is unsustainable. I learned the hard way, like so many others. I was making a mental count of how many days in a row I was bouncing from city to city, and what I remember most was how tired I was. It's not like I got to a new city and went to cool museums, nope - its more like I would board a flight, with 2-3 hours sleep, get a to a city, lecture, work, eat on the go, and then sleep for another few hours to do another day of rapid work. That's not a good quality of life, that's a lack of life/work balance.
JBbTC 38: Medu Art Ensemble Newsletter
Posted December 27, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
In 1978, just across the border from South Africa in Gabarone, a group of exiled South Africans formed the Medu Art Ensemble. Medu became an armed cultural wing of the African National Congress (ANC) specifically, and the anti-apartheid struggle more broadly. They were composed of poets, playwrights, painters, musicians, dancers, and graphic designers. On top of the production of posters, publications, and theatre perfromances, some of the more militant members also used Medu as a cover to engage in more direct militant aid, sneaking into South Africa to train troops for the ANC military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe.
Ol' Emma!
Posted December 24, 2010 by shaun in Art & Politics
I was visiting some of my old haunts in Nashville last week, and walked upon this old, weathered People's History poster of Emma Goldman that I must have put up in 2002-3! Most of the wording has weathered away, but I love that her face is still sternly watching traffic...
JBbTC 37: Homage to Catalonia pt.2
Posted December 20, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Orwell was lucky to be published in the UK by Penguin, one of the publishers with the best record of concern for, and investment, in their book covers. The cover to right isn't Homage to Catalonia, but a collection Penguin put together of Orwell's shorter writings on Spain. It carries the silver bottom bar of the 2000-2001 editions of Penguin's Modern Classics series, and one of a series of images/covers designed by Marion Deuchars for Orwell's books on Penguin. The montage of a POUM poster and the back of a man in casual dress carrying a rifle do a much better job at capturing the spirit of Orwell's writings on Spain than the cover I started off last week with (HBJ's American edition of Homage). The poster creates the sense of an urban wall, and the figure gives us more of the feeling of the struggle being more informal, not the rigid battle lines of conventional warfare.
I Guess Art Can Still Offend
Posted December 19, 2010 by icky in Art & Politics
First the David Wojnarowicz removal from the Smithsonian and now...
Street artist Blu (we've cross-linked to some of his graffiti animations in the past) was finishing up a mural on the side of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Geffen Contemporary satellite in Los Angeles, commissioned by MOCA's new director Jeffrey Deitch, when Deitch then ordered it whitewashed due to concerns of offending Japanese American veterans and/or a nearby VA office. The mural depicted coffins covered in dollar bills, similar to the famous image of coffins returning from Vietnam covered in flags, and was made in conjunction with a new exhibit about street art. Deitch was appointed director of MOCA this year. He has run the Deitch Projects in New York, and is the biggest holder of works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, and also reps Chris Johanson, Clare Rojas, Barry McGee and Swoon (amongst others).
Looptagger
Posted December 17, 2010 by k_c_ in How-To
A friend just forwarded me this link to a design called Looptagger. Some folks figured out a really clever and quick way to spray stencils. Check their How-To on their site, Looptaggr
Support GI Resistance
Posted December 16, 2010 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
This is an image that I created for the November 2010 "Operation Exposure-War is Trauma" collaboration between Justseeds and Iraq Veterans Against the War." The project involved Justseeds artists creating images for the IVAW campaign "Operation Recovery" to stop the redeployment of traumatized soldiers.
I got inspired to make text like this when a garbage truck passed me recently.
NYC trash hauling vehicles are hand painted and the lettering styles have always interested me. I took on the style of a baseball uniform since it has multiple cultural references in the USA. The concept of rooting for a team seems to me like such a typical relationship to war. One team must lose, the cost is the devastation of societies and the loss of life. Rooting for GI Resistance to redeployment is supporting the preservation of life, of both teams.
It can also be interpreted as a riff off of the military use of sports events and programs in recruitment leads. The numerous commercials during sports games, that offer adventure and education, is astounding.
JBbTC 36: Homage to Catalonia pt.1
Posted December 13, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
The book to the left is the copy of George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia that I grew up with (I think I first read it early on in high school). My guess is that a lot of people seeing this also read this copy, the U.S. mass market paperback published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich under their Harvest Books imprint. The cover was designed by Ken Braren (likely in the 1960s, though I'm not sure), and is strong and striking, yet oddly soulless and hollow feeling. The yellow pulls you in to the bleeding tip of the bayonet, but the best parts of Orwell's narrative are not about hand to hand combat, but the long boring days of waiting in trenches, or the vibrant culture of liberated Barcelona and political struggles between revolutionaries and the Stalinists.
TONIGHT! Celebrate People's History Book Release and Exhibit in Boston
Posted December 12, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
Today!
Sunday, December 12 · 4:00pm - 8:00pm
(Brand New) Lucy Parsons Center, 358A Centre St., Jamaica Plain
—A book release party for Celebrate People's History! The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution.
—Release of the brand-new National Prisoners Reform Association CPH poster.
—Silk-screen station for printing your own t-shirts and posters!
—Screening of the film "3,000 Years and Life," the documentary about the Walpole Prison uprising.
—snacks and drinks!
The event is a benefit for the LPC Movie Projector Fund.
Dignidad Rebelde Archive
Posted December 12, 2010 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
Here are some posters that I have never had online because I didn't have an elctronic file or jpeg. Recently we have been working on documenting all the prints and posters we have produced in the past ten years. Our good friend Lincoln Cushing helped us photograph 450 images, posters Melanie and I have made as well as others by artists like Favianna Rodriguez, Juan R. Fuentes, Malaquias Montoya, Emory Douglas and Barbara Carrasco. I have spent numerous hours over the past week cropping and rotating images and cataloging them in a database. I wanted to share some of the prints I am super excited to have documented and available.
The poster above was made for some friends who worked at Comite Pro-Derechos de Vivienda San Pedro for May Day in 2002.This was one of the first posters I made for an organization and thought it was really cool that all the text was in Spanish.
This is a print I made in 2001 to commemorate the student massacre at Tlatelolco, Mexico in 1968. The printing is very sloppy, but I was still learning back then. I remember having a really hard time printing this and having a friend come over and take the squeegee from me and show me what I was doing wrong. I think I came up with the text at the bottom and the photo of the students in confrontation with the military came from a book about the massacre.
JBbTC 35: John Heartfield pt.6
Posted December 6, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
For the final John Heartfield cover installment, I've collected a smattering of covers he's done for a bunch of different publishers. Like I said at the beginning, I think his work for the magazine AIZ is the most well known of his work, so I'm going to skip those publication covers, and a handful of covers he did based on montages from AIZ. To the right is a Heartfield cover most people probably never realized he had designed, Twelve Million Black Voices by Richard Wright, as published in the UK in 1947 by Lindsay Drummond.
Heal Dara G Auction day 6
Posted December 4, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Only one day left!!!! Here's some more very cool art at the Heal Dara G art auction (Click on the artist name to go to auction page):
Bill Daniel, Early 90s SF graf, silver-based photo prints (5), 11″ x 14″:
Signs of Change Sneek Peek pt. 2
Posted December 3, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here's part 2 of the Signs of Change sneek peek! Check out the book HERE.
Heal Dara G Auction day 5
Posted December 3, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here's some more very cool art at the Heal Dara G art auction (Click on the artist name to go to auction page):
Signs of Change Sneek Peek
Posted December 2, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
My new book Signs of Change is launching here on Justseeds this morning, and I wanted to give you all a peek inside!! Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now is a labor of love. Dara and I spent years collected hundreds of posters, flyers, photos, video, film, and ephemera from dozens of radical left social movements around the world, and it's all synthesized into this book! The cultural output of almost 60 movements are explored in seven sections: Struggle for the Land, Agitate! Educate! Organize!, Forward to People's Power! Freedom and Independence Now, Let It All Hang Out, Reclaim the Commons, Globalization From Below. Here's a look at a handful of page spreads. I'll put more up tomorrow...
Heal Dara G Auction day 4
Posted December 2, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here's some more very cool art at the Heal Dara G art auction (Click on the artist name to go to auction page):
Swoon, Irina, block print on mylar with coffee, hand painting (image to the left)
Heal Dara G Auction day 3
Posted December 1, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here's some more very cool art at the Heal Dara G art auction (Click on the artist name to go to auction page):
Erik Ruin, Diggers, paper-cut, 11″x17″ (to the right)
Slug & Lettuce Archive
Posted December 1, 2010 by k_c_ in Inspiration
When I was a mini-proto-krusty-skater-travel punk, in the 90's, I went to a handful of DIY punk and hardcore shows. The self-produced culture and autonomy involved always intrigued me. Growing up in NY's Hudson Valley, I would end up in spaces like ABC No RIo for Saturday matinee's or riding in the car for hours to drive another state away for a basement show of touring or local bands.
Plenty of fanzines documented "the scene", provided advertising and promotion of the independent activities, and were outlets for the philosophy of Punk. In the Northeast Slug and Lettuce, with its incredibly tiny print, was a loud voice of the community. I frequently read the columns, consistently about seasonal mood swings, the record and zine reviews, and Fly's comics. The values represented in S&L contributed to my budding anarcho-punk lifestyle. I was humored to learn that Christine Boarts Larsen, S&L's creator, has started an online archive of Slug & Lettuce.
You can search through the countless photos of live bands shot by Christine, from 1998-2006. and you can also catch a glimpse of some earlier artwork by my contemporaries. A handful of Cristy Road illustrations are available as well as my comrade Meredith Stern.
It's entertaining to look back at the images and artwork. To gauge our progression and pay tribute to the culture we created. It's a refreshing reminder that resistance can be fostered in subcultural "scenes". Maybe not evident, in these images, to anon-participating viewer. Yet it was at these shows that I became informed about countless political campaigns which led me many years of different forms of activism, and currently political printmaking!
Dara's Auction Day 2
Posted November 30, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here's some more very cool art at the Heal Dara G art auction (Click on the artist name to go to auction page):
Another Rozbrat Billboard
Posted November 30, 2010 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
The folks at the Rozbrat squat in Poznan, Poland have put up another great guerrilla billboard. (For some background, go HERE or HERE.) This one reads: "Olympics Instead of Bread—New Stadium: 700 million zloty—Housing: Free"
Check out the Heal Dara G Auction!
Posted November 29, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
As many of you know, my partner, girlfriend, collaborator, and generally better half, Dara Greenwald, was diagnosed with cancer during the summer, and we've been struggling to kick it for the past 4 months. This has put her under great financial strain, and friends have pulled together an amazing art auction to help carry the load. The auction has almost 200 items from over 150 people, many of which are amazing, and would be of great interest to fans of Justseeds. You can go to the auction HERE and you can jump straight to the print section HERE. And click below to get a peek at some of the great art available!!!
JBbTC 34: John Heartfield pt.5
Posted November 29, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
This week we'll look at some John Heartfield designed covers he did for publishers other than Malik-Verlag. The covers here are from two other Berlin publishing houses: Verlag für Literatur und Politik and Neuer Deutscher Verlag. The image to the left is a cover Heartfield did for Fjodor Gladkow's Zement (Verlag für Literatur und Politik, 1927), and is a testament to his ability to make an effective design with only the simplest elements.
Media Literacy / Two Videos
Posted November 29, 2010 by meredith_stern in Film & Video
Two videos passed along to me by my band mate Hilary who is the Executive Director of Girls Rock! RI. She has taught classes to youth on media literacy which are totally amazing, and in her quest she found these two videos which she passed on to me, which I would like to critique.
You'll have to search these out online, since I can't embed them.
Picking the Colonizers' Vegetable
Posted November 25, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
This just landed in my inbox, another David Bacon story with phenomenal images of people at work (check out more from David HERE):
The People of Watsonville 1—Picking the Colonizers' Vegetable
By David Bacon
Watsonville, CA 11/19/10
The California coast, from Davenport south through Santa Cruz, Watsonville and Castroville, is brussels sprouts country. Most of this vegetable in north America comes from these fields, although a growing harvest now takes place in Baja California, in northern Mexico.
In both California and Baja California, the vast majority of the people who harvest brussels sprouts, like those who pick other crops, are Mexican. In Baja they're migrants from the states of southern Mexico. In California, they're immigrant workers who've crossed the border to labor in these fields. On a cold November day, this crew of Mexican migrant workers picks brussels sprouts on a ranch outside of Watsonville.
Return to Blair Mountain
Posted November 23, 2010 by roger_peet in In the News
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, and then as farce. I forget who said that, but the events unfolding in West Virginia at the site of the largest armed labor conflict in U.S. history appear to be both tragic AND farcical. Massey Energy, the same coal conglomerate responsible for the accident earlier this year that killed 29 people after a gas explosion in another West Virginia mine, has begun operations to stripmine the coal from Blair Mountain.
The clash between mineworkers and coal company agents at Blair Mountain in 1921 resulted in the suppression of a campaign for union representation, but thrust the Stygian conditions mineworkers faced into national attention. It was a step on the road in the volcanic struggle fought in the first half of the last century to claw back some equity from the titans of industry. The popular knowledge of this history has more or less bled from the public consciousness by now, however, making it possible for the National Park Service to delist the Blair Mountain site, effectively giving Massey the go-ahead. The bulldozers are already at work.
Good articles at the Guardian, Sierra Club, and Huffington Post.
JBbTC 33: John Heartfield pt.4
Posted November 22, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Part two of the Heartfield Sinclair covers!
Now we're up to 1928, in which Malik Verlag published three separate Upton Sinclair books: Die Goldne Kette (with a George Grosz drawing laid on top of a grid of images, below left), Jimmie Higgins (nice hand cut lettering, above), and Samuel der Suchende (below right).
Rozbrat Billboard Action
Posted November 20, 2010 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
Just got this from a friend in Poland. Folks connected to Rozbrat, the longest running squat in the country (in Poznan), took some billboard real estate for their own use. The message roughly translates to: "Rozbrat is Here to Stay! Sołacz for them is just another business." Sołacz is the area Rozbrat is located in, and the squat is under threat of eviction because of development plans for the neighborhood.
Call for Artists for DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality) in RI
Posted November 19, 2010 by meredith_stern in Calls for Art
DARE, a rad grassroots organization in RI seeks art for their cover for their 25th Anniversary Adbook.
"Can you believe DARE has been fighting the man or 25 years??? During our MLK Day Civil Rights Celebration we will kick off the year by giving a $100 prize (and lots of love, props, etc.) to the artist who designs this commemorative poster. We will also use the poster as the cover of our 25th Anniversary Adbook, which will be launched at our big gala event in September. Please spread the word and/or break out your skills! You might just hang on the walls at DARE, beside Malcolm, Che, and some other goodies."
Direct Action for Rights and Equality
340 Lockwood Street
Providence, RI 02907
Imaging Apartheid Call
Posted November 19, 2010 by jmacphee in Calls for Art
Justseeds is one of a crew of supporters for the upcoming Imaging Apartheid Poster Project. Please check out the call below, and submit poster designs!
Call for Submissions
As the global movement in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation continues to grow, we are calling on graphic designers and artists to submit their work to IMAGING APARTHEID: the Poster Project for Palestine.
Twenty-one posters will be selected from submissions collected from around the world to be either silk-screen or offset printed for exhibition in Montreal, and distribution internationally. Works will be selected by a jury of artists, graphic designers and social justice activists.
Street level art work and design has consistently played a critical role within international solidarity movements throughout the world: from the powerful poster art published by the Black Panthers in the late 1960s; to the striking design work created by artists inspired by the Africa National Congress (ANC) and the global movement against apartheid in South Africa; to poster art created to support the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).
Celebrate People's History!
Posted November 17, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Mary put up a short video last week, but here are a couple photos Shaun took of the exhibition/window display at Pittsburgh's Future Tenant Art Space that they installed of Celebrate People's History posters to announce the release of the new book: Celebrate People's History! The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution. You can get the book HERE.
JBbTC 32: John Heartfield pt.3
Posted November 15, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
One of the main authors Malik-Verlag published was Upton Sinclair, and Heartfield designed ALL of Sinclair's covers. This week will do part one of Sinclair, next week the rest. Let's start chronologically: In 1921 Sinclair's 100% was published with a pretty clean and straightforward cover (below left). In 1924 it was reprinted with a new cover design, with the same city street image brought to bleed and a more adventurous and effective type treatment (below right). Then in 1928 a completely different cover was produced with a montage and the nice effect of the leg kicking into the frame. This cover also shows an interesting Malik/Hearfield design device, which is the printing of the edition (in this case 50,000 copies) in handwriting on the cover (above right and below). You can also see the spine peeking out, which consists of a tall pile of thin horizontal lines and the title written horizontally. This was the standard style for many of the Sinclair books. The back cover of this edition (and the 1924 edition) is simply a photo of a Klan meeting.
SQUART zine documenting Mexican street art!
Posted November 12, 2010 by shaun in Art & Politics
Friends from the US are down in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico right now documenting as much art on the streets as they can get their cameras on. In their words: We are working on a photodocumentary project as part of an collective radical artzine called "Squart". We are documenting street art- stencils, graffiti, murals- that captures an aspect of the uprising. Around every corner is a piece of art with a message whether it is of hope, sadness, resistance or solidarity. Money has media, but people have the streets. Street art gives voice to a people that have been silenced for a long time. Its our objective to capture the meaning and emotion of the movement through the art of this amazing town. We have been using digital photography and film (color and black and white) to capture the art. While street art is our main focus, we have also been taking portraits in an attempt to capture the essence of this multi-faceted place.
Keep up to date with their Flickr and blog, and consider giving them a financial boost over at the ol' Kickstarter! More pics below...
JBbTC 31: John Heartfield pt.2
Posted November 8, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Here's the next batch of Heartsfield's Malik-Verlag covers. The one to the right is a favorite, Franz Carl Weiskopf's Umsteigen ins 21. Jahrhundert: Episoden von einer Reise durch die Sowjetunion. The light on the train is almost otherworldly, and the stencil typography seems to date it as modernist, but is so effective and was so copied by designers in the 70s and 80s that it now reads as timeless.
Celebrate People's History Window Show in Pittsburgh
Posted November 4, 2010 by mary_tremonte
Check out this great video by Callie Mower of the install of a Celebrate People's History poster show in the window and nook of Future Tenant in Downtown Pittsburgh!
Stay tuned for the book, for sale on Justseeds this Thursday, and see the show in person if you are in Pittsburgh through the end of the year
Future Tenant
819 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA
Revolutionary Films/People's History Week!
Posted November 3, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
In celebration of the release of Celebrate People's History! The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution, the Feminist Press and Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn have organized a week long celebration of people's history through film.
Beginning November 3rd (tonight), the series of films centered on People's Revolution kicks off at Spectacle Theater. 15 films that engage with revolutionary people, movements, and actions from all over the world and connect to people's history posters from the ongoing series and collected in the new book.
Check out www.spectacletheater.com for more info, and the schedule is below:
Wed., Nov. 3
The Murder of Fred Hampton – Howard Alk, (1971), [Black Panthers], 7pm
Germany in Autumn – various, (1978), [Red Army Faction], 9:20pm
Thur., Nov. 4
Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria – Victor Silverman, (2005), 7pm
Fast Trip, Long Drop - Greg Bordowitz, (1993) [ACT UP]
Sacco and Vanzetti – Giuliano Montaldo, (1971), 9:20pm
End the Housing Crisis in Melbourne
Posted November 3, 2010 by jmacphee in In the News
Friends in Melbourne have been organizing against anti-low income housing policies in Melbourne, and produced this new video in lead up to a big protest on Nov. 12:
London Poster Workshop 1968-70
Posted November 3, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
It's great to see that people involved in political poster making groups in the 1960s and 1970s and slowly starting to digitize their archives and get them up on-line. The Poster Workshop, based in Camden, London and started in 1968, has recently just done that. It is clear that they were inspired by the Atelier Populaires in France during May 68, as almost all of the posters are bold and simple like the French designs, if a bit less consistent in design and illustration skills. The Poster Workshop was an open platform for lots of groups to come and print their political posters, like a walk-in participatory screen print shop. Anyway, you can read more about on their archive site HERE. And there are more examples of posters below...
JBbTC 30: John Heartfield pt.1
Posted November 1, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Sometime in the early 1990s I was introduced to the photomontages of John Heartfield. The stark black and white collage work meshed well with my punk aesthetic tastes at the time, and many bits and pieces of Heartfield were showing up on record covers, Discharge's Never Again being one of the most high-profile examples. I didn't know at the time that almost of the collages I had seen were actually parts of covers for the German magazine AIZ. Over the years I picked up a couple books about Heartfield, they were printed in black and white, were in German, and for the most part they focused on his work for AIZ, with a handful of images of other collages, and a couple book covers here and there. It wasn't until relatively recently that I learned that Heartfield designed almost the entire run of covers for a small Left-wing German publishing house named Malik-Verlag. Turns out that Malik-Verlag was actually founded and run by Heartfield's brother Wieland Herzfelde. To the left is the cover for Wieland Herzfelde's Gesellschaft, Künstler und Kommunismus (1921), the image is George Grosz's silhouette.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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].
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.
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
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.
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.
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."
There is No Way
Posted September 28, 2010 by roger_peet in How-To
I've really been enjoying Icky's process posts on his excellent blog, Blackout Print, and I thought that I'd make one for this blog here. I use a variety of techniques to make my prints, but the method shown here is probably the one I use most. The print shown in production here is called "There is No Way", and is based on a slogan/phrase I wrote down years ago, in combination with a bunch of ideas that have been lurking in my sketchbooks for similar stretches of time. The print is available in the Justseeds store.
JBbTC 25: Roman Cieslewicz pt.3
Posted September 27, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Here's the final installment (for now), on Polish poster artist and designer Roman Cieslewicz. In 1968 Cieslewicz was invited to design the cover style for a new line of philosophy, history, and politics books edited by Christian Bourgios. He brought his bold graphic style to the "10/18" series, using flat fields of color to render stylized portraits of the authors. The style is reminiscent of both Cuban poster artists working a little earlier in the 1960s, and the Chicano artist Rupert García (who developed his similar style, likely from the same influences, half way across the globe. His covers of Ho Chi Minh and Marx (sorry I wasn't able to track down color images) are particularly resonant with García's work.
JBbTC 24: Roman Cieslewicz pt.2
Posted September 20, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Part two on Polish poster artist and designer Roman Cieslewicz. Before leaving for Paris, Cieslewicz was the art director for the Polish cultural magazine Ty i Ja (You and I). He did most (maybe all?) of the covers between 1960 and 1963, then sporadic covers after that into the 1970s. His covers on the early issues are almost all straight photo-montages with humor or a sense of the unreal created by a playful use of size and relation between elements. In the later issues he brings in a lot more illustrative elements, and flat uses of color, making them look for poster-like.
poster wall at Dig It! exhibition/discussion
Posted September 15, 2010 by shaun in Justseeds Collective Projects
Last week I ran a quick-n'-dirty set of the posters from our Resourced portfolio for the "Dig It! (But Not Like That)" pan-Appalachian, resource-extraction-themed exhibition and discussion at Artist Image Resource in Pittsburgh. Working with available inks (brown is easy to make!) on newsprint, I layered these on the wall as soon as they were dry, leaving a pile on the floor for people to take (and encouraging them to pull them off the wall as well). Mary ran some more prints the night of the show, and the pile kept getting snatched up! Thanks to Jude Vachon and Angela Wiley for organizing! See more images of the show here.
JBbTC 23: Roman Cieslewicz pt.1
Posted September 13, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Let's take a quick break from US publications and skip over to Europe. A couple years back I discovered the Polish poster artist and designer Roman Cieslewicz. Although well known within design circles, I think he is pretty obscure to most political artists and poster-makers under 40. He had a huge influence on European design when he moved to Paris in the 1960s, including in his role as designer for the arts magazine Opus International. The covers for the publication are fabulous, and most work as both covers and posters (and I believe many were actually converted to/produced as posters). It is said that Cieslewicz' work was very influential on the artists and designers that took part in the Ateliers Populaire in May 68, and especially on those that would go on to form the political design firm Grapus.
DIG IT! (BUT NOT LIKE THAT...) Sept 9th Pittsburgh
Posted September 8, 2010 by mary_tremonte in Art & Politics
Check out this great event about Marcellus Shale, mountaintop removal, and related issues, this Thursday at AIR. Participating artists include Jackie McDowell, Ally Reeves, Shaun Slifer, Mary Tremonte, Jude Vachon, and more...
This event is in conjunction with Paper Politics Pittsburgh, an exhibition of socially-engaged printmaking, on view at Space until October 23.
Discussion including WVA and PA activists at 8, Mining songs at 9, quilts, toys, posters, drawings, info table...
Thursday September 9th
6:00-10:00pm
AIR
518 Foreland St
Pittsburgh, PA
FREE
JBbTC 22: Radical America
Posted September 6, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Here's another installment of covers of a periodical, this time Radical America, which began as an organ of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1967, and then ran into the late 1980s. A couple years back at the Anarchist Bookfair in San Francisco I found a box of old Radical Americas, 5 for $1 or something like that, and pulled out a big stack based on, I admit, the coolest covers, but also interesting content. Turns out that one of my favorite covers (v12n6, Nov/Dec 1978) features an illustration by Nikki Schumann, adapted from a Boycott Grapes poster from the early 70s. On a second look, I realized this was the same artist whose calendars my parents religiously bought every year and hung in a small frame in our kitchen, changing the image out each month!
wikileaks...
Posted September 3, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I nice new block print from Sam and Katah at Dragon Dance Theatre:
New CDC Billboard
Posted September 2, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I'm a month late in getting this up here, but the billboard lib group California Department of Corrections (CDC) put up a great new billboard:
Here's their press release:
For Immediate Release
San Francisco, California – July 28, 2010
New Billboard Alterations Salute Israel Following Raid on Gaza Flotilla
On July 28, 2010 a total of nine billboards were apprehended, rehabilitated and discharged throughout San Francisco, including the intersection of Guerrero and 18th Street (see attached photo). Additional billboards were discharged into Polk Gulch, the Tenderloin, South of Market, the Mission, the Haight, Potrero Hill and Bay View/Hunters Point. The nine billboards represent the number of civilian fatalities incurred during Israel’s May 31st raid on a flotilla carrying supplies to Gaza.
The CDC released the billboards to highlight the two month anniversary of the raid. The billboards also cap the month of July which saw a White House reception for Israel’s Prime Minister followed by an Israeli military investigation of the May 31 incident. The White House visit reaffirmed America’s unbreakable bond with Israel, and the army investigation exonerated Israeli soldiers of any wrongdoing during the raid. As a compliment to these public relations activities, the CDC has contributed its specialized services to defend Israeli soldiers facing international scrutiny.
Into Iraq by Art Hazelwood
Posted August 31, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friend and kick-ass printmaker Art Hazelwood has just released a hand-printed artist book called Into Iraq. Check it out HERE. It;s pretty cool, and here's what he has to say about it:
At the beginning of the Iraq war it seemed like a bad idea. At the end of George W. Bush's final term in office it was a bad idea that had fossilized. This bound set of prints is the bookend to Art Hazelwood's Hubris Corpulentus, a series of engravings done in the first year of the war. Into Iraq consists of small linocut prints each one more full of bile than the previous. The subjects range from the battlefield to the media, to the neocons and the Congressional enablers in Washington. Oil Flag, Patriotic Tune, Sacrifice of Liberty, The President in his Labyrinth are some of the titles.
JBbTC 21: The Drama Review
Posted August 30, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Back at the end of June I was in Toronto, strangely at an academic performance art conference to talk about the Spectres of Liberty project, and their was a table for TDR (The Drama Review), one of the longest running and most political drama/culture journals. They had a pile of old back issues really cheap, with great covers. Plus the contents are great too in the early issues, lots of material on The Living Theatre, Bread & Puppet, Futurism, and guerrilla theatre.
"Grace Before Dying" photo show (Portland OR)
Posted August 26, 2010 by icky in Art & Politics
There's a great show up at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland this month, photos of the prisoner/volunteer-run hospice program at Angola State Penitentiary (LA) taken by Lori Waselchuk. Angola has a really high rate of life sentences, the photographer's website states that it's over 85% (!), with so many long term inmates programs where many prisoners are expected to die within walls, programs like this are pretty powerful. This show is only up another week so hurry down if you're in town. Bluesky's website is here, and the website for the show itself is here.
Plastic...
Posted August 24, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friend Shawn Gilheeney just sent me a cool install he did with his friend Greg, a pile of signs related to our unending consumption of toxic consumer goods... They remind me a lot of the signs I was painting a couple years back, which can be seen HERE. A video of Shawn painting the signs can be found HERE.
Justseeds Presents Bird Brains at The Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY
Posted August 19, 2010 by k_c_
Justseeds Print Exhibit opens Friday August 20 6pm
Birds, birds, birds. From the extinct passenger pigeon to the mysterious crow to the avian flu, birds hold a unique place in our urban imaginary. Justseeds artists depict animals in many of our designs. Birds can represent liberation, autonomy, mutual aid, and cooperation, as well as vermin, predatory behavior, extinction, and ecological collapse. Bird Brains, a collection of handmade prints from the Justseeds Artists' Cooperative, takes on this versatile metaphor.
The Knitting Factory Front Bar Gallery 361 Metropolitan Avenue Brooklyn, NY
RESOURCED at Marketplace Gallery
Posted August 10, 2010 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here are some photos of the RESOURCED exhibit at Marketplace Gallery, 40 Broadway Albany, NY.
Speak Out to Support NYC Ghost Bikes- Aug. 10th!
Posted August 9, 2010 by molly_fair in Art & Politics
The NYC Department of Sanitation is threatening to consider ghost bikes as "derelict bikes" that may be subject to removal. If you support preserving these memorials for those killed on city streets, speak out now!
Public Hearing - August 10, 2010 9:30-11:30am
125 Worth Street, Third Floor Board Room (room 330)
Comment on the proposed rules here
The NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) has published "Proposed Rules Governing the Removal and Disposal of Derelict Bicycles". These changes would add a new section numbered 1-05.1 of Chapter 1, Title 16 of the Rules of the City of New York.
Although the City has made verbal statements published by the press suggesting that they would not remove ghost bikes, the Proposed Rules remain unchanged and continue to state that after 30 days ghost bikes can be removed.
Continue reading to learn more about the City's statements.
Stop the Bomb
Posted August 9, 2010 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Today marks the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. Three days prior, August 6, 1945 the USA dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima. This flyer was made in March 2003 for anti-war demos against the USA invasion of Iraq.
You can read another post from the 63rd anniversary. Let's hope current administrations are willing to avoid such heinous tactics.
Signal 01 is out!
Posted August 6, 2010 by icky in Justseeds Collective Projects
The first issue of Signal is out now published by PM Press. Signal is a full color, 140 page book about international political art, graphics, and culture. The first issue contains interviews with the Taller Tupac Amaru (aka Justseeds' members Jesus, Favianna, and Melanie), Johannes van de Weert (of the Rondos and squatter comic Red Rat), Rufus Segar (the brilliant designer behind most of the early issues of Anarchy magazine in the 60s and 70s), and Felipe Hernandez Moreno (a member of one the art brigades of the 1968 uprising in Mexico City). It also contains photos of seditious train graf by IMPEACH and a photo essay on adventure playgrounds.
Just Gettin Started-Resourced at Marketplace Gallery
Posted August 5, 2010 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Jesse Goldstein, Molly Fair, and I got started on our install of the Resourced portfolio last night. Here's some small deets.
The space
An Idea
Beehive Collective Releases "True Cost of Coal" poster
Posted August 5, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
News from the Beehive Collective:
THE TRUE COST OF COAL is finished, printed, and ready for you to enjoy!
It’s true! After 2 ½ years of discussions, feedback, eraser marks, sketches and rough drafts, THE TRUE COST OF COAL is DONE! And we can’t wait to share it with you!It is hard to describe the mix of emotions we ‘lil bees are feeling after this final push. Somewhere between exuberance and exhaustion, all of it steeped in immeasurable gratitude to all the folks who have helped make this graphic possible. To all the powerful people and places in Appalachia who shared their stories and their struggles with us, to all the folks who have hosted shows and offered up their floors or couches, to everyone who has kicked down money to keep us going, to friends and family who have emotionally supported us through this rollercoaster of a project, and to everyone else who has touched or inspired this graphic in some way- thank you. No doubt, YOU all are what made this project possible!
Experience the full poster and read the narrative at the TRUE COST OF COAL page on our website, and find behind-the-scenes studio shots in our Sketchbook and on our Coal campaign blog!
You can order a poster from the Beehive here.
Justseeds 2010 Portfolio RESOURCED Available!!!
Posted August 2, 2010 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Justseeds Artists' Cooperative has released the highly anticipated project, RESOURCED, a portfolio of 26 hand-made art prints that explore the devastating effects of resource extraction and environmental devastation. The collection provides a critical look at what people can do in defense of the planet. Graphics have always played a vital and powerful role in exposing injustices throughout history, and RESOURCED follows this tradition, offering urgent messages about sustainability, environmental justice, and clean energy. Included in the portfolio are some of today’s most exciting street artists and poster makers, including Gaia, Chris Stain, Favianna Rodriguez, Armsrock, and others. Artists collaborated with organizations to produce images illustrating topics around environmental destruction, food sovereignty, workers' rights, Indigenous struggles, and examining the effects of mountaintop removal, oil extraction from tar sands, hydro-fracturing, mega-dam projects, mining, over-fishing, and much more.
Banner drop in Downtown Phoenix - Stop SB 1070!
Posted July 29, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Art & Politics
Major Props to fellow activists and artists for this action they did today in downtown Phoenix. "In a daring act of civil disobedience in downtown Phoenix this evening, at least four activists occupied a tall crane near Central Avenue and Jefferson Street and deployed a huge banner that read "Stop the Hate," with red lines crossing out "287(g)" and "1070," reported the Phoenix New Times.
In their message, the group said some powerful words:
RESOURCED Portfolio Launch in Pittsburgh
Posted July 26, 2010 by shaun in Art & Politics
Justseeds RESOURCED Portfolio Launch Reception
Pittsburgh, PA
Friday, July 30th - 6-10pm
Free and Open to the Public
3410 Penn Ave 2nd Floor
(entrance and bike parking around back via Spring Way)
EVENT DETAILS:
Justseeds Artists' Cooperative is launching our newest collective portfolio project, RESOURCED, at our new space in Lawrenceville (Pittsburgh) on Friday, July 30. Prints from the portfolio will be on display and portfolios will be for sale. Artwork by Justseeds artists will also be available for sale, as well as books, zines, and Celebrate People's History posters. The event is free and open to the public from 6 to 10pm.
For the love of our people
Posted July 20, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Art & Politics
I just released my new art print about Malcolm X, the revolutionary who has most influenced my political framework. His most powerful lesson for me was around self-determination, that is, the belief that we as people of color should be in control of our own destiny. Check it out by clicking here.
Broken Social Scene-Meet me in the basement fan video
Posted July 16, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
A video to take you into the weekend:
"This video was made as a response to the G20 Summit in Toronto June, 2010."
Broken Social Scene-Meet me in the basement (from their latest album, Forgiveness Rock Record)
The rest speaks for itself. It was sent to us by a lover of our music who wants to remain anonymous. We are very proud to share this mash-up with you.- Broken Social Scene
A sped up version of the news cycle, not exactly sure what media like this is supposed to provoke. How does condensing this material repurpose it from news to social commentary?
I've always got so many questions, and looking for folks with answers!
Taller Tupac Amaru is recognized in BEST OF THE BAY 2010!
Posted July 16, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Art & Politics
The East Bay Express each year recognizes the baddest, raddest and dopest talent in the San Francisco Bay Area. This year, our collective, the Taller Tupac Amaru was named the Best Political Art Collective in the BEST OF THE BAY 2010 Awards. Together with Jesus Barraza, I, Favianna, co-founded the Taller Tupac Amaru back in 2003. Later we would be joined by the uber talented Melanie Cervantes. The three of us would later join Justseeds and Melanie and Jesus would later form Dignidad Rebelde. Yes, lots of collective art-making going on here. You can hear an in-depth interview by our fellow JS collective member, Dylan Miner, by clicking here.
The article reads:The three can be found making screen-printed political posters in Rodriguez's small backyard studio in Oakland. Their provocative and lively prints are also distributed to nonprofits and grassroots organizations, with themes such as anti-war, police brutality, and immigration.
You Are Made of Food - A new poster about Eating Right
Posted July 13, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Art & Politics
Just released a new piece on Justseeds. click here to view piece
My interest in food justice and food politics began in 2003 when I read the groundbreaking book by Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation. Understanding the fight against large food corporations, agribusiness, and seed monopolies strongly shaped my interest in being a more conscious eater. By choosing local, organic, clear, and fairly-produced foods in my daily diet, I am able to make a choice about who I am and the world I wish to help create.
The choices we make around food can lead to social change in many areas, including workers' rights, animal rights, environmental protection, biodiversity, independence from oil, seed freedom, and the empowerment of farmers. By eating local and eating clean, we take power and profits away from global agribusiness and strengthen our local food community. Local food economies are Sustainable food economies.
Support Prison Artist Leonard Jefferson!
Posted July 11, 2010 by erik_ruin in Art & Politics
Leonard Jefferson is a prolific artist who has used his art to provide analysis and commentary concerning Pennsylvania's criminal justice system and his lived experience behind bars. His art is typically small/medium-sized pen & ink drawings of prison settings; he has used his art to do outreach to the general public by sending it to various individuals and organizations, including human-rights groups.
Xylo's latest street work
Posted July 10, 2010 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
While in London for the Anarchist Bookfair last year I got to meet a smart new street artist named Xylo. In a city where street art had gone just as commercial as NYC, it was refreshing to run into his work, whether it was critiques of the cctv system or "Lost Animal" flyers for endangered frogs. His latest work is a commentary on the recent rash of suicides in the tech manufacturing sector of China (more info HERE), a series of old iphone/ipods with small scale stencils on them. Check out more of his work HERE.
Howling Mob Society in Afterall Online
Posted July 9, 2010 by shaun in Art & Politics
I had a long phone conversation with writer Daniel Fuller this winter - he had driven to town from Philadelphia specifically to find the Howling Mob Society historical markers after hearing about the project at the Creative Time Conference in NY last fall. Daniel recently published a nice article on Afterall Online, even if I take some issue with the Shepard Fairey comparison at the end (his posters were more recently pasted nearby, but I would argue that the motivation behind Fairey's "Obey" brand is of a very different nature than the HMS work). Daniel also wrote captions for all his photos which offer some good further insight as to the placement and orientation of the markers. Feels like this project launched in my home city ages ago, and it's nice to read fresh opinions on it!
Interview with Anarchist Street Artists in Russia by Freya Powell
Posted July 6, 2010 by dara_g
An Interview about the project: The Museum of Political History of Which No One Speaks (In Memory of Stas and Nastya) conducted by Freya Powell
A while back we posted about a public art project in St Petersburg Russia. Freya Powell conducted this interview in March 2010 via email with artists in St Petersburg Russia who knew about this project. This is its first publication.
KPFA interview with Doug Minkler
Posted July 6, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Political printmaker Doug Minkler has a great long-format audio interview up online from KPFA's Against the Grain radio show. I don't know how to embed it here, so head over to KPFA's site and give it a listen or download!! Listen HERE.
JBbTC 13: New World Paperbacks pt.2
Posted July 5, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Here's part two of the New World Paperbacks series. I've only got a dozen different books on my shelf, but if anyone else out there has some more cool NWP covers, send them my way! At the heart of this post are four covers of Kwame Nkrumah books. The illustration and color choice on Dark Days in Ghana is fabulous, and the simplicity of Challenge of the Congo is great. I used to have a fifth Nkrumah book too, but I must of lent it out and never gotten it back! And finally a couple classics, Marx and Foner.
Oscar Grant Murals in Downtown Oakland
Posted July 5, 2010 by Melanie_Cervantes in Art & Politics
As the city of Oakland waits with anxiety about the decision the jury will come to and the final outcome of the Johannes Mehserle trail verdict artists are busy at work paying tribute honoring Oscar's memory.
Pro-Palestine price tag switcheroo
Posted July 2, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Activists in the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel have been getting really creative, here's a LINK to an action in Sweden recently, switching out price tags at H&M.
BP loves art, hates earth?
Posted June 30, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Friends over in the UK have been organizing like mad to call attention to BP's funding of the Tate Modern Museum, and their use of arts funding to put a happy face on their insanely destructive oil extraction activities. It's interesting when artists attempt to organize from within the art world, it seems like the activities of Art Not Oil are some of the highest profile since the Guerilla Girls back in the 80s and 90s. Check out what Art Not Oil has been up to HERE and HERE. Here is a video of their last action, oil-y birds and balloons in the Tate!!
JBbTC 12: New World Paperbacks pt.1
Posted June 28, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
The next couple weeks entries will be focused on the covers of New World Paperbacks, which was an imprint of the Communist Party, USA's main publishing house International Publishers. I know that New World was started in the early 1960s in order to make inexpensive copies of Marxist "classics" (i.e. Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc.) available to a wide audience. It seems that by the early 1970s, it had become the place where the CP published what it perceived of as "popular" titles, including those about race and gender in the US and national liberation struggles abroad. Many of the covers are surprisingly hip for the Communist Party, riffing off of both historical context of the book and relatively current design trends at the time (psychedelia, deco, etc.). For example, the cover "A Dangerous Scot" uses a type treatment that dates it to an early 20th century americana, but the design element floating in the center of the page is so odd that it makes the whole thing seem contemporary. Maybe not surprisingly for the CP, none of the books I have attribute a designer for the cover, or a printer for the book—yet most subject the reader to a turgid intro by CP leader Gus Hall, which clearly lets us know which part of the labor process of book production is most important! It appears as if many of the New World titles are still available from International Publishers, but New World itself doesn't have a website or any unique identity, and appears to have been absorbed by the larger publishing identity sometime in the 1980s. Enjoy the covers!
Come see Justseeds at the USSF!
Posted June 23, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Events
We have been having a ball out here in Detroit! Twelve Justseeders are participating in the USSF - conducting workshops, running the live silkscreen table, selling posters, and building alliances. Please make sure to come check out some of the new work by the collective, particularly our new print portfolio, RESOURCED (which you can buy at the USSF for a deal!) and new book, Firebrands. GET ALL THE DETAILS by clicking here.
Justseeds at our table in Cobo Hall!
Waves of Change
Posted June 15, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Dee Dee Halleck of Paper Tiger TV and Deep Dish TV has been working on a mapping/survey of community media projects from around the world. An interesting and useful project, you can check out a cool world map of community media HERE, and learn more HERE.
Making Images for a Campaign: Bark
Posted June 9, 2010 by icky
Bark is an Oregon-based environmental group that is primarily concerned with preserving and protecting the wild areas around Mount Hood. Roger Peet, Pete Yahnke, and I partnered up with Bark and Taring Padi to work on a giant portable print to discuss the proposed Palomar Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Pipeline that would run from the Oregon Coast and then through the Mt. Hood national forest (after extraction in Indonesia). We were taken on two Bark field trips, the first was a hike through some pristine forest which the pipeline is proposed to run through. And a second trip, where we got to meet people whose homes and livelihoods would be effected by the pipeline and its construction.
For the upcoming Justseeds portfolio I wanted to keep working with Bark. I called and asked if I could produce some more images for their campaign against the LNG pipeline.
JBbTC 9: Anarchist Books from Norway
Posted June 7, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
A quick-y this week, here are three covers of Norwegian-published anarchist titles I found in the shelves at my friend Bergsveinn's house in Bergen. The Kropotkin book is hilarious, with psychedelic Kropotkin both holding up a portrait of himself and having an image of himself holding up a portrait of himself flowing out of his forehead! Genius. I apologize for the blur, they were taken in poor light with a crap camera.
Spectres of Liberty gets wet, moves indoors
Posted June 5, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
So the giant public art project I've been working on for a month with Spectres of Liberty is finally happening today, and there's practically going to be a monsoon in Syracuse tonight! So we're moving the whole operation indoors, and it is still going to be awesome. Details:
Great Central Depot in the Open City
Saturday, June 5, 2010
8:00pm - 10:00pm
XL Project Space
307 S. Clinton St, Syracuse NY
OAXACA. SUPPORT FOR THE MUNICIPALITY OF SAN JUAN COPALA: A call to mobilize in support of the resistance of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala next June 8
Posted June 4, 2010 by santi in Art & Politics
OAXACA. SUPPORT FOR THE MUNICIPALITY OF SAN JUAN COPALA
A call to mobilize in support of the resistance of the Autonomous
Municipality of San Juan Copala next June 8
The Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala has been under siege for
the last 6 months. Armed paramilitaries continue to block roads and
refuse to allow people to come and go freely. As a result of their
actions, there is no electricity, drinking water, or medical attention
in Copala. The children can’t go to school because there are no
teachers. Paramilitaries shoot at townspeople daily, resulting in the
deaths of at least 21 people between last November and May.
Firebrands: Portraits from the Americas is now available!
Posted June 1, 2010 by shaun in Justseeds Collective Projects
We're very excited to announce the arrival of our first collectively realized book, Firebrands: Portraits from the Americas, on Microcosm Publishing. The book consists of illustrated profiles of 78 courageous people from the history of the Americas, from Muhammed Ali to Zumbi dos Palmares, from Alberta all the way down to Buenos Aires - distilling the hopefulness and passion of generations of Americans who challenged the tides of oppression.
Twenty Justseeds members contributed beautiful and unique illustrations - papercuts, paintings, drawings, stencils, block prints, and collages. Pete Yahnke's linocut graces the cover of the book, and each profile begins with hand-drawn script by Colin Matthes. Shaun Slifer and Bec Young wrote, researched, edited, organized, and designed the book, with advice on every possible detail from Josh MacPhee, generous copy-editing from Jessie Grey Singer, and indexing expertise from Molly Fair.
The book is $10 and you can get a copy right here!
JBbTC 8: Cienfuegos Press pt.3
Posted May 31, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Here's the last installment of the Cienfuegos/Costantini covers. Bits and pieces. This Tifft cover is one of the best in my opinion, the graphic is crisp and commanding, and the type treatment is clean and stays out of the way. (Too bad the book itself is almost unreadable!). Also here is one of Costantini's first covers for Cienfuegos, for Alexander Berkman's Russian Tragedy. Great book and stunning cover, the corpse of a Kronstadt soldier says it all. The Wilhelmshaven Revolt is another cover attributed to Jean Pierre Ducret, but has many of the hallmarks of Costantini, including the thick black outlines, folds in the clothing, and extra detail in the faces.
Liberate Tate
Posted May 28, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
This is old news now, but hell, I'm busy and can't always get this stuff up as it happens! For those that haven't seen it, pretty interesting action last week at the Tate Modern in London related to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. From the press release about the action:
Tate Modern was forced to close down parts of its No Soul For Sale tenth anniversary exhibition on Saturday (15 May) whilst it struggled to remove dozens of dead fish and oil-soaked birds hanging from huge black balloons let loose in the Turbine Hall.
Art activists from LIBERATE TATE, a growing network dedicated to ensuring the museum drop its sponsorship deal with BP (British Petroleum), infiltrated Tate Modern's Turbine Hall and released dozens of helium-filled black balloons with dead animals attached. Crowds of tourists and art lovers gathered to watch the balloons rise up in the air until they filled the ceiling of the Turbine Hall.
More info can be found HERE.
Posters in support of Arizona
Posted May 28, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Art & Politics
I arrived to Arizona on Sunday evening to do some work around the upcoming May 29th mega march. I came to lend support to National Day Laborer's Organizing Network (NDLON), and to assist the Trail of Dreams as they visited Arizona for the first time. Three weeks ago, the walkers of the Trail of Dreams finished their walk from Miami to D.C. But their journey is not over for them. They are in AZ because this state is ground zero for the failed immigration policy that is happening under the Obama administration, a time where we are witnessing increased detentions, deportations, and even deaths in the hands of ICE. I am grateful that I was invited as an artist. Its inspiring to me when organizations understand the very vital role that art and culture plays in social transformation. NDLON deserves great praise for the work they have done on AltoArizona.com, where they have activated artists, musicians and celebrities to speak out on behalf of human and civil rights.
I made this poster of one of the girls I photographed at the Mother's Day march. She was holding the sign over her head and it made me laugh for a moment because the sign was almost as tall as her. And then I realized that this girl, was learning about her own political voice at an early age. Not because of any fault of her own, but because she was growing up at a time when her family and community members are criminalized simply for wanting a better life. The words I used, "Undocumented. Unafraid" is a term that (I think) was born in the youth movement to get the DREAM Act passed.
Brown and Proud t-shirt fundraiser for Puente
Posted May 27, 2010 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
"Brown and Proud" shirts now available from Liberation Ink. 50 % of the profits will go to Puente, a grassroots org in Arizona. Melanie Cervantes has donated her design to support this fundraising effort.
Art as a Weapon - Frans Seiwert and the Cologne Progressives
Posted May 26, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I've been meaning to post this for awhile, it's a nice follow-up to Icky's post about Gerd Arntz. There's a great article on the Council Communist Archive website about Frans Seiwert and the Cologne Progressives, with more information about the politics and engagement of artists like Arntz, Siewert, and their peers in the 1920s and 30s, as well as info on their publication A bis Z. Check it out HERE: Art as a Weapon by Martyn Everett. Thanks to Jared over at Garage Collective for the tip.
Justseeds/TaringPadi Anti-LNG print
Posted May 24, 2010 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Take a look at some of these photos of the printing session we had yesterday in rainy Portland. People came over to help jump up and down on the giant block, in the traditional Taring Padi manner... This print is part of a collaboration with the Indonesian print group Taring Padi, addressing issues of natural gas exploitation on both sides of the Pacific. Next up, the Northwest Natural shareholders meeting on the 27th!
Justseeds/TaringPadi Anti-LNG print
Posted May 24, 2010 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Take a look at some of these photos of the printing session we had yesterday in rainy Portland. People came over to help jump up and down on the giant block, in the traditional Taring Padi manner... This print is part of a collaboration with the Indonesian print group Taring Padi, addressing issues of natural gas exploitation on both sides of the Pacific. Next up, the Northwest Natural shareholders meeting on the 27th!
JBbTC 7: Cienfuegos Press pt.2
Posted May 24, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Here's the second installment of Flavio Costantini covers for Cienfuegos Press. The five this week are a series of covers he did, each designed with the letter A (for Anarchy) as a central element. The first cover, Sabate, uses the A almost as an afterthought, and each cover further develops the idea, up through The End of Anarchism, which is simply genius in my opinion, with the A towering over the question mark, framing the setting sun.
Spectres of Liberty May 17-June 5 in Syracuse
Posted May 19, 2010 by dara_g in Justseeds Collective Projects
We (Olivia Robinson, Josh MacPhee, Joanna Spitzner, & Dara Greenwald) are doing a multi-faceted public art project in Syracuse, NY to engage ideas coming out of the cities' abolitionist past to current social conditions. Please forward this to people in the area.
The project has several components:
1. a storefront gallery workshop which is open every day from 12-6, (XL Project Space, 307 S. Clinton Street)
2. public discussions with local organizers and artists (see schedule below)
3. an outdoor multi-media installation on June 5th (at Lipe Sculpture Park)
PUBLIC PROGRAMS (all events are free & refreshments are served)
Pictures of our opening night event, Open Access, Open Art
more:
Born In A Cent CD Design and CD release
Posted May 18, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Awhile back I got an email out of the blue from the band Born In A Cent, a NY-based political punk band with folk overtones. They were putting out their new record, and asked me to do the cover. So I did! It was a fun project, and the CD is about to come out, at the end of this month. Below is the info about the CD release show, and also images of the cover design.
Born In A Cent
CD Release Show
Bushwick Music Studios, 55 Waterbury St., Brooklyn (L train to Montrose)
May 29, 2010
with Huasipungo, The Last Internationale, Wild Babies, and more TBA!
JBbTC 6: Cienfuegos Press pt.1
Posted May 17, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
For years I've been a fan of the look and feel of the Cienfuegos Press books published by Stuart Christie in the UK in the late 1970s-early 1980s. I stumbled on a used copy of the Cienfuegos Anarchist Review #4 in a small bookshop in Washington DC back in 1993, and with its full color Flavio Costantini cover illustration I was hooked. I've since hunted down copies of most of the Cienfuegos publications. I'll start with the Costantini covers, and move on to the other books later on.
Here are the three Cienfuegos Anarchist Review's with Costantini covers, and you can see how issue #2 has just a simple spot illustration, but the full covers of #4 & #5 are dedicated to full color paintings of anarchist history. The cover of The Anarchists in London is quite nice with a simple dark brown monotone version of a painting and the title offset in red. The printing on The International Revolutionary Solidarity Movement cover is nice as well, with the black outline image of Bakunin sitting on top of the red newspaper headlines, maximizing the two color cover.
Celebrate People's History in New Zealand!
Posted May 11, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Jared Davidson, designer of the Red Feds people's history poster and engine of the Garage Collective and Beyond Resistance has organized a Celebrate People's History poster show in New Zealand! Check it out:
Justseeds and Beyond Resistance are proud to present 'Celebrate People's History', an exhibition of over 50 international posters documenting radical moments in history.Since 1998 the Celebrate People's History Project has produced an amazing array of political posters by different artists from around the world, each highlighting a historical example of social struggle. Here in New Zealand for the first time is the complete series, celebrating important acts of resistance by both individuals and collective movements who have fought tirelessly for social justice. From the Spanish Revolution to feminist labour organisers, indigenous movements to environmental sustainability, protests against racism to the Korean Peasant's League — Celebrate People's History canvases global movements in collaboration with a global network of artists.
Alto Arizona Art Campaign
Posted May 11, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
There is a large gallery of some incredible designs, responding to the Arizona legislation SB 1070, over at Alto Arizona and in their Facebook page.
Arizona is on the verge of enacting the most anti-immigrant legislation the country has seen in a generation, SB 1070. This is a bill which apparently mandates racial profiling. This bill allows Arizona law enforcement stop and search any person that they have “probable suspicion” may be “illegal”. SB 1070 is quite literally intended to terrorize immigrant families and force “self deportation”.We are hopeful Governor Brewer will consult with her legal counsel, issue a veto, and spare Arizona the expense of defending an unconstitutional, unwise, and odious bill in federal courts. But we will not rely solely on hope. We urge all artists who are opponents of this bill to TAKE ACTION and create a IMAGE. The images will be used as part of our online viral campaign for ALTO ARIZONA. Selected images will eventually be published as prints to generate revenue for this campaign with consent of the artist.
Details:
Create an image that shows your opposition to SB 1070. Keep in mind the effect that this bill will have on immigrants if fully enforced.
Make sure to include the title of the bill in the work which is: “SB 1070”.
Send all submissions and questions to
orders (at) hechoconganas.com
Specifications:
Image size must be 18x24 inches with a 1/2 inch border all the way around.
The reason for these dimensions is because if in the future your image is chosen to be published the image is ready to go.
Jesus Barraza & Melanie Cervantes designs above.
Ain't Goin' Home Soon-Opens Today
Posted May 8, 2010 by k_c_
Here's some flicks that I took of Chris Stain & Leon Reid IV, before I jumped on the bus for NYC. The installation opens today, Saturday, May 8th. The deets on my post from yesterday.
Ain't Goin' Home Soon
Posted May 7, 2010 by k_c_
Chris Stain & Leon Reid IV have been working on Ain't Goin' Home Soon an installation that will open tomorrow at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, MD.
Saturday, May 8, 7-9pm
Creative Alliance at The Patterson
3134 Eastern Ave
Baltimore, MD
As every schoolchild knows, John Henry was a giant of a man, who wielded a 20 pound hammer as though it were nothing, and won an epic contest against a steam engine, only to die on the spot. Henry was a slave, or former slave, and the battle that cost him his life is said to have taken place in Talcott, West Virginia on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. Built from found materials by Leon Reid IV, a statue of John Henry towers over this Main Gallery installation, amidst Hoovertown shacks made of wooden pallets and railroad ties made of cardboard. Giant stenciled murals by Chris Stain form a backdrop melding WPA-era social realism and urban graffiti, expanding on the themes of John Henry’s story—struggle and pride, race and dislocation in the face of technological and economic change. In this way, their installation serves as an ideal introduction to Urban/Appalachia, Creative Alliance’s series examining the long and complicated relationship between Baltimore and Appalachia, from past generations seeking work in city steel mills, to a generation today shipped to prisons in the mountains.
Justseeds Interview on Arrested Motion
Posted May 7, 2010 by k_c_ in Interviews
There is an interview some Justseeds members did awhile back with art blog, Arrested Motion. Check it out at: Arrested Motion:Justseeds Interview.
Justseeds are one of the leading and most prolific artist-run radical art collectives at work today and count an amazing array of artists such as Swoon, Chris Stain, Kevin Caplicki, Meredith Stern and Josh Macphee among their members. AM recently caught up with many of the members of Justseeds and asked them a stack of questions about life creating and distributing a huge amount socially aware art and running one of the finest art resistance blogs in the world. Take some time out to check out their answers and more info about their work...
ABC No Rio Dinero
Posted May 6, 2010 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
The building we know and love as ABC No Rio in the Lower East Side of Manhattan is set to be demolished to make room for the new, improved, not-falling-apart ABC, which is going to be built over the next few years. It seems like a great time to look back on the history of ABC No Rio, and thankfully the full text and images of the classic, but out-of-print history of the space, ABC No Rio Dinero, is now online. ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery, Edited by Alan Moore and Marc Miller and published back in 1985 in available to read on thee site 98Bowery.com. Check out the book HERE.
Image: Exterior of ABC No Rio's Animals Living in Cities show with dog stencils by Anton Van Dalen, 1980. Photo by Anton Van Dalen
Heinrich Schultze: Photo-documentarian
Posted May 4, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
A couple weeks back at the NYC Anarchist Bookfair I was lucky to be able too meet Heinrich Schultze, a long-time activist photographer from Hamburg, Germany. He was displaying and selling prints of many of his amazing images at the fair, including documentation of the Oaxaca Uprising in 2006, Bolivian Indigenous struggles, and the Zapatistas. Beyond the struggles listed above, he's also got documentation of the anti-nuclear movement in Germany, Kurdistan, and the G-8 protests in 2007. He has a great website of his work, which can be seen HERE.
Photo: The Barricada de la Victoria in Oaxaca, Mexico, November 2006 (Heinrich Schultze).
Swoon in Zambia
Posted May 4, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Recently Swoon, Matt Small, Mike Snell (of Black Rat Projects), and RJ Rushmore (of vandalog.com) traveled to Kabwe, Zambia to work with students at the Robert Shitima School. They were there thanks to Zamcog, an organization in Zambia creating sustainable change through education. The school is a non-denominational facility run by The Brothers of the Sacred Heart where orphans and children living in the shantytown of Makululu (one of the worlds largest slums) can get free k-9 schooling.
For three days, Matt Small and Swoon led workshops for all 200+ students at the school. Activities ranged from printmaking with lino-blocks to portrait painting to making collages with colored paper.
JBbTC 4: Liberation Support Movement pt.3
Posted May 3, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Part 3 (and final part for now) of the covers of the Liberation Support Movement. This Sowing the First Harvest cover is quite nice, a striking block print (attributed to Yukari Ochiai) is printed in dark brown ink on a light yellow cover, with the simple sans serif orange type pulling it together.
Citizen Orson Welles and the International Association for the Protection of the Individual Against Officialdom
Posted May 3, 2010 by molly_fair in Art & Politics
A few weeks ago I attended the Orphan Film Symposium and was blown away by a screening of an episode of a series called The Orson Welles Sketch Book. Made for BBC television in 1955, Orson Welles’ Sketch Book was a series of six weekly fifteen-minute episodes in the form of intimate monologues augmented by Welles’ own illustrations from his sketchbook. I don't want to give it all away, but here Welles addresses the issues of racism, government surveillance, police brutality, and politics of border crossing and identification. His delivery and performance are incredible. Here it is in two parts:
Mexican Revolutionary Art for the 21st Century
Posted May 3, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
For the month of May, the Lucy Parsons Center in Boston is holding a Mexico film series and print sale: Mexican Revolutionary Art for the 21st Century
Beautiful, politically themed woodblock prints from the ASARO artist
collective from Oaxaca, Mexico, will be for sale at the Lucy Parsons Center for the month of May. ASARO (La Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca /
the Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca), is a collective of young Mexican artists responding to Mexico’s current political turmoil. ASARO’s remarkable woodblock prints continue Mexico’s long tradition of popular revolutionary art.
All proceeds of the sale of the prints will go to the ASARO collective in Oaxaca.
Wednesday May 5, 6:30pm
Boston Premier of the Zapatista film Corazón del Tiempo/ Heart of Time (2008) film shows at 7:15
Art Opening (with food & wine with donation) at 6:30
No Human Being is Illegal
Posted May 2, 2010 by k_c_ in Street Art & Graffiti
New Mural on top of the RDAC BX rooftop, painted by DASIC.
You can catch a good glimpse of it by taking the Bruckner Expressway through the South Bronx, look West!
Kyle Goen Closing Party
Posted May 1, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
Kyle Goen, an artist in the Paper Politics book and show, has a closing party coming up on May 4th in NYC for his exhibition, The Voice That Arms Itself To Be Heard. Details below:
Protests in Mexico City to demand Justice for Bety and Tyri // Video of our Dissapeared
Posted April 30, 2010 by santi in Art & Politics
Protests in Mexico City to demand Justice for Caravan in Oaxaca and to end the Para-military attacks on Autonomous indigenous communities.
Yesterday at 4:00pm we gathered downtown Mexico City to demand Justice for the murders of Beatriz Alberta Cariño Trujillo and Tyri Antero Jaakkola, assure the immediate presentation of our disappeared comrades and an end to the para-militarization of Mexico. The following pictures are what went on there.
Progress on the Project
Posted April 28, 2010 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Here's some pictures from the ongoing Large Print Project in Portland. Icky, Pete and Roger have begun carving a 3' x 10' block of lino to make a counterpart to the Taring Padi print that Roger brought back from Indonesia a couple months ago. 
Call-out of Support for the 2010 Justseeds Portfolio: Resourced
Posted April 27, 2010 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Justseeds is in the middle of an ambitious project and needs your help. We are producing our second handmade portfolio: Resourced. Resourced is a collection of handmade prints tackling issues of climate change, resource extraction, and environmental justice. It follows our 2008 portfolio: Voices From Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex. At a time when the world community is in dialogue about how to handle the human impact on the planet, this new project will inject fresh visual ideas into the conversation. We are in need of financial and material support to actualize this project.
Please read the following letter for instructions on how you can donate, or pre-purchase a portfolio. We are also in need of website design assistance. If you are capable of offering any labor or services please email us:
blog (at) justseeds.org
Eric García: Activist Printmaker and Cartoonist
Posted April 27, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
We got an email a couple weeks back from Eric García, a Chicano activist printmaker whose work really resonates with a lot of what we've been doing with Justseeds. He's also a painter and political cartoonist who explores North American history from the perspective of the underdogs. His site is South Valley Art, and you can check out more of his print work, his comics HERE, and his paintings HERE. The print to the right is a great take on Carlos Cortéz, and click below for a couple more images...
JBbTC 3: Liberation Support Movement pt.2
Posted April 26, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Part two of the covers from the LSM Information Network, some of these are less graphically powerful than last weeks, but there are still a couple gems:
Protests in Japan Against "Nike" Park
Posted April 24, 2010 by jmacphee in In the News
Our friends in Japan have spent months protesting the purchase of Miyashita Park in Tokyo by Nike, who intend to turn the park, now a home for many of Tokyo's homeless, it into a giant advertisement for their brand. Info about the struggle is hard to get in English, but there are a number of sites with bits and pieces, as well as tons of photos of great protest art and cultural interventions. The main protest site in HERE, and there are other photos and info HERE and HERE. A short 4 minute doc about the struggle can be viewed by clicking below:
Justeeds Portfolio 2010: Resourced-Earth Day Preview
Posted April 24, 2010 by k_c_
Here are some pictures from our Justseeds Earth Day exhibit. We used the occasion to preview 14 new designs for the upcoming Justseeds 2010 Portfolio: Resourced. The one night exhibit was at the Times Up! Brooklyn bike space, 99 S6th St.
Pete Yahnke and Gaia's contributions
More H&M Protests
Posted April 22, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friend Charlie just sent along this follow up to last week's post about creative attacks on H&M for their support of Israeli apartheid. French activists dressed up like IDF soldiers occupied the H&M in downtown Paris. More info HERE and HERE.
Earthday is Everyday Bike Ride & Justseeds Eco-Art Show
Posted April 21, 2010 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Earth day bike ride starting 7pm from Union Square Park South. Dress in green with respect for the planet! Festive musical ride will end at a 8pm, BBQ and dance party at Time’s Up Brooklyn space and East River Bar at 97 South 6th Street, Williamsburg. Bring food to share.
Thursday, April 22, 2010 7pm BIKE RIDE Meet at Union Square Park South, Manhattan. 8pm AFTER-PARTY Justseeds Eco Art Show & BBQ
The Justseeds Collective will also be exhibiting members prints of an ecological & environmental nature following the Times Up Earth Day bicycle ride. Included in the exhibit will be previews of the upcoming Justseeds portfolio Resourced.
Resourced is a portfolio of handmade posters designed by over 30 different artists, including Chris Stain, Gaia, Armsrock, Design Action Collective, and many Justseeds Members. Justseeds is an artists’ owned and operated cooperative that is dedicated to producing socially engaged artworks. Prints and projects can be viewed at Justseeds.org
Go to Times Up for more information on the ride.
Christopher Cardinale Book Release Party
Posted April 21, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
Our close friend Christopher Cardinale has been working for more than two years on his first graphic novel, and it is finally done and being released! Info below, please come celebrate!
Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush
Christopher Cardinale and Luis Alberto Urrea
Book Release Party
Wed., April 28TH, 7:30PM
Word Bookstore
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
126 Franklin St. at the corner of Milton St.
(Two blocks from the Greenpoint Ave. stop on the G train)
Partisan Memorials in the former Yugoslavia
Posted April 21, 2010 by icky in Art & Politics
Here is a selection of some great photos of modernist memorials to partisans in the former Yugoslavia from Form und Zweck Zwei fanzine. I certainly can't say it better then the German socialist architect who assembled the photo essay:
Anton van Dalen online
Posted April 20, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
One of my favorite old school stencil artists, Anton van Dalen, has a (relatively) new website up, which collects a lot of his work, including an incredible selection of his crisp, direct stencil icons. Van Dalen begin stenciling in the Lower East Side of NYC in 1980, where he lived, and built a library of images around what was happening in the neighborhood, including a massive wave of gentrification. He has made some of the most iconic images that have come out of housing struggles in New York in the past 25 years. Check out van Dalen and his website HERE.
JBbTC 2: Liberation Support Movement pt.1
Posted April 19, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
This week I want to share part one of a collection of book and pamphlet covers from the Liberation Support Movement (LSM), an organization that primarily did solidarity work with African national liberation movements in the 1970s. Detailed information about LSM is pretty sparce, but it appears they were founded by Don Barnett in the early 1970s, originating in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. At some point in the mid to late 70s LSM moved to Oakland, CA, likely after Barnett's death in 1975. I believe their primary activity was direct financial and material support of liberation movements, but they also had a propaganda wing. Most of the pamphlets and books were published under the "LSM Information Center" imprint, and are either first person accounts of liberation struggles or analysis, largely written by the leadership of those struggles, or Barnett himself.
"On Brecht" Exhibit at NYC's Brecht Forum
Posted April 17, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
Friday April 2nd was the opening events of On Brecht at NYC's Brecht Forum. The exhibit is open Monday-Friday from 2 PM – 7 PM until April 28. I hope to get over there and check out Uruguayan printmaker Antonio Frasconi's portraits in the exhibit. I got to view some of Frasconi's incredibly powerful prints a few years back at The Disappeared "Los Desaparecidos", when it was shown at NYC's Museo del Barrio. Check out the "On Brecht" exhibit at:
Brecht Forum 451 West Street (btn Bank & Bethune St New York, NY
H&M vs. Palestine Ad Intervention
Posted April 16, 2010 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
My friend Charlie just sent along this link to images of a new ad intervention against H&M on behalf of the Campaign to Boycott and Divest from Israel. Check out more photos HERE.
Walls: Price vs. Cost
Posted April 15, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I've been way behind on blogging these days, and rad things keep slipping by before I can post them up here. My friend Sam Sebren had a cool art piece about Rachel Corrie's murder in Palestine which accompanied a theatre production about her, but I missed the date and didn't get it up here. But, no matter, I can still post the piece now. It's called "Walls: Price vs. Cost" and it's an 11ft long vinyl banner. The image and Sam's description are below:
NewMTA.info
Posted April 15, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
Found this behind my farm stand at Union Square a couple of weeks ago.
The poster lists a website at NewMTA.info. I've seen many spoofs of NYC MTA service posters, this one comes at a time when cities are cutting budgets for many social programs and services. NYC is planning on cutting back on many public transportation programs despite its citizens growing need for more economical alternatives.
Hopefully the efforts of engaged designers, such as the creator of the flyer, and everyone interested in public transit can triumph over the austerity measures of State and City government. All it takes is a movement(?)
Chris Stain Skateboard Piece
Posted April 14, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
The Latest Technique in the Art and Science of Billboard Improvement
Posted April 9, 2010 by icky in Art & Politics
"Opposition supporters burn a billboard displaying Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev during a rally in the northwestern town of Talas on April 6, 2010. (REUTERS/azattyk.org)"
More photos from Kyrgyzstan's recent protests and riots here.
Justseeds is Moving!
Posted April 7, 2010 by roger_peet in In the News
Hey Justseeds enthusiasts! Breaking news! Justseeds will be moving our headquarters from Portland to Pittsburgh in May. Justseedsers Mary and Shaun will be driving a well-laden U-Haul across the country, leaving behind our beloved Portland basement in the neighbourhood that smells like cookies to a much larger base of operations in the other City of Bridges. We're all excited about the move, and hopefully we'll be able to generate a photo essay or two for the blog, as well as candid shots of the flat files, dehumidifier, and piles of cardboard tubes in scenic locations across the wide continental center. Keep your eyes on this space for further updates....
Another One Bites the Dust!
Posted April 2, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
As a follow-up to the review I recently posted of the book Vietnam Posters (Prestel, 2009), I wanted to share what I thought was one of the most interesting aspects of the posters from Vietnam. Outside of Ho Chi Minh, the most replicated visual trope in Vietnamese posters from the War era is the downing of US airplanes and helicopters. Poster after poster show aircraft shot down in flames. When looked at together (see the dozen plus examples below!), it becomes quite an impressive collection of graphic interpretations, and shows how powerful this idea, knocking the militarily more advanced Americans out the sky, was to the mythology of the Vietnamese war effort. Most of these images are taken from the Vietnam Posters book, but a handful of additional examples are culled from two other sources: Jessica Harrison-Hall, Vietnam Behind the Lines (The British Museum Press, 2002) and Susan Martin, ed., Decade of Protest: Political Posters from the United States, Vietnam, Cuba (Smart Art Press, 1996).
Oaxaca Now: Young Radical Printmakers
Posted April 1, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
Mexico in Chicago 2010
Oaxaca Now: Young Radical Printmakers
April 9-May 17, 2010
Marwen's Alumni Gallery will feature brand new woodcut prints and videos from the Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca (ASARO). In keeping with the collective's visually polemic tone, the new prints and video add breadth and depth to this traveling conversation on art, activism, and politics in Oaxaca today.
Oaxaca Now: Young Radical Printmakers is co-curated by Arielle Bielak and Professor Kevin McCloskey.
Please join us for the opening night celebration:
Friday, April 9, 2010
5-7 PM
Marwen, 833 North Orleans Street, Chicago, IL
Printing with Taring Padi
Posted March 30, 2010 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Here's a little photo essay showing the printing process used by Indonesian print cooperative Taring Padi, including images from all stages of the process, from sketching to carving to printing. I had the chance to help print some copies of this massive block, which is the Taring Padi half of a project addressing issues related to natural gas exploitation on both sides of the Pacific: the three Portland Justseedsers (Pete, Icky and Roger) will be working on their half in the coming month. We'll be working with local nonprofit Bark to promote exhibits and displays of the two prints in towns along the route of the proposed Palomar gas pipeline this summer. Enjoy the photos!
Sketching the initial design on MDF hardboard.
REVIEW: Prestel Poster Book Series
Posted March 29, 2010 by jmacphee in Reviews
Chinese Posters, Stefan R. Landsberger & Marien van der Heijden (Prestel, 2009)
Soviet Posters: The Sergo Grigorian Collection, Maria Lafont (Prestel, 2007)
North Korean Posters: The David Heather Collection, David Heather & Koen De Ceuster (Prestel, 2008)
Vietnam Posters: The David Heather Collection, David Heather & Sherry Buchanan (Prestel, 2009)
These are first and foremost picture books. Each one contains a basic introduction to the history of political and propaganda poster production in each country, but no more than a dozen pages of overview. This series is aimed at a general audience, appealing to the novelty of posters from "strange and totalitarian regimes." That said, each one has its unique benefits and value, and for the most part these are worthwhile books for people interested in the production of culture under political regimes that in their prime attempted to challenge capitalist hegemony (for better or for worse).
Although all four books are designed and organized in similar ways, I'll take each on individually. First, China. I've never been a great fan of the Chinese political poster aesthetically, particularly the heroic socialist realism of the late 50s through the cultural revolution period. What's more interesting to me is the sheer scale of production. In 1959 two million copies of a "Long Live Chairman Mao" poster were printed, and in a fifteen year period, 1951-1966, the three major poster publishing houses printed almost 3,000 different designs, with a total number of copies ranging around 85 million!
Gerd Arntz and the World of Isotypes
Posted March 29, 2010 by icky in Art & Politics
Pictograms are a type of visual language that is ubiquitous today. They are regularly used along highways and streets, in the olympics, or on bathroom doors. These symbols (often called 'peds') originally came from the same utopian dream as esperanto, to create a language that was simple, clear, and international.
A dynamic month-long series of radical art exhibits and presentations in West Philadelphia!
Posted March 26, 2010 by k_c_ in Events
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!
New Christopher Cardinale mural at ABC No Rio
Posted March 26, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
If you're in the NYC area, stop by ABC No Rio to check out the Ides of March show, but make sure to take a look at the outside of the building as well as the inside. Christopher Cardinale has a great new mural installed on the front of the building:
Taring Padi artist Mohamed Yusuf
Posted March 25, 2010 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
I've recently returned from six weeks traveling in Indonesia, during which I spent a week with the artists of the Taring Padi cooperative in Yogyakarta, Central Java. I'll be posting entries for the next several weeks pertaining to aspects of my travels, some art-related, some not. I thought I'd start off with a bit of a bang- a partial photo-gallery of some of the pictures I was able to take of art made by one of my gracious hosts, Mohamed Yusuf (also known as Ucup).
Enjoy more images below!
IVAW protest recruiting stations in Madison with Mud Stencils
Posted March 18, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
IVAW taking mud stencils to the recruiters in Madison, Wisconsin from Dan S Wang on Vimeo.
Dan S. Wang has shared some incredible video footage of an IVAW mud stenciling action in Madison, Wisconsin that took place on March 17th, 2010 - the anniversary date of the bombing of Baghdad. Aaron Hughes, along with Madison IVAW chapter members Todd Dennis and Nathan Toth, placed anti-war mud stencils at the front doors of military recruitment stations in Madison.
Drawing All the Time: Week 23
Posted March 17, 2010 by colin_matthes in Inspiration
Mary Kelly Here is a drawing in celebration of Mary Kelly, the Irish nurse and mother of 4 who decommissioned a US war plane with an axe while it was illegally refueling on its way to Iraq. I do not like the drawing a whole lot, but Mary Kelly is an inspiration. Read more below.
Mary Kelly's Statement
Ides Of March Exhibit at ABC No RIo
Posted March 17, 2010 by k_c_
ABC No Rio's bi-annual building-wide show is opening this Friday! There is a contribution from Justseeds member Kevin Caplicki, in the computer center on the 5th floor, check the flicks below. This will be the last Ides show in the current building, since ABC has raised enough money to construct a new building in the same location. Come out!
ABC No Rio's Ides of March
The Seventh Biennial Building-Wide Exhibition
March 19 - April 9
Over 50 Artists on 4 Floors
OPENING: Friday March 19 at 7:00pm
Signs of Change Portland, OR CLOSES Friday March 19th
Posted March 16, 2010 by dara_g in Art & Politics
Just want to make a short post to let people in the Pacific North West know that the exhibit Signs of Change closes this Friday!
Here are the details:
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/power-to-the-poster/Content?oid=2264175
Avram Finkelstein: Silence=Death Project
Posted March 9, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friend Chris Bravo just sent along this great short video/interview piece with Avram Finkelstein, one of the early AIDS activists in NYC and member of the Silence=Death Project. It's a really nice short piece where he explores the relationship between image making and negotiations with the power structure:
March 4th, 2010: Police Attack 880 Interstate Takeover
Posted March 9, 2010 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
Some video footage from the shutdown of the freeways around downtown Oakland.
Swoon's Art for Bhopal pt1
Posted March 4, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Here's the first of a series of posts from Swoon:
Here are some photo collage pages I made about the amazing Sambhavna Trust Clinic in Bhopal India. This place is one of the most impressive independent community initiatives I have ever seen. It is run by doctors, scientists, volunteers, and community members, many of whom are themselves victims of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster. It is a beautiful and welcoming oasis in the middle of one of the world's worst industrial disasters. These photos will be a part of a show benefiting the Bhopal Medical Appeal, who still continue to fight for justice for the disaster victims, for whom Dow Chemical (Union Carbide's parent company) still refuses responsibility. For more info, check out these sites: Bhopal.org and Artforbhopal.tumblr.com
Manifest Equality
Posted March 1, 2010 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
We will be participating in a MANIFEST EQUALITY an exhibit which gathers together a diverse array of hundreds of the nation’s most talented visual artists under one roof to celebrate that role and join with our LGBT friends, family members and co-workers to demand full and equal rights for all.
We each have a piece in the exhibit, Melanie has her print "Mis Mamas" which we printed as a limited edition screen print that's about two by three feet big. I have a poster I created for this exhibit that poses the question "Did we vote on your Marriage"? It features an illustration of a couple friends who are engaged and under current California Law do not have the right to marry each other.
MANIFEST EQUALITY
March 3rd – March 7th, 2010
1341 Vine Street,
LA, CA
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 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.
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.
The Story of Cap & Trade
Posted February 18, 2010 by k_c_
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.
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:
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.
Reproduce & Revolt in LA High School
Posted February 10, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective 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:
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.
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:
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!
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.
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."
Journal of Aesthetics & Protest #7
Posted January 31, 2010 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest #7 is out now, and chock full of material that looks both interesting and is by a bunch of solid people that have been friends in past and present. You can read it online HERE, or buy a print copy HERE. Here's the table of contents:
Red de Espionaje
Posted January 29, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
A little while back I got an announcement from Magdalena Jitrik, one of the Argentine artists that had organized the Taller Popular de Serigrafía (who had designed and printed for the occupied factories and community assemblies during the Argentine crisis/rebellion of 2001-2005), that she had a new show up at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bahia Blanca. I clicked through to the info about the show, and the images are stunning! The exhibition, titled Red de Espionaje 2009 (or Espionage Network 2009), appears to be a trip through the creative work of the crisis period as reinterpreted through the utopian, particularly Russian, aspects of early modernism, with references to Constructivism, Suprematism, and Situationism. More information about the show can be found HERE, and lots more images HERE. References to art history in the US tend to be so depoliticized and abstracted, it is almost shocking to see such a direct connection made between contemporary political cultural work and historical attempts at liberation through art. I can't wait to see more...
Amor y Resistencia graphic on the cover of Critical Moment
Posted January 27, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
a newsprint magazine working to provide a forum for education, debate, and dialogue around the political issues affecting communities in the Southeast Michigan areahas used Amor Y Resistencia's contribution to the Justseeds portfolio Voices From Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex
You can download the first six pages at issue 31
Graphics from Voices From Outside may be downloaded for use by groups working on incarceration related issues at Voices From Outside-Images. Artist credit is always appreciated.
Hopeless
Posted January 27, 2010 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
Our friend Klutch has recently expressed his dissatisfaction with the first year of Obama with this "Hopeless" print. To be hopeless assumes you once had hope, which might be a stretch for me and electoral politics, but I can still vibe on the frustration...If you want one of these lovelies to hang over your bed, go HERE.
Boycott of Iran Film Festival
Posted January 26, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Iranian filmmakers have called for a boycott of this years Fajr Film Festival in Tehran, Iran in hopes of pressuring the government to ease up on repression and release political prisoners, some of whom are filmmakers. Other international artists are supporting the boycott, including Ken Loach, one of my favorite contemporary directors, whose new film "Looking for Eric" was supposed to play the fest. More info can be found HERE and HERE.
Women's Lib Posters video
Posted January 25, 2010 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Dara recently found this very strange video on YouTube, it appears to be homemade music video for the 1960 song "Cantata della donna nubile" by Italian singer Edmonda Aldini. It's entirely constructed from late 60s/early 70s feminist movement posters, many are from the Chicago Women's Graphics Collective, but some I have never seen before. Ahhh, the things you find on the internet...
Luba Lukova at Qbox Gallery
Posted January 23, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
In recent years I keep coming across the graphics and posters of Luba Lukova, and have been increasingly impressed with their clarity, directness, and graphic efficiency. Lukova edited and designed the 2010 War Resisters League calendar, "Sparking Change: Poster Art & Politics" and I just got an announcement for her upcoming solo exhibition in Greece. More info on Sparking Change can be found HERE (we are also selling a number of vintage/historical WRL posters on Justseeds HERE), and more info on the Qbox Gallery show can be found HERE.
Chrysa Koukoura-overfishing designs
Posted January 22, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
I came across these designs, by Chrysa Koukoura, while researching campaigns for the upcoming Justseeds Portfolio-Resourced.
We are hoping to pair each participating artist with an organization/campaign to create a graphic image and poster. We are working with a broad theme, resource extraction, and I am curious about current campaigns tackling the harvesting of fish from the ocean.
If you have any advice please contact
blog at justseeds dot org
Jim Finn at MoMA
Posted January 18, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
One of my favorite filmmakers Jim Finn is a having a screening at MoMA on Feb. 1st. Jim's films are an amazing, crazy mash ups of communism, sci-fi, wacky humor, and oddball performances, and well worth seeing. MoMA is showing his most recent feature, The Juche Idea, plus a number of shorts. A short clip from The Juche Idea can be seen on Jim's website HERE.
An Evening with Jim Finn
Monday, February 1, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Museum of Modern Art, NYC
Theater 2 (The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2)
“Superheroes” Calendar
Posted January 14, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
This seems to be the year of political art calendars. I just came across this one, which looks great: New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) has just released Dulce Pinzon’s 2010-2011 “Superheroes” Calendar. Pinzon's “Superheroes” series is "a collection of 20 color photographs of Mexican and Latino immigrant workers dressed in the costumes of popular American and Mexican superheroes in their work environment, raising questions of both our definition of heroism and our ignorance of and indifference to the workforce that fuels our ever-consuming economy." All proceeds of the calendar sales will go to NICE, and it's only $12 if you get it HERE. More of Dulce Pinzon's work can be found HERE.
Josh MacPhee at RISD this Thursday
Posted January 13, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
I'm giving a talk at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) tomorrow night, so if you're in Providence, come say "hello!"
Justseeds, Street Art, and Social Movements
A talk by Josh MacPhee
Office of Student Life Leadership Speaker Series
Tap Room of RISD's Memorial Hall
226 Benefit Street, Providence
Thursday, January 14th
7pm
Save the Gloo Factory!
Posted January 12, 2010 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
My good friend Dwight, owner-operator of the Tucson multi-functional art/community/print space the Gloo Factory and allied enterprise Peace Supplies has been struggling against eviction from his crazy downtown space for years now, in the face of idiotic plans for redevelopment. At this point it looks like he's going to lose the space, but he's energized to find a new spot! A vacant lot with a big steel shed! Dreams of a Quonset hut! Located in the city of South Tucson, away from the boondoggles of Tucson proper! To accomplish this, he needs our help. Take a moment to navigate to the Save the Gloo Factory website and make a donation. Tucson's radical print infrastructure will thank you.
Creative Violation: The Rebel Art of the Street Stencil
Posted January 12, 2010 by k_c_ in Film & Video
This popped up in the inbox today, you may recognize some Justseedsers.
Creative Violation documents the exploding underground art form of the street stencil and explores its roots in political street art, industrial signage and graffiti. These illicit spray paint markings, not to be confused with traditional graffiti tagging, steal the language and techniques of advertising and turn them against the imperatives of the mass market, punctuating the urban landscape in cities across the world.
Check it out on IMDb.
Its also available for purchase at: http://ffh.films.com/id/15958/Creative_Violation_The_Rebel_Art_of_the_Street_Stencil.htm
Copenhagen Banners
Posted January 10, 2010 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
The 800 individual letters (in solar-panel font) that I helped to print for Katherine of SEA Change Gallery here in Portland were stitched together and made into banners in several different languages, which were then carried in marches during the climate forum. You can see some more photos of the banners at the SEA Change Gallery site.
'Provocations on Sneakers' (Academic Text #3)
Posted January 9, 2010 by dylanminer in Art & Politics
Since I was unable to make my own opening in Chicago because of Lake Effect Snow (poor me), I have decided to upload another academic text I recently published in the journal CR: The New Centennial Review. CR "is devoted to comparative studies of the Americas that suggest possibilities for a different future." I'm pretty excited about the essay because it appears in a journal with a long history of publishing radical thinkers from a variety of left and anti-authoritarian perspectives. In the past few years, some cool folks have published in CR: Martin Hägglund, Rodolphe Gasché, Jean-Luc Nancy, Grant Farred (one of my favorite contemporary thinkers), Grace Lee Boggs, Ward Churchill, Ernesto Laclau, Gayatri Spivak, to name only a few of the more prominent names.
300th Memorial Posted to GhostBikes.org
Posted January 9, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
Photo by Philipp M. Rassmann/NYC Street Memorial Project
Pablo Pasarán Saturday, August 8, 2009 Age: 26Location:
35th Avenue and 21st Street
Astoria
Queens , NY
United States
Pablo Pasarán, was delivering food on a bicycle for a restaurant when he was killed by Martin Ocasio, driving an SUV. Pablo was an immigrant from Mexico who lived in the Bronx. He left behind three children.
Ocasio was being chased at high-speed by the NYPD, who had observed him making a drug purchase nearby. He ran into a parked car, and then into Pablo, who was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
In addition to drug possession, Ocasio was charged with multiple offenses in connection with hitting and killing Pablo, including involuntary manslaughter.
Justseeds: Paper Politics for a New Decade
Posted January 8, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Opening Tonight!!!!
Justseeds: Paper Politics for a New Decade
Hillyer Art Space at International Arts & Artists
9 Hillyer Court NW
Washington, DC, 20008
Exhibition Dates: January 8 - January 30
First Friday Reception: Friday, January 8, 2010, 6-9PM
Live music by experimental trio Vodka and Donuts!
Food and refreshments will be served
$5 suggested donation
The Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative is a decentralized community of artists who have banded together to collaborate, sell their work online in a central location and support social movements. Utilizing print and poster making techniques to address a variety of social and environmental justice issues, collective mates work together over many miles to create, resist, and bring meaningful artwork to the masses for affordable prices. These artists believe in the power of personal expression in concert with collective action to transform society. Featuring works by Justseeds artists and fellow political printers, including: Santiago Armengod, Jesus Barraza, Graham Boyle, Melanie Cervantes, DC51 Collective, Alec Icky Dunn, Thea Gahr, Sabeth Jackson, Nicolas Lampert, Josh MacPhee, Colin Matthes, Cesar Maxit, Dylan Miner, Roger Peet, Jesse Purcell, Favianna Rodriguez, Erik Ruin, Beth Schaible, Chris Stain, Meredith Stern, SWOON, Mary Tremonte, Kristine Virsis, Pete Yahnke, and Bec Young.
Excerpts from Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now
Posted January 8, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
171 Cedar Arts Center presents a selection from Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now.
Houghton Gallery at the 171 Cedar Arts Center
155 & 171 Cedar Street, Corning NY
Jan 8 - Feb 5, 2010
Reception: Friday Jan 8th, 5:30 – 7:30 pm
In conjunction with a celebration to honor Martin Luther King, the exhibition at 171 Cedar Arts Center focuses on the cultures created by during the Civil Rights Movement in America and the fights for freedom that were waged by oppressed people globally. (This exhibition consists of reprinted materials from a small portion of Signs of Change.)
In Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now, hundreds of posters, photographs, moving images, audio clips, and ephemera bring to life over forty years of activism, political protest, and campaigns for social justice. Curated by Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee and originating from Exit Art in New York City, this important and timely exhibition surveys the creative work of dozens of international social movements.
Altervations
Posted January 6, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
"This is an altar created by young people in the Chicago neighborhoods of Humboldt Park and South Chicago. Altars like this one, memorializing an untimely violent death, are an all-too common sight on Chicago sidewalks and streets. Every street altar, including this one, is a remembrance of friends and family lost, and a representation of the shadow of mortal danger that hangs over everyday lives. It is presented to you, the person who finds this altar, as an encouragement to do something to help young people in Chicago—in how you think and speak about impoverished urban young people of color, as much as in how you vote and how you spend your money."
This text accompanied the above alters to victims of street violence in Chicago. The alters were made by students of Chicago artists Mike Bancroft and Bert Stabler. More HERE.
CIRA Japan 2010 Calendar
Posted January 5, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Our friend Kei from the Irregular Rhythm Asylum in Tokyo designed the very cool 2010 CIRA Japan calendar (CIRA is Japan's largest anarchist archive). This years calendar has a theme of the 100th anniversary of the High Treason Incident in Japan, and for the first time has English explanations for the images from each month, allowing people like me who don't know a lick of Japanese gain some incite into anarchist history there.
The High Treason Incident, also known as the Kotoku Incident, was a socialist-anarchist plot to assassinate the Japanese Emperor Meiji in 1910, leading to a mass arrest of leftists, and the execution of 12 alleged conspirators in 1911. To commemorate the people’s struggle against the Emperor in the early 20th century, the calendar highlights the key figures of the High Treason Incident and international campaigns of prison solidarity for the victims. Check it out HERE.
Update on the 5th Annual Memorial Ride and Walk To Remember Cyclists and Pedestrians Lost on NYC Streets
Posted January 2, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
The (NYC) Street Memorial Project has decided, despite a forecast of very cold and windy tomorrow(Sunday, Jan 3), we are going to go ahead with the memorial ride tomorrow.But we are encouraging people to do what they think they can do given the weather and there will be someone riding each leg of the ride, but we are essentially canceling the Harlem portion of the ride (though the ride leader will be there to ride down with anyone who shows up).
We are especially encouraging people to come to the 3pm Grand Army Plaza meet up, which will be the shortest portion during the warmest part of the day and which will end at a warm spot with warm food and drink.
...spread the word that people should meet us at any of the later meet-ups and remove or cross out the first meet-up and memorial from your blogs, schedules...
Other meetups are:
11am Central Park West and 7th Ave
11:30 Queensboro Bridge, Queens
3:00 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn
4:45 Milton and Manhattan Aves, Brooklyn
full schedule is at streetmemorials.org
(redirected from ghostbikes.org, which is down)
Justice for Oscar Grant
Posted January 2, 2010 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
by Jesus Barraza & Melanie Cervantes
A year ago, early New Year's Day in the Fruitvale District of Oakland, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police murdered unarmed, 22-year old, Oscar Grant III by pushing him face down to the ground and shooting him in the back. After he was shot he was handcuffed. The shooting was fatal.
A year later there is no justice for Oscar Grant and his family. There is no justice for the people of Oakland who have lost their sons and daughters to State violence.
The trial of BART police officer Johannes Mehserlese has been moved to another city where the community might be tolerant of white men killing black people. The community here in Oakland awaits a verdict that will most likely end with the officer getting off.
As Barak Obama is about to complete a year in office we witnessed escalation of war in the Middle East and the administration's lack of significant action to address climate change and the global ecological disaster that the Global South, people who live in poverty and most living species with little power will have to bear the burden of. Instead we find this government looking out for the interest of multi-national corporations who are making a killing.
Marilyn Buck Tribute Poster
Posted January 2, 2010 by k_c_ in In the News
The we are the crisis collective has produced a print in tribute to Marilyn Buck, a person led by her convictions to struggle to end oppression for all people. Her obituary:
On Tuesday, August 3, 2010, long-time political prisoner and acclaimed poet and translator Marilyn Buck, 62, passed peacefully at her home in Brooklyn, New York.A few short weeks earlier, on July 15th, Marilyn had been released from the federal Bureau of Prisons medical facility in Carswell, Texas and paroled to New York City. Thanks to the efforts of her long-time friend and lawyer Jill Soffiyah Elijah, her release came several weeks before the date originally set for her release on parole, August 8th.
Marilyn served a total of 33 years of an 80-year prison sentence for politically motivated actions undertaken in support of self-determination and national liberation and in opposition to racial injustice and U.S. imperialism. Throughout her years in prison, Marilyn remained a steadfast supporter of fellow political prisoners and an advocate for the women with whom she was imprisoned.
End of the Year Printing/Studio Visit
Posted December 31, 2009 by pete in Art & Politics
I finally finished up a large print this week, and thought I would share some pictures of the process and the printing of the piece. I also took the opportunity to print a large piece I finished a few months back and never got around to printing. Along with these pictures you will get a little tour of my basement studio, which seems to be getting more and more cramped every time I turn around, and shares a wall with the Justseeds world wide shipping headquarters!
Mexico City Street Art
Posted December 27, 2009 by thea in Art & Politics
A strong message sent to a middle class neighborhood in the north of Mexico City.
This painting is pasted on to temporary walls surrounding a building site for a new
supermarket.
Graphic Roots of Revolution
Posted December 19, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Favianna is over in Rome right now with the new Yo! What Happened to Peace? show, Graphic Roots of Revolution. There's more info HERE.
Ricardo Levins Morales Opens New Studio
Posted December 18, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Ricardo Levins Morales, one of the driving creative forces behind the much missed Northland Poster Collective, has opened up a new store and website. He's got much of hiss material (posters, prints, notecards, etc.) from Northland, and new material. Check out his new site HERE.
Banner project video
Posted December 16, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Justseeds member Roger was caught on video printing letters for the Climate Change March in Copenhagen. Roger posted some stills from the project HERE a week back or so, but I just stumbled on this video, for those interested:
No Olympics on Native Soil
Posted December 15, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
I just wanted to send a shout out to our comrades in Vancouver and Victoria who have been struggling against a completely invasive, parasitic, and brutal Olympics campaign.
There's more info HERE and HERE. And the above image is a nice banner from the Victoria campaign.
Bushwick Print Lab Grand Opening
Posted December 10, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
A long time friend of Justseeds, and former co-director of Ad Hoc Art, Ray Cross has just opened up his new spot, the Bushwick Print Lab!:
Bushwick Print Lab
Grand Opening and Holiday Print Sale Spectacular
Thursday, December 17
6:00 PM to Midnight
1717 Troutman Street #203 - 204
Queens NY, 11385
(3 blocks form the Jefferson L stop and just across the Queens line in Ridgewood)
Bushwick Print Lab, a new community silkscreen space in Bushwick/Ridgewood, is excited to announce our Grand Opening and is hosting an affordable print sale for the holidays. The Bushwick Print Lab is a new rental space dedicated to offering film printing, screen-making, shelf and locker storage, and hourly and monthly shop rentals to artists, printmakers and designers who are seeking a professional and well equip lab to create work in silkscreen on paper and apparel. BPL has affordable rates and will offer classes and production assistance for contemporary artists using the versatile medium of silkscreen. We are dedicated to creating increased accessibility to printmaking for artists of all media and the advancement the art of silkscreen printing.
Art as Action- 12/12/09- 2/20/10- at the Printmaking Council of New Jersey
Posted December 9, 2009 by erik_ruin
I'll be in a 5-person group show at the Printmaking Council of New Jersey & paticipating in a panel discussion at the opening this Saturday. please come by if you can.
Art as Action features works by five acclaimed printmakers whose passion for complex social, economic, political, and environmental issues spills over into their art.
Featured Artists - J. Catherine Bebout, Karen Guancione, Curlee Raven Holton,
Doris Nogueira-Rogers, and Erik Ruin.
December 12, 2009 through February 20, 2010.
Opening Reception & Panel Discussion moderated by educator, essayist, poet and photographer John Ripton will take place on Saturday, December 12, 1 - 4pm.
PCNJ
440 River Rd
Branchburg, NJ 08876
Evolution of a Poster
Posted December 9, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
After seeing one of the Garage Collective posters I put up here a couple months back (see below: a poster to announce an art show supporting creative resistance to the New Zealand state), Lincoln Cushing sent me images of 2 historical posters from the AOUON Poster Archive (which he is currently cataloging). The first, from Cuba, is the likely origin point of the flower pattern. The poster is an advertisement for a 1979 film about the Ethiopian Revolution, created by Cuban poster designer and illustrator Eduardo Munoz Bachs (more info about Cuban posters can be found in Cushing's book ¡Revolucion! Cuban Poster Art. I also just found this blog about Cuban posters HERE). The second, from Oakland, borrows and re-purposes the flowers, this time for an anti-recruitment protest poster, likely from 1983. Thanks Lincoln!
Daniel McGowen Art Auction
Posted December 9, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Our friend Daniel is still locked up in Federal prison, and he needs your help! If you are in NYC, please come out this weekend and buy some art! More info about Daniel can be found HERE.
Art Auction to Benefit Imprisoned New York City Social Justice & Environmental Activist Daniel McGowan
On December 7, 2005, New York City activist Daniel McGowan was among the first people arrested as part of an FBI offensive against environmental activists called "Operation Backfire", which activists have dubbed part of the Green Scare (after the Red Scare of the 40s and 50s). Daniel began serving his seven-year sentence in July 2007. In August 2008, Daniel was moved to the Communication Management Unit (CMU) in Marion, IL, a federal prison unit that bypassed the usual review process and severely restricts inmates' communication with the outside world.
To mark the four-year anniversary of Daniel's arrest, and to highlight the continued repression of activists that the federal government has labeled "terrorists," Family and Friends of Daniel McGowan will be hosting an art show, auction and raffle this December. Proceeds will go to Daniel's commissary account and a number of his favorite environmental and social justice organizations.
WHO: Presented by Family and Friends of Daniel McGowan along with popular street artists; political printmakers; and renowned graphic designers.
WHAT: Art Show and Auction featuring artists such as SWOON; Nikki McClure; Justseeds Artist Cooperative members such as Josh MacPhee and Kevin Caplicki; BORF and many more.
WHEN: Saturday, December 12, 2009, 1-9pm. Reception: 7-9pm
WHERE: ADC Gallery, 106 West 29th Street, Ground Floor, NYC
Chile Estyle: A Group Exhibition of Chilean Urban Art, Curated by Pablo Aravena
Posted December 8, 2009 by meredith_stern in Art & Politics
For Immediate Release-
Chile Estyle: A Group Exhibition of Chilean Urban Art, Curated by Pablo Aravena
Carmichael Gallery of Contemporary Art
Opening Reception: Thursday, December 10, 2009, 7-10 PM
Exhibition Open Through December 23
For the first time in North America, Chile Estyle will showcase work from several of Chile's finest contemporary urban muralists, including Cekis, Inti, Horate, La Robot de Madera, and the duos Aislap and Agotok. From the end of the Pinochet dictatorship in the early 90’s until now, Chilean street art has literally exploded into a highly developed style, bearing strong influences from Mexican muralism, 60s – 70s political mural brigades, wildstyle graffiti and Brazilian graffiti and pixação (a unique stylistic cross-pollination with street art from Sao Paulo in the mid-90s). These influences, paired with Chile’s distinct history of propaganda art and muralism dating from the 40s, give rise to the myriad of strongly developed personal visual languages and artistic self-expression seen on the streets of Santiago, Valparaiso and other cities in Chile. The exhibition will consist of new works on canvas as well as site-specific individual and group mural installations in the gallery.
"...a reflection of the gross narcissism of those rich enough to own it."
Posted December 7, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
Mark Vallen has some really incredible posts up on his blog. While Art Basel, in Miami Beach, is being cleaned up and repackaged to go home, I read "200 One Dollar Bills", Vallen's critique of the recent auction of Warhol's screenprint of the same title.
The forces involved in the Sotheby’s auction represent an extremely influential layer in the elite art world, people who must surely believe they are shaping and controlling the future of art; but as any student of history will tell you, the most grandiose plans of the powerful are often times thwarted by material conditions, social pressures, and the acts of the independently minded.
Art Basel's website purports it to be the "most important art show in the United States, a cultural and social highlight for the Americas." I've always likened it to a gun show of art exhibitions, the NY Times acknowledging "the sense of art as merchandise is overpowering" where "most galleries offer variety-store-like mixes of works by different artists with the ambience of a sample sale" in "The Art Fair as Outlet Mall" I remember the Times one year called Art Basel the Cosco of art.
After reading that post I read a more current piece on Art for a Change, on Robert Hughes' documentary called The Mona Lisa Curse. Vallen posts links, (here), to the respective sections on youtube with his synopsis of each part. The videos are so well worth watching and provide a very shrewd look at art and the market influencing it today.
“Apart from drugs, art is the biggest unregulated market in the world, with contemporary art sales estimated at around $18 billion a year. (….) Boosted by regiments of nouveau riche collectors, and serviced by a growing army of advisors, dealers and auctioneers. As Andy Warhol once observed, ‘Good business is the best art.’”-from The Mona Lisa Curse
I could almost hear the toast in Miami Beach, "To the death of Art."
Amilcar Cabral!
Posted December 7, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Tonight the African Diaspora Film Fest in NYC is showing a hard to see documentary about 1960s/70s African revolutionary Amilcar Cabral (which is playing with a doc about Frantz Fanon as well!). It's rare to be able to see any footage of or about Cabral, so this is a rare treat. Cabral's book Return to the Source contains a number of interesting essays exploring the connections between African liberation (particularly in his native Guinea Bissou) and culture. Details about the film and screening are HERE.
(The image is by Beth Gutelius, from Reproduce & Revolt, and as printed on a t-shirt by Liberation Ink, still available HERE.)
IVAW Mud Stencils
Posted December 7, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
A cool short video of Iraq Veterans Against the War putting up mud stencils in Ft. Hood in October:
activism3cream in Tokyo
Posted December 5, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Our friends at Irregular Rhythm Asylum in Tokyo have mounted an art show/installation/social movement archive/hang out space called activism3cream, which based on all the photos (see HERE) is awesome. Hidden in there is some Justseeds work.
Berkeley Student Protest Posters, 1970
Posted December 4, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
With all the occupations and protests going on in University of California system, particularly at UC Berkeley, I thought it would be interesting to throw up a couple of posters from a part Berkeley movement, the anti-war student occupations in 1970. Soon after students were killed by the National Guard at Kent State and Jackson State, and Nixon began bombing Cambodia, there was a national student uprising and a call to strike. At UC Berkeley, the faculty at the College of Environmental Design encouraged the use of their department as a screenprint workshop, which created an estimated 50,000 copies of hundreds of works. For more info on the workshop, go HERE. To see the whole collection of posters from that era, go HERE.
SEA Change Banner Project for Copenhagen
Posted December 3, 2009 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Here's a couple of photographs from an epic day of screen-printing, Roger of Justseeds and Heather of Flight 64 cranking out hundreds of individual letters for Katherine Ball's (of SEA Change gallery in Portland) banner project. 
Howardena Pindell on KARA WALKER - NO / YES / ?
Posted December 2, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Philly correspondent Theodore A. Harris just sent this along, an great looking event this weekend in Brooklyn:
Howardena Pindell on KARA WALKER - NO / YES / ?
Sat. December 4th
2-4pm
MoCADA
80 Hanson Place, Brooklyn, NY
Professor, artist and activist Howardena Pindell has created a new anthology. Kara Walker-No, Kara Walker-Yes, Kara Walker-? is a collection of essays written by other contemporary artists, educators, writers and poets discussing controversial artist Kara Walker. Whether you agree with Pindell or not, or whether Walker's silhouettes appeal to you or not, this book will certainly begin a
conversation about visual culture in the Black community. The talk features a number of authors and artists including Theodore A. Harris, Ben Jones and Rashida Ishmali.
collage image by Theodore A. Harris.
WORK PROGRESS: Dill Pickle Club benefit this Thursday Dec 3rd.
Posted December 1, 2009 by pete in Art & Politics
If you are in Portland this Thursday Dec 3rd be sure to stop by this show. Alec Icky Dunn and Pete Yahnke from Justseeds both have some work in this benefit show. Here are the details from the Dill Pickle Club:
Join us at the Eyeful Gallery (NW 6th & Everett) Thursday, December 3 at 6PM, during the First Thursday art walk for the opening of WORK | PROGRESS, an art show, pop up bookshop and event series to benefit the Dill Pickle Club. Cape Perpetua and Niekrasz/ Jenkins Duet (of Why I Must Be Careful) provide live music, while Ninkasi Brewing generously serves libations.
WORK | PROGRESS features 24 socially-engaged artists creating replicated works, including:
Icky A, Brad Adkins, Moe Bowstern, Carye Bye, Bill Daniel, Dyslexxis, Harrell Fletcher, Sarah Gottesdiener, Sam Gould, Anna Gray, MK Guth, Ariana Jacob, Kendra Larson, Ian Lynam, Eric Mast, Justin Scrappers Morrison, Michael Parich, Ryan Wilson Paulsen, Brittany Powell, Khris Soden, Bwana Spoons, Matthew Stadler, Nim Wunnan, Pete Yahnke
Nuart looking for a few things
Posted December 1, 2009 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Justseeds members Chris Stain and Swoon recently traveled to Stavanger, Norway to participate in the Nuart Street Art Festival. The folks that organized the festival are creating a documentary and have posted this request, below, for some advice on distribution.
We're currently looking for distribution and screenings of our fabulous up close and personal street art documentary, Eloquent Vandals. Get in touch if you have any smart ideas about how we can get it out there.
Nuart is an annual international street art festival based in Stavanger on the West Coast of Norway. From the first week of September an international team of street artists start to leave their mark on the city's walls as well as contribute to a one month long indoor exhibition.
Alcatraz 40th Anniversary Print
Posted December 1, 2009 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
I created this print to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the occupation of Alcatraz by Indians of all Tribes and share them with the community. I designed and printed a poster last year to give away at the sunrise ceremony at Alcatraz. It was a lot of fun giving away poster and people's reaction when i told them they were free. We wanted to do something similar for this years sunrise ceremony on Thanksgiving day. This year we made 300 small posters to give away to the community and an edition of large screen printed posters to share with the organizations that help make the ceremony possible.
What is Democracy?
Posted November 29, 2009 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Oliver Ressler has a new, interesting looking documentary out. Right now you need to be in Vienna or Ljubljana to see it (see below for dates and locations), but hopefully it will circulate farther soon:
WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?
A film by Oliver Ressler
118 min., 2009
“What is democracy?” is not one question, but is actually two questions. On the one hand, the question relates to conditions of the current, parliamentary representative democracies that are scrutinized critically in this project. On the other hand, the question traces different approaches to what a more democratic system might look like and which organizational forms it could take.
Animating Chickens
Posted November 25, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
New animated print videos by my friend Nathan Meltz. These are amazing, defininitely take the 15 minutes to watch them!!!
Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today
Posted November 23, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today has just been released by PM Press! A brand new book which collects 200 political prints from 200 different international artists. Loosely based on the exhibition I've been touring around of the same name, this book is jam-packed full of image and text about the intersection of printmaking, politics, and social engagement.
I'm really proud of this one, it's chock full of great writing and art. There are essays by Deborah Caplow (art historian and biographer of Leopoldo Mendez!) and Eric Triantafillou (co-founder of the San Francisco Print Collective), as well as additional writing by a dozen artists in the book about why and how they print, and what it means to them. And the prints are awesome, ranging from street artists like Swoon, Chris Stain, and Sixten, to veteran political artists like Sue Coe and Carlos Cortez. There are gig poster makers like Emek and Seri Pop, and graphic/comic artists like Nicole Schulman and Seth Tobocman. It's all in here! Pick up a copy HERE, and check out some sample page spreads below.
Norway or the Highway 3
Posted November 22, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here's some wood blocks Chris is working on for the install of the project (above), and my latest hand painted sign is below:
Norway or the Highway 2
Posted November 21, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here's Chris and a couple students up on ladders sketching out the cityscape backdrop we've built in the gym. Man, these ladders are scary! And here is the cityscape getting painted in:
Norway or the Highway 1
Posted November 20, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
For the past week Chris Stain and I have been living, working, and teaching on a small island in Norway called Halsnøy! We're at the Sunnhordland Folkehøgskule (a small arts oriented "peoples" school, which is a Scandanavian program where people can get a year of specialized schooling between high school and going to university or entering the job market). We're here working with 80 students and 5 teachers on a project around consumerism and capitalism, which will culminated in a student show on Sunday integrating visual art, performance, dance, and theater. It's been interesting and a challenge, and I'm not even sure how to process it all, so I think I'll just post some photos for the next couple days...
Art Appreciation: Dispatch 1
Posted November 18, 2009 by dara_g in Art & Politics
I have decided to start a new blogging series about art and culture I have appreciated recently. I can't promise it will be a series actually but at least there is this post....
Dewayne Slightweight
©Dewayne Slightweight. Used by permission.
Dewayne recently sent around an announcement for his upcoming show and included a digital repro of one of his paintings. I really love this piece and all of the different kinds of work that Dewayne does: music, performance, publications, and more. Dewayne makes beautiful and moving work and exhibits it with other radical artists often through self-organized exhibits and tours. A little more about Dewayne is here.
On the Poverty of First Grade Art Assignments
Used by permission of the artist.
A six year old relative recently detourned his very limited art assignment and of course he got censored. Given a predetermined scene that itself has ideaology built into it, his response reflects on the assignment, what it represented, and our culture at large. The "art activity sheet" has a picture of man, a woman, and 2.5 children with the prompting question, "What are these people looking at?" The student is meant to draw in a picture of what it is they are looking at. My young friend drew in a typical pastoral sublime: mountains, a sunset. Then he put in thought/speech bubbles with the man saying "I heart beer," and the woman saying, "me too." This, he and his parent were told, was inappropriate. To me it seems an extremely clever reflection on the banality of family life, the creeping in of consumptive desire even at times when we are supposed to be having transcendent moments looking at natural beauty, and a joke about sight itself. The assignment only asked what they were looking at, NOT what they were thinking or saying. Often when we look, we also are elsewhere, thinking about our next beer.
Political Graphics of the Long 60s
Posted November 17, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Lincoln Cushing has just added a new essay, "Political Graphics of the Long 60s" to his Docs Populi site. The essay was also published in the new book New World Coming: The Sixties and the Shaping of Global Consciousness, edited by Karen Dubinsky, Catherine Krull, Susan Lord, Sean Mills and Scott Rutherford, Between The Lines Press, 2009. Check it out HERE.
Image: Frank Cieciorka, “Stop the Draft Week,” Stop the Draft Week Organizing Committee, 1967.
Justseeds Presentation at Black Sheep Books, Montpelier, VT
Posted November 16, 2009 by k_c_ in Events
Tonight! I'll be giving a presentation about Justseeds and the Voices From Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex.
Monday, November 16, 7pm
at Black Sheep Books
5 State St
Montpelier, VT
In 2006, Justseeds a radical art distributor transitioned from a project run by its founder to a cooperatively run business and collective committed to creating and distributing socially engaged artwork. Over the last three years Justseeds has produced posters, calendars, print portfolios, exhibits, books, and collective installations tackling numerous contemporary themes and celebrating radical history.Come join member Kevin Caplicki for a presentation on
the trajectory of the artist-owned and run Justseeds
Cooperative and an exhibition of "Voices From Outside:
Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex",
Justseeds portfolio project 2008.
Art Work: A National Conversation About Art, Labor, and Economics
Posted November 16, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Our friends Temporary Services have just launched a new project called Art Work, including a newspaper with a piece about Justseeds in it, as well as something by Justseeds member Nicolas Lampert. Check it out:
Art Work: A National Conversation About Art, Labor, and Economics
SPACES
Cleveland, OH
November 20 - January 15, 2010
SPACES hosts Art Work: A National Conversation About Art, Labor, and Politics, produced by Temporary Services, an independent, Chicago-based collective comprised of Brett Bloom, Salem Collo-Julin, and Marc Fischer. Art Work is a newspaper and website that uses SPACES as its distribution hub. It consists of writings from artists, activists and academics on the topic of working amidst depressed economies and how that impacts artistic process, compensation and artistic property. The newspaper will be distributed throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.
Bulldozed at Mix 22
Posted November 14, 2009 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Our friends Vanessa Renwick and Jem Cohen have short films in a screening at the New York City Mix Fest going on right now. Here's the info on Bulldozed:
Gentrification is the talk of the town. It is rapidly changing the demographics and aesthetics of every major city in the world. It is apparent and controversial, but it is by no means new. From Brooklyn to Berlin to Nova Scotia, the films in this program trace different histories of gentrification and corporate takeover from the late 1960s to present day. Some are tender, delicate tributes to histories and landmarks erased and the communities disappeared and displaced. Others turn the lens inward towards the artist, examining personal longing for “home” and examining its elusive nature. There is humor, spirit and courage in these films to search for what was, to hold one’s ground and to celebrate the vibrancy that survives vacancy.
Curated by the Festival Programming Committee. TRT: 78 min.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Films by Vanessa Renwick, Jem Cohen, Leigh (Jen) Fisher, Liss Platt, Dana C. Inkster, Niklas Goldbach, Jack Waters, Samara Halperin.
More info HERE.
Justseeds Tabling at Expozine, Montreal
Posted November 13, 2009 by k_c_ in Events
Justseeds members will be tabling at Expozine 2009, Montreal's Annual Small Press, Comic and Zine Fair
Saturday, November 14 & Sunday, November 15, 2009, from 12-6 p.m. at
5035 St-Dominique
(Église Saint-Enfant Jésus, between St-Joseph and Laurier, near Laurier Métro)
Free admission
This incredible event brings together nearly 300 creators of all kinds of printed matter – from books to zines to posters and graphic novels – in both English and French. Over the past seven editions, Expozine has grown to become one of North America's largest small press fairs, attracting thousands of visitors as well as exhibitors from across Canada, the United States and Europe.
Chris Stain in Miami
Posted November 13, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Chris is following his usual themes of the importance of the individual's experience and the struggle of daily life. Here's some new work that will be on view at Art Basel in Miami during the first week of December.
Become the Bike Bloc
Posted November 13, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Put the fun between your legs: Become the Bike Bloc
Bristol and Copenhagen Nov – Dec 09
An irresistible new machine of resistance will be launched during the COP15 UN summit protests in Copenhagen. Made from hundreds of old bicycles and thousands of activists' bodies 'Put the fun between your legs: Operation Bike Bloc' is a collaboration between Climate Camp and art activist collective The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination.
Bristol Radical History Group in NYC Nov 12-15th
Posted November 12, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
Some old English comrades, a few I met in Mexico over 8 years ago, are in NYC giving some presentations on the Bristol Radical History Group, a project they've been doing since 2006:
The 'History Workshop' movement was founded in 1966 in Ruskin College, Oxford, U.K. by the Marxist academic Raphael Samuel, a champion of 'history from below.' He famously defined this movement as being "the belief that history is or ought to be a collaborative enterprise, one in which the researcher, the archivist, the curator and the teacher, the 'do-it-yourself' enthusiast and the local historian, the family history societies and the individual archaeologist, should all be regarded as equally engaged."In 2006 in the U.K., Bristol Radical History Group was formed with a view opening up some of the hidden history of their home city to public scrutiny, to challenge some commonly held ideas about historical events and approach this history from 'below'. Unlike Samuel's 'History Workshop,' the group actually came 'from below' its genesis being in an expanded sports club rather than in the academy. As a result it has been able to successfully integrate both the formal lecture with street performance, the organic intellectual with the academic and engage the public in the excitement of radical history by the use of different media.
Hotel Workers Stike in SF
Posted November 11, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
David Bacon just sent out a nice set of photos and a short text on the hotel worker's strike going on right now in San Francisco. One of the things I really like about the photos he's taken is that they capture some of the joy of the picket line, workers laughing and playing with each other, not simply marching around in circles with dour faces, which is so often the images of contemporary labor unrest.
The Internet as Playground and Factory
Posted November 10, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Our NYC readers might be interested in this conference coming up this week:
The Internet as Playground and Factory: A Conference on Digital Labor
Thursday, November 12, through Saturday, November 14, 2009
The New School, 66 Fifth Avenue at 12th Street, New York City
veralistcenter.org | digitallabor.org
This conference confronts the urgent need to interrogate the concepts of labor and value in the digital economy and seeks to inspire proposals for action. There are currently few adequate definitions of labor that fit the complex, hybrid realities of the digital economy. The Internet as Playground and Factory poses a series of questions about the conundrums surrounding labor (and often the labor of love) in relation to our digital present. It is the first in a series of biennial conferences titled The Politics of Digital Media.
Americans Who Tell the Truth
Posted November 9, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friend Zoeann just sent me a link to this site Americans Who Tell the Truth. It's a series of painted portraits of lefties from the US by Robert Shetterly, and has a Celebrate People's History posters quality to it. Most are fairly traditional and painterly, and quite nice, esp. this James Baldwin one. Check out them all HERE.
365 & Counting
Posted November 8, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
An interesting looking show opening in Los Angeles:
365 & Counting
A group exhibit that examines the 1st year of the Obama Administration.
Avenue 50 Studio, Highland Park, CA
Artist's Reception: Sat. Nov. 14, 2009, 7-10 p.m.
Avenue 50 Studio asked 15 artists to create artworks that provide insight into the first year of the Obama Administration. Issues of race, class, war, health care, the enrivronment and the economy, plus other global challenges - are explored in this timely exhibition. Given the escalating war in Afghanistan, Vallen painted a glimpse of Obama's Guantánamo - the notorious U.S. military prison at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan. The prison holds more than 600 detainees designated as "unlawful enemy combatants"; individuals that in some cases have been held for years without charge, legal representation, or due-process rights. In February of 2009, the Obama administration began a $60 million expansion of the Bagram prison so that it could potentially hold as many as 1,100 suspects.
Creating Radical Graphics for our Liberation: An anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist forum
Posted November 5, 2009 by Melanie_Cervantes in Art & Politics
Sunday, November 15th
1:00 - 4:30pm
Eastside Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd. (at 23rd Ave.) Oakland, CA 94606
FREE. Donations accepted.
Creating Radical Graphics is a one-day mini-conference for Bay Area political printmakers to reflect on recent campaigns, define shared goals and plan a strategy for the future. This event will include a panel and a community meeting, featuring:
Melanie Cervantes, member of Taller Tupac Amaru, an Oakland-based, printmaking studio
Greg Morozumi, co-founder of the Eastside Arts Alliance
Eric Triantafillou, former member and co-founder of the SF Print Collective
and others!
Ten Days for Oppositional Architecture
Posted November 5, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Ten Days for Oppositional Architecture
Towards Post-Capitalist Spaces
New York, November 12-21, 2009
Gair Building No 6, 81 Front Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (York Stop on
the F Train)
The transformation of the urban landscape within the last decades has increasingly been dominated by the demands of capitalist utilization. Due to the current crisis, however, which goes far beyond a mere crisis of the real estate and financial market, these neoliberal politics and attendant forms of production of space have been subject
to a loss of legitimation. For this reason, not only do the dominance and promises of the privatization model, the free market and private property have to be questioned, but also the conventions of the space-producing professions that follow and materialize these policies.
Boomcrash Video
Posted October 30, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
Here's a video a friend produced of the Boomcrash Collective's contribution to the Public Ad Campaign's billboard whitewash last Sunday.
Work In Progress, Portland Show Nov 5th
Posted October 29, 2009 by pete in Art & Politics
Here's a couple of shots of a large piece I am working on for the Justseeds show at Sea Change Gallery in Portland. The show opening is on first Thursday, a big night for art openings in downtown Portland, and our first endeavor with this monthly event. Roger, Icky and I are all painting some large scale pieces, and we will be filling the walls with Justseeds art relating to the theme: the opposable thumb; the human hand at work. We also have a show opening that same night at Reading Frenzy. The Reading Frenzy show is work around the theme: Education and Literacy.
Here's a couple in progress pictures of my piece. I am painting this in my larger in progress project: a back porch on my house that I have been constructing over the past year out of 100% reclaimed salvaged wood, and bricks foraged from the forest of forgotten bricks.
here's a flyer for the show Icky made:
SEA CHANGE
seachangegallery.org
625 NW Everett Street
Gallery #110
Portland, OR 97209
the show is open from 5:30 – 10pm
READING FRENZY
www.readingfrenzy.com
921 SW Oak St. ~ Portland, Ore 97205
the show is open from 6-9pm
Supply & Demand: The Hollow Magic of Shepard Fairey
Posted October 27, 2009 by shaun in Art & Politics
[Full disclosure - the author of this article has been employed multiple times in the Education Department of the Andy Warhol Museum as recently as June 2009, teaching screen-printing to high school students.]
Last week, Shepard Fairey opened a massive retrospective exhibition at Pittsburgh's Andy Warhol Museum. "Supply and Demand" drew a sold-out opening night crowd that watched Fairey DJ alongside Z-Trip while sporting a swank three-piece suit. In the months prior, Fairey and his team toured around Pittsburgh wheat-pasting his familiar designs on building facades both permitted and not, and across from the museum he installed a temporary mural over top of a pre-existing mural by a younger local artist. The silent, creeping presence of Fairey's designs around the city felt eerily similar to the lead-up for the G20 summit this past September, in which faceless PR firms delivered meaningless graphics touting business and lifestyle opportunities to cover dozens of vacant storefronts in downtown in an attempt to scrub the visual landscape. All of this new wallpaper gave an impending and queasy feeling to anyone paying attention: Pittsburgh, once again and without consent, would play host as a playground for the powerful.
(I can) read the writing on the wall-7
Posted October 26, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Valparaiso, Chile
2007
This is from a set of street slogans I shot during a visit to Chile a few years ago. There's a set of them on the Justseeds Flickr page.
Public Ad Campain Strikes Again!
Posted October 26, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
BoomCrash Collective
Sunday, October 25th was the Public Ad Campaign's second whitewashing and takeover of unsanctioned billboards in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Public Ad Campaign acts on the assumption that public space and the public's interaction with that space is a vital component of our city's health. By visually altering and physically interacting with the public environment, residents become psychologically invested in their community.Outdoor advertising is the primary obstacle to open public communications. By commodifying public space, outdoor advertising has monopolized the surfaces that shape our shared space. Private property laws protect the communications made by outdoor advertising while systematically preventing public usage of that space.
Josh participated in part of the previous action, writing about it on the Justseeds Blog here. By Sunday evening the NY Times had noticed and published A Battle, on Billboards, of Ads vs. Art.
The above billboard was done by the BoomCrash collective, on N7th & Bedford Ave in, knowingly amidst many of the unfinished luxury residential projects in Williamsburg. Yet unknowingly on the 80th anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash.
Russian Revolution Postcard Set
Posted October 25, 2009 by icky in Art & Politics
"1917, Day of the Revolution, soldiers on [maybe a street name?]"
This is a postcard set detailing the Revolution(s) of 1917 in Russia. Someone was auctioning these awhile ago and I kept the images. The October (Bolshevik) Revolution was only 92 years ago today!
My great grandparents were Armenians in the Russian military on the Turkish front, and had to flee the country following the revolution. I only bring this up because these images seem like forever ago, but my grandmother was with them and is still alive—this all happened within a lifetime! Anyway, my Russian is pretty spotty, and I am especially bad at reading cursive (also the resolution on these images is not so good) but here are some vaguely, hopefully, accurate translations!
Groundswell Collective back online
Posted October 21, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Out good friends at the Groundswell Design Collective havee been having some computer troubles as of late, but they are now fully back online. If you've never checked them out, or haven't been in awhile, take a peek at their design site HERE and blog HERE.
Help Keep Liberation Ink Alive and Kicking
Posted October 20, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Our friends and awesome t-shirt makers Liberation Ink are struggling to survive at the moment, and need our help! Liberation Ink is an Oakland-based artist and activist run shirt shop that has created a number of shirts by Justseeds artists, including Favianna Rodriguez, Fernando Marti, and myself (Josh MacPhee), and always gives a portion of the money they bring in to local political projects. They have just set up a membership drive in order to raise the capital necessary to keep the gears turning, so if you're into political art on shirts, check them out, become a member, and buy some shirts!
Here's their call:
Join Liberation Ink as part of our new Membership Program and help us continue to sustain and grow our business to support social justice organizing! Your membership will help cover the basic overhead costs so that we can keep Liberation Ink open. So please join today and help us spread the word. We need to sign up 200 Members by October 31! For as little as $30 a year, you can help sustain and grow Liberation Ink and our efforts to fund social justice organizing from the grassroots.Join at $30 a year (includes a free tee shirt) or at $50 a year (for free shirt and additional discounts). Click HERE.
Automatic Insurrection
Posted October 19, 2009 by erik_ruin in Art & Politics
This just in from our friend John Duda in Baltimore, an automated insurrectionist rant generator! Guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment!
John explains:
"The purpose of this little program is to expose the seductions of rhetoric, not to criticize actions taken. Despite my admiration for many of the actions taken in the name of insurrection, I'm suspicious of how easy it is to substitute style for substance in the communiques describing these actions. And this is not to say that all "insurrectionist" texts are meaningless, despite its difficulty, I found the Coming Insurrection to be, with all its excesses, a serious (if contentious) contribution to revolutionary thought. And, to point out just one other exemplar, the recent "Communique from an Absent Future: The Terminus of Student Life" is by and large an excellent piece of analysis. This program is intended only to demonstrate the pitfalls of language which sounds too good to be meaningful."
(I can) read the writing on the wall-6
Posted October 19, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
No More Corporate Bullshit-Fuk Wall St
Gowanus, Brooklyn. 2008
This was an artists response to last years economic crisis and collapse. Below is a more recent photo of the response of someone with money to burn on brown paint.
Its interesting, that, whomever buffed this building only had a problem with the overt statement and not the self aggrandizing throw-ups. Is offending Wall St. bad for property values? Couldn't the financial institutions be blamed for valueless land and homes?
Funny, bankers and graffiti artists supposedly have the similar effects on a neighborhood. I'd rather read the walls any day than have the mystery and of the market impact my neighbors.
Come On, Shepard!
Posted October 18, 2009 by dylanminer in In the News
The drama with Shepard Fairey continues…While the position that some of the Justseeds' members take on the work of Fairey is public knowledge (see Mark Vallan's 2007 essay, written with Josh MacPhee, Favianna Rodriguez, and Lincoln Cushing or see Favianna's blog or Liam O'Donoghue's article), recent news stories continue to look bad for any "progressive" street artist-turned capitalist entrepeneur.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Fairey admitted to using Mannie Garcia's photo of President Obama as the source for his famous HOPE poster. While Fairey has greatly benefitted from this poster, Garcia has received little. Today's LAT states:
"Shepard Fairey admits to wrongdoing in Associated Press lawsuit"
Political Cinema.... part deux
Posted October 17, 2009 by icky in Art & Politics
"Les miettes " (Crumbs) directed by Pieree Pinaud in 2007.
I projected this silent film last night at my work, in a program of new French shorts. It's a beautifully made, aesthetically retro, allegory about capitalism, solidarity, and (even) the necessity of armed self-defense.
Well worth a half hour of your time!
The art of protest in Iran
Posted October 15, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
The Guardian UK recently posted a short but interesting piece on the art, design, and technology used in the recent protests in Iran. The article is called "The art of protest in Iran: From cartoons of potatoes to boycotts of Nokia, Iranian political dissent is finding endlessly creative expression," and you can check it out HERE.
Filthy Lucre
Posted October 14, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
My friend Sam Sebren is in this show, looks promising:
Filthy Lucre
Curated by Nancy Mahl of Progressive Culture Works
October 24 - December 5, 2009
Opening Reception, with performance, October 24, 7-10 PM
Panel Discussion and Screening: Saturday, November 7, 2009
Gallery Aferro
73 Market St Newark NJ 07102
What is Art Without Money?
Filthy Lucre examines the transformative power of valuation upon art and the people who make it. The artists, performers, and writers participating in the project have investigated the definitions and functions of art as a commodity and queried the practice of artmaking from inside and outside the realm of monetary exchange. The work, from the purely theoretical to the frankly hilarious, is by artists representing a broad spectrum of age, background, education, and commercial success. Particular focus is brought to unsalable art and what becomes of it, the effects of commercial success on artmaking practice, the spiritual function of art, defining the consumer of art, the difference between precious and valuable, the economic element in definitions of high, outsider, and folk art; and the ever-fraught relationship of artist and patron.
BBU in NYC
Posted October 9, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My old friend Jasson Perez is making a name for himself in Chicago as 1/3 of the political hip-hop crew BBU (Bin Laden Blowin' Up, or Black, Brown & Ugly). They're great, and I did a logo for them a little while back, using a Chris Stain handstyle....There's a nice piece on them in this weeks Chicago Reader (check it out HERE), and for those in NYC, definitely check them out at CMJ Music Fest, they're playing Thursday Oct. 22nd. Check out some songs HERE, and check out this video, too:
BBU at Dickfork from Anthony Esquivel on Vimeo.
Space Hijackers going to court
Posted October 8, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
So while we've been dealing with G20 fallout here, there's been a bit of stir over in the UK related to the G20 as well. British art crew the Space Hijackers were arrested for impersonating the cops at the G20 protests in London back in April, and now their going to court. Below is part of a letter from the Hijackers, and a story from the Times UK can be found HERE.
Hello, Robin from Space Hijackers here, I'm not sure if you're aware but the hijackers are currently in a bit of bother.As you may have seen in the news, we've recently been arrested for the spurious charge of impersonating police officers at the G20 demonstrations. It seems the police didn't quite find it as funny as we did to discover us rolling around in our tank, playing Ride of the Valkyries whilst ridiculing the oppressive police tactics on the day of the protests.
Designer Sneakers Help Immigrants, Just Do It!
Posted October 6, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
I came across this project while reading Kathleen Hanna's (of Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, and Julie Ruin) blog! They are a project by an Argentine artist which received a grant to design shoes built to assist immigrants with making the dangerous trek across the U.S.-Mexico border. From the BBC
The trainers are adorned with unusual items."The shoe includes a compass, a flashlight because people cross at night, and inside is included also some Tylenol painkillers because many people get injured during crossing," Werthein says.
The artist was commissioned by a cross-border arts exhibition called inSite to develop a project that "intervened" in some aspect of border life. While researching her project, the Argentine native became fascinated by illegal immigrants' primary mode of transportation - their feet. An Aztec eagle is embroidered on the heel. On the toe is the American eagle found on the US quarter, to represent the American dream the migrants are chasing. A map - printed on the shoe's removable insole - shows the most popular illegal routes from Tijuana into San Diego.
There is also an article at Delete the Border.
Reproduce & Revolt makes the rounds-in Chile!
Posted October 5, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
My pal Erok & I sent some copies of Favianna Rodriguez and Josh Macphee's book Reproduce and Revolt down to Chile about a year ago. Like many of the punks I know in Mexico, Chilean anarchists use screenprinting for making lots of patches and stickers. As it turns out a friend of mine just sent me a link to a screenprinting workshop she's been taking classes at, in Valparaiso, Chile. It appears the book is being put to use there!
CSPG Celebrates 20 Years of Explosive Graphics
Posted October 4, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
I've always wanted to go to one of these CSPG annual events, but am never in LA at the right time. If you're in LA check this out and let us know how it went!!
CSPG Celebrates 20 Years of Explosive Graphics
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Union Station
800 North Alameda
Downtown L.A.
6:30 PM - Music & Silent Auction
Original art, vintage & contemporary posters
Music: Marcus L. Miller with Freedom Jazz Movement
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM Buffet Dinner
On Location Catering
8:00 PM Program & Live Auction
Emcee: Sandra Tsing Loh
Auctioneer: Robert Berman
Rini in Mexico
Posted October 3, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Just a quick shot of a poster in Mexico City using the art of Rini Templeton. Her work is still getting around! If you don't know about Rini, check out the RiniArt site, built by Favianna R. and Jesus B.
Disperse!: The Official G-20 Megamix Extravaganza
Posted October 2, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
To go along with Mary's posting about media coverage at the G20, here's an awesome remix of the police order to disperse, heard in the streets of Pittsburgh during the G20.
Thanks to whomever put that together. Its funny cos I was just listening to WFMU the other day, and heard a song called Resist. It was a DJ remix of a very popular Radical Cheerleader chant during the anti-globalisation hey-day, by Plastique Du Reve f/ Radical Resistance Cheerleaders.
Wolverines! (Red Dawn 2010)
Posted September 30, 2009 by icky in In the News
These are pictures I culled from IO9 of the Red Dawn movie remake (creatively titled "Red Dawn 2010") , where Russia and China invade the old USA. This one, like the first one, seems to be really drawing on right wing fear.
I thought I might be able add something witty to this, but the pictures are kind of fascinating... an aesthetically dumbed-down Shep Fairey with thoughtful slogans like, "Be Disturbed at Not Understanding". I am!
(Pictured: Pontiac, Michigan)
INTERVIEW: Taylor Stevenson of Red Semilla Roja
Posted September 30, 2009 by icky in Interviews
The Esplanade is a narrow strip of land that lies between the Willamette River and Interstate 5 in Portland (OR). In 2001 the City of Portland remodeled this into a riverfront parkway, with some public art, a partially-floating bike/jog path, and some new boat docks. This area (near rail lines, social services, and with plenty of bridges and overpasses) has also been a long time spot for homeless camps, car campers, train hoppers, and also (of course) skate boarders & graffiti.
I put up a blog posting a couple weeks ago about a public art install, Live Debris, which occurred in this area. It was organized by the group Red Semilla Roja, and one in "a series of international events sharing reuse traditions as a means of reducing stigmas around garbage, poverty and street culture."
I went down late on a Saturday, added some art to the wheat paste wall, sat on a woven-from-garbage hammock, and looked out over the river. I then wandered back down the Esplanade and checked out all the different projects that were part of Live Debris. I was impressed and inspired by the project and interviewed Taylor Stevenson from Red Semilla Roja for the Justseeds blog via email on September 25th, 2009.
(photos taken from Live Debris website)
Matzpen CPH Poster Released
Posted September 29, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
A new Celebrate People's History poster has just come out: Matzpen by Joshua Kahn Russell and Dan Berger.
The Israeli Socialist Organization, better known by the name of its publication, Matzpen (Compass), formed in 1962. It was the first organization in Israel founded on principles of anti-Zionism. Its membership joined Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs to resist Israel’s apartheid policies. Matzpen challenged Israeli manifest destiny for twenty-five years, and its legacy continues to animate anti-Zionist organizing within Israel and around the world. The poster was designed by climate and social justice organizer Joshua Kahn Russell and anti-imperialist author Dan Berger. Russell and Berger interviewed each other over the recent Rosh Hoshana (Jewish New Year) about the poster, Jewish radicalism, and Palestinian self-determination.
September 20, 2009
Dan: Hi Joshua. Happy new year!
Joshua: Hey Dan, Shana Tovah. So we made a poster, huh? I hear 5770 is the year of liberation-history education through social movement art.
Dan: Cultural work on a variety of levels has been so important to interrupt the false consensus around all Jews supporting Israeli colonialism.
Joshua: Art is always and important medium and vehicle in social movements, but I think this is particularly so among Jews learning to challenge some of the dominant myths around Zionism. Artists like Israeli-born, Detroit-based rapper Invincible are creating amazing multimedia to tell stories and narratives of the occupation and colonialism, with songs that include extensive interviews with displaced people, footage of demonstrations and military violence, etc. I think this is partly because the subject is still (though increasingly less) taboo; art and creative expression is like the sugar that helps the medicine go down for an uncomfortable subject. We’re talking here about basic Jewish values: self-determination, social justice, freedom, interconnection and interdependence. Unfortunately, talking about them in the context of the harsh realities of the Israeli military and State make it confusing and difficult for Jews to speak frankly and honestly.
(I can) read the writing on the wall-3
Posted September 28, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Bushwick, NY
I have been taking a bunch of flicks of the Read fire extinguisher tags, here's one of em. You may see Boans, Reader, Read More, or other stuff. If you find em, let me know. I'd like to compile a bunch more!
INTERVIEW: Josh MacPhee from 2003
Posted September 28, 2009 by meredith_stern in Interviews
In 2003, I took to the road and drove around the Northeast and Midwest United States and interviewed about 2 dozen radical artists about their work. I posted an edited section of the interview with Nicolas Lampert (one of our Justseeds members) about a year ago. So, here is the second installment...an interview with Josh MacPhee. Keep in mind that this is six years old, and as such, is dated. I will be posting others over time, so keep your eye out!
These interviews became a rough draft/sketch for the chapter I edited ("Subversive Multiples") in Realizing the Impossible, edited by Josh MacPhee and Erik Ruin and published by AK Press in 2007.
Operation Hey Mackey! in Oakland, CA
Posted September 28, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods has argued that American workers do not deserve a health care system. We believe that heath care should be affordable for everyone, not just rich people.
Operation Hey Mackey! - Whole Foods, Oakland from Jamie LeJeune on Vimeo.
A few last words, from last weeks Climate Week NYC
Posted September 27, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
A group referring to itself as the “Greenwash Guerrillas” claimed credit for the banner, and prior to a hasty departure threw leaflets down onto the stalled traffic articulating their demands:
* We know a highly-developed campaign has been launched in the United States by the worst transnational corporate polluters, Wall Street financiers, and well-funded professional enviros along with their lesser-funded camp-followers to pass a bill, any bill, possessing the namesake of ‘the climate’;
* We hold that polluting corporations have never advocated for anything that would harm their bottom line, their short-term profits or their shareholders;
* We recognize that Wall Street financiers, responsible for a world-wide economic recession due to a speculative bubble collapse, have set their sites on a $14 trillion carbon trading system as a means of reviving their fortunes;
* We know that corporate polluters have effectively defanged the mainstream US environmental movement. Many organizations that appear to publicly support environmental defense are welcoming disastrous policy within the US and the leadup to the December COP15 Climate Talks in Copenhagen. The mainstream environmental movement has become little more than a sounding board for corporate sponsors of profit-generating climate change legislation.As a people, we cannot define the systematic destruction of our environment, the unprecedented exctinction crisis, and oncoming impacts of climate catastrophe as a money-making opportunity. We will not forget or forgive those who mindlessly, selfishly advocate a cap-and-trade system. The False Solutions agenda of the corrupt circles of government at home and abroad will meet resistance.
Signed,
Agent Simple Green
The Greenwash Guerrillas
Red & Blue
Posted September 27, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
A great short document of a circus action in Christiania, in Copenhagen. Thanks to Nils Vest (long time Christianian and filmmaker) for sending this along....
Fuck the Buff: Rest in Peace Gary King Jr.
Posted September 25, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
This just in from Not My Government:
Paul Barron’s community memorial mural of Gary King Jr. was buffed by BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) September 24th, 2009. The mural was painted at the end of 2007, after police officer Patrick Gonzales beat, tazered, and shot 20 year old, unarmed and innocent, Gary King Jr. in the back. Gary passed away in hand cuffs next to this pillar, while his young cousin had to watch, unable to put pressure on the wounds because officer Gonzales put a gun to his head and said that he would kill him if he touched Gary. Gary ran a construction company with his father and was a productive member of the community. His life was stolen before he got to see the birth of his baby girl.
350 in NYC for Climate Week
Posted September 25, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
While the G20 is meeting in Pittsburgh right now, the General Assembly has been meeting at the United Nations in NYC. This week, Sept 20-26 has been called Climate Week NY by folks organizing various kinds of symbolic actions and demonstration.
I was asked by the 350.org campaign if I could make some last minute placards for a demonstration. I hadn't heard much about the organizing or demonstrations for the week, which probably should be taken note, since any outreach on activity like this would come across my radar. Anyhow, I was happy to be able to support and participate from the periphery. 
Impressions for Change
Posted September 25, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Impressions for Change:
35 Years of Political Posters from Red Sun Press
This anniversary exhibit of posters printed by Red Sun Press highlights progressive activism of the past thirty five years – focusing on peace, justice and a sustainable world.
Jamaica Plain Open Studios
September 26-27, 2009
11 am-6 pm
94 Green Street, Jamaica Plain, MA
Reception
Saturday, September 26, 6-8 pm
Scientists, Activists Protest Corporate Control Over Climate Policy
Posted September 23, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
From the Mobilization for Climate Justice:
Bryant Park – Climate SOS, New York Climate Action Group, and members of Rising Tide North America protested what they called “a greenwashed U.S. climate agenda” at the opening of NYC Climate Week. Activists distributed their version of the ACESA (American Clean Energy and Security Act) bill to event attendees and media in the form of fake $2 trillion bills which subtly depict a collusion of prominent Green NGOs (NRDC, the Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense Fund among others) with corporate backers of the bill (BP, Shell, Dow, and others). Climate SOS organizers Dr. Rachel Smolker and Dr. Maggie Zhou engaged ceremony patrons with a pointed critique of the bill’s corporate-friendly implications.Citing the overwhelming embrace of business CEOs at the upcoming climate summit, largely closed to the public, Smolker states:
“At the national and international level, special interest corporate lobbyists have held a stranglehold on climate policymaking. “Solutions” being offered are those most profitable and convenient to corporate polluters and their acquiescent faux ‘Green’ NGO allies. The panoply of cap-and-trade, emissions offsets, genetically engineered organisms, and carbon capture and sequestration technology (CCS) form a pipe-dream constellation of false solutions. That these proposals are not met with the critique or rejection offered by scientists and grassroots movements illustrates the privileged access of corporations to the halls of the US Congress and the UN.”
Explosive Expression
Posted September 23, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Another nice poster from Jared Davidson/Garage Collective in New Zealand. This one is an announcement for an upcoming art exhibition. Those in the NZ, check it out and let us know how it is!
Billionaires for Wealthcare
Posted September 22, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
The Billionaires for.... are a street theater group that have been present during the election cycles of the last ten years. Here's some media pieces about the Billionaires current adaptation.
The latest incarnation of the "Billionaire" meme, "Billionaires for
Wealthcare" struck again this weekend, as Healthcare Inc. CEOs in tuxedos and gowns "thanked" Tea-baggers for coming out for Glenn Beck's March on Washington from Sept 12th. Tea-baggers eagerly joined in on Billionaire chants of "Bring Back Bush!" and “Fight Socialism! Abolish Medicare Now!”, but the greatest crowd pleaser (and provoker) of the day, was a stirring rendition of their original song "Let's Save the Status Quo" sung to the tune of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and memorably captured in this music video:recently featured by Rachel Maddow.
(I can) read the writing on the wall-2
Posted September 21, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
New Work at Portland Show
Posted September 21, 2009 by pete in Art & Politics
Icky A, Roger Peet and I will have some work in the show "I think therefore I am" at the Goodfoot Lounge in Portland. The opening is this Thursday Sept. 24. I thought I would post images of the 2 large new prints I will have up at this show as it may be awhile till I get these on the Justseeds site.
the first is:
"Home Is Where the Cart Is" which is inspired by some of the folks at Dignity Village here in Portland and the many folks that survive living in Forest Park or in the nooks and crannies of Portland. I have seen many amazing bike carts used to carry everything from scrap metal to full size couches. I've even seen a few carts that people pull around and then sleep in at night. When I got a tour of Dignity Village last year out tour guide was extremely proud of the cart bike cart he built and used as his main hauling device for all his living needs at Dignity. This image celebrates these folks.
Peter Kuper at MoCCA
Posted September 18, 2009 by k_c_
I went to Peter Kuper's presentation of his recently published book Diario De Oaxaca: A Sketchbook Journal of Two Years in Mexico on PM Press. The event was an opening for Peter's current exhibit up at the MoCCA Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, at 594 Broadway, Suite 401
"MoCCA is pleased to present Peter Kuper's Diario de Oaxaca: A Sketchbook Journal of Two Years in Mexico. This exhibition is in conjunction with the release of his book published in a bilingual edition from PM Press in the US and Sexto Piso in Mexico. Diario de Oaxaca is Kuper's chronicle of his experiences in Oaxaca, Mexico during the political uprising of 2006 and its aftermath. The exhibition includes sketches, illustrations and comics, capturing both the light and shadows that defined his time there."
The exhibit is really simple and stark. I started to notice how Peter was using the nationalistic colors of Mexico in the wall text. It then occurred to me that the wall to my right was painted red, to my left, green, and the wall in front of me had an eagle eating the serpent on the cactus. He incorporated simple elements like the Mexican flag along with stenciled slogans from the streets of Oaxaca on the walls amidst his journal sketches. There are two large screens in the gallery one, a multimedia collage of Peter's stenciled "Day of the Dead" self-portrait, and another displaying dozens of slides he took while living in Oaxaca. The images range from the immense amount of graffiti and visual culture produced in the streets as part of the uprising to buses, which were commandeered and burnt to provide barricades in street battles against the Federal Police, to snapshots of his daughter in front of a line of riot police.
(I can) read the writing on the wall-1
Posted September 13, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Like Colin's weekly drawings, I decided, to post a weekly photo up here on the Justseeds Blog. I got glasses when I was in first grade, but I've always been able to read the writing on the wall. I'll be posting new and old photos I've got of the things I come across in my day, in my home, of NYC, and in my travels.
This first installment, is clearly on an awning,
Houston St, NY.
Pictures from Erik Ruin installation at the Dirt Palace
Posted September 12, 2009 by erik_ruin
The Dirt Palace site just posted some nice-looking pics from my installation in their window, which just came down. You can check it out in slideshow format on Flickr.
The focal point of my installation were the banners i had printing during my residency at AS220. I also created with my dear friend the amazing Andrew Oesch two life-size painted-and-cut-out figures on red rosin paper and scores of painted clouds (with additional help from Susan Sakash).
The Dirt Palace window is a great place to exhibit as it faces onto the main square of the Olneyville neighborhood in Providence, and thus attracts the attention of a great number of random passers-by. I even had one enthusiastic fellow step into the window with me to chat while I was installing!
Big thanks to everyone who made my time in Providence such a dream- including all of Building 16 and AS220, Meredith Stern, Jean Cozzens for print help, Xander Marro, Andrew, Susan and Walker Mettling for delicious opening food & beverages.
Art for Healthcare Reform
Posted September 12, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Patricia Dahlman and Michael Dal Cerro have put up the 14 pieces of art they received in response to a call for art on health care reform. There's a couple nice pieces and block prints. Check out the art HERE. The above image is by Deborah Harris, "To Your Health."
EveryBody! Visual Resistance in Feminist Health Movements, 1969-2009
Posted September 8, 2009 by shaun
“Our feelings will lead us to our theory, our theory to our action, our feelings about that action to new theory and then to new action.”- Kathie Sarachild of Redstockings Radical Feminist group, presented at the First National Women’s Liberation Conference, Chicago, November 27, 1968
Curated by our cohort Bonnie Fortune, and including Justseeds artists Favianna Rodriguez and Meredith Stern as well as Pittsburgher Hyla Willis (subRosa), "EveryBody!" opens this Friday at I Space Gallery in Chicago. For address, hours, images, and more info on the show including links to artists and organizations involved, head over to Bonnie's site!
Exhibit runs until October 10.
2010 Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar is now available!
Posted September 7, 2009 by Jesse_Purcell in Art & Politics
Support indigenous resistance!
I just got an email today from the folks at Certain Days announcing the completion of the 2010 calendar. A number or justseeds members contributed work, it's an honor to participate in such a worthwhile and timely project.
It is available now at www.certaindays.org and it will be arriving at Justseeds headquarters later this week
Global Indigenous Resistance
Indigenous resistance to colonialism is a fundamental aspect of any struggle for liberation taking place on stolen native land. Prisons are an integral part of the colonial web of domination – evidenced in the over-representation of indigenous people in both the Canadian and U.S. prison systems – and political imprisonment continues to be a key tool of repression against anti-colonial movements.
While this theme is a fitting one for a political prisoner calendar at any time, we chose to highlight it this year when the call went out from Coast Salish territory for Resistance 2010. In February, the Winter Olympics will be held on the unceded indigenous territory which Canada claims as the province of British Columbia, with dire implications for the people and the land. An impressive indigenous-led effort is underway that also includes opposition to the G8 Leader's Summit, and a meeting of NAFTA leaders as part of the so-called "Security and Prosperity Partnership." Resistance 2010 organizing
seeks to bring together analysis and resistance against colonialism, imperialism, and global capital.
Pretty Revolutionary
Posted September 6, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Karen Fiorito of Buddha Cat Press is working with Monet Clark to produce a series of silkscreens about the role of women in the recent Iranian protests. More info at the Buddha Cat website.
REVIEW: Street Art San Francisco
Posted September 2, 2009 by jmacphee in Reviews
Annice Jacoby for Precita Eyes Muralists, ed.
Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo
Abrams, 2009
I gotta say, at the first crack of the spine of this book I was immediately nostalgic for San Francisco, strangely enough a city I've never even lived in! There was something extremely powerful about the streets of SF between 1997-2004, even for a visitor and outsider like me. Coming to the city, and the Mission District in particular, was like walking into a giant, explosive, exciting car crash of ideas, experiences, ideologies and people. The walls literally dripped with the shrapnel, covered with the remnants of 1970s & 80s murals, anti-gentrification screenprinted posters, art student graffiti, Latino gang markings, weirdo street artists, anarchist slogans, and billboards triumphantly announcing the dot-com and real estate booms. And for the most part this book does a great job of capturing that energy and feeling, carrying us through the blur.
Although Street Art SF is broken into sections, they are fairly hard to distinguish, which in many ways is a good thing, allowing the reader to flow from one style to another, fade between histories, jump between artists, just like a pedestrian on Valencia, Bryant or Mission streets would. Don't let the title fool you, this isn't just another edition pulled of the seemingly endless conveyor belt of dull "Street Art" book cash-ins. Likely a smart marketing move to put street art first in the title, this is really a mural book that understands and values the contributions that street art and graffiti have added to the brew of public expression.
Review of Justseeds Print Show in Arizona
Posted August 29, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
The Way it Was
By Justyn Dillingham
You might not know it to look at that small, trim-looking white building next to the School of Art, but inside those walls, universes are colliding.“Confronting the Capitalist Crisis,” on display in the Joseph Gross Gallery through Oct. 7, is a display of prints brought together by the radical artists’ group Justseeds Radical Art Cooperative. It features the work of more than 60 artists from across the country, all illustrating familiar radical themes: the people against capitalism, the people against globalization, the people against “the prison-industrial complex.”
In the next room, the Lionel Rombach Gallery, Chris McGinnis’s “Heritage” is on display until Sept. 9. It’s a startling work: twenty-nine wooden panels spread across the floor (with one on the wall), all painted with eerie, evocative images of industrial America.
In terms of style and intent, these two exhibits are about as far apart as you can get. But their physical closeness is fortuitous. Spend an afternoon walking back and forth between the two rooms, taking in their ferociously detailed images, taking in their messages, and you can begin to imagine the two exhibits having an argument of sorts.
From anger to ambiguity
Slogans scream at you from the walls of the Joseph Gross Gallery: “Solidarity with the Palestinian People,” “How Many Dead Are Too Many,” “Strike While It’s Hot.” Engraved faces, emaciated and stark, glare out at you with despairing eyes — members of the “people’s history” the exhibit celebrates. It’s a striking and haunting compilation of images.The energy and emotion that went into “Capitalist Crisis” is palpable. If you stand there long enough, you might begin to feel the eerie contrast between the silent noise conjured up by the emotional images and the stillness of the gallery itself.
What “Capitalist Crisis” has not done is find an original way to express its vision. It speaks the familiar language of the Old Left: flags, marches, fists clenched in solidarity. They seem archaic and clichéd because they are. You can almost hear Woody Guthrie strumming his guitar in the background.
Some of the prints are striking — the grim “Hope,” the Soviet-esque “Strike While It’s Hot” — but they’re drowned out by the deafening roar of the rest of the images, all clamoring for your attention. In a way, the visual blare of “Capitalist Crisis” is simply another version of the crass world of mainstream politics; it speaks in absolutes, and if your answers aren’t theirs, there’s no place for you.
Black Tuesday and the 1912 Waihi Strike
Posted August 25, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Jared Davidson of the Garage Collective in New Zealand has just posted this short video about early labor history in NZ. It's a nice short piece collaged from historical photos, documents and narrative:
Artists for Health Care Reform
Posted August 24, 2009 by jmacphee in Calls for Art
Two artists with prints in the Paper Politics show, Patricia Dahlman and Michael Dal Cerro, are organizing an online art show of art works for health care reform. Here's what they sent me:
Due to the right wing loud voices and lies concerning the Health Care Reform Bill, Mike and I are organizing an online exhibition of artists' work titled "Artists for Health Care Reform." We are interested in seeing art work that is pro Public Option, pro Single Payer, art work about people and communities that are shut out of the health care system and art work in response to the lies the right wing is putting out there. I am hoping that you are interested in participating. We are asking artists to email a jpeg of their work for this online exhibition as soon as possible. The deadline is September 7. Congress will be voting on the bill September 8.email an image to them here.
Paper Politics: Without Bureaucracy
Posted August 21, 2009 by jmacphee
There's a really nice write up on the Richmond, VA Paper Politics show on the RVA Magazine website. RVA Mag is a cool art and culture publication focusing on Richmond. I did an interview with RVA's Preston while installing and this is what came out of it, read it HERE.
(image: Refugio Solis, La Otra Campaña, screen print, 2005)
Digger Papers
Posted August 18, 2009 by jmacphee in Inspiration
The folks over at Arthur Magazine are building a cool online archive of printed papers created by the Diggers back in the mid-60s. For those new to them, the Diggers were a San Francisco-based political counter-culture group, sort of like anarchist beatniks and hippies. They took their name from the 17th century British Diggers, a revolutionary band led by Gerrard Winstanley, who basically believed in creating economic equality through complete communal land ownership. The SF Diggers created a free food program for kids in Golden Gate Park, a Free Store, where donated and stolen goods where distributed, and free rock concerts. The existed at the same time that Black Mask was organizing in NYC and the Provos where doing their thing in Amsterdam. All 3 groups were the first big wave of 60s anti-capitalist youth organizing, setting the parameters for what would happen latter in 1968 with the global youth revolt.
The funnest source for reading about the SF Diggers is the book Ringolevio, the semi-fictional autobiography of Digger Emmett Grogan. The text can be found online HERE, but it's a book well worth having, and can be found HERE.
Arthur has been collecting the flyers produced by Communication Company, who were sort of like the Diggers publishing wing. From the Arthur site:
Most of the documents that we are presenting are broadsides originally published on a Gestetner machine owned and operated in the Haight by the novelist/poet Chester Anderson and his protege/sidekick Claude Hayward, who used the name “Communication Company,” or more commonly, “Com/Co.” According to Claude, these broadsides were then “handed out on the street, page by page, super hot media, because the reader trusted the source, which was another freaky looking hippie who had handed it to him/her.”
All of these Communication Company mimeo flyers can be found on the Arthur site HERE.
Other SF Digger info, posters and flyers can be found at the Digger Archives HERE.
Portraits of Courage
Posted August 14, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Artist Gregory Moore has put up a nice collection of portraits he's painted on his website. Each portrait is of a US soldier that has refused to fight in Iraq. Check them all out HERE.
Stencil Action Focuses on Recruitment Centers
Posted August 13, 2009 by k_c_ in Street Art & Graffiti
A stencil grafitti direct action aimed at counteracting concerted effort by US Military to recruit in minority and poor neighborhoods.
“We are a group of anonymous culture jammers. This action marks the start of our campaign of counteracting manipulative and exploitative propaganda aimed at the most vulnerable members of our community, through non-violent direct action. We encourage everyone who watches this to think of a creative ways of engaging injustices in their communities. Do not be complacent, do not be indifferent…”
I've noticed this posted around a bit, but didn't watch it until recently. I applaud the efforts of the folks involved and they did a good job on putting together the video. That said, I think the choice of words, stenciled, are quite obvious and I'm not sure if they engage people on the street in any effective way. Do people connect them with the activities that happen in those offices? Moreover, the text painted on the roll-down cages of recruiter offices seem less intended for people wishing to enlist than passers-by of these storefronts after hours. Do the words "KILL" or "DIE" really speak to the issue being raised in the video? That recruiters focus on poor neighborhoods of color in urban areas? Is the idea to raise awareness that the ruling class is using poor folks of color to fight "their" war? Or state the more obvious fates within this apparatus.
I bring up these points not in judgment, yet to push a critique of the efficacy of this action. I am asking myself, what does this action encourage anyone else to do? (In other words, how does it help realize the agency and potential of individuals and movements?) It's exciting to hear about activity in NYC around the themes of recruitment and the continuing war, and I look forward to ever more creative confrontations!!
Reportage on "I Know There is Love"
Posted August 11, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
There are a handful of images from the "I Know There is Love" installation, by Chris Stain and Armsrock, up on the web. Check out the slideshow up on the Village Voice website as well as an interview with the two herbs that conceived it on Arrested Motion. 
The opening was well attended and Chris' daughter Amara made out by selling some crayon drawn portraits of the attendees. It was really inspiring having Armsrock in town for a bunch of days and we got to talk a lot about the efficacy of art, activism, and our future. He's a wiry and expressive little bugger and I look forward to his involvement in future Justseeds projects, such as our forthcoming portfolio, because of his passion for communication and social justice in this world. Thanks for comin to this side of the pond, buddy, you inspire me to create and keep on fightin!
And just so you know work is available through Ad Hoc Art. We did make these sweet zines with handscreened covers too! Also available at Ad Hoc
Liberation Banner Project
Posted August 10, 2009 by erik_ruin in Art & Politics
i recently completed a residency at AS220 in Providence, RI. during my month there I worked on a large-scale but intricate banner project. the first three weeks were entirely spent hand-cutting 6 feet of rubylith silkscreen film! i then printed a small initial edition on fabric. three of these were then incorporated into an installation in the window of the Dirt Palace in Olneyville Square.
photos of the work in progress are available here.
the intention behind these works is to provide a lending library of banners on the theme of Liberation that are available for temporary use in activist events, rallies, protests, etc. i eventually hope to produce 3 such designs. some initial funding for this was provided by the Puffin Foundation.
i'm super-excited about the potential of this project & wanted to reach out to all of my virtual friends. here's how you can help, if you're interested-
1. request a banner for an event, conference, protest,, etc. that you're involved with. requesters are responsible for the eventual return of the banners and shipping (if outside the philly area)- i hope to be able to eventually procure the necessary funds to negate that last part.
2. in order to procure the necessary time & supplies for this project, i'm attempting to sell a small number of the original edition of 12 banners. due to the price (right now i'm thinking of selling them on a sliding scale of $250- 1000) and extreme rarity of these items, i will most likely not be offering them for sale on the Justseeds site, so please send me a message here or at erikruin@gmail.com if you're interested..
3. arrange for a showing of this work!
thanks & take care,
erik
photo by Kevin Caplicki
John Fekner's Cash for Clunkers
Posted August 9, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
John Fekner just sent me a link to a great photo collection he recently put up of his stenciled car husks. John started painting slogans such as "Decay" on the side of abandoned cars in Queens and the South Bronx in the early 80s. This simple act de-naturalized the collapse of these neighborhoods, reminding everyone that this was not some foregone conclusion, but the results of specific policies and actions of city officials. Check out all the images HERE.
Paper Politics Richmond-Install Shots
Posted August 7, 2009 by jmacphee
Here's some photos from Paper Politics Richmond at the Ghostprint Gallery. It opens TONIGHT!
Paper Politics Richmond
Posted August 5, 2009 by jmacphee
Paper Politics, a show I curated of political prints from around the world, is opening on Friday in Richmond, VA. Please come by and check it out if you're in town!:
Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today
200 prints from 200 artists
Ghostprint Gallery
220 W. Broad St.
Richmond, VA 23220
www.ghostprintgallery.com
Opening Reception:
Friday, August 7th, 7-10 pm
show runs August 7th-August 29th, 2009
Wed-Sat, 1-7pm or by appointment
El Salvador Solidarity Poster
Posted August 4, 2009 by Melanie_Cervantes in Art & Politics
At the Justseeds retreat last weekend we discussed the importance of our website providing readers with resources/graphics/downloadable posters on current issues/struggles/etc. We will be working diligently through the next year to expand the website to include more of these kinds of resources.
To get things started I will be sharing my newest design celebrating the persistence of organizing in El Salvador through one of a few important organizations there-the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front(FMLN). Though I have many questions about whether an electoral strategy can bring about true transformational change I agree with Roberto Lovato who has noted that they "had ended more than 130 years of oligarchy and military rule over this tiny Central American nation of 7 million."
Cooperative Printshop
Posted August 4, 2009 by meredith_stern in Art & Politics
Here is some info about a print shop in Saint Louis, Missouri who are following a cooperative model.
All Along Press is a cooperative art space specializing in letterpress, screenprinting, and book arts. We are dedicated to building an environment of creative collaboration that embraces a DIY ethic. We see ourselves as an alternative to individuals and institutions that operate on a top-down basis. We are not profit-driven, but instead are driven by the desire for creative and meaningful expression.
http://www.allalongpress.com
How Deep Is Your Love?
Posted August 4, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Chris Stain and Armsrock are pluggin away, with a a handful of breaks, over at the Ad-Hoc Art Gallery. They are making a collaborative installation in the gallery and hanging some original artworks. The show opens this Friday, August 7th
Ad Hoc Art
49 Bogart St
Brooklyn, NY
Come out!
-Burt Reynolds
Hot Off the Presses #5
Posted August 1, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Our friends at Inkworks Press in Berkeley have produced another great issue of their online newsletter, Hot Off the Presses. This issue features Justseeds' artist Favianna Rodriguez! There's an intro to Favianna's work, an artist statement, and images and explanations of 4 of her posters, two of them brand new.
In addition, the newsletter contains a story on the SF Mime Troupe, and a great collection of images from the East Bay Calendar of Political and Cultural Events, which Inkworks printed from 1976-1979. The Calendar is beautiful, with amazing split-fountains, overprints and duotones. I've attached a couple images of the fountain below.
Stop The Tar Sands
Posted July 30, 2009 by colin_matthes
I recently went to see Propagandhi play in Milwaukee. At this show I first heard about the Tar Sands, a dirtier more toxic way of producing oil than usual. Some basic information about the Tar Sands, links to more info, and a sticker design I made about the Tar Sands are below.
In the Canadian Boreal forest just downstream of the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains are the Canadian tar sands. The region contains some 2 trillion barrels of oil, but getting to it will mean destroying an area larger than the state of Florida.
Tar sands consist of heavy crude oil mixed with sand, clay and bitumen. Extraction entails burning natural gas to generate enough heat and steam to melt the oil out of the sand. As many as five barrels of water are needed to produce a single barrel of oil.
Tar sands oil is the worst type of oil for the climate, producing three times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventionally produced oil because of the energy required to extract and process tar sands oil.
The tar sands creates a toxic landscape for first nations people and local people, threatening Indigenous rights, public health, and water quality.
There will be many new pipelines running through the us/especially midwest.
http://ran.org/campaigns/freedom_from_oil/spotlight/tar_sands/
http://oilsandstruth.org/
http://www.ienearth.org/
Mark Vallen prints
Posted July 30, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Mark Vallen, who is a painter and printmaker and runs the art-for-a-change blog, has a bunch of really nice prints for sale on his site. He just posted a Sandanista print from 1986, and when I went to look at it, I found a bunch of other great stuff, solidarity with Palestine, South Africa, and more. Check out his sale page here.
Iranian Graphics
Posted July 29, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I stumbled on this design site, Belog, which has a great collection of Iranian graphics, including a bunch of very cool posters and book covers. Here's the link to the graphics posts.
Emory Douglas podcast
Posted July 27, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Our friend Kazembe Balagun, who runs the blog Black Man with a Library, has just posted a podcast interview he did with Black Panther artist Emory Douglas. I've embedded it below, or you can check out Kazembe's blog.
Boycott Israel
Posted July 26, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Our friends at Tadamon!, a Montreal-based activist organization, have produced a new poster in their on-going series of propaganda pieces in support of Palestine. Designed by LOKi Design, this new image is quite striking, and we hope to have some here on Justseeds to distribute soon. A high-res pdf of the poster can be downloaded from LOKi here.
Purchase LIMITED EDITION Leila Khaled PRINT to BENEFIT our final fundraising effort! Only 30 reprinted by Dignidad Rebelde!
Posted July 24, 2009 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
I am Xicano. My family roots tie me to this land. My ancestors have moved across the Americas for thousands of years. I grew up in South San Diego just 10 minutes from the U.S.- Mexico border. Today my family still struggles to cross this (U.S.) militarized and surveilled line, sometimes waiting for hours, to cross the same land that only a few generations before they had freely moved across.
My life experiences, historical ties to this land, my spirituality, and my worldview all inform my politics. I stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and see clear connections between our common struggles for land, life and self-determination. In my role as an artist-activist I have dedicated much of my time to developing young people as leaders of our locally grounded struggles for justice. This work has included teaching how art and culture play key parts in our movements.
The group I have worked with the most, Huaxtec, I been involved with since my arrival to the Bay Area in 1994. I am so happy to support folks representing this group as part of SNAG magazine’s delegation to Palestine.
As part of my support I will be printing a second edition of one of my favorite prints called Sobreviviendo. This print features Leila Khaled a Palestinian freedom fighter. It says “Long Live Free Palestine” in English, Spanish and Arabic. Since the first edition was printed in 2004 many people have asked how they can obtain the print and this feels like the perfect reason to print a second edition.
I will be reprinting a limited edition of prints to help support the fundraising efforts. The print is valued at $100 but will be available for only $50. All proceeds will benefit the indigenous youth delegation.
In solidarity, in struggle, and with love,
Jesus Barraza
www.DignidadRebelde.com
TO PRE-ORDER A $50 PRINT NOW that will be available in LATE JULY (delivered to you by mail; or in person at our final Bay Area fundraising event) CLICK HERE FOR OUR PAYPAL LINK if you are already logged into Paypal. Otherwise, go to http://www.paypal.com and click on the “send money” tab. When it asks who the payment is to, type in the email address snagmagazine@yahoo.com.
OR MAIL CHECKS TO:
Delegation c/o Snag Magazine
P.O. Box 40597
San Francisco CA 94140
We will confirm the receipt of your order by email.
RUST at Youth Peace Rally + Justseeds Image Gets Used!
Posted July 23, 2009 by shaun in Inspiration
This week we took our RUST youth print group to a "youth peace rally" organized by the MGR Foundation and Teens Against Senseless Violence (TASK). The kids in our group were printing posters for TASK on the spot, handing out their designs as well as teaching folks how to screenprint hands-on.
I was surprised and excited when someone in the rally handed me this brochure for the Human Rights Coalition's Fed-Up! branch here in Pittsburgh - the front of the pamphlet features Justseeds' artist Nicolas Lampert's "Missing" poster design!
Global Justice Movement Posters
Posted July 18, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
A couple friends have sent along a link to a new collection of Counter Globalization Movement posters someone has put together in a online image album. It's a great collection, well over 200 posters and counting, starting with sweatshop awareness posters from 1998 and WTO posters from 99, moving up through anti-IMF/World Bank, various G8 summits, World Economic Forum, and more. Check it out here. The collector has put some info about each poster up, but a lot is missing. I'm sure they'd love it if people filled in the gaps.
Interview with Maestro Shinzaburo Takeda
Posted July 17, 2009 by molly_fair in Interviews
I just found this interview artist Kevin McCloskey did with Shinzaburo Takeda, the artist who taught the ASAR-O collective in Oaxaca, Mexico. Read the full interview here in the e-zine CommonSense2.
From Kevin McCloskey's blog:
I was surprised to learn the man who taught the radical young printmakers of Oaxaca's ASAR-O collective was a mild-mannered seventy-five year old Japanese master printer. I had the privilege of speaking with him earlier this year in Oaxaca.
His own artwork is generally not political in nature, but he has been an inspiration to a new generation of activists/artists.Maestro Takeda spoke about his outreach project to Oaxaca’s poor. He is devoted to the nurturing students from the underclass, the sons and daughters of “campesinos” or landless peasants. Oaxaca is among the poorest Mexican states and one of the poorest regions of the state is the remote Costa Chica. Nearly 8 hours by bus from Oaxaca City, the Costa Chica is home to Afro-Mexican communities. An activist Roman Catholic priest there, Padre Glyn Jemmott, has made it his life’s mission to raise awareness of Mexico’s racial diversity. Padre Glyn is himself of African descent, born in Trinidad, and like Maestro Takeda, devoted to expanding opportunities for the campesinos. During the 1990s Maestro Takeda arranged for some of best students go to the Costa Chica and work with Padre Glyn
When the political turmoil hit Oaxaca in 2006, Takeda challenged his students to respond to the crisis as artists. If one is an artist, then one responds to any phenonomenom, be it natural, social, or political, as an artist. He teaches his students about Mexico’s proud heritage of activist artists. He shares his own collection of books of Taller Grafica Popular prints with his students. He is impressed with both the quality and quantity of political prints his former students in ASAR-O have produced. He recalls with pride how ASARO upended the whole idea of the preciousness of art, selling their unsigned prints for just a few pesos more than the cost of the paper it was printed on.
Evil Brothers at There Goes the Neighborhood
Posted July 16, 2009 by jmacphee
My friend Tom Civil and his brother Ned ("Evil Brothers") installed what looks to be an amazing cardboard ghost train at the There Goes the Neighbourhood exhibition at the Performance Space in Sydney back in May. The show looks like it was pretty interesting, and included other friends like Temporary Services, 16Beaver and Michael Rakowitz. Tom also designed the catalog, which looks great. You can buy one here, or download a pdf here.
Here are a bunch of photos of the Evil Brothers install. It's hard to see what the entire thing looked like, but it's a glance into another world:
Rivet #4
Posted July 13, 2009 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
Jared Davidson/Garage Collective has put out possibly his last issue of Rivet, a journal o art and anarchism. Jared has been at the center of a number of political debates in the New Zealand art scene about the role of politics within art production, and he collects much of that material here. He is also the designer of the very handsome Red Feds Celebrate People's History poster. You can download a pdf of Rivet #4 by clicking here.
Erik and Merry lunchtime collaboration
Posted July 8, 2009 by meredith_stern in Art & Politics
Erik is the artist and residence at my workplace right now, and we spent 20 minutes today at lunch having fun making this exquisite corpse:
Emory Douglas: Black Panther
Posted July 6, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
For those in the NYC area, after 18 months of being open, the new New Museum is finally doing a show worth going to! They're mounting an exhibition of posters and artwork by Emory Douglas, former Black Panther Party Minister of Culture. Most of Douglas' work was originally published as graphics, covers, and centerfold posters in the Black Panther newspaper in the 1970s and early 80s, where he collaged together his drawings, found photographs, and ziptone patterns to create an amazing array of graphics in service to the Black Revolution in the US. For whatever reason (likely cannibalistic), a portion of the art world has recently taken a shine towards Emory, and I'm not going to complain, this promises to be a great opportunity to see a huge collection of difficult to find work from a political graphics master. Here's the details, and a link to more info and more images(!):
Emory Douglas: Black Panther
An Exhibition Curated by Sam Durant
7/22/09 - 10/18/09
New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
212.219.1222
Persepolis 2.0
Posted July 5, 2009 by jmacphee
I just stumbled across this interesting site, a re-purposing of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis in an attempt to discuss recent events in Iran. I can't say I agree with all the content (Not that I disagree, I'm still trying to figure out what's going on in Iran), but it's fascinating how activists have taken frames from the original comic, reordered them, changed the text, and generated an entirely new story, as if it is an extension of the original comic! Persepolis 2.0 is a relatively crude re-creation, but since the original comic is so graphic, it really works. An interesting attempt at open source creativity...
You can read the whole comic (12 pages so far) here. You can download a pdf from the site as well.
Mother Stonewall and the Golden Rats
Posted July 2, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I'm getting this up a little late for celebrating Pride, but my friend Sam sent me this great flyer/story made by one of the Stonewall veterans. It's an amazing narrative of the Stonewall Riot from someone who was there that night. Hopefully it'll be readable here:
Mountop Removal Banner Drop
Posted July 1, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
Rising Tide activists dropped a 25 ft high banner off the Environmental Protection Agency in Boston. Image below, and the rest of the story here.
more mud....
Posted June 28, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Hard to resist not doing more mud stencils after the energy that came out of the Tamms Year Ten mud stencil action in early June in Chicago. Here's some new images and new themes, not connected to the campaign, but in the same spirit of using eco-art to put up messages in public space.
one by Jesse:
one by Nicolas:
more info:
mudstencils.com/
Aberdeen Poster Collective
Posted June 27, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
The Aberdeen Poster Collective is another UK poster group I've stumbled across online. This crew is from Aberdeen, Scotland, and appears to have had their heyday in the early 2000s. They have about 50 posters up online which you can download and reproduce. Some of them are quite simple and effective. Check them all out, and their manifesto, on their website.
Spoof International Herald
Posted June 26, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
The Yes Men were involved in another spoof paper last week, this one is an edition of the International Herald, and the re-made paper focuses on climate change and the upcoming COP15 conference in Copenhagen in December. You can check out the whole paper and download a PDF of it here.
What If? online
Posted June 26, 2009 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
What If? A Journal of Radical Possibilities was a short running journal that started coming out soon after the WTO protests in Seattle 1999, and ran for a number of years, putting out 3 or 4 issues. I was always generally impressed with it, in terms of being well put together, well designed, using quality artwork (Rini Templeton, Erik Drooker) and featuring the intersection of art and politics. What If? founder/editor Christy Rodgers has put the journal online, and plans on using this new web version to continue the goals of the print edition. Check it out here. (It also looks like Justseeds artist Fernando Marti will soon have a nice image gallery up on the site as well.)
Dyke Rights = Human Rights
Posted June 24, 2009 by Melanie_Cervantes in Art & Politics
I am so happy to share the 2009 San Francisco Dyke march poster design. Since I met Ani Rivera my contact for the Dyke March committee, a few years ago, I wanted to do the design.She was a pleasure tot work with and I am really happy about being able to visually interpret this year's theme: Dyke Rights = Human Rights, Human Rights = Dyke Rights. The best part of the experience was one day when I sent a version of the poster for feed back and I could hear all the women in the background jubilantly yelling "make her fat, make her old, make her a leather butch!"Never had I heard women embrace aspects of a woman that mainstream society marginalizes so happily. It was the best feedback session I ever had.
The 17th Annual San Francisco Dyke March 2009
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Starting from Dolores Park, at 18th and Dolores
Rally and Stage Begins @ 3:00 p.m.
March Takes Off @ 7:00 p.m.
Dyke Rights = Human Rights
Human Rights = Dyke Rights
"At the San Francisco Dyke March, we gather to experience and celebrate our collected energies, to acknowledge our many communities, to learn from our incredible diversity, to respect each other, and to create new ways to share our resources. We have pride for good reason: Dykes participate in every aspect of political, social and artistic institutions, illuminating issues of social justice wherever we are. . . "
Art Front
Posted June 23, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Marc Moscato just sent me a link to a great post he put up on his blog Whittlin' Away. It's on Art Front, a 1930s radical art publication from the US. Check it out (and go to Marc's blog to see more images and read other good stuff!):
In my research for the Art for the Millions bike ride, I came across an amazing little-remembered publication, Art Front (1934-1937). This magazine provided a fantastic resource and community sounding board for issues surrounding art and politics during the Works Progress Administration (WPA) period. Based in New York City, the magazine was the official organ of the Artists’ Union and served as a main organizing tool. Contributors included Fernand Leger, Harold Rosenberg, Louis Bunin, and Stuart Davis, among numerous others.Art Front’s mission was “as wide as art itself.” Stated its editor, H.S. Baron, “Many art magazines are being published in America today. Without one exception, however, these periodicals support outworn economic concepts as a basis for the support of art which victimize and destroy art. The urgent need for a publication which speaks for the artist, battles for his economic security and guides him in his artistic efforts is self-evident.”
Within the pages of Art Front are things you would expect from a union paper — arguments for higher wages and more jobs in the arts. But also found are a marvelous assortment of manifestos for the creation of public art centers, tracts on revolutionary art vs. art for the bourgeoisie, reviews of (then) contemporary artists and reports on censorship and red-baiting (many WPA artists came under attack for political activity and leftist organizing).
One interview with Thomas Benton struck me as particularly insightful. How would we answer these questions today?
1. Is provincial isolation compatible with modern civilization?
2. Is your art free of foreign influence?
3. What American art influences are manifest in your work?
4. Was any art form created without meaning or purpose?
5. What is the social function of a mural?
6. Can art be created without direct personal contact with the subject?
7. What is your political viewpoint?
8. Is the manifestation of social understanding in art detrimental to it?
9. Is there any revolutionary tradition for the American artist?
10. Do you believe that the future of American Art lies in the Midwest?Fascinating read if you can track it down (I inter-library loaned a microfilm copy).
Testure: Animal Torture, Skinny Puppy video edit
Posted June 20, 2009 by roger_peet
All the talk of waterboarding, stress positions, walling, psychological assault etcetera, has put me in the mood for a little perspective. Bush endorsed "enhanced" techniques, Obama hasn't put a stop to them, oh! The wringing of hands. Folks, torture is normal. Waterboarding is for the weak. Let's have a look at some REAL torture, of the sort that culture demands. This is some of the worst shit ever.
Click here to have an unpleasant experience.
Red Lines exhibition
Posted June 17, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Red Lines
Housing Crisis Learning Center
Queens Museum of Art
New York City Building
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Queens, NY
7 to Shea Stadium
opens Saturday, June 20
Red Lines is a large-scale installation that explores how we finance our living environments, and will remain on view through September 27, 2009. Opening day events include: a 3–5 pm screening and discussion of Primetime: Fighting Back Against Foreclosure, a documentary by Jennifer Fasulo and Manauvaskar Kublall looking at predatory loan practices and their aftermath, and a blow-out 5–7 pm reception. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Queens Museum Panorama of New York City has been used to map the pattern of 2008 foreclosures across the city. Red Lines is curated by Larissa Harris, and is a project of the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies and the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP). More information at
http://www.queensmuseum.org/exhibitions/redlines.htm
new Tamms Year Ten mud stencil video
Posted June 16, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Check out the latest video about the Tamms Year Ten mud stencil action in Chicago that took place on June 6th.
More info:
www.yearten.org/
mudstencils.com/
Art, Archives and Activism: Martin Wong's Downtown Crossings
Posted June 16, 2009 by molly_fair
The Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University is proud to present the exhibition “Art, Archives, and Activism: Martin Wong’s Downtown Crossings” from March 6-December 18, 2009. From the mid ’80s through the early ’90s, artist Martin Wong and other downtown New York artists were affected by an intersection of major historic events spanning the AIDS epidemic, urban renewal and attacks on graffiti in the city, to Tiananmen Square abroad. The exhibition explores artists who crossed paths during this particular time, influencing and inspiring discussions, art works, and activism.The exhibition winds a story through the voices of his closest friends and peers during Wong’s time in New York City from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s. As Wong would come to portray his friends, fellow artists such as Miguel (Mikey) Pinero, Sharp, Chris “Daze” Ellis, among others within his paintings, bringing them into a world of a Lower East Side re-imagined with the fantasies of escapism and romanticism of a barren land amid towering walls of crumbling brick where they dwelt, in this exhibition, the archival materials and lasting influences of Wong’s legacy and his friendships in turn shape a portrait of the artist—re-imagined and remembered.
The artist’s work shown in “Art, Archives, and Activism” range from the early ’80s through the ’90s and have been loaned from his estate at PPOW Gallery and the collections of his closest friends. Some photos, paintings and drawings have never been shown to the public before. Working with and drawing materials from the Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University along with personal collections, “Art, Archives, and Activism” presents a story of a time and the interconnectedness of the artists with the world around them through the artwork, letters, photographs, videos, postcards, posters, and flyers of participant artists. The exhibition traverses the artificial borders of these two decades, and instead is spread through the moment delineated by artists’ lives and the issues that engulfed them — their personal influences, artistic production and activism that were catalyzed from these connections and overlapping paths. The opening reception is also the reception and book celebration for the Asian American Art Symposium 2009 at NYU presented by A/P/A Institute and co-sponsored by The Noguchi Museum; The Japan Foundation, New York; The Asia Society; NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; and Museum of Chinese in America.
May 68 — May 08
Posted June 15, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
I don't think I ever posted this project here, and it just popped back up in my head, so I thought I'd share it. Back in early 2008 designer Brian Ponto asked a number of artists and designers to create posters inspired by the Atelier Populaire posters from France in May 68, but relevant to the realities of 2008. Among those invited to work on the project were Chris Stain and myself, as well as Jody Barton, Scott Boylston, Seymour Chwast, Sun Dawang, Gwenaëlle Gobé, Finn Nygaard, UG Sato, James Victore, Brett Yasko, and John Yates. The project culminated in a newspaper collection of black and white posters which also included an essay on the form of the political poster by Carol Wells, director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles. You can learn more about the project and read Carol's essay here and here. And since the posters were reproduced in black & white in the paper, I've posted a color version of mine below:
Video from the Tamms Year Ten mud stencil action in Chicago on June 6th
Posted June 11, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Mud stencil video by Gretchen Hasse.
New City Chicago article on Tamms Year Ten mud stencil action
Posted June 9, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Lori Waxman wrote an insightful article about the recent June 6th mud stencil event in Chicago for the online and print publication New City Chicago. Below is her text and a link to her website and the New City website.
Mud Slinging
by Lori Waxman
Dirt, water, whisk, sponge, bucket, box cutter, tar paper—these are not your typical artist’s materials. Mix the water and dirt in the bucket, lay the cut-out paper against a cement surface, and sponge on the mud, however, and the result is a handsome work of environmentally friendly graffiti.
Street artists often work with stencils, using them to shape spray-painted statements. But a chemical medium dispensed through an aerosol container reeks of toxicity, so Milwaukee-based Jesse Graves, intent on finding a more compatible way to apply his environmentally and politically conscious messages, evolved an alternate means of tagging: mud. The technique is nothing short of ingenious. Simple, cheap, graphically effective and not necessarily illegal, mud stencils, if protected from the elements, can last up to ten years; or, like all dirt, they can be washed off with water. Consistency is key, however, to achieving a bold visual with sharp edges: the mud mixture must be carefully controlled so that it achieves a viscosity akin to peanut butter or feces.
Yes, feces—like the feces sometimes smeared by inmates at Tamms prison on the walls of their cells. Cells where they are held in permanent solitary confinement, bereft of all human contact, for up to twenty-three hours a day, with breaks only for showers and individual exercise. It’s a supermax jail in Southern Illinois originally designed for the short-term punishment of violent inmates from other facilities, but one-third of whose occupants have now been locked up in extreme isolation for over a decade, with no clearly defined standards for transfer in or out. Widely believed to cause permanent physiological and psychological damage, these conditions contravene the Geneva Convention, two United Nations treaties and various other international human-rights accords. Conditions which have led inmates not only to paint their walls with shit in desperate attempts for attention, but also to mutilate themselves, to attempt suicide, and to require—for one in every ten men at Tamms—regular doses of psychotropic medication. All this for up to $90,000 a year per inmate, three to four times the cost of incarceration at other prisons in Illinois.
Chomsky Event Poster Designed by Josh Macphee & Kevin Caplicki
Posted June 9, 2009 by k_c_ in Posters & Prints
Josh Macphee and Kevin Caplicki collaborated on a 5-color handprinted poster for an upcoming benefit for the Brecht Forum.
The event features Noam Chomsky who will deliver a lecture called Crisis and Hope:Theirs and ours. He'll be introduced by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, and features music by Earthdriver and Mahina Movement
The event will be held
Friday, June 12
7:00 pm
At Riverside Church
490 Riverside Drive (Btn 120 & 121 St)
NYC, NY
Sliding scale for talk: $20/$25/$30
Reception with Noam Chomsky (includes reserved seating for the talk): $50/$100/$250/$500
Special Benefit for the Brecht Forum,
Please contribute what you can afford.
The poster, a signed and numbered edition of 60, will be available for sale at the event, and tickets can be purchased through the Brecht Forum website.
I shold also mention that Justseeds will be tabling the event along with others, like our comrades from Bluestockings Bookstore
Profane Relics: Early Research
Posted June 9, 2009 by roger_peet
My colleague Ryan Burns has been hard at work on an ambitious project of late. It's to be a massive reliquary of the Congo mineral wars; a huge slab of excavated central African soil, displayed as if it were an archaeological find shipped to a research center in a massive crate. The dig reveals layer upon layer of exploitation and devastation, destroyed forests, rent cultures, annihilated wildlife, and gruesome paramilitary struggle for control of the stream of minerals.... 
These minerals, hacked by hand from beneath the Congolese subsoil by teams of preteen miners, make their way through unscrupulous chains of corporate commerce into all our modern high-tech devices, our computers, our cellphones, blackberries, i-phones, x-boxes, playstations, anti-lock brakes, and so on, and so on.
We are all complicit in this, and the fact that I'm blogging about it is the ultimate irony. None of this dissemination of information is possible without the grim calculus of total destruction that has been wrought on the lands, life and people of the Democratic Republic of Congo during the past twenty years. Blood is on our hands.
Profane Relics will be on display at the Sea Change gallery in downtown Portland, Oregon, starting in July. More details coming soon.
Illinois Torture Publicized with Ecological Art: Chicago and Milwaukee artists boost Tamms Year Ten message with mud stencils
Posted June 7, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
On Saturday, June 6th in Chicago, local artists partnered with the Tamms Year Ten coalition to protest state-sanctioned torture at the supermax prison in Southern Illinois. And they did it with mud.
The medium:
The method:
Artists from Chicago and Milwaukee engaged in a non-destructive type of public messaging called “mud-stenciling.” More than 30 volunteers stenciled their message “End Torture in Illinois” in the afternoon on walls and sidewalks around the city offering fact-sheets about TAMMS supermax prison to curious pedestrians. The teams hit spots such as Navy Pier, The Chicago Art Institute, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Jane Adams Hull House, Hyde Park Art Center, the Logan Square skate park, the Chicago Zoo, DePaul University, as well as sidewalks, underpass walls, and numerous other locations.
Mud as a medium is especially sensible for artists and activists who want to work outdoors with a non-toxic substance to reach a large public audience. Moreover, city governments and law enforcement agencies have little precedence in dealing with mud stencils so there is a gray area on whether it is legal or not. For if it is illegal, is it also illegal for kids to write with chalk on the sidewalk? Is it illegal to build a snowman in a park or for dirt from ones garden to touch the sidewalk? And, is it illegal to stencil with mud when the rain will wash it off?
That said, none of the 30 volunteers who mud stenciled on June 6th in Chicago were arrested or even questioned by the police.
Jesse Graves, a Milwaukee based artist who is gaining international attention for his street art, developed the mud stenciling technique and took part in the Chicago action. “I started stenciling with mud because I wanted to put environmental messages in public spaces, so it would not make sense to use a toxic material like spray paint,” said Graves. “I am using the earth, the most basic substance, to express my concerns regarding the state of the environment I am living in. I am using what sustains us to offer ideas on how we can sustain ourselves.”
Nicolas Lampert, a member of the Justseeds Radical Artists cooperative (www.justseeds.org), who helped coordinate the effort, views it as a tactical media campaign. “People first will be drawn to the stencils themselves, the medium, but it is our hope that a larger conversation evolves about Tamms and how people can get involved,” said Lampert, who helped cut the 6 foot by 9 foot stencils out of rolls of roofing paper. He feels the partnership with the Tamms Year Ten campaign is a needed collaboration: “In my view, activist movements need art, and artists need to be part of activist movements. A lot of artists do political art, but this is actually a case where artists can be part of a social justice movement itself.”
The action was designed to draw attention to the supermax prison in Illinois. Which has become the target of scrutiny by press, legislators, and even Governor Quinn, who appointed a new IDOC director last month with the top priority of reviewing the conditions at Tamms.
Prisoners at the supermax are held in permanent solitary confinement, and never leave their cell except to shower or exercise alone in a concrete pen. Their is no communal activity, no contact visits, no phone calls, an no educational or rehabilitative programming. Suicide attempts, self-mutilation, and other psychotic symptoms are common at Tamms, and are an expected consequence of long-term isolation, which can induce or worsen mental illness. Prisoners often hear nothing but constant screaming or banging and complain about the smell of feces, smeared on cells by mentally ill prisoners. The supermax was designed to be a short-term shock-treatment, but one-third of prisoners have been held indefinitely since the prison opened over ten years ago.
Tamms Year Ten, a coalition of over 70 groups throughout Illinois, initiated the campaign to end torture at the supermax last year and worked with Illinois lawmakers to introduce HB2633 that would establish accountability at the prison and prohibit mentally ill people from being held there. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on the Illinois Department of Corrections and Governor Quinn to alleviate conditions at the prison immediately.
Laurie Jo Reynolds a Tamms Year Ten organizer, who participated in the mud stencil action said, “The mud-stencils help facilitate dialogues about Tamms with people all over the city.” She reported that people were surprised to see the word torture being used in connection with the state of Illinois. “Many people don’t realize that our supermax is more isolating than Guantanamo Bay, where identical treatment has been judged by Attorney General Eric Holder to be too isolating for prisoner safety,” Reynolds explained. All prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are now provided social interaction and phone calls, in compliance with the humane-treatment requirements of the Geneva Convention. She added, “Most people agree that psychological torture can’t be justified for American prisoners of war, or for detainees at Guantanamo, and it can’t be justified for people in custody in Illinois.”
Nationally, supermaxes are on the decline with some closing or converting to regular maximum security prisons due to the unwanted consequences of long-term isolation, as well as the high cost of supermax prisons. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections, the average annual cost of housing a prisoner at Tamms is about $60,000, two to three times as much as any other adult prison on Illinois.
More information:
Tamms Year Ten: http://www.yearten.org/
Mud stencils:
Jesse Graves: http://mudstencils.com/
More photos, video, and articles will be posted over the coming weeks.
MasterPeaces: High Art for Higher Purpose
Posted June 4, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
This just in from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics out in Los Angeles:
MasterPeaces:
High Art for Higher Purpose
June 6 - 27, 2009
DaVinci Gallery
Los Angeles City College
855 N. Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90029
323.953.4000
Gallery Hours: Thursday, Friday & Saturday, 12 – 4 pm
From Dada to Punk, from anti-war movements to feminism and ecology, high art has been repeatedly incorporated into a visual language that ranges from the iconoclastic to overt protest. MasterPeaces shows how works by Leonardo, Michelangelo, Picasso, Warhol and many others have been parodied, appropriated or altered to make statements about a variety of contemporary issues.
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 6 12 – 4 pm
Symposium: Saturday, June 20, 2009 2-4 pm
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics, students and faculty in the Designing the Political course at Otis College of Art and Design, will discuss the dialogue between the original art and the contemporary protest poster.
TAMMS Year 10 Campaign - mud stencil event
Posted June 4, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Quick update on a project taking place this weekend in Chicago. The Tamms Year Ten coalition is partnering with Milwaukee artist Jesse Graves to publicize state-sanctioned torture at the Tamms supermax prison in southern Illinois. The prison watchdog group and local artists will engage in a unique project this weekend called “mud stenciling.”
Mud stencils are a non-toxic ecologically-safe, non-destructive public messaging technique developed by Graves, a Milwaukee-based artist, who is gaining international recognition for his work. Mud stencils wash off in the rain, yet while they are up, they dry to a dark brown color and have a three-dimensional texture.
Below are photos of the stencils being made (the majority are 6' x 8' with one being 9' x 11'). I'll post more photos, press, and reflections on the event early next week.
Center for Urban Pedagogy call for Advocates
Posted June 3, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) is looking for advocates, organizations, and researchers with complex policy issues that need visual explanation. We seek advocates with a constituency who would directly benefit from an issue of Making Policy Public.
Making Policy Public is a program that pairs advocacy and policy organizations with graphic and information designers to produce foldout publications that make complicated policy issues accessible. The goal is to find organizations with issues that will advance a worthy advocacy effort but that will also engage and educate a broader public. Advocates chosen through the juried process get 1000 copies of the color publication to distribute directly to their constituents and an honorarium of $1000
Look at the Making Policy Public site for how it works
2009 Schedule
June 26 Deadline for proposals from organizations
July 16 Policy briefs posted and call for graphic designers posted
August 17 Deadline for applications from graphic designers
September 3 Publication collaborations announced
¡Vivan las Guerreras de Oaxaca!
Posted June 1, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
A look behind Tim Simon's new Celebrate People's History Poster (taken from his blog Some News, Mostly Propaganda):
I recently completed a two color poster for the awesome Celebrate People's History poster series distributed by Justseeds. The CPH posters are a venue for radical artists to highlight social movements and examples of popular resistance that are often left out of most historical narratives. Below is the finished version of the poster I created and I want to use this post to go into a little more depth about where the imagery comes from and why I chose it. Links for more info and where to purchase the poster follow.
CONCEPT BACKGROUND
As I began work on this project at the end of 2007, I chose to focus on the uprising in the Mexican state of Oaxaca during the second half of 2006 that took control of the state capital for six months. It has since been compared in scale and importance to the Paris Commune. The uprising began when state police attempted to violently evict an encampment of the teachers' union in the center of the city that had been protesting the corrupt and repressive regime of Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz. When the people of the city rallied in defense of the teachers and drove the police and state government out of the city, the demonstration quickly exploded into a full on uprising against neoliberalism and the traditional power structure of Mexican politics. More specifically, I chose to highlight the crucial role that women –many of them self-identified 'housewives'– played in sustaining the rebellion and opening up new possibilities for radical liberation.
A close friend of mine, Barucha Calamity Peller, was one of the few independent journalists in Oaxaca during the uprising and she spent much of her time documenting the rebellion from the front line barricades that protected the liberated city from attack by the state. At the height of the uprising there were upwards of 3000 active barricades in Oaxaca city and many towns and municipalities in the surrounding countryside had joined the movement to kick out Ulises Ruiz. After the movement was brutally crushed by the federal government at the end of November, she returned to the states with an amazing collection of photos and testimonials from participants in the movement. Barucha and I worked together on the concept for the CPH poster and we used her images and interviews as inspiration.
Bogside Artists Collective - Northern Ireland
Posted May 30, 2009 by colin_matthes in Inspiration
Riffing off Kevin's post about art and resistance in Northern Ireland, I thought I would post some photos of murals by the Bogside Artists' in Derry, Northern Ireland. I took these photos in 2006, when I was in Ireland for a few months. These photos blew me away and had a major impact on the whole spirit of Derry. I cannot image how my walk through Derry would have changed if these murals were gone. These murals are attributed to the Bogside Artists' collective.
Defining Anarchist Art
Posted May 29, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
I wanted to draw attention to AK Press' blog Revolution by the Book
there is a post about Josh MacPhee & Erik Ruin's book Realizing the Impossible called
Defining Anarchist Art:Gleanings from a Roundtable on Realizing the Impossible. There's a handful of links leading to some interesting stuff, if you like art, or anarchism.
Meshed Histories: The Influence of Screen Printing on Social Movements
Posted May 28, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Lincoln Cushing has just published a new short article entitled "Meshed Histories: The Influence of Screen Printing on Social Movements" on the AIGA site. Here's the first couple paragraphs, and click on the link at the bottom to read the rest.
Just like clothes or cars, media can come in and out of fashion. Screen printing—or serigraphy, as it’s called in finer art circles—has been a standard commercial process for more than a century. As a reproduction technique, it has many wonderful qualities. It requires very little in terms of equipment, and even that can be easily made by hand; it is easy to teach and to learn; and it’s very well suited to very short runs of large format objects. It seems like an obvious choice when looking for ways to create prints for the public. Yet there have been at least two periods in history when screen printing was “discovered” by artists—the first was in the United States during the mid-1930s, under the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration (FAP/WPA), and the second time during the 1960s.When Public Art Ruled
Between 1935 and 1943 the FAP/WPA was the first, and so far, the last, great effort to put public funding into the arts. It was primarily designed to provide jobs for unemployed artists—at the beginning, 90 percent of the artists had to come from the relief rolls. As an important secondary impact it brought art and artists to the breadth of America. Teaching how to make art was a national priority, and printmaking was an obvious approach. However, conventional art techniques such as lithography or engraving posted pedagogical and technical challenges, and screen printing quickly emerged as a productive choice.
read the rest here.
Emma and Sylvia Back in Stock!
Posted May 27, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
After years of being out of stock, and people continually asking for them, I've started to reprint some of the older Celebrate People's History posters. I'm excited to announce that two of the most popular are now reprinted and available again, Ben Rubin's Emma Goldman poster, and John Gerken's Sylvia Ray Rivera!
My original hope was to reprint an old poster every other month for 2009, but two things have gotten in the way. On the downside, sales have dropped a little, so I don't have the cash flow to stick to that schedule. On the upside, I have been getting lots of great proposals for new posters, to the extent that for the first time ever I have a backlog of designs waiting to print. Given limited cash, and lots of new posters on the ready, I think I'll be focusing on getting the new ones out for the rest of the year. If there is an old People's History poster you would like to see back in stock, let me know, and I'll see about reprinting it in 2010. If you are an artist/designer and have an idea for a new poster, let me know as well!
Mural of Police Surveillance Cameras Erased by Bridgeport Alderman in Chicago
Posted May 19, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in In the News
Chicago has a long, sad history of buffing graffiti brown, but now it seems that political murals are getting the same treatment. Last week, Alderman James Balcer (Ward 11) ordered that a mural in Bridgeport that that he disliked be painted over in the early morning without warning.
The mural had been painted by Gabriel Villa who had worked on it for the duration of the Version Festival and was shocked to discover that the Graffiti Blasters had painted it brown this past Thursday morning. The Bridgeport Alderman did not contact the property owner, nor the artist before ordering the Blasters to erase what they even recognized and called public art. More so, the wall that the mural was painted upon was owned by the mother of Ed Marszewski, a festival organizer.
After being grilled by the press today Alderman Balcer came up with several reasons for his decision -- including that the artist did not have a permit to make the mural. Yet, permits are not needed for private buildings.
The real reason for his decision likely resided in the content of the mural which featured police surveillance cameras that are omnipresent in the neighborhood.
Ald. James Balcer was quoted saying, "You know I don't know if there was hidden gang meaning behind it with the cross, with the skull, with the deer, with the police camera's. Was there something anti-police about it? I don't know what's in his mind. That's how I viewed it."
Feel free to contact him and express your disgust with his decision:
3659 S. Halsted St.
Chicago, IL 60609
jbalcer@cityofchicago.org
(773) 254-6677
Check out the news video to hear more quotes from the artists and Alderman Balcer.
http://cbs2chicago.com/video/?id=58715@wbbm.dayport.com
Before:
After:
Our Lenin: kid's book from the USA, 1934
Posted May 19, 2009 by icky in Books & Zines
I can't remember where I found this book, but this is a children's biography of Lenin published in 1934 by the CPUSA press. The writing is a basic heroic summary of his life, translated and adapted from a Russian book by Ruth Shaw and Alan Potamkim. The illustrations are by William Siegel, who I can find no reliable information about off a quick search. But I like his drawings, they're nicely done and simple, good for kids books. His composition is really good too.
This book is heavy on the propaganda (no surprise there) and there's something slightly creepy, comforting and hopeful in this art. The book itself is handsome: big bold red lines at the top and bottom of each page, the drawings fit in nicely with the text. Here's a selection of images:
anakseribupulau
Posted May 16, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Here's a relatively new site for an Indonesian project called Anakseribupulau, which seems to be a coalition of political art groups, including Taring Padi. Check out the site here. They have descriptions of the organizations involved, as well as posters, comics, poetry, songs, etc... Check it out.
Signs of Change-Inspired Teens in PGH
Posted May 13, 2009 by mary_tremonte in Inspiration
Sex Education for All by Shira Rascoe
More radical teen printmaking totally!
Pittsburgh's CAPA (Creative and Performing Arts) High School students in Shannon Pultz's printmaking class visited the Signs of Change exhibition at the Miller Gallery in February. Students designed images inspired by the show on issues they are personally passionate about (sound familiar?) and learned relief printing to create these posters.
Some of them were particularly timely, as Shira Rascoe says of her print: "When I was creating my poster, many people in Pittsburgh were in the process of convincing the Pittsburgh Public Schools to adopt a comprehensive sex education curriculum, meaning not just abstinence. I feel that it is crucial for the safety of my peers to teach teenagers about contraception. The peeled banana with the condom on the bottom symbolizes exposure versus protection. Luckily, the PPS has now adopted an Abstinence Plus policy."
Here are a few more examples.
Fed Up with the Crisis in BCN
Posted May 13, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
Some friends in Barcelona decided they were "fed up with the crisis, were tired of the fear that mass media communicate everyday, and sick of suffering in silence at home, [so they] decided... to go dancing at an unemployment office.":
Their statement (rough translation):
Today, Thursday April 30, we held the party Inem (Unemployment Office).
We had been preparing since the last few weeks. It was truly enjoyable! 40 people appeared at 12:00 on the Inem branch located in the street Sepúlveda de Barcelona. There we waited in the usual atmosphere of these places at this time: a mixture of stationary people (local and foreign), tired of waiting and wasting time, bored, angry and disgusted faces, full of fear created by the crisis. Less than five minutes of messing around and dancing have been required to change their crisis faces into smiling and cheerful faces. Some joined with us in the dance, and others applauded. All, without exception, have appreciated this wave of light and color, this outburst of joy and enjoy places where you least expect it: in an office job in crisis.
Mayday Berlin!
Posted May 12, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Our friend Sandy K. from Image-Shift sent us a communique of links and images to their recent poster project for Mayday Berlin. The project consisted of two sets of posters. The first set consisted of 6 posters, each one with a single large pink letter on white background, the letters: K, R, I, S, E, !, spell out CRISIS! in German. Each letter also has another word it stands for, K for Kapitalismus, S for Solidarität, etc. I've roughly translated the text from each poster below (with online translators, so sorry it is a little rugged!). The second set are all white text on blue background, and are specific information about the Mayday events in Berlin.
There are more photos of the posters pasted up around Berlin here and here.
Portraiture
Posted May 11, 2009 by icky in Justseeds Collective Projects
Everyone in Justseeds has been cranking out illustrations for a collaboration with Microcosm to do a series of books about influential radical people/groups in the Americas. I had to make an image of Yuri Kochiyama (long time ally of liberation struggles and political prisoners).
It's interesting to think about how to approach illustrations like this, you want it to represent the person, you want it to look like the person and maybe capture some of what you consider interesting or inspiring (their spirit). I didn't want it to look like the weird 'portraits in history' that were in the Sunday comics when I was a kid.
Rebellion and Graphic Art in Oaxaca
Posted May 11, 2009 by k_c_ in Street Art & Graffiti
I came a cross some really beautiful images while looking for some visual references for a comment I wanted to post on Josh's review of Protest Graffiti Mexico: Oaxaca. Photographer, Aaron Tukey, shoots some really incredible images and writes about graffiti and the government attempts to erase political messages of the APPO. You can check out the slide show War of the Walls: Rebellion and Graphic Art in Oaxaca on his website.
Aaron compares the erasure of "street art" and the more political graffiti
in his images and essay (attached below). You may recognize a paper cut-out by Swoon in one of the images. This was installed in Oaxaca during the teacher's strike, yet before the APPO uprising. Its existence after the repression of the movement seems to support Aarons observation of selective buffing by Oaxacan authorities.
Friendly Fire: Afghanistan
Posted May 11, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
The Friendly Fire Collective in the Bay Area have been churning out some cool propaganda of late, most recently the Afghanistan poster seen below. You can download a high res pdf of the poster here. They have a ton more graphics here.
Disappearing
Posted May 10, 2009 by icky in Events
There's a great art show at Reading Frenzy right now, containing images from an upcoming book by Thistle Press. The show is about "attempts to address the marvelous nature of some of the many things that are disappearing from the world', eg- endangered species. Includes work from Justseeds' ally Vanessa Renwick and my favorite local illustrator Carson Ellis. If you're in Portland you should head down and check it (and buy some zines while you're there too).
If not the show is available online here.
Anti-Police Brutality Show LA
Posted May 9, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
A handful of Justseeds artists (and tons of other good folks) are in this show coming up in LA:
Stop the Armed Forces
An Exhibition of Conscious Art and Music Against Police Brutality
Friday May 15th
8pm - 2am
2323 East Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, 90021
Open Gallery May 16th, Noon - 6pm
Artists include:
Jon-Paul Bail, Brianna Lengel-Bail, Alison Smith, Tim Holgerson, Louis Hennings, Jesus Barraza, Melanie Cervantes, Ryan J. Saari, Taarna R. Grimsley, Paul Barron, Favianna Rodriguez, Frank Zio, Chuck Sperry, Ron Donovan, Emory Douglas, Contra, Yem, Ritzy Periwinkle, John Carr, Karen Fiorito, Hit+Run, 2Cents, 2Rabbits, ABCNT, David Kietzman, Josh MacPhee, Mear One, Vyal, and more...
CPH in London
Posted May 8, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
The Celebrate People's History Poster Series is currently on display at the 56a Infoshop in London. 56A is one of the longest running anarchist social centers in London, I first visited back in 1994(!!), and it's still kicking. They have a bookshop, archive, food coop and bike fix-it space. If you're in London, stop by and check it out: 56A Infoshop, 56 Crampton St., London SE17 3AE UK.
Free Xero: A Re-discovered Inspiration
Posted May 6, 2009 by erik_ruin in Inspiration
I was flipping through various comics anthologies the other day (looking for wordless comics for a friend's thesis project) when i rediscovered the work of Carol Moiseiwitsch. I remembered her bold scratchboard imagery & dark sardonic wit always standing out in comics collections like Twisted Sisters, but had never seen much of her work beyond that. So imagine my delight when i discovered a whole site of her images- comics, paintings, posters etc., all available for non-profit use! I was also impressed to see Carol continuing to create relevant, charged graphics in reaction to current struggles in Palestine, Oaxaca and elsewhere.
I highly encourage everyone to check out the striking work of this dedicated and under-appreciated radical artist!
Friday-Justseeds at Books Through Bars event!
Posted May 6, 2009 by k_c_ in Events
Benefit for NYC's Books Through Bars
Friday May 8th, 8pm
Art & Resistance: Slideshows and Discussion
Seth Tobocman: Author of "Disaster and Resistance: Comics and Landscapes for the 21st Century"
Peter Kuper: "Stop Forgetting to Remember: The Autobiography of Walter Kurtz"
Kevin Caplicki & Molly Fair from Justseeds: Creators of the "Prison Portfolio Project"
Vikki Law: Author of "Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women"
REVIEW: Protest Graffiti Mexico
Posted May 5, 2009 by jmacphee in Reviews
Louis E.V. Nevaer & Elaine Sendyk
Protest Graffiti Mexico: Oaxaca
Mark Batty Publishers, 2009
As far as I know, this is the first book out that exclusively focuses on the political street art produced during the uprising in Oaxaca in 2006. Normally one might ask why we should embrace a book on the graffiti of a political rebellion when we barely have any books that deal with the actions of the period or the politics behind them. But as our world becomes more and more media saturated, how people that reject the status quo represent themselves publicly becomes increasingly important. If most people in the US saw anything about the Oaxaca rebellion, it was likely photos of the graffiti it produced on yahoo news. The popular and mass occupation of Oaxaca City lasted longer than the Paris Commune, and all we got were a couple lousy internet slideshows?!?
Thankfully Nevaer and Sendyk give us a much more in-depth look at the streets of Oaxaca than any web news outlet. Sendyk took the bulk of the photos included (over 150), and Nevaer narrates our trip through the images. Unlike most graffiti books coming out these days, this one actually attempts to provide context for the images included. The book begins with a reprinting of an Open Letter in Support of the People of Oaxaca, signed by an international collection of Left public intellectuals, and leads right into a chronology of events in Oaxaca. Nevaer tries to give us the information we need to understand the images, including a history of the PRI Party in Mexico, context for teachers strikes in Oaxaca, background on the Mexican Revolution, as well as the development of the strike in 2006, the formation of the Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO), and the role of women in the struggle. The information provided is generally solid, if a little to liberal and repetitive for my taste.
New Atenco Poster
Posted May 4, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Our friends at La Furia de las Calles in Mexico City just sent along this intense new Atenco poster. Click continue below the poster for a letter by Atenco political prisoner Gloria Arenas Agis:
Subversive Practices
Posted May 4, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
A couple friends have passed along links to this upcoming show in Stuttgart Germany. It looks extremely interesting:
Subversive Practices:
Art under Conditions of Political Repression
60s–80s / South America / Europe
May 30 – August 2, 2009
Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart
Schlossplatz 2, D – 70173 Stuttgart
Subversive Practices:
From May 30 to August 2, 2009 the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart devotes itself to experimental and conceptual art practices that had become established between the nineteen-sixties and eighties in Europe and South America under the influence of military dictatorships and communist regimes.
The exhibition’s nine sections will be focused on various contexts and strategies of artistic production along with their positioning vis-à-vis political and cultural repression in the GDR, Hungary, Romania, the Soviet Union, Spain, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru. Of equal concern here are both the particularities of and the relations between the different temporal and local environments.
(image: Luis Pazos, Transformations of living masses, 1973)
Oakland youth prepare for May Day march and rally
Posted May 2, 2009 by Jesus_Barraza in Inspiration
May Day: Youth Prepare from Betty Bastidas on Vimeo.
In preparation for May 1st Immigrant Rights mobilization in Oakland youth gathered for a banner making party to paint graffiti banners, screen print bandanas, posters, and t-shirts. It was great to see so many black, brown and red youth gravitate to the two screen printing stations we set up. They quickly learned the process and took over, teaching each other how to screen print. The youth painted three banners, screen printed about 50 posters, cut a stencil and sprayed 20 posters and made about a dozen shirts. Betty Bastidas and some youth from Huaxtec helped document the event, you can see the video below.
The workshop came a week after a conversation with Lincoln Cushing, we talked about the re-emergence of screen printing as a social movement medium. I think it is important to help spread the medium to as many youth as we can as well as other printmaking mediums. It was great seeing all the art produced by youth at the May 1st march in Oakland and I hope that this trend continues and we have more youth making art in the community.
Printing with Pittsburgh Teens!
Posted May 1, 2009 by shaun in Justseeds Collective Projects
This week saw the culmination of a project I've been working on the last couple of months alongside Mary Tremonte (also of Justseeds), Pittsburgh artist (and beekeeper) Ashley Brickman, and Jenn Knops from University of Pittsburgh's Street Law program. As agents of the Warhol Museum's Education Department, we worked with three "Theory of Knowledge" classes at Schenley High to create posters about current social justice issues.
We started by taking the classes on a field trip in late February to see the "Signs of Change" exhibit while it was on display at the Miller Gallery in town. The students had to pick images from the show to discuss with the group, and began thinking about how to communicate through poster design. Over the course of the next several weeks we held discussions about current events, helping the kids focus on problems they saw in the world and researching them to gain a better understanding of the issues they felt were important. Jenn brought in a lot of information on international human rights for the students to chew on, and once they broke into groups we started going over some design fundamentals, using imagery from some Justseeds artists along with the "how to" design chapter at the beginning of Josh and Favianna's "Reproduce and Revolt" (a great, encompassing primer on fundamentals of clear graphic design). The kids set to work collaborating on their designs, combining their experience at "Signs of Change" with their own knowledge and opinions. The best part, of course, is the actual printing of the posters, which happens in a day-long field trip for each class to Artist Image Resource (AIR)! There they screen print their poster designs and learn the whole process firsthand! Besides getting some amazing posters printed and having fun doing it, I'm really proud of how this project worked out, and it's amazing watching the kids' eyes open to the possibilities of printing! In the coming weeks the students must find places in the city to hang their posters (storefronts, schools, etc) in order to spread their messages. Check out our Flickr album for more images of the students making their posters...
Capitalism Breaks My Heart
Posted April 30, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I just got this great poster image from Sue Simensky Bietila in Milwaukee, check it out. This is a high res file, so download and use in your town!:
Favianna in Toronto
Posted April 29, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here's a really nice write up on Favianna's recent trip to Toronto, from the Rabble website. Click here.
Built For Collapse
Posted April 29, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
I created this image in the last few hours of the Justseeds installation, at UW-Milwaukee. I'm kind of obsessed with current economic events. So I decided to make a poster about it. The text came out of some discussions that Roger and I were having during the collaboration. Condos and high-end development projects have been a high priority for NYC's current mayor Michael Bloomberg, one that I reference in this image is the Atlantic Yards.
The Atlantic Yards is a mega-development project designed by Forest City Ratner a company with close relationships to powerful NY politicians as well as the NY Times. The company wishes to build a basketball arena and 13 towers, mostly residential, near downtown Brooklyn. There are so many problematic factors to this project like traffic congestion, desire to use eminent domain, community displacement, request of
"Federal Stimulus" money, and so much more. You can find a ton of information on blogs like NoLandGrab.com and Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and Atlantic Yards Report to name a few.
I felt like referencing the renderings of this development project was appropriate in highlighting how overdevelopment of cities, like Brooklyn, has led to economic crisis. Construction combined with predator lending and stretching potential homeowners beyond their means has brought us to the stage of crisis that we are experiencing.
One hope of mine is to make this into stickers, for the front door of every new condo in NYC. If you are interested in using this image, gimme a holler, I can pass along a high-res file.
In thinking about my next image, maybe it will be about the wealth extraction from the majority of the populace to a small percentage of bankers, er, the ruling class?
Here's a flick of my friends loft, where I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow and use as a printing studio for this run. Thanks Jesse!
Paper Politics Syracuse
Posted April 25, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Back in December the Paper Politics exhibition I curated was hung at the Red House in Syracuse. I got a bunch of photos from the show, but realized I had never posted them here. So below are some flicks of the show. I'm working out the details for a couple more showings of the exhibition now, and I'm definitely look for more venues. If you know of a good space for the show in your town or city, let me know!
Also, I'm working on a new catalog/book of all the work in the show. The first edition of the catalog has been sold out for a couple years. This new book will be published by PM Press and should be out in the Fall.
Diego Rivera in Detroit
Posted April 23, 2009 by dylanminer in Art & Politics
Last evening I presented with Bec Young at The NorthStar Center in Lansing, MI. In the discussion following our presentation, one of the women in the audience (who happens to be my good friend María) asked an interesting question about archival work and the role that radical graphics play in the visual history of movements. She was interested in discussing the lack of movement ephemera being saved or archived within mainstream institutions. As radicals, she noted, we rarely do a thorough job documenting ourselves and our histories. Moreover, she was disappointed by the absence of material written about radical art and culture.
In response, I noted that this is, in fact, quite a large problem. However, as some of know (or actively participating in) there are some folks out there doing amazing things to change these absences. For instance, I mentioned the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in LA. The director, Carol Wells, does an excellent job documenting radical graphics, both inside and outside the US, with Justseeds contributing one impression of each print to the Center.
Additionally, I began to think about the various curatorial and writing projects that JustSeeds members are engaged in. It is striking that JustSeeds is not simply producing art and participating in various radical social movements, but many of us are also actively writing texts about the history of radical. Although serendipitously happening on the very night that I posted my first writing on the blog, this discussion concretized my desire to post blogs of my writing.
With that said, here is my second attempt at offering my academic writings to the JustSeeds community. These two articles are a little older (2005). The first is an article I wrote about Diego Rivera's labor activism in Detroit. The second is an essay by Mexican philosopher Alberto Híjar Serrano that I translated into English for Third Text. They were published alongside one-another and function as a unit.
Feel free to post comments or responses!
Signs of Change Reception Friday
Posted April 22, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
SIGNS OF CHANGE:
SOCIAL MOVEMENT CULTURES 1960s TO NOW
April 5, 2009 - June 5, 2009
Troy Night Out Reception: April 24 5pm - 9pm
at The Arts Center of the Capital Region
265 River Street, Troy NY, 518-273-0552
In Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now, hundreds of posters, photographs, moving images, audio clips, and ephemera bring to life over forty years of activism, political protest, and campaigns for social justice. Curated by Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee as part of Exit Art's Curatorial Incubator, this important and timely exhibition surveys the creative work of dozens of international social movements.
Organized thematically, the exhibition presents the creative outpourings of social movements, such as those for Civil Rights and Black Power in the United States; democracy in China; anti-apartheid in Africa; squatting in Europe; environmental activism and women's rights internationally; and the global AIDS crisis, as well as uprisings and protests, such as those for indigenous control of lands; against airport construction in Japan; and student and worker revolution in France. The exhibition also explores the development of powerful counter-cultures that evolve beyond traditional politics and create distinct aesthetics, life-styles, and social organization.
Although histories of political groups and counter-cultures have been written, and political and activist shows have been held, this exhibition is a groundbreaking attempt to chronicle the artistic and cultural production of these movements. Signs of Change offers a chance to see relatively unknown or rarely seen works, and is intended to not only provide a historical framework for contemporary activism, but also to serve as an inspiration for the present and the future.
Sponsored by iEAR Presents! and Humanities@Rensselaer
Here is some more info on the show:
The Miller Gallery
Exit Art
Victory for SDS Milwaukee: University Apparel to be Sweatshop Free
Posted April 19, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in In the News
SDS Milwaukee continues to amaze. Below is a post detailing a recent victory to make UWM clothing apparel sweatshop free and how creative resistance and perseverance aided the campaign.
"The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee recently signed on to the Worker Rights Consortium, pledging to participate in the Designated Suppliers Program, a set of standards which intends to guarantee living wages and the right to organize to the garment workers who make university apparel. The University's letter was the culmination of over two years of student organizing, and it made UWM the 46th university to sign such a pledge.
Getting UWM signed on to the program was one of the initial projects adopted by the Milwaukee SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) when it formed in Fall of 2006. Since then, SDS members have met with reluctant administrators, organized petition drives, held protest rallies, expanded membership, and chalked the sidewalks of the campus on an almost weekly basis – even in freezing weather.
In the week before the victory, SDS sponsored a traveling workers’ tour, a sweat-free fashion show, a student/labor rally, and a sweatshop clothesline display outside the Chancellors office window.
The rally, held outside of the chancellor’s office, was initially expected to be a protest. However, a few hours after the sweatshop clothesline was installed, the administration called group members promising to sign the DSP pledge, turning the protest into a celebration.
Members of labor rights groups, and local unions joined university administrators, and student activists in celebrating the victory, while also focusing on the many battles ahead, which include Milwaukee’s Paid Sick Days initiative, the DREAM Act, and Employee Free Choice Act."
Serigrafía 26 - a silkscreen workshop for la revolución
Posted April 18, 2009 by bec_young in Art & Politics
While in Buenos Aires last fall, I met and talked with Flor of Serigrafía 26, a silkscreen workshop that is part of the Frente Popular Darío Santillán (FPDS). The FPDS is social and political movement that consists of many autonomous groups of people including unemployed workers unions. It is named after a young piquetero striker named Darío Santillán who, along with another compañero named Maximilano Kosteki, was killed by police in 2002. The silkscreen workshop is a small part of this huge movement. They design and print graphics according to their ideals, and also operate as a worker-owned print shop, printing designs for customers. Flor showed me some of her wonderful paintings and her graphic designs, many of which have been turned into prints sold by the Serigrafía 26. Some of her work also appears in Reproduce and Revolt. The last image reads, "Revolution in the streets, in the house, and in the bed!"
Signs of the Times
Posted April 16, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
The recent Justseeds install in Milwaukee included a public art component. Here are examples...
Da Town Graphics: Oakland Youth on the Move
Posted April 15, 2009 by Melanie_Cervantes in Art & Politics
"We strongly believe that our future is in the hands of the young folks."-Mutulu Shakur
Last week Jesus and I worked at Oakland's Spanish Speaking Citizen's Foundation with several Raza youth ages 12 to 17 to conduct five workshops on how to develop political posters. The weeklong series of workshops acted as an alternative Spring Break. During this period the students met and worked with us, Xican@ community artists, to learn about the history of political posters as developed within the context of social justice movements, learned the steps in developing a poster and created posters of their own that reflect their values and interests.
We gave a slideshow presentation on people of color graphic artists who have used the medium of poster as part of their movement building work. We included our work as part of this trajectory. After this presentation of a history of political posters we taught students how to create thumbnail sketches. This was interesting and challenging because we were giving all the workshops in English and Spanish. We worked diligently to make sure anyone who was monolingual in either Spanish or English always understood. It was so great to know the young people were down to translate what they said to make sure everyone was included.
Each of the students learned how to create a thumbnail sketches for their poster layout as well as brainstorming ideas for our group design. We used Josh MacPhee and Favianna Rodriguez's book Reproduce and Revolt to show the students examples of existing graphics. Collectively the class created designs for a poster that they will distribute for the May (im)migration mobilizations. We did daily group critiques as we continued to develop the collective poster.There are various distribution plans-some students will give the posters out at their schools and post them in classrooms, others will work with community organizations to distribute picket signs and others will approach store fronts to post them in their windows. They chose the name Da Town Graphics for their group after much deliberation and discussion.
We had a very focused group that was determined to finish their posters and put as much thought and time into them as possible. The youth also designed individual posters on topics that they felt passionate about.The poster topics ranged from calls for universal health care, demands to stop ICE raids, a declaration of Indigenaity and a call to end racism.
We look forward to the students coming by the Taller to help us produce the prints for the mobilizations.
Video of "Which Side Are You On?" Installation at UWM
Posted April 15, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
A short video by Ross Nugent documenting the Justseeds installation Which Side Are You On? at the Union Art Gallery in Milwaukee.
Art Nouveau Magazine Interview
Posted April 15, 2009 by jmacphee in Interviews
Art Nouveau Magazine just published an interview I did with them a couple weeks back about Justseeds and what makes art political. You can read it here.
Graphics Page for Defend the RNC8
Posted April 14, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
Its good to find a support campaign webpage that has downloadable graphics available.
Check out the Freinds of the RNC8 propaganda page. And learn about the RNC8's struggle for charges against them to be dropped at RNC8.org, get inspired create a new image and send it to them at Friends of the RNC8.
Justseeds Prison Portfolio graphics in Use
Posted April 12, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Collective Projects
Good to see that some of the graphics from the Justseeds Prison Portfolio project are finding their way onto fliers and the covers of periodicals. The portfolios that were donated to groups organizing against the prison industrial complex each came with a cdr of all the images from the portfolio - plus prison justice related images from Reproduce and Revolt (a book of copy-right free graphics available through Justseeds / co-edited by Josh and Favianna.)
Here are examples of three. If you know of more, send us an email. Additionally, there are a few remaining copies of the portfolio left for sale on our site that help us recover the cost of creating 100 portfolios.
Stain in Ultra de la Rue
Posted April 9, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Chris went to Amsterdam recently for the festival Utra de la rue celebrating the, now, 400 year relationship
of the Dutch to NYC. This was Chris's take on that.
photo nicked from Mather Life
Antiretrovirals and Water Refugees: A Living Newspaper on Haiti
Posted April 8, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Antiretrovirals and Water Refugees: A Living Newspaper on Haiti
Performances and Post-Show Discussions on Haiti, Political Theater, and Global Healthcare
Thursday through Saturday, April 9 – 11; and Wednesday through Friday, April 15 -17
General Admission: $8, Students $6.
All shows at 8 p.m. Post-show discussions April 9, 10, 15, and 16 at 9:30 p.m.
Kresge Little Theater, 48 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139
Tickets will be available 45 minutes before showtime at the Kresge Little Theater box office.
For advance tickets: http://dramashop.mit.edu/tickets/
Further ticket information email: ds_tickets@mit.edu
A new puppet, object, and music spectacle about the politics of global healthcare in Haiti premieres at MIT’s Kresge Little Theater for a two-week run from April 9 to 17. "Antiretrovirals and Water Refugees: A Living Newspaper on Haiti" looks at the past, present, and future of Haiti in terms of the politics of global healthcare, as refracted through the work of Paul Farmer's Partners in Health organization and its fight against AIDS.
Carnell Hunnicutt, Sr.
Posted April 8, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
The Real Cost of Prisons site has recently put up a large collection of art by prisoner artist Carnell Hunnicutt, Sr. It's pretty interesting stuff, Hunnicutt mostly takes existing texts such as reports by criminal justice organizations or other watchdog groups and brings them to life with his unique comics style. Mixing simple background images and characters that would fit comfortably in the newspaper funnies, he illustrates and even sometimes brings a little humor to these fairly dry and statistical documents. He seems to always we fighting with the texts, struggling to force them into the boxes of a basic 6 or 8 panel comic, to tame them into an more easily read and understand form. Sometimes it works, but sometimes the text takes over, literally pushing the images out of the frame. To me it's this struggle that makes the comics compelling...
Check them all out here.
Signs of Change Troy
Posted April 7, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
I just got back to NYC from installing Signs of Change upstate in Troy. Here's the info for the show (please stop by if you're in the area!), and below are some photos from the install.
Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now
Reception: April 24, 2009 5:00-9:00 PM
Exhibition runs from April 5, 2009 - June 5, 2009
The Arts Center of the Capital Region, 265 River Street, Troy NY, 518.273.0552,
Sponsored by iEAR Presents! and Humanities at Rensselaer
In Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now, hundreds of posters, photographs, moving images, audio clips, and ephemera bring to life over forty years of activism, political protest, and campaigns for social justice. Curated by Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee as part of Exit Art's Curatorial Incubator, this important and timely exhibition surveys the creative work of dozens of international social movements. Organized thematically, the exhibition presents the creative outpourings of social movements, such as those for Civil Rights and Black Power in the United States; democracy in China; anti-apartheid in Africa; squatting in Europe; environmental activism and women's rights internationally; and the global AIDS crisis, as well as uprisings and protests, such as those for indigenous control of lands; against airport construction in Japan; and student and worker revolution in France. The exhibition also explores the development of powerful counter-cultures that evolve beyond traditional politics and create distinct aesthetics, life-styles, and social organization. Although histories of political groups and counter-cultures have been written, and political and activist shows have been held, this exhibition is a groundbreaking attempt to chronicle the artistic and cultural production of these movements. Signs of Change offers a chance to see relatively unknown or rarely seen works, and is intended to not only provide a historical framework for contemporary activism, but also to serve as an inspiration for the present and the future.
WRAP Art
Posted April 6, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I can't remember if I posted something about this before, but either way, this is cool:
The Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), a San Francisco-based homeless advocacy group, has posted a large collection of copyright free graphics on their website, free to download and use for housing and homeless activists and organizations. Most of the graphics focus on issues of housing, but there is also bleed into other interesting and important areas. Here's a list of artists whose work is available, click on their names for links to the download pages:
Art Hazelwood
Eric Drooker
Gato
Ed Gould
Christine Hanlon
Roberta Loach
Josh MacPhee
Doug Minkler
Claude Moller
Favianna Rodriguez
Jos Sances
San Francisco Print Collective
Nili Yosha
Prison Nation Exhibition in San Marcos
Posted April 5, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Prison Nation:
Posters on the Prison Industrial Complex
America has more than 2 million people in prison, more than any other country in the world. Prison Nation addresses many critical issues: the prison-industrial complex, the death penalty, Three Strikes, racism, privatization, torture, and re-entry into the community.
Prison Nation: Posters on the Prison Industrial Complex was produced by the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles, CA. The CSPG collects, preserves, and exhibits posters relating to historical and contemporary movements for social change. Political posters inspire discussion and action through provocative imagery and language. On display at the Kellogg Library 3rd floor gallery February 9 - April 30, 2009, free and open to the public during all library hours.
Kellogg Library 3rd Floor
California State - San Marcos
333 S Twin Oaks Valley Road
San Marcos, CA 92096
760.750.4378
(image by John Jennings)
Hugh D'Andre
Posted March 28, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Inkworks Press has just put up a nice write-up on Bay Area artist Hugh D'Andre, with a number of nice images of his work, including a half dozen posters he has done for the San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair. Check it out here. You can see more of Hugh's work here. A large percentage of Hugh's work is Creative Commons licensed and free for people to download, remix and reuse.
OakBook Interview: Favianna Rodriguez
Posted March 27, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Justseeds member Favianna Rodriguez recently did a long, in-depth interview with on the OakBook Blog. Read an excerpt below, and the whole thing here. Check it out:
The stories of immigrants, of working class folks of color, of single mothers, of young black and brown men being locked up day after day at alarming rates – those stories are left out of the “art world,” and yet, these are the majority of the stories in the country, in the world. This demonstrates to me that the art world continues to be an elitist body and that it caters mostly to the needs of white men. When I make work, I talk about the things I see in my own community, in the lives of the people around me. My work addresses themes of globalization, war, immigration, women, sexuality, and prisons. When I talk about those themes, my work gets labeled as political. It actually also gets labeled as women’s art, Latino art, Chicano art, propaganda art, and a host of other terms.Those terms don’t really bother me.. My intention is to change the conditions of the communities I represent. I have been given a tool to do that and it’s through art. I view art as a tool for education, agitation, and social critique. Through an artistic practice, it is possible to confront the multitude of images of disempowerment fed to us by mainstream media.
Up Against the Wall - Berkeley Posters from the 1960s
Posted March 26, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
This show looks like it's going to be great, mark your calendars!:
Up Against the Wall - Berkeley Posters from the 1960s
Exhibition 4/19 through 9/26, 2009
the Berkeley Historical Society
1931 Center St.
Berkeley, California (510) 848-0181
Opening April 19, 3:00-5:00 PM
As 1950s America woke up from the deep chill of McCarthyism and the Cold War, a new genre of popular culture blossomed in the streets of Berkeley during the mid-1960s. Spurred by the success of local rock and counterculture posters, political posters were vibrant public documents that promoted a wide range of social issues. This exhibition documents Berkeley's unique role in the evolution of this medium, and includes examples of works on such diverse issues as gay liberation, people's health care, opposition to the Viet Nam war, support for political prisoners, demand for alternative educational models, and community control of police. The show covers the "long 1960s" (1964-1974) and explores the complex interaction between local activists, artists, publishers, and distributors that made this cultural explosion possible.
Curated by archivist and poster scholar Lincoln Cushing, this exhibition is drawn from a unique private Berkeley collection of over 25,000 political posters assembled by Free Speech Movement activist Michael Rossman.
Exile Infoshop: Prison Justice Week
Posted March 24, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
I'm a little late to catch this, as the week is half over, but friends in Ottawa at the Exile Infoshop are hosting a great week of prison activist events, including an exhibition of our Voices from the Outside portfolio.
Prison Justice Week
March 20 to 27, 2009
Exile Infoshop
256 Bank St. (second floor), Ottawa, ON.
reg. hours: Wednesday-Saturday, noon-8pm; Sunday noon-5pm
Featuring the Justseeds art exhibit “Voices from Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex” and nightly events!
All Events @ 7PM,
Free, but regrettably not wheelchair accessible
* Friday March 20th - Kick-off Prison Justice Art exhibit w/DJ
* Saturday March 21st - Panel Discussion: From Prisons to Colonialism : Global Apartheid w/ Jaggi Singh, Abdullah Al-Malki, Yavar Hameed (representing Abousfian Abdelrazik). Abdullah Almalki is a Canadian citizen who was detained, interrogated and torture in Syria because of information that could have only originated from Canadian government agencies.Yavar Hameed is a lawyer representing Abousfian Abdelrazik. Mr. Abdelrazik was abducted, illegally detained and held in captivity by Sudanese authorities for approximately two years at the recommendation of CSIS. While in detention, Mr. Abdelrazik was subjected to coercive interrogation and torture by Sudanese officials with direct Canadian involvement. For the past five years, the Canadian government has been illegally blocking Mr. Abdelrazik’s right to return to Canada. Jaggi Singh is a no borders, anti-capitalist, migrant and indigenous solidarity organizer based in Montreal. He is currently active with No One Is Illegal-Montreal, Solidarity Across Borders and other groups.
* Sunday March 22nd - Prisoner Letter Writing and Crafts Night
* Monday March 23rd - Film Night - Life Inside Out, NFB production, a vérité-style documentary that takes us inside the walls of Grand Valley Institution for Women.
* Tuesday March 24th - Panel Discussion: Indigenous People and the Criminal Injustice System featuring: Kim Pate - Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies; Sheila Grantham - Researcher on The Aboriginal Women and Stigma Project
* Wednesday March 25th - Prisoner Letter Writing and Crafts Night
* Thursday March 26th - Speaker Event and Journal for Prisoners on Prisons Issue 17 Release w/ Sophie Harkat, Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee
* Friday March 27th - Fundraiser Costume Dance Party.
Stencilada
Posted March 23, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Stencil Archive and CELLspace present:
Opening Grill Out
Saturday, March 28
1 to 5 pm
2050 Bryant St.
b/t 18th and 19th Sts.
SF, CA 94110
FREE (one day only, inside if raining)
Food on the grill, bevs in the cooler, music on the boombox, and art on the walls
(some food and beverages will be provided while supplies last)
Featuring eight panels of art by:
Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza
Russell Howze with Hugh D’Andrade
John Koleszar (AZ)
James S.
Crystal Townsend
Scott Williams
Peat Wollaeger (MO)
with special stencils on paper by Tiago DeJerk (OR)
Bring your own cut out stencils to add to the ongoing collection of stencil art at CELLspace (some paint provided)
Landfill from the studios of Brian Ponto
Posted March 20, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
I got this from Brian Ponto today:
On this first day of spring we are proud to launch LANDFILL--an annual publication made in collaboration with our friend, the environmental printer, Greg Barber Co. Each issue explores a conceptual approach to its printed components. Second Chance's theme, 100% post-consumer papers and non-toxic toners, was made in partnership with Mohawk Fine Papers and the vendor Digital Connection.After the interviews, our stories of second chances were printed using non-toxic toner onto paper containing flower seeds and buried throughout New York City. Brooklyn Photographer Luke Barber-Smith photographed these burials. As the sprouts reach the topsoil, the first lives push through the earth and grow into real wild flowers for the spring.
Printed copies begin to mail next week from both Mohawk Fine Papers and Brian Ponto. Thanks for your time reading, and here's to new beginnings in a hopeful new year.
Tea: A performance. A discussion. Thoughts from a veteran’s return voyage to Iraq
Posted March 17, 2009 by molly_fair in Events
A friend of a friend, IVAW member Aaron Hughes will be performing in Tea, part of the benefit exhibition 2,191 Days and Counting at Powerhouse Arena for Iraq Veterans Against the War.
March 19, 2009 1-4 PM
Powerhouse Arena 37 Main St. Dumbo Brooklyn, NY
TEA - chai - الشايtea |tē| noun • a hot drink made by infusing the dried, crushed leaves of the tea plant in boiling water.
Tea: A performance. A discussion. Thoughts from a veteran’s return voyage to Iraq
243 detainees left in Guantánamo
243 Styrofoam flowers
Tea is an ongoing dialogue that traverses a variety of landscapes. From the tea sipped on in this instillation, to a quaint coffee shop in the Lower Eastside, to a cage in Guantanamo Bay, to a motor pool in Iraq; tea is not only a favored drink but a shared moment that transcends cultural divides and systems of oppression. That is not meant as a clichéd utopian statement, but as a reminder of a shared humanity that is so often overlooked.
The project consists of three parts the installation, the performance, and an ongoing growing dialog. The installation is composed of all the needed materials to make, sit, enjoy, and commune over strong black tea. The performances consist of a series of monologues/stories shared by activists, Iraqis, veterans, and myself that reflect on the traumas of war. These monologues and the ephemera of the installation are designed to foster and grow the dialogue the third element aspect of the project.
Aaron Hughes served in the Illinois Army National Guard and in 2003 he was involuntarily deployed to Kuwait and Iraq with the belief he would provide humanitarian relief for the Iraqi people. As a truck driver he traveled throughout much of Iraq and quickly came to the realization that he was not providing any type of humanitarian relief, but in stead was contributing to the oppression, destruction, and dehumanization of the Iraqi people. Following a fifteen-month deployment Aaron returned home guilt stricken and committed to end the occupation.
This March Aaron, as a representative for Iraq Veterans Against the War, returned to Iraq in an important step in focusing more attention on the rights and needs of the Iraqi people. Since the U.S. occupation began, Iraqi unions have resisted oppression by organizing for worker rights and the creation of new unions. But under occupation, Iraqi workers have been targeted in an attempt to suppress the population and control Iraq’s natural resources. Independent labor unions are banned; labor leaders have been killed, tortured, beaten, and imprisoned; worker’s wages have been suppressed and their rights have been routinely violated; and union bank accounts have been frozen. Iraqi labor unions and workers have been among the leading non-sectarian forces defending Iraqi sovereignty and democracy by exercising their collective power through strikes to increase wages, resist privatization of Iraq’s oil industry, and stand up to foreign contractors who threaten their livelihoods.
So please sit and have tea with me…
Torture/Impeach
Posted March 15, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
More Midwest political freight graffiti! One of my favorite things about doing thi blog is when cool art like this flys into the mailbox, makes me feel like people are fighting out there:
Right Wing Street Art?
Posted March 14, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
I recently was asked a series of questions by about why there is so little right-wing street art by Paul Schmelzer (editor for the Minnesota Independent) for his Eyeteeth Blog. He crafted a post around my answers, and here it is:
At the 2009 Conservative Political Action (CPAC) conference this weekend, The Daily Beast's Max Blumenthal found a rare kind of artist: a conservative hip hop musician. Self-defined "Republican rapper" Hi-Caliber says he takes inspiration from the likes of Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh to lay down lyrics like: "A socialist in the White House / what have we done? / You think Bush was bad? / Now the real fun has begun / The Democrats want to take my gun..."But what Blumenthal found at CPAC, I haven't had much luck in finding in the visual arts: interesting street art coming from a right-of-center perspective. In my search, raised in my Thursday post, "Where's all the rightwing street art?," I got in touch with artist Josh MacPhee, who founded Justseeds, an artists' cooperative, online store, and blog. He couldn't offer examples of artists, but he shared his thoughts on the topic of why they're so hard to find.
He says the American political Left draws from a long history of visual agit-prop, whereas conservatives have used other vehicles. "When [the Right] is marginalized, it has built itself through local radio broadcasts, direct mailings, election to local office, etc.—channels that appear to be legal, mainstream, and legitimate," he says. "The Left has no problem appearing to be speaking from the margins (even if they are speaking from a position generally held by the vast majority, i.e. the anti-war position right now), but the Right always wants to speak from the center, to claim they are being marginalized, but simultaneously appear to be legitimate and supported by the majority."
He posits that illegal or guerrilla art has long been a way for people whose voices aren't represented by corporate media channels to be heard. "For most of the history of this country, and more specifically for the past eight years, the ideas and opinions of the right wing, and even the extreme right wing, have been common currency. They are seen in daily newspapers, heard on the radio, even spread across billboards," he says. "There is much less of a need for right-wing graffiti, when the right wing speaks to the hundreds of millions from TV screens and evangelical church pulpits."
May ’68 in Paris and the Student Movement in Ljubljana, 1968–1972
Posted March 13, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
For our far flung friends in Eastern Europe, if you can, a trip out to Ljubljana for this exhibition seems well worth it!:
May ’68 in Paris and the Student Movement in Ljubljana, 1968–1972
Posters, Film, and Photographs
29 January – 22 March 2009
International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC)
Grad Tivoli, Pod turnom 3
1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
The protests and strikes by students and workers in Paris and other French cities in May and June of 1968, which challenged the traditional values of society and destabilized the regime of Charles de Gaulle, left an indelible mark on the history of the second half of the twentieth century. The protests, which soon spread across the world, encompassed Yugoslavia as well, including Ljubljana. French artists, some inspired by Guy Debord, acted as a kind of propaganda machine for the uprising. They occupied universities, established people’s studios, became agitators and activists, and exhibited their work on the streets and in factories.
The exhibition will present around eighty posters, loaned by the Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image imprimée in La Louvière, Belgium. They were created for the events in Paris, and their image has become synonymous with the urban struggle. The student movement in Ljubljana, from 1968 to 1972, will be documented by a film by Majda Širca, as well as the student newspapers Tribuna and SP (standing for slovensko podzemlje – “the Slovene underground”), leaflets and announcements, and photographs by Tone Stojko, Edi Šelhaus, and Žare Veselič, from the Museum and Galleries of the City of Ljubljana and Slovenia’s National Museum of Contemporary History.
'In the Name of the Blood Shed' Exhibition Fotos
Posted March 9, 2009 by dylanminer in Art & Politics
After the Justseeds install, I took off for Mérida, Yucatan. I just got in yesterday, but I haven't seen any exciting (street) art, yet. Send me a shout out if anyone knows some artists or areas to check out here in the Yucatan.
In the mean time, here are a couple of flics from the show I curated, 'In the Name of the Blood Shed.' Photographers Antonio Turok and Edith Sánchez Morales were in the house. Street Art collectives Lapiztola and Zzierra Rrezzia will hopefully be in Michigan conducting workshops for the closing. Stop by if in Michigan before the end of the month.
Origins of the Peace Sign Fist
Posted March 9, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
I'm sure there are more political graphics nerds like me out there, as well as people smart enough to know that the history of our images gives us great insight into how people organize, visualize and make social change. Thankfully we have Lincoln Cushing, political poster archivist extraordinaire. His Docs Populi site is chock full of amazing bits of graphic history and knowledge, including a new piece on the history of the Peace Sign Fist, as developed in connections to the 1970 US Student Strike. Check it out here!
Red Feds CPH Poster Released
Posted March 8, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Jared Davidson, the artist behind the Garage Collective in Christchurch, New Zealand, has designed the latest Celebrate People's History Poster. His poster, Red Feds, is a celebration of early labor union organizing in New Zealand, and discusses the connections between New Zealand radical labor and the Industrial Workers of the World. I asked Jared to write up a bit about the inspiration behind the poster, and he sent along this text, which was also published in the New Zealand Labor History Project. Give it a read and check out the poster:
I never wanted to be a graphic designer — at least not in the traditional sense. An important part of my artistic practice has been to explicitly avoid the design industry and all that it encompasses — advertising, profitability, marketing, consumption, and ultimately, the advancement of our current exploitative and illogical system: capitalism. By setting myself up independent of this mainstream conception of design, I've been lucky enough to participate in projects which have been far more worthwhile and productive than encouraging profit margins, consumer culture and an elitist design minority. Work for the Labour History Project — in the form of the Blackball '08 and May '68 posters — as well my recent poster for the 'Celebrate People's History' project initiated by Justseeds (a collective of USA-based printmakers and illustrators) relects the sort of artistic endeavours I see particular value in.
As my interest in the role graphic and cultural work can play in political agitation and education has grown, I've come into contact with other like-minded practitioners at home and abroad. Justseeds Visual Resistance Artists' Co-Operative, like myself, realise that cultural production plays an integral role in the continuation of the values and systems that prevail today — including our sense of identity, and equally important, our understanding of history. Hence the 'Celebrate People's History' project — an ongoing collection of educational and agitational posters designed to illustrate aspects of our past which are often marginalised, overlooked and outright ignored.
When I was asked to contribute to the project I immediately knew that I wanted to concentrate on an aspect of Aotearoa's past, or more specifically, our vibrant labour history. A poster on the 'Red Feds' and the influence of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) in Aotearoa seemed a natural choice.
Photos: Day Three of the Justseeds Install in Milwaukee
Posted March 4, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here's some photos of day three of the Justseeds install "Which Side Are You On" that opens at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Thursday, March 5th. Slowly but surely it is all coming together. Much thanks to everyone who is assisting us with this project-our friends, the students who are helping out, and all at the Union Art Gallery who have been so amazing to work with. We're excited to see what the next two days bring forth.
More Photos from Day Two of the Justseeds Install in Milwaukee
Posted March 2, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Collective Projects
...stay tuned..three more days of work until the show opens on Thursday, March 5th...
Photos from the Justseeds Install in Milwaukee: Day 1 and 2
Posted March 1, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Collective Projects
The Justseeds install in Milwaukee is off to a roaring start. 15 plus members from the collective and a host of Milwaukee friends are busy working on the six day installation from Friday, Feb. 28th-March 5th. If your in Milwaukee or nearby, stop by the exhibition preview (Tuesday, March 3rd 5:00-8:00) the opening (Thursday, March 5th 5:00-8:00), and a presentation by Josh MacPhee (Monday, March 2nd, 7:00-9:00) on political printmaking. Details are posted below and more photos of the install will be posted soon!
Which Side Are You On?
Exhibition featuring work from the Justseeds Radical Artists’ Cooperative
MILWAUKEE, WI — From March 5 through April 3 the UWM Union Art Gallery will present Which Side Are You On?, featuring the work of 20 plus artists who are part of the Justseeds Radical Artists’ Cooperative. The exhibition reception is on Thursday, March 5 from 5-8pm. An exhibition preview will take place on March 3 at 5pm. All events are free and open to the public.
Justseeds (www.justseeds.org) is a decentralized radical art cooperative consisting of 20 plus artists who live in Brooklyn, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Portland, Milwaukee, and other cities across North America. Together they work on a myriad of projects where art is used as a tool to serve social justice movements. Justseeds is best known for their political prints, a blog that serves as a home for socially engaged street art and news, their group installations, and a recent portfolio project in honor of the 10-year Anniversary of Critical Resistance (a grass roots organization committed to opposing the prison-industrial complex.)
In early March, the Justseeds Radical Artists’ Cooperative will create a massive floor-to-ceiling, all encompassing installation that combines elements of street art, sculpture, video, and other mediums. Which Side Are You On? examines the use of walls as physical and mental barriers that create de-facto segregation, whether it is the walls that divide nation states, the streets that separate one side of town from the other, or the barriers that separate humans from the environment. Which Side Are You On? challenges these barriers while envisioning a more just and sustainable future.
At 5pm on Tuesday, March 3, an exhibition preview will take place at the Union Art Gallery. Stop by for a chance to see the Justseeds installation in progress. During the walk through, meet and talk with the artists involved in the installation.
In conjunction with this exhibition, Union Programming is hosting an evening with Justseeds founder, Josh MacPhee, on Monday, March 2 at 7pm in the Union Fireside Lounge. In his talk, The Walls Are Talking: Street Art and Social Movements, MacPhee will present an in-depth discussion about street art and graffiti and their role at four historical times, between 1968 and 2003. The lecture is free and open to the public. Josh will also lead a printmaking workshop in the Union Studio Arts and Craft Centre on Saturday, March 7 from 12:30-3:30pm. Call 229-5535 for information on the fee and to register.
Which Side Are You On? is cosponsored by UWM Students for a Democratic Society.
Gallery hours are Monday thru Wednesday 12-5pm, Thursday 12-7pm and Friday thru Saturday 12-5pm. The Gallery is located in room W199 on the Campus Level of the Union, 2200 E. Kenwood Boulevard.
UCB third world Liberation Front
Posted February 27, 2009 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the third world Liberation Front Hunger Strike, where seven college students camped outside of California Hall and fasted for what they believed in. I was at Chicana/o Studies conference in Texas when the strike started. I was there with friends that attended UC Berkeley) and we were spreading the word of the upcoming strike and the struggle to keep the Ethnic Studies Department alive and keep it from getting folded into the Cultural Studies department.
I was a student at SF State where I was in the Raza Studies Department. Sf State is where the Third World College was established in 1969 after its own student struggle won it. I lived in Berkeley and had been a part of MEXA and Layout Editor of La Voz de Berkeley since 1994 and had been making flyers for organizations on campus since. Starting with the the third world College action in 1997 to the Crossing Over Conference in 1999 and the Hunger Strike I made flyers to promote the work that was being done.
I returned from the conference 4 days into the strike and I went to meet up with friends who were camped out in front of California Hall. I was going to leave before if got dark but people started talking about something going down because all the cops were getting together at their Sproul Hall office. It wasn't until 3 or 4 am that the police came down to the encampment and issued their order for people for protestors to disperse. At that point there were people who had decided to get arrested as a strategy and they gathered in front of California Hall and prepared to have their camp to be ripped apart by the cops. My friend and roommate Sean O'shea was going around taking pictures with his digital camera and we stayed around protesting as the cops started hauling people away.
La Entrada
Posted February 20, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
My friends WERC and Geraldine (who I went to Mexico with back in October), have been working with a great team of artists on an exciting new project in San Diego: La Entrada. The basic core of the project is an attempt to infuse art into a low income housing project as it is being built. WERC has been painting some amazing murals on the outside. They are also organizing a barrage of workshops for community residents. You can check it out in this short video:
La Entrada Project - Wall1 from geraluzlove on Vimeo.
Review: Illustrations from the Inside & The Real Cost of Prisons
Posted February 18, 2009 by jmacphee in Reviews
Review:
Illustrations from the Inside: The Beat Within
edited by Louis E.V. Nevaer
Mark Batty Publisher, 2007
The Real Cost of Prisons
edited by Lois Ahrens
PM Press, 2008
Back in 1997, I was living in Boulder, CO and working with the Prisoners Rights Project, a group dedicated to improving the conditions of Colorado's prisoners. We were mostly collecting and tabulating data and anecdotes from men trapped in the Colorado State Penitentiary, a super maximimum security prison and the ugly little brother of the Federal Florence AdMax prison down the street (there is something like a dozen prisons all on the same drag in Canyon City). I had been working on prison injustice issues for a number of years, first in Washington, DC, then Ohio, and then Colorado. One thing that was constant throughout my time doing prison activism were the envelopes from prisoners, tattooed with ball point pen dragons, big-breasted women, and low riders. These were some of the smallest, most intense and photo-realistic drawings I had ever seen; I had no idea the depth and detail one could extract from a Bic pen.
Illustrations from the Inside isn't exactly a collection of prison envelope art, but it has all the best qualities of that art form and more. The book is an amazing collection of images created by juvenile prisoners that are part of The Beat Within, a long running weekly magazine and writing program for youth in juvenile detention and prison. The pages here are a rush of imagery, from Chicano clown faces to Black super heroes, prison bars to indigenous spirituality. In many ways this is a tour through the mind of most teenage boys, but with a darker twist, as even the most banal images begin to feel infected by fear, control, domination and violence. The quality of the art jumps from childish to some of the most intense social realism I've ever seen. Cartoon Tupac scribbles share space with detailed drawings of riot cops beating Black youth. In some ways Illustrations reads like an American youth version of that popular Russian Criminal Tattoos book, not as esoteric or x-rated, but a serious window into the mindset of 11-25 year old prisoners (yes, some of the images are from imprisoned youth as young as 11!).
Activist Print Open Studio at Signs of Change
Posted February 18, 2009 by mary_tremonte in Art & Politics
Images from Signs of Change Winter Harvest Reception, January 23, 2009
Join local printmakers and activists at a special Activist Print Open Studio, this Thursday, 5-8pm, at the Signs of Change exhibition at the Miller Gallery in Pittsburgh.
ACTIVIST PRINT OPEN STUDIO >>>
Thursday, Feb. 19, 5-8pm
@ Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh
Free and open to the public
Screenprinting open studio provided by Artists Image Resource + The Andy Warhol Museum. Observe printers in action, roll up your sleeves and print posters promoting local issues, or bring $5 and create a screenprint from images that you provide.
The Cherokee Writing System
Posted February 18, 2009 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
I wanted to announce the release of a new Celebrate People's History poster! The Cherokee Writing System was designed by Frank Brannon, Jr., who runs his own letterpress studio SpeakEasy Press in Dillsboro, NC.
The Cherokee Writing System was developed in 1821 by Sequoyah. Frank was interested in doing a poster about Sequoyah's syllabary after researching the Cherokee Pheonix, the first newspaper that used the writing system, as well as the first Native American newspaper. After studying and giving talks on the subject, Frank realized how few knew about Sequoyah and his work. Frank says, "I felt the Celebrate People's History poster series was the perfect way to get out the word to the people on his story. That's what compelled me to write." He also says letterpress printing normally means a small audience. Making a CPH poster was a way to translate few copies of a poster on Sequoyah to a larger audience.
You can learn more about Frank and SpeakEasy Press at www.speakeasypress.com.
Street Art and Social Movements
Posted February 17, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
So, here is the English version of the article I had published in Zapruder magazine. This is a much longer version, very much still in process. I'd love to hear what people think, so please comment if you read it!
Street Art and Social Movements
Josh MacPhee
In most societies, very few people have access to the mechanisms of mainstream media creation and distribution. Most of us have little to no input into the barrage of headlines, advertisements, news briefs and billboards we consume everyday. As such, this visual landscape often feels more like a system of control than a source of useful information. When these "legitimate" systems of communication fail individuals or groups in a society, people often turn to illegal ways of communicating with both each other and the system attempting to control them. Graffiti and street art have long existed as a safety valve for individuals to vent their anger and frustration, whether in the form of scrawling angry messages on bathroom stalls or pasting posters on the windows of government buildings. But it is when the vast majority of people begin to feel that they have no other outlet to communicate, that the media channels open to them are uni-directional and they are on the receiving end of a string of lies and half truths, that street art can act as an antidote to our visual space being used as a social control mechanism. There have been many of these moments, when street art becomes truly democratic and hundreds, or thousands, of people flood the streets with their messages in the form of posters and graffiti. It is at these times that people begin to look to the streets, and to their peers, to find explanations for their condition, not corporate television, state radio, or ruling class newspapers. I'm going to discuss four historical examples here; Paris in May 1968, Nicaragua in the late 1970s, South Africa in the early 1980s, and finally Argentina from 2001-04.
Part I: France
In Paris, in May and June of 1968, there was a student and worker revolt that brought France to the brink of revolution. Accompanying this revolt was a groundswell of creative street expression, especially in the form of graffiti'd poems and slogans and rapidly mass-produced silkscreened political posters. The posters often responded to the direct material reality of what was happening on the streets and in the factories, while the graffiti was largely more poetic and metaphysical, speaking to its readers on a much more emotional level. This counter-narrative written on the street not only attracted people because of it's graphic power or sense of humor, but also because there were days at a time when the workers in French TV, radio and press were on strike. The walls were literally the only place to get the news.[1]
Hobos to Street People
Posted February 15, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Hobos to Street People:
Artists' Responses to Homelessness from the New Deal to the Present
February 19 - August 15, 2009
The California Historical Society
678 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA
Reception: February 19, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Hobos to Street People is a traveling exhibition organized by the California Exhibition Resources Alliance.
Curated by Art Hazelwood.
Charles Wollenberg advised on historical matters.
Paul Boden advised on contemporary issues.
A preview the exhibition can be seen at the Western Regional Advocacy Project website.
Rome Travel Notes Pt. 3
Posted February 14, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Here's the last bit I want to share about Rome for now. One of the last days we were in Rome we got to take a trip out to the edge of the city to one of the longest running squatted social centers, Forte Prenestino. Set within a public park, Prenestino is literally an old military fort, surrounded by a moat and sitting on top of 100 centuries old jail cells. It was originally squatted in 1985, and is one of, if not the oldest, social center in Rome. It is still a squat, but is involved in some sort of legalization scheme, so sits in a semi-legal zone. We weren't able to get the whole story about this, but it seems pretty controversial.
The fort itself is split into 3 major areas. First, a central indoor corridor, with rooms and paths off to the sides, that lead to rooms on ground level and above, as well as to the jail cells below. Off this main corridor are a restaurant, a bar, a cafe, a movie theater, an infoshop, a long running pirate radio station and a wine bar! They are all run by people involved in Prenestino, and appear to be cheap and not for profit. Second, the corridor opens up onto two huge courtyards, one on each side. These are half-football field sized open areas which hold huge concerts (all the classic punk bands of played here, from the Dead Kennedys to Fugazi), encampments of trailers, buses, and RVs, and a monthly farmer's market. The walls were covered with graffiti and wheatpasted posters, with one whole side dominated by a giant mural by Blu. Off to the sides of each courtyard are additional rooms, which hold things like a Yoga studio and a musical instrument workshop. Third, ringing above the whole thing is a raised trail and a bunch of green space. Built into the earth are a number of small houses and private dwellings. The trails are all marked with super professional signs which clarify and distinguish all of the native plants that live in the Forte. All in all it is pretty overwhelming, just an immense amount of space and activity. There's simply nothing comparable in the US.
Come Celebrate the Five-Year Anniversary of Mess Hall in Chicago this Sunday
Posted February 13, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Events
If your in Chicago or close by, come celebrate Mess Hall’s 5-Yr. anniversary this Sunday, Feb. 15th!
Mess Hall is an experimental cultural space. Located in the Roger’s Park in Chicago, Mess Hall is a place for visual culture, creative urbanism, sustainable ecology, food democracy, radical politics, and cultural experimentation. Mess Hall runs on the generosity of those who use it. This allows us to provide everything for free - from food and drinks to workshops and events.
Over the past five years, hundreds of events have taken place from art shows, film screenings, discussions, meetings, potlucks, sewing rebellions, performances, and everything in between.
So join us Sunday, February 15, 2009, 7:00pm to celebrate the past 5 years and make your mark on the space for future events.
What you can expect:
-An exhibit of Mess Hall archives & proposals for our next 5 years.
-The Justseeds Prison Portfolio Project
-Art by Burtonwood and Holmes (http://www.burtonwoodandholmes.com)
-This Is Not A Truck (http://www.blocartiststudios.com/index.html)
-PHOTOBOOTH
-ART SWAP!
-talent share
-piñatas
-kick-ass music with Mess Hall’s own Aay Preston-Myint DJing.
Mess Hall links:
Mess Hall website:
http://www.messhall.org/
(BRAND NEW!) Mess Hall blog:
http://messhallarchive.wordpress.com/
Links to some recent press...
News Star article on Mess Hall
http://chicagojournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=49&SubSectionID=142&ArticleID=7015&TM=50481.14
Loyola Phoenix article on Mess Hall
Mess Hall's Ten-Point Statement:
Rome Travel Notes Pt. 2
Posted February 13, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
While in Rome we took a couple trips to San Lorenzo, a working class neighborhood which is both the locus of current student activism, and the historical center of the Autonomia movement in Rome. We saw a lot of evidence of both. The graffiti seemed to call out from the past, with slogans from the height of the autonomous workers' movements in the 1970s:
The neighborhood was also covered with posters announcing episodes in the recent student general strike:
Shepard Fairey: Sideshow; Shibboleth
Posted February 12, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friend Eric Triantafillou, a teacher, artist and designer in Chicago, has been following all the dialogue around the Shepard Fairey controversies, and wrote up the below piece in response. Check it out:
Shepard Fairey: Sideshow; Shibboleth
Eric Triantafillou
I’ve been following the debates around Shepard Fairey for the past couple years and finally decided to respond with some of my own thoughts. I want to start by briefly mentioning an encounter I had with Fairey in San Francisco back in 2000.
It was during the height of the dot-com induced housing crisis that was forcing thousands of (mostly Latino) residents out of the Mission District. One night some friends and I were out pasting up posters for an anti-gentrification rally at City Hall. On the vertical supports of the Highway 101 overpass were Fairey’s long red banners with the Andre/Obey/star motif in a circle. The circle was the same size as the round black posters we were putting up, so we pasted one on each banner. They looked really tight together. I didn’t realize it at the time, but a lone Shepard Fairey was working just few steps ahead of us. He must have seen our handy work because minutes later he pulled up alongside us in his SUV, honking and yelling “Hey! What the fuck?!” I was thrilled. I had always thought Fairey was a sellout and now was my chance to confront him on common ground. I detested him less because he “steals” other people’s images and more because he seemed to have no regard for the spaces and places he puts his stuff up. Here he was, obliviously working away in the middle of a neighborhood that was socially hemorrhaging. To him it was just another space, an empty canvas on which to point out what advertising had long since proven. So add to the gripes that his work whitewashes history (time) by unhitching social struggle from its representational forms, the fact that it also has no relation, except on a purely formal level, to the space it occupies. Space for Fairey is simply a backdrop. When we pressed him about this he said that all the space around us is there for the taking and that we, as fellow street artists, should know better than to paste over someone else’s work; that we all know how much time and labor goes into making and putting it up. Aside from his idea of street art as a kind of Manifest Destiny, we agreed that it’s hard work but said that it also requires a degree of mental labor, and maybe his work would really take root if it reflected something about it’s environment, like a connection to an existing social movement; a commitment to something greater than himself. He didn’t get it. Instead of haranguing him further, we left to finish our work.
My interest in recounting this moment is not as a window into Shepard Fairey’s self-understanding but my own at the time and how it’s changed since. So much of what has been said by Fairey’s detractors is about questioning his intentions or about holding him personally accountable. It’s been said in various ways, and it sounds like many of us agree, that Shepard Fairey is a symptom of a far deeper malady. I think if we look at Fairey as a symptom rather than a cause, as Josh did in his post, it helps reveal how our discontent with the system, this includes the histories of struggle that Fairey poaches from, is made part of the dominant ideology. I think these discussions would benefit from addressing how the socio-economic system we all live under is able to reproduce the Shepard Faireys of the world AND his dissenters (us: Left artists), generation after generation, without a serious challenge to its hegemony. Here’s how Josh finishes his post:
“His work will only be successful (at more than making money) when he cites his source materials and tries to cut through the amnesiac haze of our society instead of adding to it. When a Fairey wheatpaste on the street becomes not an advertisement for his clothing line but a site for arguing over how we fight and struggle in this world today, I'll be the first one to send people out to look at it and argue about it.”
As far as I can tell, Shepard Fairey’s practices have managed to generate a pretty vibrant conversation on this site and elsewhere. It remains to be seen if these arguments stay mired in issues of fair-use, theft, and Fairey’s self-promotional motivations, or develop into more fundamental questions about “how we fight and struggle in this world today.” I would add that a big part of “fighting” and “struggling” is thinking. I can only hope these conversations expand to include questions about our own political consciousness.
In that spirit…
Rome Travel Notes Pt. 1
Posted February 12, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I've been meaning to write down some thoughts on my trip to Rome since I got back over a month ago, but time has been crunched and re-crunched with other commitments. So, the basic story is that Favianna and I (and Dara) got to head off to Rome for a week back in mid-December to have a Reproduce & Revolt book release and a print show at the House of Love & Dissent in Rome. And it was awesome. Marco, Domizia, Luca, Pado and everyone at the gallery were awesome. Love & Dissent is in the neighborhood of Monti, which is pretty tourist-y because it is literally down the street from the Coliseum.
There's not too much to say about the show itself, we hung it, it opened, and people seemed really into it! Upstairs we put a mix of our prints, images from Reproduce & Revolt, and in the basement I installed a ton of Celebrate People's History posters. I'm just going to let the photos speak for themselves (all show install photos by Favi):
Poster Critique + Discussion of Visual Strategies for Resisting the Prison Industrial Complex
Posted February 5, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Tamms Year Ten and Mess Hall are holding another event related to the Justseeds Prison Portfolio, a poster critique and discussion of aesthetic strategies! I wish I was in Chicago, because this is exactly what I'm into, trying to discuss and suss out how to improve the effectiveness of our visual propaganda. If you are in Chicago, check this out:
Poster Critique + Discussion of Visual Strategies for Resisting the Prison Industrial Complex with Dan S. Wang & Laurie Jo Reynolds
Saturday, February 7 at 6:30pm
Mess Hall
6932 North Glenwood Avenue
Chicago, IL 60626
Tamms Year Ten is hosting an open discussion of the prints in the Justseeds poster portfolio — each which critiques the "prison industrial complex." Let's talk about which images are effective for you--and use this as a basis for considering the visual and rhetorical strategies in the movement. We want to learn from the decisions made by these artists, and then we want to work with you to consider the very real representational problems we face as a movement!
- How do we depict the experience of long-term isolation? Or communicate the experience of long-term incarceration?
- What visual language will help us to imagine the abolition of prisons? To urge rehabilitation over punishment?
- Can commonly used motifs—fists through prison bars/broken chains/doves/barbed wire/slave ships/prison stripes—still work? Are new metaphors required?
We'll be talking about prison-related issues, but we hope that this event will be of interest to all artist-activists bedeviled and/or charmed by the problem of producing movement art which translates our political passions into visual form, renders visible the (often unacknowledged) problems of the present, and/or serves as an irresistible invitation to join us in our efforts to get free. We also invite you to bring other anti-prison movement ephemera (t-shirts, posters, stickers) for discussion!
http://www.chicagoartistsresource.org/visual-arts/node/19026
Political Art Action in Moscow
Posted February 4, 2009 by dara_g in Art & Politics
This is a re-post from: http://boryana-rossa.livejournal.com/17089.html
My friend Boryana, an artist from Bulgaria, keeps me informed about the political art scene in Russia and Eastern Europe. I took a long time to re-post this (it's from November) but I think it is still worth learning about what's happening with political art in Russia and with this case specifically. The full essay is below:
CSPG: Call for Masterpeaces posters
Posted February 3, 2009 by mary_tremonte in Calls for Art
MasterPeaces: High Art for Higher Purpose
June 6 - 27, 2009
Da Vinci Gallery
Los Angeles City College
855 N. Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90029
323.953.4000
In conjunction with Otis College of Art & Design- Integrated Learning Project
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) is asking artists, organizations, and activists for poster submissions for our next exhibition, Masterpeaces: High Art for Higher Purpose. From Dada to Punk, from anti-war movements to feminism and ecology, high art has been repeatedly incorporated into a visual language that ranges from the iconoclastic to overt protest. MasterPeaces will show how works by Leonardo, Michelangelo, Munch, Ingres, Delacroix, Picasso, Lichtenstein, Warhol and many others have been parodied, appropriated or altered to make statements about a variety of contemporary issues including censorship, disabled rights, ecology, HIV/AIDS, homophobia, war, and women's rights. Through annotations it will also introduce the viewers to the historical context of the original work, thus expanding viewers' visual literacy. Masterpeaces will premiere June 2009 in Los Angeles. Your posters will impact and educate a large audience of artists, community activists, university and high school faculty and students.
Submission deadline: March 20, 2009
By donating your posters, they will become a part of CSPG's unique archive that will be accessible to the general public and researchers for years to come.
Criteria for Posters:
1. Must be produced in multiples such as silkscreen, offset, stencil, litho, digital output etc.
2. Must have overt political content.
Photos from “TAMMS YEAR TEN CAMPAIGN / Justseeds Prison Portfolio” exhibition in Chicago
Posted February 2, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Events
Above are photos from an important event that took place at Mess Hall in Chicago on Feb. 1, 2009. The TAMMS YEAR TEN CAMPAIGN organized a show of posters, flyers, letters, poetry, postcards, banners, photos, videos, and ephemera from their multifaceted campaign. Included in the show was the Justseeds Portfolio Project: Voices from Outside - Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex.
The event focused attention on the current campaign against TAMMS (a super max prison in southern Illinois) and urged more people in Illinois and beyond to get involved in speaking out and contacting legislators about the horrid conditions and the methods of psychological torture that take place at TAMMS.
If you are outraged by Guantánamo Bay and encouraged by the Obama Administration’s call to close it down, learn more about TAMMS and speak out against torture in Illinois prisons.
About TAMMS YEAR TEN CAMPAIGN:
In 1998, the first prisoners were transferred from prisons across the state to Tamms CMAX, in Southern Illinois. This new “supermax” prison, designed to keep men in permanent solitary confinement, was intended for short-term incarceration. The IDOC called it a one-year “shock treatment.” Now, ten years later, over one-third of the original prisoners have been there for a decade. They have lived in long-term isolation—no phone calls, no communal activity, no ocntact visits. They only leave the cell to exercise alone in a concrete box 2-5 times per week. They are fed through a slot in the door.
Year Ten is a coalition of prisoners, ex-prisoners, families, artists and other concerned citizens who have come together to protest the misguided and inhumane policies at Tamms C-MAX, and to call for an end to psychological torture. We have initiated a program of cultural, educational and political events to publicize Tamms after ten years of operation.
Photos from “Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex” exhibition in Madison
Posted February 1, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Events
Above are photos from the “Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex” show that took place on January 30, 2009 at Project Lodge in Madison, Wisconsin. The exhibition was organized by Wisconsin Books to Prisoners (a project of Rainbow Bookstore) and over 70 works of art were on display (including the Justseeds portfolio project, other prison related images from Justseeds artists, art by prisoners, and art by local Madison artists. As well, spoken word artists from the First Wave Spoken Word and Urban Arts Learning Community, including Sophia Snow and Alida Carlos Whaley performed and inspired us with their words.
The opening was packed with people from Madison, Milwaukee, and beyond and the organizers did an incredible job in bringing everyone together and using culture as a tool to combat the prison crisis.
The organizers from Wisconsin Books to Prisoners kept the focus of the evening on activism and reminded us that the State Government in Wisconsin bans used books from being mailed to Wisconsin prisoners and urged people to phone the Governor’s office at 608-266-1212; the WI DOC Administrator at 608-240-5104; and the WI DOC secretary at 608-240-5055 to voice their objections.
To learn more:
http://www.rainbowbookstore.org/b2p
To contact one of organizers of the show:
Camy Matthay: maha@chorus.net
Also check out Community Connections -- a volunteer organization that does a myriad of programming and prison/family support work with inmates at the Oakhill Correctional Institution (OCI) in Oregon, WI.
http://communityconnectionswi.org/index.php?option=com_simplefaq&Itemid=62
Not My Government
Posted February 1, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friends over at Not My Government have been consistently churning out political posters and anti-police brutality propaganda for years. Head over to their site and check out what they've been up to, and support the cause!
Upcoming Justseeds show/installation project in Milwaukee
Posted January 31, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Collective Projects
In late February/early March 2009, upwards of fifteen Justseeds artists will converge in Milwaukee for a week to create a massive floor-to-ceiling installation at the Union Art Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that will combines elements of street art, stencils, sculpture and other mediums.
The installation is titled "Which Side Are You On?" and it will examine the use of walls as physical and mental barriers that create de-facto segregation, whether it is the walls that divide nation states, the streets that separate one side of town from the other, or the barriers that separate humans from the environment. "Which Side Are You On?" challenges these barriers while envisioning a more just and sustainable future.
During the install, we'll post photos on the Justseeds blog of the work in progress.
Upcoming dates:
Monday, March 2nd, 7:00pm, Union Fireside Lounge: talk by Josh MacPhee on the present and past political, social, and aesthetic development of activist printmaking from around the world.
Tuesday, March 3rd, 5pm, Union Art Gallery: stop in the Union Art Gallery for a chance to see the Justseeds installation in progress. During the walk through, meet and talk with the artists involved in the installation.
Thursday, March 5th, 5-8pm, Union Art Gallery: opening reception
Saturday, March 7th, 12:30-3:30, Union Studio Arts and Craft Centre: printmaking workshop with Josh MacPhee. Call the Craft Centre at 414-229-5535 to register.
The exhibition will run from March 5th - April 3rd
UWM Union Art Gallery is located at:
Campus Level, Room W199
2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.
Milwaukee, WI 53211
414.229.6310
Hours: Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri & Sat 12-5pm; Thu 12-7pm
The exhibition "Which Side Are You On" is co-sponsored by Students for a Democratic Society at UWM
You Don't Have to Fuck People Over to Survive
Posted January 29, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Here's a cool little video of Seth Tobocman performing his classic piece, You Don't Have to Fuck People Over to Survive. It was made by Andrew Lynn of Breathing Planet from a performance at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Xicana/o struggle for land
Posted January 29, 2009 by Melanie_Cervantes in Art & Politics
On February 2, 1848, a Mexican delegation ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, with Mexico accepting the Rio Grande as the Texas border and ceding almost half its territory (which incorporated the present day-states of California, New Mexico, Nevada, and parts of Colorado, Arizona, Utah and even Oklahoma) to the United States in return for $15 million.
The version of the treaty ratified by the United States Senate eliminated Article X, which stated that the U.S. government would honor and guarantee all land grants awarded in lands ceded to the United States to citizens of Spain and Mexico by those respective governments. Article VIII guaranteed that Mexicans who remained more than one year in the ceded lands would automatically become full-fledged American citizens (or they could declare their intention of remaining Mexican citizens); however, the Senate modified Article IX, changing the first paragraph and excluding the last two. Among the changes was that Mexican citizens would "be admitted at the proper time (to be judged of by the Congress of the United States)" instead of "admitted as soon as possible", as negotiated between Nicolas Trist and the Mexican delegation.
Apart from the impact of losing over half of their territory, the Mexicans had lost a measure of dignity. To this day the lack of enforcement of the Treaty remains an issue for Xicana/os with the U.S government. For many Xicana/os this is our land based struggle as Indigenous people. We see this struggle as one parallel and shared with Northern Native American’s struggle over treaty rights.
Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza collaborated on designing the promotional flyers and a commemorative screen printed poster for the annual Bay Area Treaty of Guadalupe “remembrance” event organized by the grassroots group Huaxtec.
Huaxtec is a organizations comprised of young Xicanas and Xicanos in the Bay Area who are learning their traditions as Indigenous people and organizing in their schools, community and to continue resistance against colonization.
(Much of this writing is borrowed form Rodolfo Acuna's Occupied America: A History of Chicanos)
R&R interview on Brooklyn Street Art Blog
Posted January 27, 2009 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
Brooklynstreetart.com has posted an interview I did with them about the Reproduce & Revolt book. Check it out HERE.
Our Flesh of Flames
Posted January 26, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Our Flesh of Flames
Featuring the work of Theodore A. Harris and Amiri Baraka
January 29th-February 26th, 2009
Opening Night reception January 29th 6- PM
@ the Brecht Forum, NYC
The Brecht Forum is proud to exhibit Our Flesh of Flames featuring the collages of Theodore A. Harris and the poetic captions of legendary writer and social activist Amiri Baraka.
Posed against an eerily iridescent orange sky, Harris' collaged landscapes are filled with urban dystopia. Upside down capitols, distorted bank notes pose the reality of a society fettered by the cash nexus. Images of John Coltrane, Muhammed Ali and Paul Robeson are juxtaposed with protest scenes showing the creative and transformative power of African American social movements.
Controversial critic and poet Amiri Baraka provides lyrical assault through his captions with his trademark humor and biting social commentary. First published as in 2008, Our Flesh of Flames is Harris and Baraka's stunning contribution to African American arts and letters
Mike Stephens at Dirty Pilot
Posted January 25, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friend Mike Stephens has a nice online show up on DirtyPilot.com. Mike is an amazing block printer from Corpus Christi, TX, and a print of his has been in the Paper Politics show for years. His prints are amazingly detailed and strange, the trials and tribulations of his alter-egos, who are almost always dumpy, overweight, washed-up superheroes! Check it out here.
Upcoming show in Madison: ARTISTS AGAINST THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Posted January 24, 2009 by nicolas_lampert in Events
Wisconsin Books to Prisoners a project of Rainbow Bookstore, is sponsoring an exhibit ARTISTS AGAINST THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. The show will run from Jan 30 – Feb 5th at Project Lodge, 817 E. Johnson in Madison. Opening reception is at 7 pm, Friday Jan 30th.
Over 70 drawings by prisoners that address the use of prisons, policing and punishment as a “solution” to social, political and economic problems will be on display.
The show was inspired by printmakers from the Justseeds Radical Artists’ Cooperative (www.justseeds.org) who created more than 20 posters in 2008 in honor of the 10th anniversary of Critical Resistance, a prison abolitionist movement. Twenty-five posters from Justseeds, which include Wisconsin artists Nicolas Lampert and Colin Matthes will be on display. Other political artists in Wisconsin have also contributed prints to the show.
Spoken word artists from the First Wave Spoken Word and Urban Arts Learning Community, including Sophia Snow, Alida Carlos Whaley and others will perform pieces topical to the show. Again, please join us for the opening reception on Friday, January 30th, from 7 pm -10 pm.
Contributions to support the costs of shipping books to prisoners are appreciated. Those unable to attend the show are welcome to send donations to Wisconsin Books to Prisoners/Rainbow Books, 426 W. Gilman St.. Madison, WI 53703. Tax-deductible donations can be made out to our fiscal sponsor "PC Foundation” with "WI Books to
Prisoners" in the memo line.
Since the inception of Wisconsin Books to Prisoners in the fall of 2006, WBTP has sent over 12,000 books to prisoners nationwide. Although Wisconsin Books to Prisoners is still banned by the WI Department of Corrections from sending used books to prisoners in WI, it continues to send books to federal and state prisoners nationwide, including an outreach program for LGTB prisoners.
Wisconsin prisoners deserve the right to read and access to books from book to prisoner projects. Those concerned about the ban should phone the Governor’s office at 608-266-1212; the WI DOC Administrator at 608-240-5104; and the WI DOC secretary at 608-240-5055 to voice their objections.
Contact for the show:
Camy Matthay
maha@chorus.net
Review of Realizing the Impossible
Posted January 24, 2009 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
Here's a new review of Realizing the Impossible from the UK anarchist mag Direct Action #41:
Reviews: Realizing the Impossible: Art against Authority by Josh MacPhee and Erik Reuland AK Press 2007 – 319 pages – £16.00 – ISBN: 9781904859321This monochrome book arrived shortly after an interview with Banksy, the “graffiti artist”, had been aired on the BBC. A commentator went along to a working men’s (sic) club in Bethnal Green to view Banksy’s diversion of yellow road markings across the pavement and up the wall to blossom into a flower. Banksy says in the book, “Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal…a city which felt like a living breathing thing which belonged to everybody, not just real estate agents and the barons of big business”. The club secretary was quite pleased to leave it there. But not all graffiti is of artistic merit and many regard it as degrading the environment. Do graffitos adorn their own dwellings thus?
Rendition of "Down by the Riverside" for Gaza
Posted January 22, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
Some folks changed the lyrics to Down by the Riverside to reflect the current needs of everyone living in Gaza. They went onto the NYC subways and sang some songs for Martin Luther King's Birthday.
Stop Bombing Gaza
Posted January 19, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I have to say I'm quite impressed with the outpouring of art and design in support and defense of Gaza. It's nice to see some skills flexed to do something a little more socially-engaged then electing a president. That said, I'm wondering if we could come up with some tools to really give this art outpouring some weight, to amplify the impact. Can we make it more public? Get some better distribution? The image below is from Sam and Katah of Dragon Dance Studios in Montreal.
Colectivo Cordyceps/Taring Padi in DF
Posted January 19, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Another hot political graphics show in Mexico City, organized by our friends down their. Check it out:
Exposicion de Grafica Radical y de Protesta
Exponen:
COLECTIVO CORDYCEPS con obra grafica radical de denuncia, de Mexico DF.
TARING PADI un colectivo de grafica de protesta, desde Java Central
Indonesia.
Bandas Invitadas:
DE DON SON, grupo de Son Jarocho de Mexico DF.
Lugar:
LA CHINAMPA DE IXTACALCO,
Plaza de San Matias o Jardin Hidalgo #10
Barrio de la Asuncion, Pueblo de Iztacalco
A un costado del Kiosko.
Calzada de la Viga, esq. Avenida Hidalgo.
Peceras
Metro Xola o Metro Iztacalco.
Tel. 5633 2502
Fecha y Hora:
Viernes 23 de Enero 2009, a las 7:30pm
Para mas informacion:
chinampaixtacalco@gmail.com
cordyceps@riseup.net
shit_swimmer@riseup.net
"Izena duen guztia omen da"
http://espora.org/furia/
Yo, Shepard Fairey is straight up sad!
Posted January 19, 2009 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Art & Politics
I have recently been asked about why it is that I dislike Shepard Fairey. Its actually not that I dislike Shepard as a person, its more that I have a big problem with his practices. I find them to be unethical and I believe that the political spectrum of people trying to make social change in the world will ultimately not benefit from his art. I believe that as artists and activists, we should be open about critiquing each other and open to changing how it is that we do things. That is what movements did before us .The Black Panthers consistently criticized each other in order to make assessments, and grow, as people, as an organization, and as a movement. We should never be closed to critique because in doing so we are doing ourselves a disservice. I would love to have the opportunity to talk to Shepard about my critiques, but the word on the street is that he does not like to debate about this stuff. Again, I have to say that this is not a personal attack, Shepard is actually in a book I co-edited with Josh MacPhee (also part of Justseeds), Reproduce and Revolt, and it's not my intention to smear him nor censor him. Rather, my intention is to provide a look at his practices from the perspective a woman of color, an artist activist, and a person who thinks our capitalist system is very flawed.
Today a friend shared an article which you can read by clicking here. The title of the article is "Consumers of the World Unite," based on the phrase, "Workers of the World, Unite!" The title itself says alot of Fairey's practices, which is, that he commodifies political movements with the intention of making HUGE profits from them. Read the article and judge for yourself. It's sad to me that me that in our ultra consumer world, EVERYTHING is up for grabs when it's about profit. Very similar to how Hip Hop started in our communities, was even illegal in some forms, then repurposed, and is now sold back to us, by the very forces that also put our people in jail, deport our families, and push for bail outs in which the people ultimately pay the price. The article starts like this:
"SHOPPING, these days, is a political act. If you are brave enough to buy a $2,000 Prada handbag, you might rationalize that you are helping to stimulate the economy. Solidarity, people!"
Read more about Shepard Fairey's practices:
This article here was researched by a few of us in Justseeds (Jesus Barraza, Josh MacPhee, and myself) as well as other notable voices in the world of political posters:
http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm
This article here was written by my fellow co-editor and JustSeeder, Josh MacPhee:
http://www.justseeds.org/blog/2007/12/a_response_to_obey_plagiarist_1.html
This article was written originally for release in Mother Jones, but Mother Jones then refused to run it, and then instead ran a very pro-Fairey piece:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/06/97988
Here is an open letter to Shepard from a powerful sister who works at KPFK, Aura Bogado.
http://tothecurb.wordpress
Siamo tutti Palestinesi
Posted January 17, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
Our friend Marco delli Santi from Rome's House of Love and Dissent just sent over this design he created, he's planning on printing them out of mirror sticker paper and putting them up around Italy. If you're interested in doing that as well, you can download the file here.
Privatizing the Commons: The Commodification of New Deal Public Art
Posted January 16, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Lincoln Cushing has written a great article on posters produced in the 30s and 40s by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and how they are being "borrowed" by designers and how their value has exploded in the art market. It's published on the AIGA website. The entire article can be read here, and for the lazy, here's the first couple paragraphs:
With the United States economy spiraling down the drain, there’s been a renewed interest in the New Deal projects of the 1930s and 1940s as potential models of how to once again make big government good government.
New Poster: Boycott the Bloodshed!
Posted January 11, 2009 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Art & Politics
I am working on a poster about Divestment in Israel as well as informing consumers what they can do to pressure Israel to change its policies. The poster is a collaboration with the group, INCITE, Women of Color Against Violence.
This poster will soon be printed and made available by February 1st. Israel has been the largest annual recipient of direct U.S. economic and military assistance since 1976 and the largest total recipient since World War ll. Israel receives about $3 billion in direct foreign assistance each year, which is roughly one-fifth of America's entire foreign aid budget.
Corporations also support Israel. BOYCOTT: MOTOROLA, VICTORIA'S SECRET, STARBUCKS, MCDONALD'S, Ben N Jerry's, Blockbuster Video, Burger King, Coca Cola, Domino's Pizza, Haagen Dazs, Heinz, Hertz, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Marriott, Raddison, KFC, L'oreal, Donna Karan, Johnson & Johnson, MCI, Monster Cable Products, Planet Hollywood, Pizza Hut, Pepsi, Sara Lee, Taco Bell, Sportmart, Subway, Toys R Us, Tower Records, UPS, Vanity Fair
More info here
“break (vitalogy)” by Suheir Hammad
Posted January 8, 2009 by k_c_ in Inspiration
“break (vitalogy)”all matter related
we connectedana on corners
holy grams
ana incarcerated lightgaze me
ana gaza
you can’t see meana blood wa memory
it was all a dream
lion kissing meana harb
heart
ana harana wa ana
we related
woven
ultimate design
physical dreamplease excuse my state of disappearance
been renovating structure
innovating space
hype earrings onSuheir Hammad
From her bookBreaking Poems.
...here the poet figures herself as gaza. and as gaza she disappears...Taken from the blog Body on the Line
khaled abou-khamis
Posted January 7, 2009 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
From Boba Singh's flickr stream, an artist in Berlin. Here is their website: vizifada.de
Street Art In Buffalo
Posted January 6, 2009 by icky in Street Art & Graffiti
Attached are some pics a friend sent me, taken at the former site of Martin Sostre's radical "Afro-Asian" bookstore in the heart of Buffalo.
Incite! Journal online
Posted January 4, 2009 by jmacphee in Film & Video
My friend Brett Kashmere has recently released the first online issue of Incite! journal of experimental media & radical aesthetics. The theme of the first issue is "Manifest," and there's a ton of material in the first issue online, and they are hoping to release a print edition. There something in here for lots of different interests but it is heavily bent towards experimental film and video. Here's how Brett describes the contents:
In this issue:
* Legendary collage filmmaker and programmer Craig Baldwin talks with Steve Polta about the 70s avant-garde, Baldwin's college years, political activism, and midnight screenings: all of which lead him to filmmaking and to his unique curatorial aesthetic.* In a strong diatribe against capital-driven mainstream cinema, the famed American independent film impresario Jonas Mekas celebrates the pioneering avant-garde and its connections to the heavenly.
Artsblog.it Interview
Posted December 31, 2008 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
For anyone that speaks Italian some really cool folks in Rome did an interview with me at the Reproduce & Revolt show at the House of Love and Dissent. You can read it here.
Solidarity With Palestinian Struggle
Posted December 31, 2008 by Jesus_Barraza in In the News
In Solidarity with the National Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People I started working on this poster, I am linking two files that can be downloaded and printed on both 8.5x11 (download here) and 11x17 (download here) so people can put them up in their offices or windows.
I have been been a strong supporter of the Palestinian struggle for sovereignty and land rights. Native people have been struggling for the same thing as Palestinians across the Americas for hundreds of years, people continue fighting to regain control of their ancestral lands and the right decide their future.
¡Que viva Palestina Libre!
¡Que vivan Los Zapatistas!
¡Que viva Evo Morales!
Solidarity with Gaza From the South Bronx
Posted December 31, 2008 by k_c_ in Street Art & Graffiti
This piece appeared yesterday in the South Bronx. The wall faces the Bruckner Expressway, a highly used elevated highway passing through the Bronx.
My pal Anomalous compiles a lot of news articles, quotes and other materials on his Flickr site here's a particularly intense one
Hannukah descends on Gaza like 6 million locusts by AnomalousNYC. "I will play music and celebrate what the Israeli air force is doing." --Ofer Shmerling, an Israeli civil defense official in Sderot speaking on Al Jazeera as images of Israel's latest massacres were broadcast around the world.From 19 June until yesterday, there was not a single Israeli fatality from a Hamas attack. In all of 2008, there was a single suicide bombing, which killed one person. Over the course of the entire 4 years that Gazans have been blindly lobbing their pathetic bottle-rockets over their prison walls into the desert, fewer than 20 Israelis have been killed. Israelis stand a greater statistical chance of drowning in their jacuzzis than of being killed by a rocket from Gaza.
Israel's omni-directional military belligerence has never been about security, but about racial malice and real estate, and in this case, election-season machinations. And so, over the course of a few hours Israelis have murdered nearly 300 and hospitalized more than 800 Palestinians. In response, overnight polls indicate that support for Israel's ultra-rightwing parties, such as the fascist party Yisrael Beitenyu, which openly advocates ethnic cleansing, has grown exponentially. As Israeli MK Zahalka pointedly observed: "Barak is trying to win votes in exchange for Palestinian blood."
Modern Chinese Woodcuts
Posted December 29, 2008 by icky in Inspiration
Modern Chinese Woodcuts
A few years ago I picked up a book of Chinese woodcuts, written in the early 80s, put out by a state press and updated in the mid 90s. Most of the book covers the technically impressive (yet politically questionable) period around the Cultural Revolution. Lately there's been a few new books I've seen that broaden the scope a little, focussing on cosmopolitan and bohemian art movements centered around Shanghai in the 20s/30s/and 40s. I just want to do a brief survey of what I've gleaned.
Sock and Awe Game
Posted December 25, 2008 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
Worth a whirl.
Sock and Awe game, and try to hit Bush in the face. Again, the internet helps us live our fantasies, virtually.
End This War
Posted December 19, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I just got an announcement for an upcoming show by Philadelphia artist Theodore Harris. I've been a fan of Harris' work for years, he did the cover of the All The Days After book back in the day, and has a couple images in Reproduce & Revolt. I really like the image he sent out with the announcement, "End This War...(after Shirley Chisholm)," which is above. The show is:
War is a Map of Wounds: The Art of Howardena Pindell and Theodore A. Harris
February 2 - March 5, 2009
New Jersey City University
Visual Arts Gallery
The House of Love and Dissent
Posted December 15, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Favianna, Dara and I are in Rome, preparing for our show at the House of Love and Dissent on Thursday. We're hanging prints, People's History posters, and images from Reproduce & Revolt. It's going to be fun! Here is the poster for the show. Thanks to Erik Ruin for the hands (from the Realizing the Impossible cover).
Liberation Ink and Reproduce & Revolt Team Up!
Posted December 14, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Favianna and I have teamed up with the Bay Area t-shirt collective Liberation Ink on their new line of shirts, all drawn from images in Reproduce & Revolt! Liberation Ink is an all-volunteer, apparel and design collective that was created to provide an alternative revenue generating strategy for social justice organizing in the Bay Area. The new line features 6 designs by diverse artists from Reproduce and Revolt, including Miriam Klein Stahl, Beth Gutelius, Josh Sanchez, as well as Justseeds members Jesus Barraza, Favianna Rodriguez and me, Josh MacPhee. On top of being collectively run, Liberation Ink uses sweatshop-free shirts and union printing, and since 2006 they have supported two Bay Area coalitions: Deporten a la Migra and the May 1st Alliance for Land, Work, and Power. The Liberation Ink crew has been making some of the coolest shirts in the past couple years. Definitely check them out, and pick up some of the Reproduce & Revolt shirts!
Housing for All poster
Posted December 13, 2008 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Jared Davidson of the Garage Collective in New Zealand sent over this poster about a housing struggle in his local community, Christchurch. The suit in the image is Mayor Bob Parker. You can read more about it here.
Reappropriate the Imagination!
Posted December 12, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Cindy Milstein has just put online a copy of the article, "Reappropriate the Imagination!," which was published in Erik and my book Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority last year. Take a minute and give it a read, click here to find it.
Taring Padi show in Mexico City
Posted December 11, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Our friend Santiago is helping put on a show in Mexico City of prints by the Indonesian printmaking collective Taring Padi. Here's the info and flyer. Sorry, Spanish only....
Exposicion del colectivo de grafica radical Taring Padi de Yogyakarta, Java central, Indonesia. LEMBAGA BUDAYA KERAKYATAN TARING PADIOrganización de Cultura Popular "Colmillos de Arroz"
El Colectivo Taring Padi de Yogayakarta, en la isla de Java en Indonesia,
se forma en 1998 en medio del gran levantamiento social que obliga a la
disolución de la dictadura del presidente Suharto. Taring Padi utiliza la expresión artística como una herramienta cultural en un esfuerzo para educar, inspirar y compartir con sus comunidades en Indonesia y las comunidades del mundo de la necesidad de luchar contra la opresión capitalista e imperialista. Su arte se comunica directamente con sus comunidades pero también nos
habla a todxs nosotrxs.
Inauguración: Viernes 19 de Diciembre / 19:00 hrs.
Música en vivo: Xeneque
Proyección de Documental del Colectivo
Clausura: Viernes 26 de Diciembre / 18:00 hrs.
Bandas invitadas: Anti-Master
Proyección de Documental
Lugar: Escuela de Cultura Popular Mártires del 68
5 de Febrero 257 – D
(esq. 5 de Febrero Col. Obrera Metro San Antonio Abad.)
La Furia de las Calles
http://espora.org/furia/
"Izena duen guztia omen da"
Happy Holidays from Palestine
Posted December 11, 2008 by jmacphee in Inspiration
My friend elin o'Hara slavick just sent me this great holiday card designed by British political artist and photo-montagist Peter Kennard. Kennard has been making political collages for decades, he is behind some of the best known anti-nuclear graphics, but he is sadly almost unknown in the US:
Digna Rabia flyer
Posted December 9, 2008 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Another flyer making use of Justseeds art, this one for the Digna Rabia events in Oaxaca Mexico, using the EZLN Celebrate People's History Poster!!
Arte di strada e movimenti sociali
Posted December 9, 2008 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
I'm excited to share that I recently had an article I wrote translated into Italian, and published in a great journal called Zapruder: Storie In Movimento. Zapruder is a non-academic history publication, as far as I understand developing loosely out of the Italian Autonomia tradition, which attempts to mine history for ideas that are useful to contemporary social struggles. This issue is dedicated to political propaganda, and is themed "Wall Against the Wall: Design and Communication in Political Posters." My article is called "Street Art and Social Movements," and is an edited version of a talk I've been developing for the past couple years under the title "Street Art and Counter Power." I'll be cleaning up the English version of this text and posting it here soon....
Toronto Portfolio Show
Posted December 8, 2008 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
thought people might be interested in the flyer for the Toronto showing of our Voices from the Outside prison print portfolio.
Signs of Change Closing Today!
Posted December 6, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Today is the last day to see Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now in NYC!!! Over 1000 posters, flyers, photos, videos, audio and ephemera from social movements around the world. Come by today and check it out if you haven't seen it yet:
Exit Art
475 10th Ave. (10th Ave. & 36th St.)
New York, New York
(the 34th Ave stop on the A/C/E train is only a couple blocks away)
And we're gearing up for the show to travel to Pittsburgh. It opens on January 23rd at the Miller Gallery at Carnagie Mellon University.
(installation photos by Kevin Caplicki)
2 Justseeds Portfolio Events
Posted December 4, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
On Friday in Montreal:
Voices from Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex
at Ste-Emilie SkillShare * 3942 Ste. Emilie * metro Place St. Henri
Vernissage Friday December 5th, 7pm-midnight
Exhibit December 5th – 14th inclusive
In connection with the historic Critical Resistance 10th anniversary conference Justseeds Artists Cooperative has produced a print portfolio project that they are donating to prisoner justice organizations across North America. The portfolio consists of 20 prints, each by a different artist, that all either critique the prison-industrial complex or address alternatives to incarceration.
The vernissage will feature:
* a presentation on prison art
* letter-writing to political prisoners
* Certain Days 2009 Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar available for purchase
Presented by the Certain Days collective
& the Ste-Emilie SkillShare – both working groups of QPIRG Concordia
--> how to get to St Emilie Skillshare:
www.mapquest.com/maps/3942+Ste.+Emilie+Montreal+qc
_______________________________________________
On Saturday, December 6 in Toronto:
Let Freedom Ring
Calendar launch - book launch - panel discussion - art show
6pm - Panel discussion about prison organizing
9pm - Launch party, with bar, snacks, and local DJs
(art will be up all evening)
$5/$15 with calendar
Whippersnapper Gallery
587A College Street, Toronto, ON
Taller Tupac Amaru Holiday Open Studio
Posted December 4, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
If you are in the Bay Area, check out our new Justseeds members Taller Tupac Amaru at their Holiday Open Studio this weekend!!!
Taller Tupac Amaru Holiday Open Studios
(Melanie Cervantes, Jesus Barraza, & Favianna Rodriguez)
December 6 & 7, 2008
11 am - 6 pm
Taller Tupac Amaru Art Studio
1505 33rd Ave.
Oakland, CA
ARTE• TAMALES • BEER• LIVE PRINTMAKING DEMOS
Join us in Celebrating our 5 year Anniversary! 2008 has been a busy and exciting year and we would love to celebrate with good food, music, community and great art. Our Taller spent the year supporting grassroots organizing, traveling, teaching, building and participating in various collaborations, exhibitions and artist residencies.
Come check out our new work!
Prints! Radical Art! T-Shirts! Books! Printmaking Demos! Live Art and More!
The Biggest Middle Finger
Posted December 1, 2008 by k_c_
Here's some photos of a poster a friend made about the CUNY budget cuts.
"There's only one thing left to do...STOP THE BUDGET CUTS!"
From what I hear
...the big things that are pissing people
off... the tuition increase and the rise in pay for the Chancellor,
the fact that the budget gets cut the same amount as prison budgets go
up...
There is a bunch of information at the Building the 21st Century CUNY site.
Tom Gabel's song in Support of Eric Mcdavid
Posted November 26, 2008 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
There weren't many opportunities to be politicized, radically, growing up in a small town. I found most political ideas and became aware of activist "campaigns" through music. The Dead Kennedys, Conflict, Crass, and dozens of other bands exposed me to everything like Anarchism, animal rights, ecological destruction, pacifism, direct action, current events, and Political Prisoners.
Tom Gabel, frontman from Against Me!, has written a song about Eric Mcdavid, a political prisoner sentenced to over 19 years in prison. It's not anthemic, like many Against Me! songs, but its content has the ability to raise the consciousness of a handful his fans. Check out the video.
Anna Is A Stool Pigeon
Check out SupportEric for more info on his case.
Justseeds Print Show at the Brecht Forum
Posted November 24, 2008 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
JUSTSEEDS
Political Print Show and Art Sale
December 4th, 6-9pm
The Brecht Forum
451 West St, NYC
(the West Side Highway, btw Bank & Bethune Sts.)
Directions
The show will be up from 12/04/08 to 01/23/09
Justseeds/Visual Resistance Artists' Cooperative is a decentralized community of political artists who have banded together to support each other and social movements. We believe in the power of personal expression in concert with collective action to transform society.
This exhibition is an opportunity to view and purchase over 50 different handmade prints by more than a dozen artists. All art will be for sale, much of it for $25 and under. Perfect socially conscious holiday gifts for friends and family!
Graphic Work wants to tour!
Posted November 23, 2008 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Last year my friend Zoeann Murphy and I organized a show of 40 contemporary labor posters called Graphic Work: Imaging Today's Labor Movement. The Workforce Development Institute (WDI) in Troy, NY is trying to find more venues to hang this show, as well as distribute copies of six of the posters we did large-scale offset print runs of. Below is a letter from Teri Jones of WDI. Give it a read, and if you can think of any venues that might be interested in displaying the exhibition, drop her a line! If you are at a workers center, community center, union hall, etc., also get in touch with her to get copies of the posters to hang in your space!:
Friends, The American labor movement has an amazing history of graphic production, creating some of the most effective political images in the history of this country. However, work and workers, along with the labor movement, are often depicted as experiences of the American past: paintings of Joe Hill, photographs from the early1900s of children working in factories, historic strikes and Rosie the Riveter. Today’s workforce looks dramatically different from the majority of images used to depict labor. To address this issue we asked innovative artists to create posters that depict contemporary jobs, the people that do them and the issues workers now face. What we found was startling. Most young politically engaged people don’t realize the American labor movement still exists and, if they do, they have little or no relationship to it. We found that now, more than ever, it is important to create new images of labor. Graphic Work: Imaging Today’s Labor Movement is an exhibit of poster designs curated by Josh MacPhee and Zoeann Murphy. It was sponsored by the Workforce Development Institute, Bread and Roses Cultural Project ll99SEIU, and JustSeeds.org. The posters comprise a beautiful beginning to a new wave of labor art. We invite you to participate in the dialogue about today’s workers and the issues they face by displaying Graphic Work posters in public spaces. There are sets of six 19”x25” posters available free of charge, as well as the opportunity to host an exhibit of all 40 pieces. You can view more posters at http://wdiny.org/unseenamericaposters.html and contact me any time for free poster sets or information on organizing an exhibit. In solidarity, Teri Jones Cultural Program Assistant Workforce Development Institute 24 Fourth Street Troy, NY 12180 (518) 272-3500 x121 tjones@wdiny.org www.wdiny.org www.bread-and-roses.com www.justseeds.org posters above by Josh MachPhee, Art Hazelwood, and Nicole Schulman
Paper Politics in Syracuse!
Posted November 19, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
The Paper Politics show is still tearing up upstate New York! It open at the Redhouse Gallery in Syracuse tomorrow night. If you're in the area, check it out! Almost 200 political prints from around the world, with work from all the Justseeds artists, as well as tons of other great printmakers like BSAS Stencil, Christopher Cardinale, Tom Civil, Sue Coe, Amos Kennedy Jr., Jesse Purcell, Favianna Rodriguez and Nicole Schulman.
Paper Politics
Opening Reception: November 20th 5-8pm
Redhouse Arts Center
201 South West St.
Syracuse, NY 13202
Installing with the Yes Men...
Posted November 16, 2008 by shaun in Art & Politics
Astria Suparak, director of the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh), captured this touching moment as I helped hang one of two Haliburton SurvivaBalls in preparation for the Yes Men exhibit this past week. The show, "Keep it Slick: Infiltrating Capitalism with the Yes Men", is their first exhibition of props and ephemera from their projects and was curated by Astria. It will run through February 15.
El Taller de Gráfica Popular online portfolio
Posted November 15, 2008 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Libros Latinos, a San Francisco bookstore specializing in Mexican, Latin American and Caribian books, has just put up an online portfolio of 40 different Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP) posters. The TGP, whose most active period was from its founding in 1937 to the 1960's, was an organization of artists, primarily print makers, who used their skills to help develop and promote Leftist social movements. The posters on the Libros Latinos site are all for sale and pretty pricey, which begs the question of whether the images stay up once the objects are sold, so go take a peak here while you can! Those already well versed in the work of the TGP might want to check out the Gráfica Mexicana archive, which has over 3000 prints and posters archived, but a limited number of images.
Keep it Slick: Infiltrating Capitalism with the Yes Men
Posted November 11, 2008 by mary_tremonte in Events
The Yes Men will be in Pittsburgh this week with a lecture and survey exhibition!
Keep an eye out for future activist art exhibitions at the Miller Gallery.
FRI. NOV. 14
KEEP IT SLICK:
Infiltrating Capitalism
with The Yes Men
Curated by Astria Suparak >>>
Nov. 14, 2008–Feb. 15, 2009
EVENTS
Nov. 14, 5pm:
How To Be A Yes Man Workshop + Film clips from their upcoming movie. Miller Gallery, 2nd floor.
Sponsored by the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry + School of Art Lecture Series.
6–8pm:
Business Casual Reception. Miller Gallery, 3rd floor.
Please bring offerings for the dearly departed Reggie the Janitor.
Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University
Purnell Center for the Arts
5000 Forbes Ave.
Journal of Aesthetics & Protest #6 out now
Posted November 7, 2008 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
Issue #6 of the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest just released!
I've been reading the Journal from the get go, and always find something interesting in each issue. This one's got contributions by Gregory Sholette, Dorit Cypis, smartMeme studios, Rebecca Zorach, Kelly Marie Martin, Amy Franchesini, Lisa Ann Auerbach, Code Pink, Andrew Boyd, Iraqi Veterans for Peace, John Carr of Yo! What Happened to Peace and many more.
Here's a blurb about it:
Crafted & collected for 7 months, this sober eyed jumbo sized brick of a book explores 3 distinct premises in contemporary life: Sustainable Culture, Antiwar Activism, Contemporary Critical Theory. The book comes with in depth analysis of activist and art projects as well as resolute analysis of cultural conditions by people we want you to read."One could see the level of frustration in your eyes. There were ways to avoid it; staring to the internets, listening to radio, cursing, cursing news, attending protests, trying at little "political projects." But generally, it was all around, this horrible stasis. There were wars, the loss of a city, the disappearance of beloved bookstores, magazines, community centers , and the cruel inability for networks to amount to anything real. It appeared that nothing good could be generated out from under this era. And you were getting older." This issue finds a way forward.
Garage Collective Blog
Posted November 5, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
New Zealand's Garage Collective has just launched a blog! Check it out here.
Sedition
Posted November 4, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
A new political art show has just opened in NYC. Haven't had a chance to check it out yet, but it looks promising, almost all the artists involved have done engaging and compelling intersections of art and politics in the past.
SEDITION
October 29th – Nov 24th, 2008
Special Election Night Party November 4th, starting at 7pm
Featuring work by: Melanie Baker, Wafaa Bilal, Sandow Birk, Emory Douglas,
Hasan Elahi, Mounir Fatmi, Jon Hendricks, Arnold Mesches, Naeem Mohaiemen,
Sheryl Oring, Jenny Polak, Martha Rosler, Jackie Salloum, Hank Willis Thomas
and Raphael Zollinger
Curated by Dread Scott, Kyle Goen and Hajarah Abdus-Sabur
White Box (Bowery)
329 Broome Street New York, NY 10002 (NEW ADDRESS)
www.whiteboxny.org
A People in the Shadows
Posted November 4, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
My friend Bani Khoshnoudi is doing a sneak preview of her new film A People in the Shadows next Friday in New York City. I'm really excited about the film, but unfortunately all of us Justseeders will be at our annual retreat in Milwaukee. Some of you will have to go and tell us how it was!
A PEOPLE IN THE SHADOWS (2008, 90 min.)
Friday, November 7, 7pm
at DCTV
87 Lafayette Street (south of Canal Street), 3rd Floor
NYC
(subways: N,R,W,Q,6 to Canal)
Almost thirty years after the revolution, and twenty since the end of the long Iran-Iraq war, A People in the Shadows takes us on a voyage into the heart of Tehran, a megalopolis of 14 million people. The city is still recovering from its past, as talk of sanctions and a possible American attack resonate. Using cinema direct methods, the film takes an intimate look at the way people live in this immense city today- caught up in the paradoxes and contradictions of their society, surrounded by images of past and future death, yet finding ways to juggle state propaganda and foreign threat on a daily basis.
Interview with John Fekner
Posted November 3, 2008 by molly_fair in Interviews
This is an interview Chris Stain and Josh MacPhee did with artist John Fekner:
Chris Stain: About a year ago I got lucky for a few months and had a studio separate from my house. it was in LIC. I had heard from my friend Josh Macphee that it was an old stomping ground of the legendary stencil artist John Fekner. so I decided to look him up. just a year before that Josh and I were showing in Brooklyn at Ad Hoc and John stopped in posing as a vandal squad detective. i had never met John before so I didn't know the difference. After he revealed his true identity we all had a good laugh. Until then i thought the shit was gonna hit the fan. Below are parts of the conversation that josh and i had with john. you will be able to read the whole sha-bang later when johns book drops from powerhouse. i’d like to personally thank Mr. Fekner for the interview and his continuing inspiration. His work is a prime example of how much difference one person can make.
Chris Stain: What originally inspired you to cut stencils, get out there in the street and put it up?
John Fekner: It goes back to when I was a teenager. I grew up in Queens and like most street kids spent a lot of time in parks, hangin’ out, doing a lot of different things…it was the 60s. That’s ten years before I started doing stencils at the age of 26. The first outdoors stencils began during the winter of 76-77. In 1968, for some bizarre reason, I came up with the idea of calling our park ‘Itchycoo Park’ referring to the title of the song by the Small Faces that was a hit in 67 about a park in England. My hang out park was Gorman Park at 85th St. and 30th Ave. in Jackson Heights referred to by the local kids as just ‘85th’.
I said to my friends, “Let’s paint the words Itchycoo Park on the front of the park house. So undercover of the night with white paint and a few brushes in very large crude letters we did just that. The phrase just stayed with the park and it became known as Itchycoo and the local football team was called the Itchycoo Chiefs. It was really a strange thing. Little did I realize that this was going to be my format for quite a few years.
Let Freedom Ring
Posted November 2, 2008 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Just a quick post to share a recent project. My friend Matt Meyer has compiled a giant collection of writings about the struggle to free political prisoners in the US, co-published by PM Press and Kersplebedeb. He asked me to design the cover of Let Freedom Ring, so I took a graphic from an old 80's political prisoner support flyer, tweaked it a bunch, added color, and the cover was born. One of the most excited parts about this project was working on the spine, because unlike most books I've designed, this one is thick, a good inch and half wide spine, so I was able to make it nice and bold.
Festival of the New Winds pt. 1
Posted October 26, 2008 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Two months ago or so, Favianna Rodriguez (co-editor of Reproduce & Revolt) asked me if I wanted to take a trip to Mexico City with a crew of artists. My answer, of course, was Hell Yeah! So starting on Oct. 3rd, a dozen of us headed to Mexico to take part in the Festival Internacional de los Nuevos Vientos (Festival of the New Winds) in Ecatepec, a sprawling, metastasizing municipality on the northern edge of Mexico City.
I'm not sure I fully understand how this trip came about, but here's the basic gist. Favianna (and other artists she works with, like the Taller Tupac Amaru) have been visiting Mexico City on and off for years, and one of the things they've been involved in is El Faro, a series of community centers spread across Mexico City that have a huge amount of art programs organized for and often by local youth. 
This includes silkscreen studios, block printing, murals, graffiti, etc. The founder of El Faro, Benjamin, is a 68er. In Mexico this means you participated in the student protests in 1968, and survived the Tlatelolco Massacre, where the government attacked and slaughtered hundreds of students and their supporters.
Recently the PRD (Mexico's left-liberal political party) came to office in Ecatepec. Once elected, a portion of the left-wing of the PRD left Mexico City and headed north to Ecatepec, seeing the possibility of more change there than in the old city. Ecatepec is almost defined by change. With over 2 million people, it is the most populous municipality in Mexico, and it is growing every day. Although at the center it seems to be a fairly typical, if poor, sprawling urban landscape, the closer you get to the edges the less stable the development. The city appears to spill out and up the mountain, with tens of thousands of single story, one room cinderblock homes, rebar poking out the top, waiting to be used to stabilize a second floor to be built on the roof. And beyond the cinderblocks are even more homes, constructed out of cardboard, corrugated steel, and other found materials.
Favianna's friend Benjamin headed up to Ecatepec too, and ended up the Secretary of the Minister of Culture. Benjamin's main platform has been Art is Human Right that Must be Accessible to All, and to that end he has been encouraging the development of local cultural centers in dozens of Ecatepec barrios, as well as organizing large scale free festivals that bring in thousands of international artists to share their skills with the city. This program has uneasily dove-tailed with groups of Ecatepec activists and artists organized since 2006 as part of the Zapatista's La Otra Campaña, or Other Campaign. We met dozens of people that came out of La Otra Campaña in Ecatepec, who are trying to use the left government programs as a launching pad for more radical activities.
Our motley crew walked into this context. We are all artists currently living in the US, the majority Latina/os, with a couple Filipina/os and gringos thrown in for good measure. Here's the roll call:
Favianna Rodriguez, Jesus Barraza and Melanie Cervantes from Taller Tupac Amaru in Oakland; Maria Beddia and Bobby Nicholson from the Bay Area; Josué Rojas, muralist and journalist from the Bay Area; Geraldine Lozano, Reed Rickert and Sal, all videomakers, photographers or documenters from the Bay. John Carr, Contra One and Werc from LA and the Yo! What Happened to Peace? crew; Cece Carpio from NYC and Trust Your Struggle, and Me.
1968 Exhibit at Labadie Collection in Ann Arbor
Posted October 25, 2008 by shaun in Events
In her dream job as curator of the Labadie Collection of Social Protest Literature at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Julie Herrada has curated a timely new exhibit. The Whole World Was Watching: Protest and Revolution in 1968, Selections from the Labadie Collection provides a snapshot of a complex and pivotal year in American history, highlighting protests against the Vietnam War and the draft, the highly fractured Presidential election and the violence that erupted outside the Democratic Convention in Chicago against anti-war demonstrators, and the activities of student and other protest groups such as the Ann Arbor-founded Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panthers, the White Panthers, and the Yippies. The exhibit notes the women's movement and international matters such as Prague Spring and the May Paris uprisings.
The exhibit is on view in the Gallery (Room 100) at the Hatcher Graduate Library. A related display of original record albums and political buttons from the University of Michigan's Special Collections Library is also exhibited in the Special Collections Exhibit Room located on the seventh floor (same building). Julie has also launched an online exhibit guestbook that visitors can write their 1968 memories in. An afternoon panel discussion featuring activists from the era and a live performance in the evening by Country Joe McDonald will take place in The Gallery on November 13. The exhibit runs until December 19.
The Ann Arbor Chronicle ran an article about the show on Wednesday.
Review of Realizing the Impossible
Posted October 24, 2008 by jmacphee in Reviews
The AK Press blog, Revolution by the Book, just posted a review of Realizing the Impossible written by Alan W. Moore, a long time NYC radical artist, theorist and teacher, who was also one of the founders of ABC No Rio! Here's the first couple paragraphs of the review, and the rest is here:
The artist in capitalist society is necessarily a revolutionary. S/he is as well necessarily an entrepreneur. Between these two positions lies a wide gulf in understandings. The artist must strive to change society according to a vision, because s/he does not fit. Creativity is not an absolute good and value in this society, and the artist is absolutely committed to creativity. Still, the artist must survive, and so must do what that requires.What is that? What is longed-for utopia and what is impinging reality? The divide between our dreams of a perfect world and the realities of our lives, between what is necessary and what is desired has shifted. The Wall is gone; new walls are a’building. The organizers of the Documenta 12 exhibition recently proffered the assertion, “Modernity is our antiquity.” In finding new coordinates for radical position-takings today, we are continuously picking through those ruins for stuff we can use.
Realizing the Impossible bespeaks an exciting upsurge of attention to a world of dynamic committed artistic practices, past and present. It is largely a book on contemporary art, concerned first with explicating artistic practice now and in the postmodern past.
Poster show at the Tokyo Bookfair
Posted October 23, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Dara and I were excited to have Kei and Illcommonz from Tokyo visit us in late September for the opening of the Signs of Change exhibition here in NYC. They have both been involved in actions and movements included in the show, most recently the organization against the G8 summit in Japan. Kei is also connected to the Japanese anarchist archive CIRA Japan, who lent us a handful of Japanese anarchist posters from the 60s-80s for the the exhibition.
While they were here we weighed them down with posters and propaganda from the US, much of it for Tokyo's infoshop Irregular Rhythm Asylum, which is largely run by Kei. I'm excited that Kei has created a small exhibition of my posters, which is being held at the 3rd annual Tokyo Bookfair, which is put together by a handful of DIY, punk and anarchist shops, zines and distros. They are also showing Dara's video Tactical Tourist, a 15-minute look at the Barcelona squatting scene in 2006.
New Josh MacPhee shirts at AK Press
Posted October 22, 2008 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Making and selling t-shirts is a giant pain in the ass. On and off for the past 10 years I've been designing and making shirts, usually finding friends to do the actual printing (because I hate silkscreening shirts: it's difficult, toxic, and to me completely unrewarding). I've finally given up. No more shirt making for me. Instead, I've farmed some of my designs out to AK Press, who are manufacturing, distributing and directly selling many of my designs. Now you can get my Autonomy, Chemicals Make Our Lives Better, and Zapatista designs from them. In addition, they've created a new shirt out of my Anarchy Hands print. Check it out here!!!
Images from Paper Politics in Cortland
Posted October 21, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
The Paper Politics show is currently hanging at the Dowd Gallery at SUNY-Cortland in Upstate New York. Andrew Mount, the director at the Dowd sent me these great photos of the show installed. Seems like it's made some ripples up there, upsetting some students who actually asked the administration to remove some of the prints! I'm heading up to Cortland to do a curator's talk on October 28th. Info and directions will be on their website.
Signs of Change Dutch Provo Event!
Posted October 21, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Signs of Change Dutch Provo Event!
Friday, October 24, 2008, 6-8pm
at Exit Art, 475 10th Ave, NY, NY
PREMIERE SCREENING of Dutch Provo Footage
Premiere screening of newly subtitled short films and footage of the 1960s Dutch Provo movement, and book release of Richard Kempton’s Provo: Amsterdam’s Anarchist Revolt (in collaboration with Autonomedia Press).
Speakers include: Jordan Zinovich, Lindsay Caplan, and Janna Schoenberger
About the Book:
Provo staged political and cultural interventions into the symbolic
and everyday spaces of Holland from 1962-1967. In this first
book-length English-language study of their history, Richard Kempton
narrates the rise and fall of Provo from early Dutch "happenings"
staged in 1962 to the "Death of Provo" in 1967. This is the fourth
book Autonomedia has done on Dutch social movements.
About the Video:
This compilation of Provo footage, newly translated and subtitled by
Janna Schoenberger and Dennis de Lange, includes scenes from the early
happenings, Dutch political life, and interviews by key members of
Provo - including an interview held with Robert Jasper Grootveld on
his houseboat in Amsterdam.
Speakers:
Jordan Zinovich has been associated with Autonomedia since 1986, and
is currently a senior editor. He has been working on Provo for years,
and since 1997 has been going repeatedly to Amsterdam to meet with
members of Provo. He will discuss the renaissance of Provo going on
today.
Lindsay Caplan is a member of the Autonomedia editorial collective,
and a doctoral student at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her research
focuses on the intersection between art, aesthetics, and social action
- an arena in which Provo is an essential and exciting example.
Janna Schoenberger is a doctoral student at the Graduate Center, CUNY.
She received her master's degree in Art History from Utrecht
University in the Netherlands where she lived for three years. She is
currently working as a translator for the upcoming exhibition "In and
Out of Amsterdam 1960-1975" at the Museum of Modern Art.
About Autonomedia:
Autonomedia is a small non-profit publisher of books and digital
material that investigate the liberatory impulse by way of radical
politics, philosophy, arts, history, and other categories of thought
and action. We have operated as an all-volunteer editorial collective
since 1983, and are based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. With more than
100 titles in active distribution, and 6-8 new books each year,
Autonomedia provides an autonomous media zone for radical art and politics, and seeks to transcend party lines, bottom lines and straight lines. We also
maintain the Interactivist Info Exchange (info.interactivist.net), an
online forum for discourse and debate on themes relevant to the books
we publish. www.autonomedia.org
Radical Activism Visual Archive
Posted October 20, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Stumbled across a fairly new project the other day, the
Radical Activism Visual Archive (the visual memory of radicality). An interesting ongoing blog/collection of political art images, posters and ephemera collected by Alexis Desgagnés, a Montreal-based academic researching political graphics. None of the images are commented on, simply collected and shown, with an option for viewers to comment.
Art and Activism Slideshow
Posted October 16, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Jared Davidson from Garage Collective and Zoe Thompson-Moore, both from New Zealand, have just a cool video slideshow on art and activism they recently did. Check it out.
The Visual Language of LeRoy Johnson and Theodore Harris
Posted October 15, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Here's a link to a great little video about the art of LeRoy Johnson and Theodore Harris. Pretty compelling stuff, evokes Romaire Beardon and social realism thrown into a dada blender!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4TjSUTFnu0
Justseeds prison portfolio project
Posted October 8, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Collective Projects
Recently, Justseeds has completed a portfolio project for the Critical Resistance ten-year anniversary conference in Oakland, California that took place on September 26-28.
The project involved twenty artists from the US, Canada and Mexico who each created an original print that either critiqued or addressed alternatives to the prison-industrial complex. Each artist pulled 100 prints and the amazing JS crew at the Portland distro assembled the portfolios and created the covers that are displayed in the photos.
The point of the portfolio project was to donate work and to share graphics with groups working against the prison-industrial complex. In the end, each portfolio included the 20 prints plus a cdr with copy-right free TIFF files of the images (plus other anti-prison images from the recent book Reproduce and Revolt (edited by Favianna Rodriguez and Josh MacPhee.)
Justseeds donated the bulk of the portfolios to Critical Resistance and 30 other groups who are organizing against prisons.
In late November (once the groups have already had the opportunity to possibly use them as a fundraising device) Justseeds will have a limited number of portfolios for sale on our site.
Much thanks to all the artists and the organizers who donated their time and energy to the project. A number of plans are set for the prints to be exhibited in the late Fall/early Winter and we will keep you posted when dates for the shows are announced.
Guillermo Gómez-Peña (and me)
Posted September 29, 2008 by bec_young in Events
This weekend, writer and performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña and his troupe were in Detroit. I joined perhaps fifty other people for a fairly intimate interactive performance of Gómez-Peña's Mapa Corpo at the Detroit Institute of Arts. This is the the first time I've been to one of his performances, but I'm told that it's par for the course that the event was visual overwhelming and emotionally challenging. I was forewarned by one of the maintenance guys at the museum that the Mapa Corpo was a naked woman's body stuck with acupuncture needles with many, many tiny flags of the U.S. and Britain (and one or two of Israel), which the audience was invited to help pull out at the end. He wasn't too impressed, but most of the audience seemed entranced by the visual and mental connections. The performance also involved video, music, poetry, and other simulations, rituals, and installations on the subjects of identity, power, and immigration. The event had the feeling of a dangerous but necessary ritual that we all somehow survived, together. This fall, Gómez-Peña's troup will be in San Francisco, Albequerque, Toronto, Alaska, and Arizona. Check his website for more specific information.
On a totally different note, I've just returned from a voyage to Buenos Aires to seek information for a project that I hope to do next year about art collectives in Argentina. Especially considering I was only there for two weeks, I learned about an amazing amount of artistic, radical, and collective projects, and had the opportunity to meet with people from a few of those projects. I'll be writing about some of the projects that I learned about in the coming weeks. Here I am in the Museo Municipal de Arte Hispanoamericano before the guard yelled at someone else for taking pictures inside the museum.
Signs of Change opens Saturday!!!
Posted September 17, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Dara Greenwald and I have spent a good chunk of the last 2 years putting together this large-scale exhibition of the art and culture of social movements. With over 600 posters, 100 photos, hundreds of other pieces of ephemera, and 50 films and videos from over 40 countries, Signs of Change is likely the biggest project I've ever been involved in!
If you are in or around New York City, please come celebrate the opening with us on Saturday night!!!
SIGNS OF CHANGE: SOCIAL MOVEMENT CULTURES 1960s TO NOW
at Exit Art, 475 10th Ave, NY, NY, September 20 - December 6, 2008
1. Opening/About: Saturday September 20, 7-10pm
2. Symposium: Thursday September 25, 6pm-10pm
3. Film/Video Weekend: October 11-13
4. Weekly Video Screenings (Tue-Thurs 3:30, Fri-Sat 5:30) and Live Screen Printing
5. Provo: October 24, 6pm
6. Lenders, Support, Thanks, & Credits
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The opening will include live screen printing and a visit by the Tactical Ice Cream Unit.
ABOUT: In Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now, hundreds of posters, photographs, moving images, audio clips, and ephemera bring to life over forty years of activism, political protest, and campaigns for social justice. Curated by Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee as part of Exit Art's Curatorial Incubator, this important and timely exhibition surveys the creative work of dozens of international social movements.
Organized thematically, the exhibition presents the creative outpourings of social movements, such as those for Civil Rights and Black Power in the United States; democracy in China; anti-apartheid in Africa; squatting in Europe; environmental activism and women's rights internationally; and the global AIDS crisis, as well as uprisings and protests, such as those for indigenous control of lands; against airport construction in Japan; and student and worker revolution in France. The exhibition also explores the development of powerful counter-cultures that evolve beyond traditional politics and create distinct aesthetics, life-styles, and social organization.
Although histories of political groups and counter-cultures have been written, and political and activist shows have been held, this exhibition is a groundbreaking attempt to chronicle the artistic and cultural production of these movements. Signs of Change offers a chance to see relatively unknown or rarely seen works, and is intended to not only provide a historical framework for contemporary activism, but also to serve as an inspiration for the present and the future.
During the exhibition, there will be ongoing screenprinting workshops with guest artists and activists in collaboration with the Lower East Side Printshop as well as the following programs and events.
Exit Art is located at 475 Tenth Avenue, corner of 36th Street. Exit Art is open each Tuesday through Thursday, 10 am – 6 pm; Friday, 10 am – 8 pm; Saturday, noon – 8 pm. Closed Sunday and Monday. There is a suggested donation of $5.
For more information please call 212-966-7745 or check out http://www.exitart.org/site/pub/exhibition_programs/signs_of_change/index.html
Justseeds Print Show Opens Friday the 19th, Warwick, NY
Posted September 15, 2008 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
I grew up in a small town in the lower Hudson Valley. Aside from the small crew of skaters and punks that I hung out with, there was very little "alternative" culture and even less radical politics. I'm super stoked to be bringing the Justseeds Cooperative's artwork to a cafe, run by some friends from high school, in Warwick, NY. It feels good to bring something back to where I used to feel the most sense of "place".
The show will open 7pm, September 19th
at the
Tuscan Café
5 South St .
Warwick, NY 10990
We are hoping to have some live music from Laura Stevenson during the opening. Come check us out if you're in Orange County, NY.
Paper Politics Cortland opens 9/09
Posted September 4, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
The Paper Politics show I've organized and have been touring around is heading for a couple dates in Upstate New York. The show is an international collection of over 175 handmade political prints by as many artists. Almost the entire Justseeds crew is represented, as well as tons of other awesome printmakers! If you are in or around central upstate NY, check it out!!!!
Paper Politics
Dowd Fine Art Gallery
September 9th-November 6th, 2008
Opening Reception: September 9th 4:30-7:30pm
Artists’ talk:
Paper Politics - Josh MacPhee: October 28th, time TBA
All exhibitions and events are free and open to the Public.
Solidarity with Mpls Anti-Capitalists
Posted September 1, 2008 by jmacphee in In the News
Here's a poster I designed for the RNC Anti-Capitalist bloc. Find out more about their activities here.
The Gift Cycle
Posted August 29, 2008 by molly_fair in Art & Politics
Here's a cool project that my friend's friends are working on:
A duo of sweet cycling ladies who have initiated a project called The Gift Cycle, are on the final legs of their cross-country biking mission, bringing art from community to community from Providence, RI to Seattle, WA. Sarah Sandman and Melissa Smalls have been biking since June, where they set out from Providence on recumbent bikes pulling a trailer packed with art lovingly gifted by local artists. The project incorporates ideas from Lewis Hyde’s book The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property into an ethos that both art and nature are gifts, not commodities, and thrive in a “gift economy” that does not seek to exchange them for capital. Right on, Gift Cycle! So, as they move from city to city, they have been exchanging art from the previous city for art from the next, and so on until folks from Providence receive art from Seattle. Check out the lovely slideshow and track their progress on their blog.
They reach their final destination in Seattle on Saturday, August 30 - so check them out if you are in the area!
SEATTLE GIFT-GIVING /// FINAL DESTINATION CELEBRATION
No Space Gallery
507 E Mercer St
Corner of Summit and Mercer on Capitol Hill
7-whenever!
R&R Graphics in Guetemala
Posted August 24, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
The political graphics in Reproduce & Revolt are slowly starting to spread out around the world! Above is a poster made by communities in San Marcos that are resisting Montana Exploradora's mining project and communities in San Juan Sacatepequéz that are resisting the building of a cement factory by Cementos Progresos.
G.R.L artist and 5 American protesters arrested in China
Posted August 20, 2008 by molly_fair in In the News
Unless you've been living under a rock- you know about all the detentions, disappearances, and shootings of people in China who have been outspoken about the ongoing struggle for a free Tibet.
Needless to say, I was shocked to hear the news that a friend of ours from Brooklyn was just arrested with 4 others for holding up a banner near the National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, on Aug. 19 around 11 p.m. spelling out the message Free Tibet in Chinese and English using blue L.E.D. lights. Fortunately this was followed by info that they are safely on their way home.
This banner was co-created with the help of Graffiti Research Lab member James Powderly who was also arrested and is currently being detained due to his plan to use his invention, "The Green Chinese Lantern,” a 400 milliwatt handheld green laser with micro-stencils to beam a Free Tibet message on a Beijing landmark, possibly Tiananmen Square.
Prior to this planned action, Powderly's invitation to participate in Synthetic Times, a new media art exhibition at Beijing’s National Media Art Museum of China, was revoked, after he expressed indignation that the work must be approved by the Chinese government.
According to G.R.L's press release:
James is proud to have been kicked out of the Synthetic Times new media art exhibition in Beijing because he wouldn’t censor his little art project. James wonders why organizations like the MoMA, Parsons, Eyebeam, Ars Electronica and many other arts and cultural institutions around the world who claim to support free speech and expression would participate in a show like this. But they did! It was after being kicked to the curb by the show’s curator that James connected with Students for a Free Tibet and decided he would go to China anyway and do what he though was right in support of Tibet, Taiwan, free speech and the people of China. James lives, if indeed he is alive, in the County of Kings, Brooklyn, and teaches at the Communication Design and Technology program at Parsons the New School for Design.
The NY Times reported that,
Two video bloggers, Brian Comley, 28, and Jeffrey Rae, 28, were with James when he was detained. On Tuesday night, he sent a text message to a friend saying he had been held since 3 a.m. on Monday. His current whereabouts are unknown.
I hope James is safe and released soon. I also hope that attention continues to be drawn to the violence and repression sanctioned by the Chinese government. The price of protest for Chinese citizens is atrocious. Most recently those who applied to the Chinese government's designated Olympic protest zones were rejected, disappeared and detained, and sentenced to "re-education through labor."
"It Don't Gitmo Better!" Steve Powers in Coney Island
Posted August 8, 2008 by k_c_ in In the News
There's a bunch of press on Steve Powers-ESPO- new sideshow installation, “Waterboard Thrill Ride”, in Coney Island. It appears that Powers made some robots that simulate waterboarding in a space out on West 12th Street, just off Surf Avenue, in Brooklyn. Before you check it out you can read about it on the NY Times, BBC, ABC News, and probably a ton off other blogs. The piece will move to the Park Avenue Armory in September and be a part of Creative TIme's Democracy in America: The National Campaign events there. Chris Stain will also have a 70' mural included as well!
From Punk to Proudon?
Posted August 7, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Jared Davidson of the New Zealand-based Garage Collective has posted a follow-up essay to his earlier piece we blogged about here: "This Is Not A Manifesto —Towards An Alternative Design Practice." Here is the full text of his new piece, "From Punk to Proudon?":
I never wanted to be a graphic designer. At least not in the traditional sense — the faceless middle-man servicing the corporate body was something I didn't want to be. And when that's often the only direction encouraged within the design world, it becomes increasingly hard to find and explore alternatives, let alone sustainable ones.
Inspired by one part ego, one part punk, and a good dash of 'politics', my alternative to the overly commercial realm of graphic design ended up as 'Garage Collective' — the banner under which my design and screenprint output has come to be known. Over time, Garage Collective has had a number of projects and sometimes confused
directions — from local and international band's gigposters, grassroots political campaigns, features in a few exhibitions (as well as one of my own), numerous zines and writings (This Is Not A Manifesto — Towards An Alternative Design Practice), and my own personal screenprinted projects. It's these personal projects that have encouraged me to re-think, not only my own practice, but Garage Collective itself — it's current position and the possibility of other creative directions. The following text is the manifestation of that re-think.
NoG8 Report Back
Posted August 1, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
For those in NYC, come by this report back on the recent organizing and activism in Japan against the G8:
2008 NoG8! Report Back
Monday August 4, 7:30-9:30 pm
at The Change You Want To See Gallery
84 Havemeyer Street, storefront
at Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn 11211
L to Bedford, J/M/Z to Marcy, G to Lorimer
Did you go to this year's G-8 mobilization in Japan or do you want to know more about what went on? Come to an event this Monday, August 4th to hear, see, and share information.
Participants include:
Jim Fleming (Autonomedia)
Abraham Greenhouse (Palestine Freedom Project)
Brandon Jourdan (Filmmaker and Independent Journalist)
Diane Krauthamer (IWW and Indymedia)
and you!
Key questions framing the discussion will be:
- How to navigate new forms of authoritarian repression in global justice movements
- The benefit or disadvantage of summit hopping for non-locals in mass mobilizations
- How lessons learned at this year and preceding mass mobilizations can help us in upcoming demonstrations (e.g., Olympics, RNC/DNC, future G-8s, local campaigns, etc.)
- Pray tell, the Japanese had such kick-ass graphics and how can we reform the design aesthetic of the Left
+ Whatever questions you want to voice!
Other relevant NoG8! links:
http://www.ainumosir2008.com/en
http://www.gipfelsoli.org/Multilanguage
This Sunday at Space 1026- Radical Art Discussion Night
Posted July 14, 2008 by erik_ruin
Please join us in Philly this sunday for our 3rd event in conjunction with the Out of the Shell of the Old exhibit at Space 1026! 
SUNDAY JULY 20
7 PM
DISCUSSION NIGHT
SPACE 1026
1026 ARCH ST.
FREE!
We'll be using short presentations by 3 local artists as a jumping-off point for a room-wide discussion around the whats, whys and hows of radical art.
THEODORE A. HARRIS is a poet, muralist and collagist born in New York City and currently residing in Philadelphia, PA. As a muralist he has been painting with the Mural Arts program of Philadelphia since 1983. In addition to being exhibited in one-man and group shows from coast to coast, Harris's work has appeared in numerous publications, including Long Shot, The Hammer, Unity & Struggle, AAR, and the important anthologies Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social & Political Black Literature and Art and In Defense of Mumia.
NAIMA LOWE writes, performs, directs, studies, makes movies, teaches, lives and loves in Philadelphia, PA. She’s currently working on creative and curatorial projects that focus on her favorite things: Queers, people of color, the art they make, and the worlds they devise. For more detailed information visit her website
BETH NIXON builds puppets, masks, piñatas, parades, pageants, magical lands and other spectaculah, on her own, and in collaboration with other humans of all ages. She comes from Rhode Island, lives in West Philly, and travels frequently to places where building, performing or
facilitating opportunities arise. Mostly she uses cardboard, "science", and the imagination. She specializes in beasts and is investigating The Utopian Performative… Beth believes in the power of bike helmets, cornstarch, tide pools, emacipatory pedagogy, and snacks. She is the creator of 'So Many Dynamos' a calendar of illustrated palindromes for 2008.
Forthcoming- a Music Night and Closing Party on Friday uly 25- a music show benefitting the folks at the Shoe Shop, whose home was taken away by L&I , with Dan Blacksberg and Joshua Marcus, and Ashley Deekus.
Transborder Immigration Project
Posted July 12, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
One of the highlights of this year’s Allied Media Conference in Detroit was learning about the Transborder Immigration Project by Ricardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, Micha Cárdenas and Jason Najarro.
In the true spirit of hactivist art and civil disobedience, this team of San Diego-based artists and scientists has ingeniously reconfigured a Motorola i455 phone into a lifesaving device for immigrants crossing the border between Mexico and US. In their own words, “The goal of the project is to help reduce the number of deaths along the border by developing a common cell phone device into a navigation tool that will help migrants locate life saving resources in the desert such as water catches and safety beacons.”
The device, which is built upon the back of a basic $40 Motorola i455 phone, has a built-in compass, vibrates near water sources, and is gps enabled. In an interview by Corinne Ramey at Mobile Active.org, artist Ricardo Dominguez explains, "What we needed was a really inexpensive telephone, one that we could crack the GPS system, and one that would accept new algorithms."
So far, over 500 phones have been reconfigured that may someday -or perhaps already have helped people with their dangerous journey across the desert.
A facet of the project includes trainings, workshops and solidarity work with immigrant rights groups working on border issues. Yet, one should not lose sight of the “art” and the crucial role that artist’s play in this process by providing the imagination, the practical tools and the skills. Dominguez concludes, "There's a long history of artists at the border creating gestures that question the very nature of the border….The reason they can't stop us is that we always frame all these gestures within the poetic frame."
More on the Transborder Immigration Project:
http://mobileactive.org/artivists-and-mobile-pho
http://va-grad.ucsd.edu/~drupal/node/374
Link to Ricardo Dominguez’s blog:
http://bang.calit2.net/
Other Projects: (Electronic Civil Disobedience)
http://www.thing.net/%7Erdom/ecd/ecd.html
Justseeds in Tacoma Washington
Posted July 10, 2008 by pete in Art & Politics
Pete and Roger will be tabling the 2nd annual Tacoma Anarchist Bookfair this weekend July 12th and 13th. Stop by the table and pick up your justseeds gear in person.
heres some info from the organizers:
Just a reminder that the Tacoma Anarchist Book Fair is THIS WEEKEND!
The book fair will run from 11AM to 5PM on both Sat. (the 12th) and Sun. (the 13th) at King's Books (218 St Helens Av)...
To get to King's Books, you'll want to get off on the Sprague exit in Tacoma, and take a right (towards downtown) on 19th. Turn left (north) on Tacoma Ave, and then turn right on South 4th. You'll take the next left on St Helens Ave and follow this down to 2nd, King's Books will be on your left. Feel free to come a bit early to set up.
If you all want to join in on the festivities on Friday the 11th, there will be an acoustic show at People's Park at 7pm. To get to People's Park take the Sprague exit again, take a right on 19th, and then a left on MLK. Follow MLK down to South 9th and People's Park will be on your left.
A Swan Song, A Love Letter, A Blanket
Posted July 9, 2008 by icky in Art & Politics
Friend of justseedspdx, Rochelle Koivunen, is having an art opening this Friday July 11th at the Launch Pad Gallery in SE Portland. Rochelle's work on her own and with Pollution Party is always amazing, be sure to stop by and catch the amazing Pelican Ossman perform also.
New work on paper by Rochelle Koivunen
July 4th - 27th, 2008 Featuring installation by Pollution Party
& recycled plastic bag sculptures by Katie Simpson
Opening Celebration Friday, July 11, 2008 6pm-12am
About the show
Rochelle Koivunen's new body of work features wall painting, five large scroll-mounted mixed-media works on paper and a suite of smaller framed portraits.
The work depicts tender relationships between humans and animals- refugees nurturing and caring for each other symbiotically once again as we move away from the anonymity and isolation of consumerism, technology and throw-away culture into a radically changed world where we all have to work together in order to survive.
The show responds to the suffering and destructive relationships that have evolved between humans and the world we live in and expresses hope for the future as we face the imminent arrival of peak oil, over-population, food shortages and natural disasters and are forced to rethink how we live.
Featuring food, a cash bar, and free, all-ages music & performance starting at 8pm
by Adivina, Bryce Panic, Mary Rose, Exoh Exoh, Pelican Ossman, DJ Maxx Bass
(with Launch Pad's own DJ Pocket starting the night with sweet, sweet old skool reggae music from 6-8pm)
Seth Tobocman: Disaster & Resistance Release Events
Posted July 3, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
AK Press is putting out Seth Tobocman's (You Don't Have to Fuck People Over to Survive and War in the Neighborhood) new book Disaster & Resistance!!
He has 2 release events planned in NYC:
July 10th
10pm
Bowery Poetry Club
398 Bowery
with music by: Mischief Brew, Actual Facts, Shit Lovin’ Angels, Steve Wishnia and Eric Blitz
admission is $10 or free if you buy a book
AND
July 18th
7pm
Bluestockings Books
172 Allen Street
with Peter Kuper and Fly
music by Steve Wishnia and Eric Blitz
admission is free
Reproduce & Revolt release party in NYC
Posted June 27, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Come celebrate the release of Reproduce & Revolt/Reproduce y Rebélate!
Monday, June 30th, 7-10pm
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen St.
NYC
(One block south of Houston, a block from the 2nd Ave. F train)
A collection of over 500 political graphics, Reproduce & Revolt/Reproduce Y Rebélate contains original art granted by the creators to the public domain, to be freely used on political posters, flyers, and campaigns. A bilingual (English & Spanish) book, it also includes a history of the reproducible political graphic and a design how-to for anyone interested in using the images in this book to help change the world. A powerful collection of graphic work by some of the world’s most active and interesting political propagandists, street artists and socially conscious graphic designers. Over 100 artists from over 25 countries are included!
Many of the NYC based artists will be present, and Josh MacPhee be giving a short presentation about the book.
The Great Rebel Raft Regatta
Posted June 27, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
John Jordan (mover and shaker in Reclaim the Streets, We Are Everywhere and the Climate Camp UK) is helping put together an amazing looking new event/project called The Great Rebel Raft Regatta. It looks and sounds like a more political and decentralized Miss Rockaway Armada, with an invite for anyone and everyone to build a raft and join:
A strange fusion of futuristic flotilla, activist armada and charity raft race floats down the river Medway. Hundreds of rebel rafts of every shape and size are swarming towards Kingsnorth power station, like a giant shoal of disobedient fish with a single aim, to shut down the climate criminals.Launched from the Climate Camp on the 9th of August, as part of the mass day of Action to stop the construction of the UK's first coal fired power station in 30 years. The GRRR will be made up of a multitude of rebel rafts constructed out of flotsam and jetsam of this overheating world.... There will be pirate ship rafts, musical rafts, desert Island rafts, migration rafts, polar bears floating on ice-berg rafts, apocalyptic rafts, yellow submarine rafts, car wreck rafts, Robinson Crusoe rafts, battle ship Potemkin rafts, Viking rafts, Kontiki rafts, life rafts and love rafts, dark rafts and hope rafts.
9th August, high tide, RIver Medway, Kingsnorth Power Station, Kent
Get a team together < Build a raft of your dreams < Come to the Climate Camp August 3-11th > GRRR Launch >>> August 9th
Asif Rahman Memorial Ride update courtesy of NYC Street Memorial Project
Posted June 24, 2008 by k_c_ in Events
Memorial bike ride for Asif Rahman on Monday June 23, 2008
Join fellow riders and Asif's family and friends on to remember him and demand a bike lane on Queens Boulevard. Bring flowers and candles.
From GhostBikes.org
On February 28, 2008, Asif Rahman, was doing what he loved to do -- riding his bike on his way back home from work -- when he was crushed to death by a reckless truck driver on Queens Boulevard. He died instantly from internal injuries. The truck driver was not charged or ticketed. Asif's mother said:
"Asif was on his way home after a hard day of work. I was waiting for him to come home. He will never come home. I still wait everyday to hear his voice. But he doesn't come home and say 'hi mom'. He will not say it anymore. He was brutally killed by a reckless truck driver."
Waste to Work
Posted June 20, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
My friend and collaborator Olivia Robinson (from the Spectres of Liberty Ghost Church project) has a new project she's working on with another friend, Daniela Kostova. It's called Waste to Work, and they've been collecting sweat and turning it into batteries! Here's the press release for the opening of the project in Schenectady, NY:
Have you ever thought of sweat as a renewable energy source? New media artists Daniela Kostova and Olivia Robinson will do just that when they perform Waste to Work at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, June 28 at the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium.Inspired by the significant labor and electric industry histories of upstate New York, Waste to Work explores the transformation of labor into electric power, using sweat as the link. Sweat is the perfect medium: it is an electrolyte that can be used to make galvanic batteries--"waste" that can be harvested from our labors--and remains an extremely personal commodity that holds our scent, essential salts, fats, pheromones.
Kostova and Robinson will use video and an installed cabinet of batteries to illustrate how they developed batteries powered by their own and others' sweat. The power produced by the sweat batteries will illuminate a world map of LED shapes that designate centers of manufacturing and labor.
To create the sweat-powered batteries, the artists combined the practices of scientists and artists. Working with researchers a the Center for Biotechnology at Rensselaer, the artists developed batteries that are powered using sweat they collect in specially designed costumes they wear when participating in different kinds of physical labor.
The sweat-powered batteries are based on galvanic cells, which require two sources of electrolyte medium separated by a thin porous wall to create a chemical reaction with zinc and carbon to produce power. Human sweat is an electrolyte medium and will be used to power the battery.
Directions
Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium
15 Nott Terrace Hts
Schenectady, NY 12308
(518) 382-7890Websites:
http://www.iamwhateveryouwantmetobe.com/site/content/waste-work
http://oliviarobinson.com
http://dani.cult.bg
Interview with Favianna Rodriguez
Posted June 20, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Liam O'Donoghue has also posted a good interview with Favianna Rodriguez on the SF Bay Guardian website. You can check it out here.
Grafica Politica #2
Posted June 19, 2008 by jmacphee in Calls for Art
This just in from Grupo Soap del Corazon in Minneapolis:
Dear Friends,
This September, the Republicans are meeting in Saint Paul, Minnesota, September 1-4, 2008, to nominate candidates for president and vice-president of the United States and to create their political platform.The Republicans, as you may remember, are the ones that brought the citizens of the United States (and the citizens of the world) such delights as the war in Iraq, the current economic recession, flagrantly increased national debt, and a lack of timely response to global warming. They are also creators of the current impasse with national healthcare, the stalemate with NAFTA reform, decreasing immigrant rights, tax cuts for the rich, and blatant, far-reaching government corruption.
So how do you feel about all that? Want to express yourselves? Well, we want to help you.
Print Art and Revolution in Mexico
Posted June 19, 2008 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
Poster historian and archivist Lincoln Cushing has written a great review of a new book on the Taller Grafica Popular (TGP). The review, published in A Contra Corriente journal, can be downloaded here as a pdf. The book reviewed is Deborah Caplow's Leopoldo Méndez: Revolutionary Art and the Mexican Print, published by the University of Texas Press, 2007. Back in 2005 Caplow wrote a great introductory essay on the history of political printmaking for the exhibition catalog to my Paper Politics show.
New Book: Diego Rivera: Great Illustrator
Posted June 18, 2008 by icky in Reviews
I was on tour in 2000, my band had played a sloppy show the night before and our host (Erik Ruin) took us to The Detroit Institute of Arts (Det. art museum) before we got back on the road. Just past the front desk you walk into a giant atrium filled with Diego Rivera's auto industry murals. I had poured over pictures of this mural numerous times, but it had not prepared me for the beauty and grandeur of seeing it in person. I don't know how big the room is, maybe three stories tall, the architecture done in the fake greek style that was the preferred choice for many public buildings (see washington dc or most state capitols). And the mural covered the whole thing... the giant walls, the nooks and crannies.... a giant factory scene in all it's terrible, awesome and fascinating complexity.... the workers in full communist-style action shots pulling levers and wrenches.... the gods of the earth elements up around the ceiling... little panels with industry scientists, women workers. Ore and metal itself. I just stood there and rotated in awe at this big powerful piece of art.
New Gee Vaucher prints
Posted June 18, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I just got an email about two new Gee Vaucher prints that Hard Pressed Studios have put out. For those that haven't heard of her, Gee Vaucher was the visual arts/design member of the UK anarcho-punk band Crass, and her collage style and stencil lettering deeply influenced both punk and anarchist aesthetics. For more info, Erik Reuland interviewed her in our book Realizing the Impossible that came out last year.
According to Hard Pressed: Each print is a one color screenprint, on natural Stonehenge paper. Both notable works are an edition of 50 and each measure 22''x30''. They are numbered, signed by the artist and are $50 each. They were hand printed by Karen Fiorito at Hard Pressed Studios in Los Angeles. You can buy them here.
The "Peace" image maybe new, I'm not sure, but I believe "Onward Christian Soldiers" is from an old issue of Gee's political art newspaper called International Anthem. To be 100% honest, neither of these are my favorite Gee images, but I am really glad her work is circulating again, and hope a lot more people get exposed to her ideas, the politics of Crass, and the history of art, anarchism and social movements.
Shepard Fairey's Image Problem
Posted June 18, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Liam O'Donoghue an article online that continues the discussion/critique of Shepard Fairey thats been ongoing online over the past 6-9 months. He's posted his piece "Shepard Fairey's Image Problem" on multiple Indymedias (here's the link to the story on NYC Indymedia.) and I'm going to paste the whole thing below:
As if Wal-Mart didn’t have enough controversies to deal with, imagine the consternation in the PR war room when news hit that the retail giant was selling t-shirts bearing a Nazi SS skull. As the story unraveled, it turned out that Wal-Mart’s designer had ripped off the image from pop art superstar Shepard Fairey, whose reference for the Gestapo logo was 1960’s “biker culture.” Oops.Using the international notoriety of his global “Andre the Giant has a posse” street art campaign as a platform, Shepard Fairey has leveraged his prolific output and iconic, anti-authoritarian style into a mini-empire. Through his ObeyGiant company (Motto: Manufacturing Quality Dissent Since 1989), he churns out screen-printed posters, clothing, and limited-run merchandise including skateboards and laser-engraved watches. His other design company, Studio Number One, specializes in branding, promotional campaigns and “identity systems” for corporate clients including Mountain Dew, Virgin, and Honda. He is also founder and creative director of Subliminal Projects art studio in Los Angeles and uber-hip Swindle magazine. His audience and the value of his work has surged in recent months on the popularity of his now-ubiquitous Obama posters.
Although Fairey “didn’t get bent out of shape” about Wal-Mart ripping him off, he originally launched his ObeyGiant clothing line because he saw that the Urban Outfitters chain was selling “bootlegged” shirts with his Giant logo. “To see it in there, just ripped off, knowing that somebody just made a bunch of money selling the t-shirts to Urban Outfitters, and here I am, just barely being able to pay my rent was definitely upsetting to me,” Fairey told me during an interview for Mother Jones. “The reason I get pissed off about stuff like that is because I didn’t build up the resonance for that image just to hand it off to someone to exploit.”
Prison Nation Opens
Posted June 16, 2008 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Prison Nation: Posters on the Prison Industrial Complex opened this past weekend in Los Angeles. A show of prison-related posters collected and organized by the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, it contains dozens of posters created around many prison-related issues, from overcrowding to women in prison, political prisoners to racism in the justice system. I've even got a couple posters in the show!
Prison Nation: Posters on the Prison Industrial Complex
William Grant Still Arts Center
2520 West View St.
Los Angeles, CA 90016
Open Daily: 12-5pm
323.734.1164
Even though the opening has past, they have a huge schedule of events planned, if you are in LA, check some of this out:
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
Posted June 13, 2008 by molly_fair in Events
New York, June 13–26, 2008
Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center
165 West 65th Street, upper level
(between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave.)
In recognition of the power of film to educate and galvanize a broad constituency of concerned citizens, Human Rights Watch decided to create the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. Human Rights Watch's International Film Festival has become a leading venue for distinguished fiction, documentary and animated films and videos with a distinctive human rights theme.
The films in this year’s edition of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival reflect struggles throughout the world—the buying and selling of children in China; the continuing animosity between Pakistan and India; the story behind the murder of a courageous Russian journalist—as well as those right here at home. While many films raise questions, these begin to provide answers as brave filmmakers work on the front lines of international crises to show us the toll of war, the horrors of ongoing conflicts, and the human faces at the heart of it all (including the residents of a Palestinian senior citizens’ home).
Within many of these works is a quest: A filmmaker traces her ancestors’ involvement in the slave trade, human rights activists spend their lives trying to bring dictators to justice, and others bear witness to their crimes. Finally, there are the children: we get a glimpse of the overwhelmed juvenile justice system in Brazil, while from around the world, young people armed with cameras are asking questions and, perhaps, showing us the way to a better future.
Towards Carfree Cities VIII
Posted June 11, 2008 by molly_fair in Events
June 16-20, 2008
Some of the amazing people involved in the NYC Street Memorials Project honoring pedestrians and cyclists, will be heading to Portland for the carfree conference to do a panel discussion-so check it out!
June 19, 2008 4-5:30 pm
Advocacy, Media, and Direct Action: Street Memorials and Successful Collaborative Strategies for Making Change on NYC Streets Moderator: Brooke DuBose, Planner, Fehr & Peers, San Francisco
* Nat Meysenburg, Web Coordinator & Volunteer, NYC Street Memorial Project
* Elizabeth Press, videographer, Streetfilms
* Caroline Samponaro, Bicycle Campaign Coordinator, Transportation Alternatives
* Leah Todd, Press Coordinator & Volunteer, NYC Street Memorial Project
* Peter Meitzler, transportation activist, New York
Video of Spectres of Liberty
Posted June 10, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Here's a time lapse of the ups and downs of our inflatable church!
Spectres of Liberty images
Posted June 8, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
So the Spectres of Liberty project went great! We inflated our 35 foot tall church and had over 200 people come hang out, watch the animation on the outside and check out the inside. Here's some images, and more info and images can be found on our website.
The view from down the street (photo by Pete)
Another daylight view for scale (photo by Josh MacPhee)
The inside of the church (photo by Bart Woodstrup)
The outside projection of Henry Highland Garnet as seen from the inside (photo by Bart Woodstrup)
Pittsburgh Summer: Youth Radical Print Collective
Posted June 6, 2008 by mary_tremonte in Justseeds Collective Projects
The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pa is working with 14 to 20 year old artist-activists to form a Radical Print Collective.
This Collective will work with Pittsburgh’s social justice and environmental community to create print materials that illustrate social, cultural and civic achievement milestones in Pittsburgh. The Collective will learn printmaking and design techniques and will use these skills to document Pittsburgh’s activist past and present in an effort to effect progressive social change.
Local and national activist artists from the Justseeds/Visual Resistance Artists' Cooperative will be in residence throughout the summer to work with the youth involved in this project and to create an installation.
For more information, contact Mary Tremonte at tremontem(at)warhol.org, 412-237-8356
Lesbians of Color-Women Against Violence
Posted June 6, 2008 by molly_fair in Events
Brecht Forum Gallery
451 West Street
NY, NY 10014
June 6th - July 6th, 2008
Opening:
June 6th 6:30 PM - 10:00 PM
This exhibit focuses on violence against lesbians of color and the lesbian love that empowers them. The artists are sending the healing energy of their art to lesbians of color here and around the world who are being stigmitized, rejected, imprisioned and killed. Besides the daily stress of racism and colonialism, lesbians of color have to deal with homophobia, like verbal abuse, hostility, being labeled sinful by religious leaders, lack of marriage rights and partner benefits, not being represented in many women's organizations, community ostracism, sexual harassment, partner violence, discrimination in jobs and housing, families trying to take away children or withdraw support, incarceration in mental hospitals or jails, being trafficked, raped, tortured, or murdered..The exhibit seeks to expose examples of violence against lesbians of color from African, Asian/Pacific Islands, Latino/Carribean. Native American, and Near/Middle Eastern ancestry and assert the right of lesbians of color to a life with dignity and acceptance without fear of attacks on their spirits and bodies.
At the opening reception there will be loc poets, singers and musicians celebrating loc love and resistance to all forms of violence.
Reproduce & Revolt SF release party!
Posted June 6, 2008 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
San Francisco artists celebrate the release of Reproduce & Revolt, an extensive collection of contemporary political graphics collected from around the world, featuring today's most exciting street artists, poster makers and graphic designers.
WHAT: An art jam and book release party featuring live printmaking, music, and refreshments.
WHEN: Wednesday, June 11, 6-10 pm
WHERE: CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission St. (near 9th), San Francisco, CA 94103
WHO: Reproduce & Revolt Co-Editor, Favianna Rodriguez, Taller Tupac Amaru (Oakland), San Francisco Print Collective (SF), Political Gridlock (Alameda), and Chaman Visions (Los Angeles)
On the evening of Wednesday, June 11th, artists, activists, and art lovers will gather to celebrate the release of the new book, Reproduce & Revolt. Activism depends on design to capture imaginations and spread a message. Reproduce and Revolt not only documents some of the best activist design work of the past few years, it shows readers how to do it themselves. Political artists from the Bay Area will host an evening of live poster printing, political art displays, and other art making to promote a message of social justice.
Reproduce and Revolt features the work of artists from over a dozen countries. The collection contains hundreds of high-quality illustrations and graphics about social justice and political activism for use on flyers, posters, t-shirts, brochures, stencils, and any other graphic elements of social causes. The graphics are bold, easy to reproduce, and available to reproduce without permission. The book offers clear instructions on how to utilize the images to improve the effectiveness of visual campaigns. It also contains a short history of political graphics, highlighting the vital and powerful role that graphics have played in social movements all over the world – serving as tools to inspire, mobilize, and transform communities.
Reclaiming the "F" Word
Posted June 5, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics, a great archive and resource for studying political posters, has just put together a new show:
Reclaiming the “F” Word: Posters on International Feminisms
June 3 - July 3, 2008
Opening Reception:
Saturday June 7, 2008 2-5 pm
Panel Discussion: 3 pm
Panel will include some of the exhibition’s artists and curatorial team.
Special Film Showing:
Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 2 pm
I was a Teenage Feminist, a film by Therese Shechter
(see description of film below)
California State University
Northridge Art Galleries
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330
Summer gallery hours are Mon – Fri 12-4 pm
There is no admission charge.
Parking is $5.00.
For further information call 818.677.2156.
Reclaiming the “F” Word refers to women’s movements in the plural—to feminismS—to acknowledge and honor our similarities and differences. The national and international posters in this exhibition reflect a deepening awareness that women’s struggles, women’s leadership and women’s activ¬ism throughout the world challenge oppressive conditions in diverse and creative ways.
Posters from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America explore class, race and gender as they show women at the forefront of struggles for human rights and social change. Powerful graphics depict diverse feminist issues from the suffragettes to the activism of the 1970s to today. The family unit, childcare, labor, ecology, trafficking and violence are just some of the topics covered. Posters show women organizing against the Viet Nam War and against Apartheid in South Africa. They decry the ongoing murders of women in Juarez, Mexico and use of rape as a military weapon in Darfur, Sudan. Reclaiming the “F” Word will broaden the definition of feminism, and inspire women and men, of all ages, to be proud to call themselves feminists.
Spectres of Liberty
Posted May 28, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Myself, Dara and our friend Olivia have been busting our humps getting ready to realize a giant project we've been working on for over a year, Spectres of Liberty. On this Friday, May 30th, in Troy, NY, we'll be inflating a life size ghost replica of the Liberty Street Church, an important movement center for the Underground Railroad in the 19th century, and one of the first African American churches in Troy. If you are anywhere near the Troy/Albany/Schenectady area on Friday, you should come by, it'll be a once in a lifetime experience!!
Spectres of Liberty
a collaborative project by Olivia Robinson, Josh MacPhee, and Dara Greenwald
May 30th, 2008, 8:30 PM
Liberty Street between 3rd and 4th Streets, Troy, NY
Event: I Shall Create-Death Row Art
Posted May 22, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
I've long been a fan of the art of Zolo Agonia Azania (as well as strongly believing he shouldn't be on death row in Indiana!), which at it's best is a Black Power trip through neo-psychedelia. A bunch of his paintings are going up in a show in Chicago, if you can, check it out:
"I Shall Create": Death Row Art
at Treat Restaurant
Opening Reception on SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 5-7PM
1616 N. Kedzie Ave. in Humboldt Park, Chicago
Celebrate the resistance of death row prisoners -- Renaldo Hudson in Illinois, Kevin Cooper in California and Zolo Azania in Indiana -- who dare to express their humanity on canvas one brush stroke at a time. Select paintings of their work will be on display at Treat Restaurant through mid-July.
Join us at this opening reception to honor the work of these three talented artists. A multi-media presentation will feature:
** a video recording of greetings by Zolo Azania from his cell on Indiana's death row
** readings of essays by Kevin Cooper and Renaldo Hudson
** poetry by prisoners LIVE from their cells via telephone hook-up
hosted by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, No Death Penalty for Zolo Committee and Treat Restaurant
all are welcome -- donations will be accepted!
The More Things Stay The Same
Posted May 15, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Marc Moscato has put up online a great short video he made about the life of Chicago anarchist Ben Reitman, lover of Emma Goldman and biographer of Boxcar Bertha. I grabbed the code and embedded it here, so take a couple minutes and watch this amazing slice of radical American history!!!
here's what Marc has to say about the piece:
The More Things Stay The Same examines the life and world of Dr. Ben Reitman (1879-1942), known in his day as “the Clap Doctor”, “King of the Hoboes” and “the most vulgar man in America”. It forms an endearing portrait of Reitman’s colorful life, and investigates the cultural and social context of his times. From labor unrest to sex education to the genesis of the homeless crisis in America, Reitman’s work continues to have importance and relevance to the hard-hitting issues of today. The More Things Stay The Same not only sheds new light on this lost but vital slice of underground Americana, but also provides an urgent rallying cry for the present.
Event: World War 3 Illustrated artist's reading
Posted May 14, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Tonight!!
The Cup and Pen Small Press Reading Series
World War 3 Illustrated Artists
May 14th, from 8-10 pm at Think Coffee in Manhattan, 248 Mercer Street
There will be a fabulous reading featuring slide shows and multimedia by:
Rebecca Migdal
James Romberger
Sabrina Jones
Tom Keough
Fly
Mac McGill
Also featuring: our hostess the lovely Rebecca Alvarez; the vocal stylings
of Breeze; and the accompaniment of Andy Laties on saxaphone, flute,
harmonica and the garden hose!
Here's you chance to pick up an autographed copy of WW3, and be vastly
entertained while sipping java and nibbling cake.
In the Middle of a Whirlwind
Posted May 12, 2008 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
Justseeds member Kristine Virsis coordinated with the Team Colors crew to produce the accompanied image for their upcoming project "In the Middle of a Whirlwind"
In the Middle of a Whirlwind (Whirlwinds) inquires into current organizing efforts in the United States, and through that process, assembles a strategic analysis of current political composition as a tool for building political power.Whirlwinds’ strategic context is this summer’s RNC and DNC protests; through these documents and the discussions that erupt from them we hope to directly impact the anti-Convention organizing. In a larger sense, and in the long-term, Whirlwinds is intended to provide a set of useful documents for contemporary radical organizing. Each essay and interview addresses the issues of movement, working class power and composition, and/or gives strategic insight into organizing, and the strengths and weaknesses of current movement/s in the U.S.
A one-off online journal of theory, art, activism and organizing to be released May 25th!
fierce pussy show at Printed Matter Inc.
Posted May 10, 2008 by molly_fair in Events
Printed Matter Inc.
195 Tenth Avenue, NYC
April 5–May 24, 2008
fierce pussy was a New York–based collective of queer women that emerged in 1991 from the ferment spawned by ACT UP. Promoting lesbian visibility and self-defined identity, fierce pussy helped politicize the urban landscape by wheat-pasting posters, distributing stickers and T-shirts, and "renaming" a number of New York streets after lesbian heroines.Their low-tech aesthetic is exemplified by photocopied posters, which have been reissued in a book published by Printed Matter and are exhibited there above vitrines of related ephemera. Members' childhood snapshots are emblazoned with words like MUFFDIVER and DYKE; the phrase LESBIAN CHIC MY ASS is illustrated with a bathroom-stall-worthy rendering of an ass followed by the words FUCK 15 MINUTES OF FAME. WE DEMAND OUR CIVIL RIGHTS. NOW. Contemporaneous groups such as Queer Nation, Dyke Action Machine, and the aforementioned ACT UP pioneered an activist appropriation of the slick language of advertising, taking a cue from Situationist détournement and the work of Barbara Kruger. fierce pussy's posters share aesthetic kinship with the more punkish 1979 publication Durhing Durhing by Joseph Wolman (founder, with Guy Debord, of the Letterist International), in which random faces are overprinted with Marxist-inflected words.
This kind of contextualization, however, distances the work from the queer bodies that made it, and queer bodies are still not visible enough. Riding that wave of lesbian chic, The L Word now epitomizes self-defined lesbian (with little mention of gender-queer or trans) identity. fierce pussy's book, the most vital part of the exhibition, opens with reprints of three nearly twenty-year-old posters comprising a more diverse spectrum of identities, among them dyke, butch, pervert, femme, feminist, and queer. The pages are detachable and reconfigurable. Just add wheat paste. —Amoreen Armetta
Greetings from the Outside: Cards for Prisoners
Posted May 9, 2008 by molly_fair in Art & Politics
It's hard to believe that almost a year has passed since our friend Daniel McGowan has been in prison. I've kept in touch with Daniel, and also have come to realize through his encouragement and by attending bi-weekly political prisoner letter writing dinners, that it is really important to reach out to other political prisoners/pow's/and activists who are incarcerated. Many continue to struggle and to be involved in movements both on the in and outside.
Over the winter I went to a gathering to make holiday cards for every political prisoner who is serving time in the U.S. and it became quite an assembly line! It inspired me draw the image to the right for a greeting card for any occasion that can be sent to our comrades, friends, and family whether they may be political or social prisoners. Hopefully I'll have them available soon.
Also, I sadly want to note that Eric McDavid was just sentenced to 19 years and 7 months. Take the time to write to Eric, and please check his support site for letter writing guidelines:
MCDAVID, ERIC X-2972521 7E128
Sacramento County Main Jail
651 "I" Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Radical Cross Stitch
Posted May 7, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
So, I've been trying to learn to sew for the past month, and it has been a both frustrating and very rewarding endeavor. My friend Kat got me started and showed me the basics of the sewing machine, and I've been trying to get the hang of it ever since. Chris Stain, Billy Mode and I just did this large scale installation in Brooklyn (Threat of Chance, see below), and I really think the hardest part for me was the sewing!
There has been a lot of focus on "craft" lately in the punk, political, art and DIY scenes, and to be honest, I find most of it annoying. That said, I'm finding a new appreciation, and am getting more interested in what one can do with fabric than ever before.
There are likely a ton of political craft sites out there, but we recently got an email from Kakariki in Australia who upkeeps the Radical Cross Stitch Blog. She sent us to a project she did stitching words into fences, and the whole blog is filled with a nice mix of politics and craft, with connections to many other projects. So if this is your thing, definitely check out what the folks down under are up to with their yarn.
Prisons Affect All of Us!
Posted May 6, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Critical Resistance NYC is putting on an exhibition of prisoner art:
Prisons Affect All of Us
May 17th, 1-8pm
Critical Resistance Office
976 Longwood (corner of Beck St.)
South Bronx
The art will also be up until May 31st, and can be seen by appointment by calling Critical Resistance at 718.676.1660.
"Atenco Somos Todas" Action in Madrid
Posted May 4, 2008 by k_c_
A collective in Madrid, called Atenco Somos Todos, held an action in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Reminding the Spanish government and the rest of the world of the police repression and torture that occurred 2 years ago today. Following is their communication:
Political Freights
Posted May 2, 2008 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
I just got these great photos of new freights from Max in Minneapolis:
Trip to Bethlehem-Swoon
Posted April 29, 2008 by swoon in Art & Politics
Last winter I was able to travel to Palestine with the Santa's Ghetto project, put together by Banksy and the folks at P.O.W. The project consisted of a show, on Manger Square, the proceeds of which were directed to support programs for kids living in the collapsing economy of the newly walled off Palestinian territories. As well many site specific installations in the town of Bethlehem and on the surrounding wall.
I was deeply impressed by the outpouring of sentiment on the Palestinian side of the wall. Voices from all over the world denounced, cursed, expressed solidarity and support, and simply bore witness to a people living up against the wall and everything it
represents.
I had precious little time within which to get to know people and try and comprehend the situation, so I will leave it to the photos to explain.
Kids in Bethlehem
Painting on the wall, by artist Blue
Mixing the paste
Getting started. It was so scary and windy up there.
Each of the squares is a pocket stuffed with quotes from Arhundati Roy, Assata Shakur, Martin Luther King, and many others with many brilliant thoughts to share
Getting a little help. I later learned that the fires that have blackened this guard tower that I paste on where set to mark the spot where a teenager from the neighboring Aida refugee camp was captured and given a seven year prison sentence for climbing a ladder and placing a Palestinian flag at the top of the wall
Sunset
Off with Their Heads: Essay on Appropriated Images
Posted April 14, 2008 by dara_g in Art & Politics
I wrote this essay a while back for Punk Planet which sadly is no longer being published as a print magazine. I wanted to put it up here because it relates to some other threads about artists appropriation.
Off with Their Heads By Dara Greenwald
Originally published in Punk Planet, #77
January/February 2007, p 94-98
“Seeing Green: Art, Ecology and Activism in Milwaukee” opens April 12th
Posted April 5, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Events
image by Max Estes, "Your Bicycle Misses You"
Guest curator Nicolas Lampert invited over 40 local artists to work on a project for the duration of eight months. During the month of April, 2008 the show will be exhibited at Woodland Pattern Book Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where the gallery will serve as a hub space, informing the viewer and the public of the many environmental projects taking place throughout Milwaukee, exhibiting visual work and books, screening films and holding discussions and events based around the exhibition.
Familiar names in the show to Justseeds readers include Colin Matthes who diverged from his 2-D work and created surveillance camera birdhouses! Also, Susan Simensky Bietila (the co-organizer of Drawing Resistance) created a mural “28 Years of People Power” that celebrated the grassroots campaign that defeated the proposed Crandon mine on Wisconsin’s Wolf River. This alliance won an historic victory against one the most powerful mining corporations in the world.
During the next few weeks, I will post more details on the Justseeds blog about specific work in the show including posters, stencil projects and more.
Seeing Green opens at Woodland Pattern Book Center (720 E. Locust St., Milwaukee, WI.) on Saturday, April 12, 2008, 5:00-9:00pm
Paper Politics in Corpus Christi, TX
Posted April 3, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Paper Politics, the political print show I've been traveling around the continent has made it's way to Texas! K Space Contemporary opens Paper Politics on Saturday, April 5th.
The exhibit showcases print art that uses themes of social justice and global equity to engage community members in political conversation. All the Justseeds artists are in the show, as well as 175 other artists from the US and around the world. An eclectic collection of work by artists who are primarily activists, as well as artists, whose work may not always be politically motivated, but who wanted to respond to the monumental trends and events of our times.
Opening: Saturday April 5th, 6-8 PM
Free Admission, Food & Drinks
On view April 5th-May 11th
Also:
Woodcut Printmaking Workshop with Paper Politics artist Mike Stephens
Saturday, April 12th, 10Am-1PM
$65 materials fee, call to reserve a space.
What will change?
Posted March 31, 2008 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
Seen around Bed-Stuy, historically predominant African-American neighborhood, in Brooklyn, NY. Begs the question...
The neighborhood has been forgotten and downright neglected by city institutions for decades, yet in recent years there has been interest in renovations of buildings and infrastructure. Most of this activity is a result of people relocating themselves to this neighborhood. The neighborhood is going thru a serious "revitalization". Many new condos are being built, empty lots are no longer so. And there is a different class and culture are taking root here.
So, as happens in NYC, things are always changing.
What change will this election year bring for Bed-Stuy, who knows?
I can't imagine it will be much more than the usual steamrolling of existing community for more affluent ones.
Did I mention that the neighborhood has one of the highest rates of incarceration and recidivism in NY?
LA vs. WAR
Posted March 31, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
LA vs. WAR is a huge anti-war show going up in LA next week! It looks to be amazing, so if you are in the area, definitely check it out!
LA vs. WAR
April 10-13 2008
12 noon to 11pm
The Firehouse
710 S. Santa Fe Avenue
Los Angeles CA 90021
Downtown LA
LA vs WAR schedule:
Thursday, April 10, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Friday, April 11, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 12, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 13, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
LA vs WAR highlights the travesty of a senseless war now going into its 6th year, giving LA artists a platform to exercise their freedom of speech. Hundreds of artists representing our diverse communities unite in delivering a universal message of peace and understanding, and offering resistance and opposition to the US government's war policies.
LA vs WAR highlights:
- Yo! What Happened to Peace?: posters on display from the international touring peace poster exhibition; live anti-war poster screen-printing demos
- Hit+Run: live t-shirt printing featuring custom artwork from the Hit+Run artist network
- Mark of the Beast: display of corporate-jammed logo spoofs
- Crewest Graffiti & Stencil Art Garden: graffiti artist network doing live graffiti and stencil painting
- Center for the Study of Political Graphics: anti-war themed display from America's premier political poster archives
- Artwork Exhibition: handmade creations by independent local artists
- Universal Peace Altar: a memorial to lives lost in the war created by Ofelia Esparza and Shrine
- Peace in Iraq Photo Project by Azul 213: audience participation photo project to promote peace
- Dublab: music selections created by DJs from the web radio collective
- Lost Film Fest hosted by VJ Scott Beibin: film and video celebration of culture jamming and illegal art
- Light installations and projections: interactive entertainment provided by Todd Lazer
AND MORE...
All ages are welcome and admission is free.
EXPRESSION = LIFE: ACT UP, Video and the AIDS Crisis
Posted March 30, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
EXPRESSION = LIFE: ACT UP, Video and the AIDS Crisis
Friday, April 18, 7pm
New York University Cantor Film Center
A rare gathering of veteran members of ACT UP, filmmakers, and media theorists will dissect the history of grass-roots media coordination in America and its role in advancing AIDS activism from the 1980s until today.
A screening of rare news and independent film footage will be the centerpiece of a panel discussion. Speakers will examine the origins of media activism and explore the myriad opportunities for new and alternative communication strategies in a world now dominated by corporate-owned media. Panelists will revisit the early days of ACT UP activism and how the resulting coverage and media strategies contributed to the creation of an underground communications network still in operation today.
The Panelists for the program include:
-John Greyson, award-winning director of numerous films, include Patient Zero. He currently teaches film at York University in Canada.
-Jean Carlomusto, award-winning filmmaker and video artist who co-curated the interactive AIDS archive project AIDS: A Living Archive, for the Museum of the City of New York. She currently teaches film making at Long Island University.
-Jay Blotcher served as media coordinator for the founding chapters of ACT UP and Queer Nation and was co-founder of Public Impact Media Consultants, which provided guerilla publicity for leading progressive, grass-roots organizations.
-Ben Shepard is professor of Sociology at the City University of New York, and the co-editor of From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization.
-Stephen Duncombe is professor of Media Studies at New York University, the editor of Cultural Resistance Reader and Dream: Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy.
Free Tibet Demo in NYC & beyond
Posted March 24, 2008 by k_c_ in In the News
There have been a lot of activity around the current events in Tibet. A lot of actions focusing on the Olympics in China. One I came across today on the BBC newswire is about the disruption of the lighting of the torch in Greece. 
Even a few months back at "Where Have You Been?"
one story focused on a trip and action at the base camp of Mt Everest.
Recently, in NYC, there were reports of some aggression outside of the Chinese Consulate on 42nd street, leaving injured people and broken glass. People are demanding a stop to the killing in Tibet and a boycott of the upcoming Olympics in China.
This past weekend in NYC, a march passed thru Union Square. Here's some flicks I was able to snatch of the posters and banners. The messaging was really clear in their images and chants, and was a very moving experience as the thousand or so demonstrators moved thru the Union Square Greenmarket.
Past and Present History of a REPOhistory “Civil Disturbances” Sign
Posted March 17, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Street Art & Graffiti
Justseeds readers likely need no reminder of the importance of politically engaged street art, yet it is always good to hear when work put up in the streets not only stays up for a long duration, but is also greatly valued by the community in which it is placed.
Recently, a sign by Jenny Polak and David Thorne from a past REPOhistory project Civil Disturbances that was put up in 1998 in Brooklyn has drawn some renewed attention, especially from collective members who had assumed that the majority of the signs had been taken down.
For those unaware of the project, the Civil Disturbances was a sign project that REPOhistory collaborated with the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI.) Over a two-year duration from 1998-1999, 20 signs were placed at various locations in the city that addressed legal cases that had important social and political ramifications for New York City and beyond.
The sign by Jenny Polak and David Thorne commemorated three victims of police shootings and the families that attempted to prosecute the police. Specifically, it addressed the senseless death of Nicholas Heyward, a young boy who was shot and killed by a Housing Authority Officer in 1994 who mistook his plastic toy rifle for a weapon, Kevin Cedeno who was shot in the back in Washington Heights, and Anthony Baez who died from a police choke-hold in the Bronx. The signs were placed at each location where the deaths had taken place. For example the sign honoring Nicholas Heyward was placed on Baltic Street, between Hoyt & Bond in Brooklyn and helped focus public attention to this tragedy and the issues of police brutality and accountability.
Yet the sign did not remain up for long. Shortly after it was installed, the sign (along with a number of other Civil Disturbances signs) were either vandalized or quickly taken down against the artist's approval.
However, the artists and the community made sure that it was re-installed in 1999. Polak recently explained, “There is a story you may not know about why it's lasted. I came to know Nicholas Heyward, the father of the child the sign memorializes… A while after the project was done, he told me the sign had been knocked down - hit, he thought, by cops perhaps. He rescued it and we decided to rededicate it. At the time he was still living right there. I tried to make a bit of an occasion of it. Tom came to bring the spare sign, and a poet [Samantha Coerbell], did an intense poem she'd written about the killing which she came and performed on the street to a couple of people including Nicholas senior, and a local reporter I got hold of. I think the continued activism of Nicholas, his taking ownership of the sign, and the way people around here feel about the police all may have helped keep it there.”
Since this rededication effort in 1999, the sign has remained installed on Baltic Street for close to a decade and speaks of the importance of making sure that past and present struggles are honored and made clearly visible for all to see.
Photo by Daniel Tucker. For an article on the re-dedication of the sign in 1999, See, Michael Hirsh “Police Brutality Memorial Returns to Baltic Street”, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill Courier, Vol. XVIII, No. 16, April 26, 1999. For more information on REPOhistory, See http://www.repohistory.org
Oaxaca Resiste!: Print show in Madison, WI. March 27-April 6
Posted March 16, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Posters & Prints
If your in Madison, Wisconsin in late March, check out a show at the Common Wealth Gallery on the Oaxaca teachers strike uprising. The show features woodcut prints, stencil art posters, photos, and comics.
MARCH 27-APRIL 6, 2008
ASARO (Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca)
& Local Artists Ana Nimos • Steve Chapell • Lester Doré- Michael Duffy • Eric Hagstrom • Miguel Peña & Others
Sunday March 30 • 7-9 PM: Opening Reception
Music by Son Madunza
Tuesday April 1 • 7 PM : Mexican Revolutionary Graphic Art from Posada to the present Gallery Talk by Melanie Herzog, Professor of Art History, Edgewood College
Thursday April 3 • 7PM: New Jill Friedberg documentary Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad (A little bit of so much truth) on people’s takeover of Oaxacan media
Common Wealth Gallery • 100 S. Baldwin St. • Madison, Wisconsin
Imminent Disaster on Mujeres Creando
Posted March 11, 2008 by k_c_
Our friend Imminent Disaster is back with her second installment of her travels in South America. Thanks to her and continue to have great experiences.
Mujeres Creando is a feminist organization in La Paz, Bolivia. Unlike other social projects in Bolivia, it is not run by an NGO nor affiliated with a church. It's run by a core group of Bolivian women and set up to be autogestionable-- they have a free day-care that´s supported by a restaurant, Internet café and hostel. They run classes at night on a variety of subjects including women in society and feminist law. They run a radio station in La Paz (Deseo 103.3 FM). They have a legal consultation office for women who have experienced physical or sexual abuse. They have published a few books: one, called Ninguna mujer nace para puta (No woman is born to be a whore) is based on a conversation between an Argentinean prostitute and one of the members of the organization, and calls out for readers to question a society that subjects thousands of women to exploitation through prostitution, and what this kind of exploitation means for the treatment of all women within society. They have done a few exhibitions in Bolivia and Argentina displaying powerful photos of women killed by domestic violence and images of prostitutes from the turn of the century police register in La Paz (a time where every prostitute had to have their photo on file in the police station with a record of personal information, activity with clients and results of compulsory vaginal exams.) They have organized protests in Bolivia and Argentina and provided support to women who were imprisoned for over a year after a protest in Buenos Aires. And they take to the streets with their actions and their graffiti.
In Ninguna mujer nace para puta they explain their belief that the streets are the single most transformative political space because it is the only place where you can establish a relationship "flesh-to-flesh" with society. For women, who have historically only been given domestic and private spaces for their own, they believe that taking over the street is the ideal forum for women's acts of rebellion to be shown and seen. At the core, their key word is rebellion: to destroy the role of a woman as silent and dependent in a society deeply entrenched with machismo. And the women of Mujeres Creando are doing it with the gut-wrenching frankness that probably hasn't been seen in the United States since the 1970´s.
Below are a few shots of the Mujeres Creando graffiti in La Paz. Some have links to more information when they refer to specific political events or figures.
"if Evo had a uterus, abortion would be legalized and nationalized"
"I baptize my abortion as redemption, the nun" "We give birth, we decide"
"I´m not an originator, i am an original"
Blanca Liliana was sexually assaulted in the bathroom of a bar in La Paz while celebrating her birthday. Because it happened so suddenly, her friends almost didn't believe it happened and the bartender´s response was to tell the group to leave the bar. Blanca went to the police station to file a report, but it quickly became clear that because she had been drinking the courts would try to call the assault an act of consensual sex. After battling the Bolivian justice system for some time, Blanca finally had a "fair" trial, and the rapist was found and convicted.Full story in spanish
"Justice for Blanca, not for the rapist"
"i want to rebel" "i want to fall in love"
"i desire"
A few others that are worth reading:
"Un pene, cualquier pene, es siempre una miniatura."
A penis, any penis, is always a miniature.
"De Gennaro: Si la prostitucion es una trabajo, sindicalice tu pija y tu ano"
De Gennaro (founder of Central de Trabajadores Argentinos union in Buenos Aires): If prostitution was a job, I would have unionized your penis and your anus.
"Las putas aclaramos que ni Sanchez de Lozada, ni Sanchez Berzain, son hijos nuestros."
The whores (bitches) would like to clarify that neither Sanchez de Lozada (president of Bolivia ´93-´97 & ´02-´03, resigned, fled to U.S., wanted for genocide and other crimes) nor Sanchez Berzain (ex minister of government under Sanchez de Lozada), are sons of ours.
Peaceline Panorama
Posted March 3, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
This just in:
Peaceline Panorama: Recent Photographs by Frankie Quinn
March 5 – 29th, 2008
Opening Reception, Wednesday, March 5, 6:30 – 8:00PM
The Brecht Forum
451 West Street, New York, NY 10041
www.brechtforum.org
The Brecht Forum are pleased to present this exhibition of recent photos by Belfast photographer Frankie Quinn. Taken over the last five years, these photographs document life along the 48 walls and barriers, known as 'Peacelines', that divide the city of Belfast in the north of Ireland. The walls, many of which were constructed at the height of the recent conflict by the British Government, were initially conceived of as a temporary measure to separate communities divided along political and religious lines and to control mobility within the insurgent nationalist community. Far from being a temporary measure, the walls have increased in number and in height over the years, forming a network of enclaves, ghettos and deeply divided communities across the city. This exhibition of photos testifies that despite the developments of the recent peace process, the continued presence of these fault-lines ensure that Belfast remains a divided and segregated city.
Frankie Quinn has been a photographer for the past 25 years. His interest in documentary photography developed as a result of his involvement with the MacAirt Camera Club in East Belfast. Since 1983 his work has been exhibited extensively both at home and abroad. His work has also appeared in numerous local publications including 'Falls in Focus' published by the Falls Community Center (1987) and 'Shoot Belfast' (1986), a guide for amateur photographers which was funded by the Northern Ireland Arts Council. His work has also appeared n the book 'Garvaghy Road: A Community Under Siege' (1999). He was a founding member of the Belfast Exposed Community Photography Resource Center. He lives and works in Belfast, Ireland.
Wear Orange Day
Posted March 3, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Tuesday March 11th is Wear Orange Day in San Francisco, where the art group Plain Human is inviting anyone concerned with the conditions in jails and prisons to wear orange in order to publicly represent incarceration (prisoners are often made to wear orange jumpsuits...). This is an activity which is part of the Prison Project of Intersection for the Arts, a socially-conscious and community -based gallery in SF.
Here's the schedule for the day:
-Public Art & Gathering Events: 11am - 2pm at various in SF [Locations of activities for this day will be available in this website and at The Intersection for the Arts]
-Participatory Performance-Physical Exercise: 3:30 – 4:30pm at the Civic Center lawn, San Francisco
-Reception: 5 - 6pm at Intersection for the Arts, 446 Valencia Street, San Francisco CA 94103
Gran Fury Interview
Posted March 1, 2008 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
My friend Sam just sent me this link from Queerty.com to an interesting interview with Avram Finkelstein, one of the members of Gran Fury. Gran Fury was a creative/graphic collective that produced a large amount of the more graphic art and design around the AIDS crisis in the late 80s and 90s, including the Silence=Death graphic, which I would argue is one of the most powerful political graphics of the last 50 years. Here's a quote:
AB: Do you think posters are effective today? There are posters and advertising on every space.AF: I do - I mean, there was advertising then and that was part of the strategy: to intervene on the commercial space with a message that was not commercial. That’s why we chose postering. We decided against doing these flat-footed, didactic Marxist tomes with lots of text and instead chose to do high gloss posters. And, in fact, the design of the poster - we discussed it endlessly and decided to go with what we called “yuppie graphics” - fonts that were popular at the time, so it was deceptive and would draw an unsuspecting bystander into a very serious conversation. It had to work on two levels: you had to be able to see it and think about it as you were whisking by in a cab, but then it had to work on a street level.
Having said that, I don’t think it could ever work in this social landscape, no. I don’t think it would be possible. It’s not so much about having to compete on the media landscape as what public space is now, as opposed to public space then. Public spaces - although there are a lot of people who would argue against it - are largely new media. I don’t really think it’s about the streets. It’s about the internet."
I wish I could share his optimism about the internet. I think it is a powerful communications tool (which is why we are using it for things like this blog!), but it seems like folly to consider it the "new public space." The infrastructure (fiber-optic lines, traffic hubs, etc.) are in the hands of a very small number of corporations. It may be in their interest to allow for a fair amount of open communication and dialog now, but lets not forget their is nothing public about their ownership, it is completely private, with no real checks to even further consolidation.
That said, I enjoyed this interview immensely, only wishing it was longer and more in depth. I'd love to see a serious roundtable conversation between graphic artists involved in the AIDS struggle, and really hear about how they created the images, built the messaging, and assessed the efficacy of their designs.
BLF Strikes Again
Posted February 28, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I've long thought that the Billboard Liberation Front, beyond being one of the longest running billboard alteration groups, is also one of the smartest. Rather than simply playing off corporate logos, they often are able to use billboards to create a critique that cuts a little deeper, and yesterday they put up a good one in San Francisco. Here is an extended excerpt from their press release:
The Billboard Liberation Front today announced a major new advertising improvement campaign executed on behalf of clients AT&T and the National Security Agency. Focusing on billboards in the San Francisco area, this improvement action is designed to promote and celebrate the innovative collaboration of these two global communications giants.“This campaign is an extraordinary rendition of a public-private partnership,” observed BLF spokesperson Blank DeCoverly. “These two titans of telecom have a long and intimate relationship, dating back to the age of the telegraph. In these dark days of Terrorism, that should be a comfort to every law-abiding citizen with nothing to hide.”
AT&T initially downplayed its heroic efforts in the War on Terror, preferring to serve in silence behind the scenes. “But then we realized we had a PR win on our hands,” noted AT&T V.P. of Homeland Security James Croppy. “Not only were we helping NSA cut through the cumbersome red tape of the FISA system, we were also helping our customers by handing over their e-mails and phone records to the government. Modern life is so hectic – who has time to cc the feds on every message? It’s a great example of how we anticipate our customers’ needs and act on them. And, it should be pointed out, we offered this service free of charge.”
Commenting on the action, and responding to questions about pending privacy litigation and the stalled Congressional effort to shield the telecoms from these lawsuits, NSA spokesperson [REDACTED] remarked: “[REDACTED] we [REDACTED] condone [REDACTED] warrantless [REDACTED], [REDACTED] SIGINT intercepts, [REDACTED] torture [REDACTED] information retrieval by [REDACTED] means necessary.”
“It’s a win-win-win situation,” noted the BLF’s DeCoverly. “NSA gets the data it needs to keep America safe, telecom customers get free services, and AT&T makes a fortune. That kind of cooperation between the public and private sectors should serve as a model to all of us, and a harbinger of things to come.”
OUR FLESH OF FLAMES: collages by Theodore A. Harris, captions by Amiri Baraka
Posted February 26, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Books & Zines
Philadelphia artist Theodore A. Harris, who has been creating some of best political collage work for the past decade, has a new book out that he collaborated on with Amiri Baraka. Check it out and encourage your local book store to order copies.
OUR FLESH OF FLAMES:
Collages by Theodore A. Harris
Captions by Amiri Baraka
Introduction by M. K. Asante, Jr.
Afterword by Gene Ray
Is now out and can be ordered from the publisher for $29.95
Anvil Arts Press
64 West Penn Street
Philadelphia, PA 19121
USA
215-849-2793
http://www.anvilartspress.cjb.net
Also check out the video interviews of LeRoy Johnson and Theodore A. Harris at their exhibit at the Penn State University HUB-Robeson Gallery ACRID DIALECTIC:The Visual Language of LeRoy Johnson and Theodore A. Harris
http://www.sa.psu.edu/usa/galleries/Videos.shtml
Free Culture Camp
Posted February 22, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Our friends Rum46 in Denmark are putting on a Free Culture Camp in a week on February 28th-March 1st. The event looks like it'll be a great weekend, and includes the following artists and groups: Sine Bang (DK), Kayle Brandon (UK), Kristine Briede (Let), Adams og Itso (S), Field Work (DK), Groupwork / studerende fra Det Jyske Kunstakademi (DK), Andreas Wegner (D/AUS), Henrik Moltke (DK), Amy Balkin (US), YNKB (DK). More information is on the Rum46 website, and here is a great quote about the Camp:
The culture that we all create should not be owned or privatized by corporations. We will produce with lust for life and dance on the graves of the bloodsuckers of the creative class and the experience economy. Free Culture is a 3 day camp in Rum46 followed by an exhibition. Events and talks will be mixed with performance, production and group works. It will be a live-in environment for cultural production, and exchange between academics, artists, social movements and a participating audience. Welcome!
YNKB, who hosted Icky and I when we were in Copenhagen, are doing a workshop at the camp:
YNKB Repair Workshop
Do you have anything to repair? A chair with loose joints? A bike in need of care? Clothes that can be changed into something else? A broken vase that can be glued? Or furniture, a baby carriage that can easily be repaired?
Through reuse and repair, commodities that we are fond of can be renewed. This is a way of giving mass-produced commodities value, another meaning and a new aesthetic, which did not exist before they are worked on anew as individual objects. At the same time an alternative economic structure is created, which differs from (the buy-and-throw-away culture (?) that consumerism advocates.
Come and repair your broken items and spend a nice day together with others. You are also welcome even if you have nothing to repair. You can stay and help others make reparations. The repaired items will be photographed for documentation. You can also make reparations at home, of things or places that are not movable. If you take a photo and send it to us, it can be part of the archive.
Have a look at website: www.ynkb.dk under activities 2007 and "reparation workshops."
Call for Entries/ Call for Show Hosts: The Art of Democracy
Posted February 12, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Calls for Art
The Art of Democracy is a national coalition of art exhibitions (scheduled for the fall of 2008) that addresses the dire state of the political scene in the U.S.
Leading up to the November 2008 national elections, artists from around the country will be creating and exhibiting posters and prints that respond to the election, politics, and governmental policy. The Art of Democracy exhibition seeks to attract other individuals and artist organizations from around the nation to help amplify our messages of civil activism, reform, dissent, and protest.
This is not a single show but an affiliation of shows in numerous cities across the U.S.
To contribute your work to these shows, go to: www.artofdemocracy.org
Relevant contact information is provided for most shows.
Artwork by exhibitors can also be found on:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/art-of-democracy/
We encourage artist to put work up on the Flickr site and create posters. The posters will be exchanged with venues around the country. For more information, contact: info@artofdemocracy.org
Art from Inside: Paintings by Political Prisoner Tom Manning
Posted February 12, 2008 by erik_ruin in Art & Politics
Just got this email from the Foglight Collective (formerly known as the People's Free Space) in Portland, ME. They're holding an online auction of original paintings by political prisoner Tom Manning.
Check it out-
The Portland Victory Gardens Project and Foglight Collective are holding a silent auction for Art from Inside to benefit four groups: the Jericho Movement (National), Foglight Collective (Portland, ME), Blackbird Legal Collective (Portland, ME), and Kellogg St. Girls Medicinal Herb Class (Portland, ME). Some paintings sales also benefit the Rosenberg Fund for Children.
For a complete listing of paintings go to: www.cantjailthespirit.org
For more information about Art from Inside visit: http://cantjailthespirit.org/about/art-from-the-inside.html
To bid on a painting send your maximum bid amount, address, phone number and email to artfrominside@yahoo.com
Feature Event for Art From Inside: SCAR's Legacy: Art and Activism in Portland 1972-2008. Feb 15, 7PM (doors open at 6PM) with speakers Ray Luc Levasseur and Daniel Chard, and music by Mark Otim and Chris Teret at the Meg Perry Center at 644 Congress St. in Portland, Maine
The auction will end on February 15th at 8pm EST. We are also conducting an in-person auction at the Meg Perry Center at 644 Congress St. in Portland, ME.. The highest bidder (either online or in person) will win the auction.
Iraq War: 5 Years Later
Posted February 12, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Thai artist Vasan Sitthiket is showing a series of new paintings about the Iraq War 5 years on at the National Art Museum in Jakarta, Indonesia. The show opens March 20th, and looks pretty interesting. Sitthiket has been injecting politics and information about the current Iraq War in his dense, layered paintings for awhile now, and has been successful in a way that seems impossible for a US-based artist working so seriously with the same themes. Just another reminder how isolated the US is as a country....
Beehive Collective is Searching for New Worker Bees
Posted February 11, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Just got this in the inbox, the Beehive Collective is looking for people to join their new campaigns:
In anticipation of our most exciting and busy year to date, featuring the launch of two new graphics campaigns, our swarm of eleven is in need of five more workers. We are currently seeking a few passionate and committed organizers, educators, and artists to join us full-time in Maine, at satellite Hive locations, and on the road, beginning as soon as possible.
Please pass this note on to others who might be interested!
Current Positions Available:
- Archivist/Documentarian (Mountaintop Removal Mining campaign)
- Graphics Campaign Coordinator (Mesoamerica Resiste)
- Education Coordinator (Mountaintop Removal Mining campaign)
- Illustration Collaborator (pen & ink, Mountaintop Removal Mining campaign)
- Distribution, Networking & “Pollination” Coordinator (core Hive position)
Detailed descriptions at www.beehivecollective.org
Pay for Graffiti on the Apartheid Wall??
Posted February 11, 2008 by jmacphee in In the News
I had some serious questions about Banksy's Santa's Ghetto project in Bethlehem (like the point of Faile's boxer piece, which flattens out the Palestine/Israel conflict to a simple equation of two brute's punching each other, rather than one massive military bully with billions of $$ in arms squeezing the life out of an out-gunned, out-financed and generally brutalized people), but this new project on the wall really makes my head spin. A Dutch group called Send a Message has set up a website where you can pay a Palestinian 30 Euros to graffiti a message of your choice on the Apartheid Wall?!?!?!? The group is a non-profit, and the Palestinian painters are artists and getting paid for the work. Supposedly the money is funneled into Palestinian NGOs working on local infrastructure projects.
Certainly capitalism isn't going to provide a solution to the conflict, but I'm afraid that's what these people think they are doing. They claim to want the wall to come down, yet their first example of why the wall is bad is that it "kills business"!! It's certainly a great to create some cash flow to beleaguered Palestinians, but does the cost have to be the crass commercialization of one of the largest symbols of oppression in the world?
What does it mean to turn the wall into a giant billboard, so that Jenny and Mike from San Francisco can express their undying love for each other on the historic (as the company calls it) wall?? The tag line is "It was meant to keep people apart, now it brings people together."
I don't want to attack people for trying to help solve serious problems, but something about this project feels wrong. It comes out of a workshop design pros held in Ramallah with young Palestinians, and smacks similar to a number of well-intentioned design projects where designers over-value the importance of their skill sets. Convinced by the integral relationship design and advertising has to the turning of the gears of global neo-liberal capitalism, designers believe they can advertise and photoshop a new world into existence. Rather than look at and address the historical relationships that the state of Israel has had to individual and organizations of Palestinians, or the real power differentials at play, there is the creation of a marketing device to raise awareness.
I'm really interested in what others think about this, because my guess is we'll be seeing more and more projects like this in the future. Soon we'll be able to pay Rwandan refugees draw caricature's of our loved ones in order to get enough food to eat. My fear is that we're on a very slippery slope, where soon (if we're not already there) solidarity with the Global South will look a lot like a minstrel show.
Artists At War
Posted February 10, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Here's a new art site trying to grapple with the fact that we're 5 years into a never-ending war, and most of us have moved on to pretend that it isn't happening.
Artists At War is just starting out, but it's worth taking a look at and thinking about contributing to. it's a good thing to ask artists to respond to the larger world and to think about the war. Here's what they have to say for themselves:
Enter art, culture, TV, fashion and filmmaking. What does the current cultural output say about our subconscious grievances, fears and desires percolating below the surface in a society where we perpetrate unfounded war abroad? What role is culture playing in galvanizing a collective understanding about the troubled times we’re living through?War threatens our imagination as well as our humanity, which are qualities that every artist thrives on. This website seeks to provide a solid foothold of subversive artwork that can support a thread of defiance and demystification through the culture at large.
Artists At War is a collaborative project organized by LA artists Steven L. Anderson and Thomas McKenzie. New projects will be posted monthly ad the first project is work by Los Angeles artist Charles Irvin, with four pieces that explore the nature of the political press conference.
A Call to Mapmakers
Posted February 8, 2008 by jmacphee in Calls for Art
My good friend and comrade Daniel Tucker in Chicago just sent this over. If you are working on any sort of map projects, get in touch with him!!!
Dear Mapmakers,
This is an invitation to have your maps included in the new “We Are Here” archive that will travel the United States for 2 years (starting Fall 2008) in an exhibition entitled “Experimental Geography” and then be housed in a portable archive in Chicago IL to be available for future exhibition, preservation and research. The archive is dealing with 3 main categories of contemporary cartography: Complexity/Power Mapping; Resource/Asset Mapping; and Alternative Visions of Dominant Geography (see below outline of the kinds of maps we are thinking about).
I have been asked by the organizers of “Experimental Geography” to put together this archive because of my background in organizing mapping related exhibitions and events in Chicago for the last 4 years. This is a great opportunity to get a lot of really interesting and inspiring work together! I should also say up front that I am not being paid to do this and am receiving no budget to work with, only $400 to purchase a poster display rack to preserve the maps. The cost of shipping the collection once it is complete will be covered by the host institutions, but I have no budget for your initial shipping costs to mail the maps to me. I am hoping your motivation for sending your work to me will be the same as mine for putting this together, to get new and excited audiences to have access to this interesting and inspiring work. The show will tour primarily to university galleries and small museums, almost always engaging audiences who are not in attendance at small galleries or cultural institutions where this kind of work is typically displayed. The benefit of having it as part of a larger exhibition about the use of geographic metaphors in contemporary art will also connect this cartographic work to conceptually related work from other genres and spheres of influence.
Iraq Veterans Against the War Combat Paper
Posted January 31, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I've just been so impressed with all the work of the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) lately....Here's another amazing project, Combat Paper. Working with artists in Vermont, IVAW members have been cutting, cooking and beating their old combat uniforms worn in Iraq into pulp, and then turning them into paper. The paper is made with watermarks, and then when it is still wet, it stenciled. Check out the video:
IVAW have dozens of videos of their actions up on their site, definitely check them out.
Operation First Casualty
Posted January 30, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Hands down, the Iraq Veterans Against the War(IVAW) are doing the most kick ass political and cultural work in the US today. For a year or so they have been organizing a series of actions under the title Operation First Casualty, the first casualty of war being truth. Fully geared up Iraq War veterans have been descending on cities across the country and performing military actions on the street. This video gives a hint at how intense this is:
In addition IVAW is gearing up to hold their Winter Soldier tribunal March 13-16 in Washington DC. Here's what they have to say about it:
Winter Soldiers, according to founding father Thomas Paine, are those who stand up for the soul of their country, even in its darkest hours. With this spirit in mind, IVAW members are standing up to make their experiences available to all who are concerned about the direction of our country.Unfortunately, this is not the first time America has needed its Winter Soldiers, in 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.
Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam.
Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into an increasingly bloody occupation. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.
Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.
Check out the IVAW website for more information, and definitely pass it on to anyone you know who is a veteran or is currently serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
STOLPERSTEINE - intervention in germany
Posted January 29, 2008 by mary_tremonte in Art & Politics
I found these engraved brass cobblestones on sidewalks throughout Cologne, Germany, when I lived there a few years ago. The stones are memorials to residents of buildings that were displaced during World War II to concentration camps. I saw the artist responsible for this intervention, Gunter Demnig, speak at our infoshop back in 2001. The name of the project, Stolpersteine, translates to "stumbling stones." Demnig has by now installed more than 12,000 stones in roughly 270 German towns and cities since 1996. This piece, in its subtlety and intimacy with everyday behavior, brings the sometimes abstract death and horror of the Holocaust to the concrete reality of the individuals who were destroyed.
For more information, there is a great article in Smithsonian magazine that you can check out here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/stolpersteine.html
Powerful Iraq War Performance
Posted January 29, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
If you've only got 3 minutes to look at the internet today, definitely check out this video of a performance that the arts group triiibe did at the January 27th, 2007 demo in Washington, DC against the war in Iraq. Yes, it's a year old, put it is well worth it! I could say a lot, but I think it is just better to go to www.triiibe.com and click the top button labeled "movie." They've been doing similar performances in other locations as well, here is a video from one at Boston Common.
Call for Mural Show
Posted January 25, 2008 by jmacphee in Calls for Art
This just came through the inbox from the Wouter Osterholt en Elke Uitentuis in the Netherlands, seems like a cool project:
Speaking Through Walls
We're looking for people that can help us finding political/revolutionary murals for a project called 'Speaking Through Walls' that will be presented during the art exhibition 'Ground', September 2008 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
The murals can be made by professionals, amateurs, protest groups, schools, government, children, etc. For us it's more important to find murals that tell a story about situations of social injustice within your county than the esthetic beauty of the painting. Do you know any murals in your surrounding that would fit within our project and would you like to help us out? Please contact us and give us as much information about it as possible.
CRAFTING PROTEST!
Posted January 23, 2008 by meredith_stern in Art & Politics
Crafting Protest
http://www.newschool.edu/eventDetail.aspx?id=13844
01/26/2008 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Many contemporary artists are using craft to make diverse and timely political statements. Because creating crafts is so often social and communal, they can play a vital role in the public sphere. The speakers examine the role of craft in forming national identities, especially in times of political turmoil or war; notions of patriotism; feminism and the domestic sphere; and unconventional economic models. Five artists will present projects and discuss their work. By linking the act of production and handmaking in the public realm to ideological issues of agency, participants ask how art makes political subjects. Panelists include Liz Collins, artist/designer; Sabrina Gschwandtner, artist/curator; Cat Mazza, artist/activist; and Allison Smith, visual artist. Moderator: Julia Bryan-Wilson, art historian and critic, University of California at Irvine.
This program is presented concurrently with the release of the February issue of Modern Painters magazine, within which a roundtable discussion by the panelists is featured. Participants of this program have also collaborated on a large-scale knit banner to be unveiled at the event. Following the panel discussion, audience members are invited to an informal craft reception in which panelists will present tactile examples of the materials, machinery, and processes they use in their work.
This lecture is co-sponsored by Modern Painters and Artists & Audiences Exchange, a public program of the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Location:
Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor
Admission:
$8; free to all students and New School faculty, staff, and alumni with ID
Box Office Information:
In person purchases can be made at The New School Box Office at 66 West 12th Street, main floor, Monday- Friday 1:00-7:00 p.m. The box office opens the first day of classes and closes after the last paid event of each semester.
For events scheduled during the summer term, the box office will open one hour before each event. During this period only, reservations and inquiries can be made by emailing boxoffice@newschool.edu or calling 212.229.5488.
FACADE PROJECT: Chicago Printmakers Collaborative
Posted January 16, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
I recently came across an amazing project in Chicago that has been ongoing since July of 2004. All of the windows of the top 3 floors of the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative building contain a photograph of US soldiers who have died in Iraq. The installation is incredibly powerful and reminds one of the terrible costs of war.
The Facade Project is created by Carrie Iverson with the support of the CPC and she writes, “The installation will be ongoing until the troops currently stationed in Iraq return home.”
To see the project in person visit the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative at 4642 N. Western Ave.
On line it can be viewed at: http://www.chicagoprintmakers.com/docs/gallery/facade.php
Interview with Lincoln Cushing
Posted January 11, 2008 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
A nice short interview with political poster archivist and artist Lincoln Cushing just popped up on the PLAZM magazine site. It's definitely worth the quick read, check it out here, and below is a short quote:
"It seems that you have been busy with research into Chinese political posters from the GPCR, and the survey of the archives of Inkworks Press, the worker-owned cooperative press in Berkeley. Are there any other historical poster movements that you've become interested in lately?
I’m interested in ALL of them lately, especially the connections between them and the gaps in scholarship. The sad fact is that we really know so little about these poster movements. Few people are aware of the numerous poster workshops that sprang up in the U.S. right after the 1970 National Guard murders at Kent State and Jackson State. Even “iconic” poster history is barely scratched – who knows that the art students who made the Paris 1968 posters were, in fact, screenprinting for the first time? They hadn’t been taught this technique in school, but it was the right medium for the moment. I didn’t know this until a colleague, Gene Marie Tempest, conducted some interviews with participants in 2007."
Lincoln also has his on site, Docs Populi, which has a huge collection of information and images on the history of political graphics, from Chinese and Cuban posters, to the cultural production of the labor movement, to the history of the use of the graphic fist in US political movements.
Swoon/Stain/Poloroid Kid Video
Posted January 10, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
A very cool little video about these kids recent show in Paris, check it out here.
Alternatives to Spray Paint: Try Mud Stencils!
Posted December 29, 2007 by nicolas_lampert in Street Art & Graffiti
Milwaukee-based artist Jesse Graves created a number of mud stencils that he recently put up on sidewalks and the sides of buildings. Below is his “how-to-guide” and a link to his website with more images.
To avoid using toxic spray paint, I found a way to make mud stencils. Here is how you do it.
Materials: Mylar, X-Acto knife, tape, mud, sponge.
1. Design your stencil. Draw your stencil the size you want it, or design it on a computer and print it. Make sure you do not have islands (parts of an image that will fall out if you cut around them, like the middle of an O.) If you are using text, use a stencil font. If are using a computer print your design the size you want the stencil to be. If it is larger then 8X10 cut it apart in photo shop and print it in pieces, or enlarge it at a local copy store.
2. Cut it. Tape your design behind or in front of the transparent Mylar. Mylar is the same stuff used as transparencies for projectors, you can find a roll of it at art stores. Use the X-Acto knife to cut your deign out of the Mylar.
3. Get Mud. Find or make some mud. I mixed soil and water then beat it with a whisk. Make sure your mud is not watery. It should be about the same consistency as peanut butter.
4. Post it. Tape the stencil to whatever you want it on, it works on sidewalks or walls. If parts of the Mylar roll up put some tape under it. Then use the sponge to dab the mud on your stencil. Do not press too hard because if you squeeze muddy water out of the sponge it may sneak under the stencil.
5. Enjoy. Remove the tape on the outside of the stencil. Carefully remove the Mylar, and enjoy you non-toxic mud stencil.
This is still an experimental process. Post your comments, ideas, and pictures at http://mudstencils.wordpress.com/
Making Our Own Art Histories
Posted December 17, 2007 by jmacphee in Calls for Art
This just landed in our inbox:
The Southern California Library, in South L.A. will be hosting Making Our Own Art Histories, a series of art exhibitions as an effort to make contemporary art accessible in a community where there are very few galleries or contemporary art museums. The first art exhibition in this series begins with Word on the Street, opening in January of 2008. In the same way that SCL uses history to advance social justice while preserving the histories of communities in struggle for justice and making our own histories, artists and activists have created works to educate, organize and inspire people towards action for justice. Often these creative works are not always seen in galleries or museums, they are in the street. This small exhibition will focus on showing works that have been created and used for political, spiritual, social and environmental justice campaigns, actions and interventions. Works that we are especially looking for are those that have been put out on the street, guerilla style, in the effort to educate the public as well as to incite action and critical thought. Such works may include silkscreen posters, printed media, stencils, stickers, flyers, and photos of graffiti and guerilla street art.
If you are interested in participating in this exhibition, please contact Joy at 323.687.6743 or majikalnature [at] gmail.com before Jan. 1st!
8th Annual Chicago Anarchist Film Fest
Posted December 17, 2007 by jmacphee in Calls for Art
For the 8th year, the Chicago Anarchist Film Fest is seeking un- and under-distributed films and videos to include in next years film fest, which will be happening April 25-27th, 2008. This is the same weekend as the Finding Our Roots anarchist conference in Chicago.
The Film Festival will present a sample of films from mainstream sources, rediscovered classics and the works of filmmakers engaged in social change with an anarchist vision. Along with submissions of actual work, they are also looking for "suggestions for titles that may inadvertently allow anarchy to seep through the cracks of the status quo. Movie collage, music videos and trailers for works-in-progress will also be considered."
Submission guidelines can be found here, and an entry form here.
A Response to OBEY Plagiarist
Posted December 14, 2007 by jmacphee in In the News
It's taken me a long time to get this together, but I wanted to throw my ideas into the discussion around the artwork/plagiarism of Shepard Fairey that has been spinning around the web. For those that might not know, Shepard Fairey is the creator of the "Andre the Giant has a Posse" sticker campaign, which became a long running series of "Obey Giant" posters. Mark Vallen, a Los Angeles-based artist (who created some of my favorite street posters from the early LA punk scene), recently published a long critique of Fairey on his blog, Art For A Change. What I'm writing here directly relates to Mark's piece, so if you haven't read it, give it a look here.
Mark's write-up came out of a long discussion that has been going on between a number of politically-motivated artists and archivists about Fairey's work. Throughout the whole process of discussion it has seemed clear that we have been coming from parallel but divergent positions, with different parts of the larger issues at hand being more or less important to each of us. Mark is clearly concerned with social and political potentials of ART, and believes Fairey's wholesale "theft" of historical images cheapens the potential for art to make change in the world. Lincoln Cushing, an artist, archivist and author who has been involved in the discussions, is very concerned with how plagiarism hurts efforts to empower our communities with their own revolutionary art history. However, he also supports strategic use of existing copyright law, and recently got Fairey to pay retroactive royalties on a t-shirt with Cuban artwork appropriated without credit. Favianna Rodriguez, also involved, has been particularly frustrated with Fairey's use of and profiting off of the art of people of color, and the images of the struggles of people of color, while he has had to pay none of the costs for having to live as a person of color in this society or world.
"Reclaiming the F Word" Call for Entries!
Posted December 11, 2007 by meredith_stern in Calls for Art
Here is a call for entries from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, located in Los Angeles, California.
"Reclaiming the F Word" Submissions Deadline: December 15, 2007
This show will open March 2008 at the Art Galleries, California State University, Northridge.
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) is asking artists,
organizations, and activists for poster submissions for our upcoming exhibition
entitled Reclaiming the “F” Word--Posters on International Feminism. This
exhibition will feature posters about the ongoing struggle for women’s rights
showing us that feminism must not be treated like a dirty word.
http://www.politicalgraphics.org/pdf/Call%20for%20F%20Posters.pdf
Bestiary Calendars
Posted December 8, 2007 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I guess it's definitely calendar season. An old friend from Chicago (who now lives in Puerto Rico), Dave Buchen, has been hand printing these great animal linoleum cut calendars every year for the past 10 years or so. The 2008 one looks great! You can check it out here, and also find out how to order one. And to the right here are a couple of the months to give you an idea (you can see the rest on his site.)
Liberation Ink T-Shirts
Posted December 8, 2007 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
We just got an email from our Bay Area friends Liberation Ink. They are selling some of the best political t-shirts I've ever seen, and a chunk of the money goes to political and activist organizations they are working directly with. Definitely check them out!
The image to the right is the Loteria shirt design by Mariana Viturro.
Call for Submissions! War in Iraq!
Posted December 7, 2007 by meredith_stern in Calls for Art
Call for Entries: Deadline January 12, 2008
"Experiencing the War in Iraq"
An Artist Curated, Multi-Media Exhibit of Art about the War in Iraq
(Following text is copied from the call for entries):
What does it mean to experience this war firsthand,
in combat, or as an Iraqi civilian? What does it mean to
experience it from a distance, or on television? How can we
in America reconnect to the reality of war? Are there shared
visions of peace despite cultural and religious differences? The
work will be selected on artistic merit and look to include as
many perspectives as possible, beyond politics.
Check out more details and download a submission form at the following link:
http://reconnectus.org/downloads/ReconnectUS_CFE_dataset_0001.pdf
Abu Ghraib Art Contest?
Posted December 7, 2007 by jmacphee in In the News
As if the war in Iraq wasn't surreal and fucked up enough already (with televised "victory" events before the real war even started, mass public spectacles like the tearing down of Saddam's statue and the freeing of Jessica Lynch which were completed fabricated by the US Military, and regular "We're Winning" announcements when it is painfully clear that the largest, most trained and well equipped military in the world is generally unable to do much of anything in the face of a ragtag Iraqi resistance with little or no comparable weaponry or training), Abu Ghraib, home of the famous "thumbs up, we've got you naked and on a dog leash" torture and photos is now home to a strange US Army PR stunt, an art contest!!!
I shit you not, we are now supposed to think warmly about how well we treat our prisoners in Iraq because we let them paint the outside of their torture chambers! Awesome! This has to be one of the strangest public art projects of all time....Here's the lead paragraph in the Army press release come news story:
"Concrete bunkers, strategically placed within the confines of Abu Ghraib prison for detainee protection, turned into works of art when juvenile detainees were offered the challenge to paint them in the form of a contest."
You can read the rest here. Does anyone else think this is totally bonkers?
Borf Print to Support Daniel McGowan
Posted December 6, 2007 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
Washington, DC troublemaker BORF is back, with a great 5 color silkscreen print to help support Daniel McGowan, one of the activists imprisoned in the recent US government round-up of environmental activists. BORF and friends at the Brian McKenzie Infoshop in DC have produced the print and are working with us here at Justseeds to get it out into the world. The print is available here, but we only have 40 copies (of an edition of 50) and these are going to move fast.
For more info on McGowan, go here.
For more info on Borf, go here.
Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History
Posted December 4, 2007 by meredith_stern in Events
Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History
Traveling Exhibit! Arriving in New York at CUNY Graduate Center
Opens: December 10th, 6:30 - Recital Hall
To read the article in it's entirety: http://www.friendlyagitate.net/category/art/
This text lifted directly from their website:
The SDS Comic Show, a traveling exhibit drawing upon the book Students for a Democratic Society: a Graphic History, will be open at the CUNY Graduate Center in December. Come see the exhibit and join us for a book signing and panel discussion for Students for a Democratic Society: a Graphic History, scripted by Harvey Pekar and others and edited by Paul Buhle, editor of the 1960s SDS magazine Radical America. Harvey Pekar, real-life star of the award-winning film and the book series American Splendor (and sometime Letterman Show guest), will deliver a talk on comics and politics, followed by a panel including Buhle, former SDS-NY regional officer, Weatherman Jeff Jones, and members of the New SDS.
Howling Mob Society Strikes Pittsburgh
Posted December 2, 2007 by jmacphee in In the News
Justseeds is having its first annual meeting and retreat in Pittsburgh this weekend! And while we're here we ran into some amazing political street art. The Howling Mob Society has installed a series of historical markers correcting the public perception of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, which was one of the most lively and violent labor uprising in the history of the US. Here's who they are (from their website):
"The Howling Mob Society (HMS) is a collaboration of artists, activists and historians committed to unearthing stories neglected by mainstream history. HMS brings increased visibility to the radical history of Pittsburgh, PA through grassroots artistic practice. Our current focus is The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, a national uprising that saw some of its most dramatic moments in Pittsburgh."
Defend the SF8
Posted November 26, 2007 by jmacphee in Events
This friday in New York City there is a benefit event in support of the San Francisco 8. The SF8 are eight former Black Panther Party members and active supporters (now ages 56 to 72) who were arrested last January on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Some of these men faced virtually identical charges almost 35 years ago—charges that were dropped after it was revealed that police torture had extracted the “confessions” used to justify the case.
Now the case is back on, based on the same flawed evidence. The judge has released the 6 bail-eligible defendants on bond, and I was able to see them speak in San Francisco a couple months ago at a benefit event put on for them by Freedom Archives and the San Francisco Print Collective that was also a book release event for Emory Douglas. The SF8 were incredibly humorous, humble, thoughtful and moving to a man, I was very impressed.
Of course I was not able to meet the 2 defendants who are not eligible for bail. They are political prisoners Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim. Both have already served more than 34 years in New York state prisons. This new case charges them again with actions for which they are already serving time.
Former Black Panther Minister of Information and propagandist Emory Douglas is one of many cultural workers that has done a lot to support the SF8. He has created a special poster to raise funds for them, it is intense (and it is the top image in this post). You can buy a silkscreened or offset printed version here and support the struggle.
WRAP Posters
Posted November 25, 2007 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
WRAP (The Western Regional Advocacy Project) is a homelessness advocacy group that has realized the power art has in spreading a message. For the past year or so they have been working closely with San Francisco printmaker Art Hazelwood to develop a series of mass-produced posters to illustrate the main points in their Without Housing campaign. Four Bay Area artists (Ed Gould, Art Hazelwood, Claude Moller & Jos Sances) created poster designs which are now available from WRAP. You can see the posters and order them here. To learn more about WRAP go here. And they are hoping to work with more artists in the future, so if you are interested, contact Art Hazelwood.
An Atlas Exhibit & Book Launch
Posted November 24, 2007 by jmacphee in Events
Good friends Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat have been hard at work on a really great project called An Atlas of Radical Cartography. A collection of maps and essays illustrating the intersections of geography, mapping, politics and activism, it is finally coming out! Beyond being politically engaging, it is an amazing book object, a slip case that contains a book of essays and 10 actual full-size fold-out maps dealing with such issues as extraordinary rendition/torture planes, garbage and waste removal, water pathways, borders and surveillance cameras.
Here's a couple shots of the maps:
They will be on display in Chicago starting this weekend:
An Atlas
November 27 2007 – January 19, 2008
Gallery 400, University of Illinois, Chicago
OPENING RECEPTION and book launch: Wednesday, November 28, 5-8pm
Gallery talk @ 6:30pm
An Architektur
the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP)
Ashley Hunt
Institute for Applied Autonomy with Site-R
Invisible-5
Pedro Lasch
Lize Mogel
Trevor Paglen & John Emerson
Brooke Singer
the Speculators of AREA Chicago
Jane Tsong
Unnayan
Organized by Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat
An Atlas is a traveling exhibition of artists working with “radical cartography”—a practice that uses maps and mapping to promote social change. The participating artists, architects, and collectives take on issues from globalization to garbage and explore the map’s role as a political agent. The exhibition and accompanying publication contribute to a growing cultural movement that cuts across boundaries of art, cartography, geography, and activism.
The companion publication, An Atlas of Radical Cartography (Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Press, 2007) will be available for purchase at the gallery, and available online as of December 1.
Click here for more information and Chicago-area lecture schedule.
And finally there will a New York City book launch at Bluestockings Books on 172 Allen St. on December 6th.
The Production Unit's The Long Distance Runner
Posted November 19, 2007 by jmacphee in Events
The Celebrate People's History posters are included in a new exhibition organized by The Production Unit called The Long Distance Runner. The show is at Den Frie Udstillingsbygning in Copenhagen, Denmark. If you are in Denmark, definitely check it out, they are deeply influenced by one of my favorite filmmakers, Peter Watkins.
Here's some info on the show from the curators:
The Production Unit is a network of artists from Sweden and Denmark working with narrative experiments, the construction of history and media critique. The exhibition at Den Frie Udstillingsbygning will be the first public presentation of their archive THE The Long Distance Runner, which includes both collaborative and individual projects as well as works by a number of other international artists. The show is part of Den Frie Udstillingsbygning’s focus on self-organisation and collectivism and gives an example of how a group of younger artists works collaboratively across languages and nationalities. The artists of The Production Unit are Petra Bauer, Nanna Debois Buhl, Kajsa Dahlberg, Sara Jordenö, Conny Karlsson, Runo Lagomarsino and Ditte Lyngkjær Pedersen.
The Long Distance Runner is comprised of projects, which in various ways discuss current political and cultural questions as well as historical events. The different parts constitute a series of discussions related to communities and publics with emphasis on questions concerning nationality, identity and language. The material varies in form covering video installations, poster projects, sound-based work, photography and various publications produced by the members of the group and artists as Josh MacPhee, Carlos Motta, Jenny Perlin, Hito Steyerl and Ylva Westerlund.
A central part of the presentation of The Long Distance Runner is Peter Watkins film La Commune from 1999. Through its’ controversial form the film challenges prevailing notions of documentary film experimenting with an unconventional way of discussing the historical event of the Paris Commune in 1871 and the relationship between subject, community and revolutionary action.
The exhibition is open daily from 10am to 5pm Thursday 10am to 9pm
Free guided tours Saturday and Sunday at 3pm
Den Frie Udstillingsbygning
Oslo Plads
DK-2100 København Ø
Tlf. +45 3312 2803
www.denfrie.dk
The Coffee Calendar
Posted November 16, 2007 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Ricardo Levins Morales, one of the main artists and organizers behind the Northland Poster Collective in Minneapolis has just released a great new collection of work in the form of a calendar. The 2008 Coffee Calendar is a wall calendar, a full color collection of Ricardo's art, and an introduction to the history, culture and politics of coffee. He has created an completely new body of art work around coffee and done a huge amount of historical investigation into the politics of coffee production. The calendar can be seen in all its glory here, as well as a list of online stores that carry it. The calendar is also union printed using high quality recycled paper and soy-based ink.
Art for a Democratic Society
Posted November 13, 2007 by jmacphee in Calls for Art
Excited to see this in my inbox, the crew over at Not My Government are trying to put together a Bay Area project similar to the Street Art Workers:
In collaboration with Not My Government, Art for a Democratic Society announces an open call to all visual artists in the Bay Area interested in creating a social/political poster zine. Our goal is to get ten different artists to make one poster each, with the final product being ten 18"x24" posters, probably printed one color on newsprint.
Once we have the crew of artists together, we will all collectively decide the theme of the poster zine. Possible themes include: health care, war, police brutality, opposing the "new Jim Crow," etc. The process of poster design and printing can be done collectively or individually. A skill-share will be organized to help any or all of the artists involved in the project.
If interested please contact us at:
art4democraticsociety [at] earthlink.net
Please tell us your name, email, phone number, what days and times you would be available to meet, and a little about yourself - your background, interests, skills, etc. Artists at any level of experience are welcome.
Europe Communique #1: YNKB
Posted November 12, 2007 by icky in Art & Politics
Our hosts, Finn and Kiersten, in Copenhagen ran a great little space called YNKB. Josh gave a talk/slideshow there on political printmaking. Located in the diverse working class Outer Northern Bridge neighborhood, it's a pretty little storefront, fairly neutral with white walls and a bookshelf alongside one wall with their publications.
From Brett Bloom's article in the book Realizing the Impossible:
" YNKB (Ydre Norrebro Kultur Bureau [Outer Northern Bridge Culture Bureau])is a space for meetings, film screenings, art projects, informal symposia and campaigns. YNKB has published numerous small books related to their programming, research and initiatives."
The publications document current projects as well as past ones. Finn and Kiersten are of a generation older then Josh and I (they have grandkids), they were inspiring to me in their current projects (the YNKB itself, but also a video project about Palestine they produced for the local pirate TV that we saw at a contemporary art museum, work about immigrants in northern Denmark, and work to change an old rail terminal into a public cultural space. Talking with them and reading their publications it was also inspiring to see their past projects, to watch the trajectory of two political/politicized artists, to see how they've changed and stayed engaged, curious and playful (high compliments from me).
So amongst the older project documented (off the top of my head): a book of Finn's photos of Copenhagen in 1968, mostly depopulated street shots, after being in Copenhagen the sites pictured were both familiar and foreign, maybe most striking in the lack of visible signs of global capital and youth culture.
Their work 'rag-picking' (a term that I think has more resonance as a political act in Denmark (maybe kind of Tolstoyan?)), collecting clothes and fabrics for revolutionary groups in Africa in the 1970s.
Another zine documented the adventure playgrounds in Copenhagen, a utopian project for kids, where the kids created their own spaces to play...
And as mentioned above their work trying to make a cultural space in an abandoned (an now demolished) rail-freight exchange in Copenhagen. They worked on this project on a few levels and have two publications documenting this, one slightly more official showing architects plans for how it could work, interviews with neighborhood residents, local artists etc... and the second publication documenting their work putting up giant speech bubbles on the building itself with proposals of what could be done there.
Josh's talk at YNKB went well in that people responded well to it and seemed engaged but also we learned some things as well from the folks there. YNKB has a website with a lot of documentation and information and if you're in Copenhagen look for their events!
-Icky
Breakdown's Nuclear Poster Series
Posted November 9, 2007 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Australian activist artists and designers extraordinaire Breakdown Press (Tom Civil & Lou Smith) have just released their 3rd political poster series, this one around nuclear power and waste. I was lucky enough to have one of my designs chosen, along with 16 other artists and designers. Breakdown prints thousands of newsprint booklets of their posters (similar to the Street Art Workers project) and then distroes them world-wide, as well as pastes them up on the streets. Check out Breakdown Press, and the new poster set here.
For those in Melbourne, check out the launch party on Tuesday November 13th at The Artery, 87-89 Moor St Fitzroy, from 6pm-8pm.
Graffiti in Iraq
Posted November 9, 2007 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
My friend Bettina recently sent me this list of links to stories and images of graffiti in Baghdad. Most of them are old, back from the beginning of the war when the graffiti was being heralded as a sign of "new found freedom." It's interesting to go back and re-read these, and also look at the youtube videos of more more recent graffiti:
National Public Radio
Christian Science Monitor
Slate
YouTube 1
YouTube 2
Justseeds featured on RLTE Site
Posted November 7, 2007 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Art from the Justseeds Coop is featured this month on the website Rejected Letters to the Editor. An interesting project, RLTE is a collection of letters to the editor, op-ed pieces, and editorial cartoons that have been submitted and rejected by the press. The goal is to publish this material in order to illustrate a much broader spectrum of ideas than we get in the mainstream news. The editors of the site can explain it best themselves:
"In the press, “Letters to the Editor” and “op-ed” pages silently assert that journalism includes a place for the voice of the public. But inconvenient truths are too often absent. Visionary thoughts are too rarely heard. Proposals for democratic social change and improvement are, for the most part, out of sight. Rejected Letters to the Editor, an independent online magazine, is designed to provide an important, if only partial, corrective. It is available to readers at no cost.
Our goal at Rejected Letters to the Editor is to expand the visible spectrum of ideas. To publish letters, etc., that will broaden public discussion beyond the boundaries set by the gatekeepers of our mental environment. We hold to the democratic conviction that public opinion must be educated by, and conversant with, the course of human events, and we will seek to publish work that allows essential perspectives, presently unacknowledged by respected newspapers, to see the light of day."
So there you have it, check out the site, check out our art, and dig up those letters that never got published and send them in.
Europe Communique #5: Berlin
Posted October 29, 2007 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Josh and I spent a short 4 days in Berlin. We went to this beautiful city primarily to look at the poster collection at the Papier Tiger Archiv. Papier Tiger is a political archive started in the early 80s, combining collections and papers from several squats and autonomous social movements. It settled in a building in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin. As we walked down the block to find Papier Tiger, there was one building completely covered in ivy and vines, this was obviously our spot. It was nice to visit an archive that originated out of the social/political movement and still kept strong symbiotic ties to it. It's in a few tall cozy rooms with floor to ceiling bookshelves with organizational folders categorized by large topics and sub-categorized down to the very specific (ie- feminism, 80s, Rote Zora group, documents). The staff was helpful and friendly (a nice change) and the place is open to browsing or research.
As I said Josh and I went to look at the posters and they are housed in a stack of flat files, also organized by movements (ie-squatting West Berlin, squatting east Berlin, feminism, int'l. solidarity S. America). A lot of posters and it was nice to be able to pull out a whole stack and dig through them. (Many of the posters have been cataloged in a recent book called: "vorwärts bis zum nieder mit: 30 Jahre Plakate unkontrollierter Bewegungen"). Papier Tiger is open to the public two days a week (Monday & Thursday from 2:30-6 PM, and they have a women's day on Friday. They are located at 25 Cuvrystrasse in Kreuzberg. for more info: http://archivtiger.de/).
On our way to the archive Josh and I wandered by a bookshop, Josh wanted to go in, I was a little hesitant as we both had our giant bags with us and that place looked crowded, thin rows between bookshelves but also giant piles of books all over the place. We did go in to Prometheus Antiquariat (Wrangelstraße 48, also in Kreuzberg), and it was a fortuitous piece of dumb luck, as it specializes in lefty books and also in art books, posters and prints. Generally the books in stacks off the floor weren't for sale and the books on the shelves were, and after an initial bit of skepticism the owner warmed up to us and gave us an amazing tour of collections in his shop. The prices were reasonable and we both walked out with a pile of books that was a fraction of the amount we would have gotten if we didn't have to lug around a bunch of shit in already over-burdened bags (and backs!).
Berlin (I think) is a beautiful city that we had a nice time walking around and exploring. As opposed to other cities we went to it seemed to spend very little on graffiti abatement so there was a ton of stencils and tags with a wide range in quality and interest (as expected). Also some pretty grand permission pieces, building sized murals that were pretty fucked up and psychedelic looking. I was particularly entranced by the sets of courtyards in buildings that had bike shops and children's theaters and playgrounds and gardens. Also the crows in Berlin were different then any other crows I've seen, larger and they had a little gray vest around their wings and heads. Quite handsome!
We went to the offices of image-shift and met founder Sandy Kaltenborn. Image-shift is a graphic design firm that has done work for social movements in Germany, work that is really striking and engaging. Applying in some ways the ideas of revolutionary creativity to graphic work, so the images are engaged are rigorous in ways that a lot of didactic work never is. We spent an afternoon discussing political graphics with Sandy and looking over a lot of the work he's done, and it was enlightening, critical and fun. Josh and I hope to translate some of his writing about political graphics into English and also to interview for a future book project.
We also hung out with two of the folks from Pony Pedro in their beautiful workshop space. Pony Pedro works mostly in silk-screen posters, but figures out ways to make them engage in the city, community and in public space in interventions that are both clever and gentle (sorry for the run-on sentence). 
We looked through a pile of their work including a recent book/poster project where kids from the primarily immigrant neighborhood that they work in went out and took pictures and then Pony Pedro blew up the images and made giant beautiful half-tone posters and a very handsome bound book. This is just the tip of the iceberg with their projects, well worth checking out, so check it: www.pony-pedro.de
The Pony Pedro-ers sent us up to the 'world famous Fleirscherei' which was a store front shop and silk-screen workshop up by where we were staying. Home of the 'No style crew fuckers' this was total art fuck mess of space (in the best way), they had cool prints, t shirts and homemade books for sale (including an awesome black book of berlin street artists, all silk-screened, and the variety and style in it was really cool and diverse). They were nice and let us peek around their extensive and cavernous back rooms and printing areas. Fleischerei: Torstrasse 116 (in the Mitte, right by the Rosenthaler Platz U-bahn stop)
OK, I think that's all from Berlin, more communiques coming soon!
-Icky
Europe Communique #4: Christiania
Posted October 29, 2007 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
The main reason I had originally wanted to travel to Copenhagen was to visit Christiania, the squatted former military barracks which now make up a mini-town on the edge of the official city. Originally squatted in 1973, Christiania has had a long and interesting history, some of which you can read about here. On our final day in Copenhagen we got over there, and it was interesting if somewhat underwhelming, which isn't that surprising since we were being total tourists. I guess I'm not sure what I expected; being from the US where squatting is so marginalized, and at best is usually a single run-down building in a extremely poor part of town, the idea of an entirely squatted village in one of the most expensive cities in Europe was an exciting prospect. It was cool, they have a large amount of land along the water, adn have built all kinds of interesting and strange living structures. There are no cars allowed in most of the area, and they have built a really nice bike factory their called Christiania Bikes, that make these cool bikes with huge carrier carts attached to the front. They made Icky drool, and if it had been easy to get one back to States, he would of schemed a way to get one.
Their is a fair amount of large and permanent architecture there, most of it covered in graffiti, both by local crews and artists from all over Europe. Much of it incorporates the 3 yellow circles of a red background which is the logo and flag of Christiania. There is also a huge amount of impromptu tents and yerts, which gives a large chunk of the place the feeling of a squatter caravan or camp site. The center of the village is an area called pusher street, which had large scale signs warning people to not take photos and a bunch of younger kids trying to sell hash to everyone. Because of Christiania's long-running autonomy from the larger city it seems drugs are pseudo-legalized here, but it is unclear how the commercial drug economy fuses with the utopian vision the area was founded on.
We stumbled upon a small cafe which had a display of old Christiana graphics and posters, and was selling reproductions of a lot of the posters. The guy running the place was extremely friendly, and seemed surprised to here that we didn't like George Bush, and even more surprised that I had little hope that the next president would be any better. I suppose it makes sense that the rest of the world follows US politics since it will likely affect their lives, but it was strange having a conversation about the US democratic presidential candidates with a 50 year old squatter in Denmark.
Europe Communique #3: MOPP
Posted October 28, 2007 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
While in Århus we were lucky enough to meet Abdul and Mia, both photographers from Capetown, South Africa. They were excited about the Justseeds project, and told us about what they are working on Capetown, a project called MOPP-Month of Peoples Photography, which sounds really great. Apparently the photography scene in South Africa is still fairly segregated, particularly along class and race lines, where both photographers and their subjects need to be very privileged in order to be exhibited within most of the gallery system. MOPP rebels against that and has been doing what they call street photography, which is working with lots of people to just document their lives around Capetown and then hold guerilla art shows in the street or creative places like parking garages. It sounds like their photo actions are some of the few non-commercial oriented street art activities in the city. We had a great conversation and it definitely made me want to visit Capetown at some point.
Europe Communique #2: Rum46
Posted October 28, 2007 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
We took a day trip to Århus (the 2nd largest city in Denmark, but still fairly small) thanks to Barbara and the great folks of Rum46, an artist group and space there. Rum46 is a group of 9 artists that originally came out of a university context but are now independent. First we went on a wild goose chase looking for the Danish Poster Museum, which has a large web presence, but seems to not have a stable physical space. We eventually found the location of their current exhibit, which was buried in the far reaches of the Danish Old City, a bizarre tourist attraction and reconstruction of a 15th or 16th century Danish town! The exhibition was on the posters of Danish industry, so basically a history of advertising. Some of the older posters were extremely well designed and printed, like a beautiful one for an old wall paper factory which had giant sheets of wallpaper emitting from the factory smokestacks. Turns out that like most Western countries, the Danish have their own long tradition of racist and colonial advertising, with a pile of orientalist products and coffee and foodstuffs hiding behind smiling African faces. On the flip side there were some great posters for bicycle and windmill production that you would never see in the States.
After that excursion we went to the Rum46 space, which was reminiscent of YNKB in Copenhagen. A smallish, but clean and open, front room for discussions, presentations and exhibitions, then a second room with desks and workspace for the artists involved, and then a back room with a small kitchen, a table to eat or driink coffee at, etc. About 20 people showed up and I gave a short talk on the history and ideas behind the Celebrate People's History Poster Series, we had a short discussion and break, then people wanted to hear more, so I gave another short presentation, this one on the history of propaganda, state control of public space, and grassroots resistance to that control via different forms of street art actions. Rum46 have been working both collaboratively and individually in public space, so it led to a good conversation, and they shared with us some of the materials they've been producing, including a postcard set of a great series of billboards they recently produced and installed.
Århus was also not immune to the struggle around Ungdomshuset, and the streets were painted with a fair number of 69s. We also found the strangest Communist bookstore we've ever seen (even though it was closed and we could only peek through the window); it appeared to be largely a music shop, with a ton of folk and classical music, and then the walls were covered with framed abstract expressionist art. After the talk Barbara, Sixten, Icky and I all went out for a delicious meal and we got to learn more about the political and art scenes in Denmark.
The Graphic Imperative
Posted October 23, 2007 by jmacphee in Events
For anyone in Los Angeles or planning to visit over the next couple months, it's well worth a trip to check out this political graphics exhibit:
THE GRAPHIC IMPERATIVE: International Posters for Peace, Social Justice & the Environment, 1965 to 2005
at the Luckman Gallery at Cal State L.A., October 27 – December 15, 2007
I got to see the show at Mass Art in Boston, and there is a lot of really great work that would otherwise be difficult to see, including posters by Tom Ungerer, Klaus Staeck, Ester Hernandez, the Guerilla Girls, Gran Fury, Felix Beltran and Lex Drewinski. I was excited to see all of the material together and think about half of the work is extremely strong. I was disappointed by the lack of context for the work, as much it comes from very specific political contexts but little of that is explained in the exhibition. By stripping the work from it's context, the exhibition sometimes feels simply like a shopping mall for designers to pick up the next hip, "authentic" style. It seems like some of that might be corrected with the discussion series they've planned to go along with the exhibit.
Europe Communique #1: Ungdomshuset
Posted October 18, 2007 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Icky and I are traveling around Europe and have been meeting with some great people and learning about some amazing art and activist projects. Here's our first missive about a struggle going on in Copenhagen:
While in Copenhagen we learned about a huge struggle going on now around the Ungdomshuset, which was the "youth house," a squatted community center for mostly punk and anarchist kids. As far as we understand, the city sold the building to a religious group who evicted them, which led to days of rioting back in the spring. Since they have torn the whole building down and are now trying to sell the land.
The location of the former squat is a sad blank spot in the landscape now, with both the building and the garden that were in the back completely destroyed and removed. The address of the building was 69 Jagtvej in the Nørrebro neighborhood, and now the entire city (and I mean the ENTIRE city) is covered with graffiti that says "69." The memory of Ungdomshuset is everywhere you look.
The kids came up with a plan to squat another building, and publicly advertised the date, time and place they would do it for months, having huge build up events almost every week, demonstrations of 5000 kids taking over different streets. One of the big things we noticed was that each event was advertised with tons of large scale posters, most full color and amazingly designed.
Finally last week came the announced day and something like 15,000 kids came from all over the country and occupied the building, and just sat down and refused to leave. It took the police hours to drag them out and after they finally did, the chief of police said the police would no longer fight the kids or deal with the kids, and it was a problem for the politicians, and they needed to solve it...so the movement forced a split between the cops and government, which seems pretty interesting...
Here is the Ungdomshushet website in English.
Paper Politics
Posted October 18, 2007 by jmacphee in Events
October 18 – November 17
Crossman Gallery
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Opening remarks by exhibiting artist Colin Matthes and reception: October 18th from 5-7 pm
Here's what the gallery has to say about the show:
This exhibit has been organized by Josh MacPhee and will showcase print art that uses themes of social justice and global equity to engage community members in political conversation. The exhibit has been displayed in other venues across the country, but will be augmented by regional artists for the exhibit here. Because of its accessibility and reproducibility, activists have long used print art as a communication tool in struggles for freedom and social equality. The bold graphic qualities made possible by printmaking techniques are used to communicate with and educate broad audiences all over the world.
The hand-printed works in the show speak of matters that are vital to understanding the world today. Some of the subjects include opposition to war, solidarity with struggles around the world, destruction of the environment, corporate control, police brutality, homelessness, and gender inequalities.
Printing Against the Grain
Posted October 9, 2007 by jmacphee in Events
Icky and Josh from Justseeds are heading to Europe, and have some events planned...If you happen to be in Copenhagen:
presentation in YNKB
LØRDAG 13 OKTOBER KL. 15/Saturday October 13, 2007, 3 pm:
Josh MacPhee
PRINTING AGAINST THE GRAIN
Activist printmaking from 1960s to now
In 1960’s, just as Andy Warhol was reinventing silkscreening as a fine art tool, printmaking was also being reinvented elsewhere for very different purposes. Activists, organizers, revolutionaries and political artists were using silkscreening, stencils, and block prints to create cheap, eye catching and easy to distribute political posters.
From French students and workers in 1968 to Chicano community workshops in the late 60’s to Italian and German Autonomists in the 70’s to Act Up in the 80’s, printmaking has taken a sweeping democratic turn in the last 40 years. This presentation shows over a hundred images and follows the political, social and aesthetic development of this activist printmaking.
Over There
Posted October 8, 2007 by jmacphee in Events
A new installation exhibition by Justseeds artist Colin Matthes and fellow-traveler Brandon Bauer:
Over There
Brandon Bauer & Colin Matthes
Brooks Barrow Gallery, Milwaukee, WI
October 1 through October 27th, 2007
Artist Reception: Saturday, October 13, 2007
This exhibition brings together the work of Colin Matthes and Brandon Bauer, two artists engaged in work dealing with topical subjects for over a decade. The work on display comes from Matthes’ ongoing series Everyday Transactions, and Bauer’s Soldier series. The exhibition also features a series of collaborative paintings and drawings.
Welcome!
Posted July 17, 2007 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Welcome to the new online home of Justseeds / Visual Resistance Cooperative! 13 artists from across the US, joined by NYC's Visual Resistance collective, have banded together to create this new site, merging the Justseeds store with the VR political art blog. Take a look around, tell us what you think! We're still working out the kinks, but in the next couple weeks we should everything sailing along smoothly!
Everyday Transactions- An IN:SITE Mural
Posted May 10, 2007 by in Art & Politics
Colin Matthes recently completed a mural for Milwaukee's IN:SITE temporary public art program. The mural is titled "Everyday Transactions: The Familiar Inconceivable". The mural draws upon elements of the everyday, and reflects much of what occurs- business, warfare, and leisure. Water plays an important role in this mural. Water simultaneously connects us and divides the space. With talk of global warming, tropical storms, and the increasing scarcity of water in poor countries we are asked to question our relationship to water, as well as our relationship to each other in the world around us.
detail views:
IN:SITE has been providing resources and opportunities to create temporary public art in Milwaukee since the fall of 2006. In that time a number of wonderful projects have been created such as:
“Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it's addressed to someone else.” by Chris Silva and Michael Genovese
“Super Subconscious” by Harvey Opgenorth and Nate Page
This most recent round of projects also includes:
•“Phyto Remedy” by Benjamin Martinkus
•“Through 30 Steps Backward” by Mike Genovese
•“Flight” by Darryl Jensen
•“Urban Radio Network” by Bridget Quinn and Jessica Vandevort
•“PARK(ing)” by Rosheen Styczinski
and many more...
For more information on the current round of IN:SITE projects, to view the archive of past projects, or to find out how to get involved in the program please visit the IN:SITE website at http://www.insitemilwaukee.org.
ASAR-O Street Art Exhibit
Posted April 25, 2007 by in Art & Politics
The opening of Resistencia Visual is this Thursday at ABC No Rio. The exhibit features street art by the collective ASAR-O from the Popular Movement in Oaxaca, Mexico.
This exhibit is made up of woodblock prints and stencils made by
ASAR-O (Oaxacan Assembly of Revolutionary Artists), a collective
involved in the popular movement APPO in Oaxaca, Mexico. ASAR-O
formed in October of 2006, respinding to the call of the APPO
(Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca) a diverse movement of
civil society in Southern Mexico. With the goal that "all sectors
will organize themselves to resist and unite in the struggle
against the tyranny of a government that represents the interests
of the wealthy..."
Come out to see an exciting glimpse of the work that has been
produced for "mega-marches" and painting on the walls of Oaxaca
City. Its an inspiring body of work that makes the demands of the
movement visually.
For some background info read k. see's previous post about ASARO and Oaxaca.
The exhibit will run April 26th-May 24th
Sundays 1-3pm
Wednesday & Thursdays 5-7pm
Thursday May 3rd 7pm
Proyecto Autogestion will screen “el machete: la lucha por el poder popular”
a documnentary filmed and edited by indigenous people of
CODEP(Committee Organized in Defense of the People’s Rights) in
Oaxaca.
http://elenemigocomun.net/878
Thursday May 10th 7pm
Discussion with James Wechsler on Mexican Art and Politics of
1920's & 30's. Possibility of other speakers. James is an
independant scholar based in NYC who worked with the Philadelphia
Museum of Art on the exhibit Mexico & Modern Printmaking.
http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/special/103.html
The exhibit can be seen in the near future at The Phoenix Art
Museum, Phoenix, Arizona. From June 29–September 16, 2007
For more info about ASAR-O and their work check out
http://web.mac.com/dfteitel/iWeb/ASAR-O/Home%20-%20Inicio.html
This exhibit has been brought to you by:
Visual Resistance
www.visualresistance.org
CASA
http://www.chiapaspeacehouse.org/
Exhibition Funded in part by the NYS Council on the Arts
and Dedalus Foundation
The Insurection Internationale Is In Full Swing
Posted April 23, 2007 by in Art & Politics
Version Fest Hits Chicago Once Again...
:: VERSION>07 THE INSURECTION INTERNATIONALE ::An unconventional network of creators, workers, musicians, organizations, artists, activists, producers and organizers are collectively waging asymmetrical warfare on the established systems of control in our cultural, political and art worlds.
The Insurrection Intenationale is a moment. It is a point of confluence between various networks and subcultures that believe in the solidarity of our multitudes. Together we are waging a revolt against established systems and authority to create new worlds to inhabit. We are creating alternate realities, independent economies, developing alliances and infrastructures to support our beliefs. We are engaging in a culture war against the establishments in all their guises.
This year Version will explore the various networks undermining the forces of stagnation, decay and business as usual. Individuals and groups involved in creating alternative modes of operations, communications and networks of cooperation are gathering at our annual convergence this spring to discover the plausible worlds we can create together.
We hope you can join us in enjoying the confluence of now and planning the community of future.
“ This is the final struggle/Let us join together and tomorrow/ The International/Will be the human race”
Check out the Flickr page of opening night photos...
Paradise Remixed
Posted April 21, 2007 by in Art & Politics
Paradise Remixed- a neighborhood wide art event opened this weekend in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee. Ten different arts spaces and local businesses in the neighborhood are showing work and participating in the event. Collectively there are over 50 artists participating using a wide range of media and approaches- from installation and video, to book arts, painting and drawing, and recycled or detourned work.
As stated by the organizers:
"Paradise Remixed" asks local artists and curators to reinterpret popular visions of paradise. Visions of paradise have always found bizarre & beautiful representations in our everyday pop culture objects and experiences. Reworking mass-produced objects, recycled materials, & popular conceptions, artists will present us with everything from sanguine utopias to portentous dystopias. "Paradise Remixed" weaves together a diversity of artists, curators, and art spaces in the Riverwest neighborhood, which, on some bright days can feel like our own little earthly paradise.
The idea for the show came from Mark Lawson, gallery director at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. When a tenant left him 20 pieces of mass-produced art, Lawson didn't have the heart to throw them away. "I thought the show would be a good use for them," he said.Adding the neighborhood to the mix was born out of a conversation with Polina Malikin. "We have some of the most cutting-edge art in the whole city . . . but we never do anything together. . . . our main goal was that everyone acquainted with each other would get to work together."
Participating spaces include:
Cream City Collectives, Neighbors Gallery, Hot Cakes Gallery, Green Gallery, Riverwest Film & Video, Feed Shop, Vision Eye Center, Woodland Pattern, Art Bar, and the Riverwest Food Co-op
Participating Artists include:
Archaeology of the recent Future Association, Sam Augustine, Brandon Bauer, Anne Bisone, Jeff Bogartte, Noah Brehmer, Jessie Brown, Ray Chi, Santiago Cucullu, Mary DiBiasio, Matt Fink, John Gatti, Peggy Haubert, Steve Hough, Oluwabukola Harrison Idowu, Juliet Jaeger, Darryl Jensen, Jeremiah Ketner, Paul Kjelland, Laura Klein, Caroline Knueppel, Sue Kriofsky, Nicolas Lampert, Mark Lawson, Xav Leplae, Kathryn Martin, Chris Miller, Darota Biczel Nelson, Keith Nelson, Josie Osborne, Annuska Peck, Melissa Dorn Richards, Michael Roberts, Naomi Shersty, Jeana Sohn, The Sparkle Dancers, and Merle Wind
"Business Day" by Brandon Bauer
Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007
Posted April 12, 2007 by in Art & Politics
From Slaughterhouse Five:
"It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:
American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.
The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the belly of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes....
When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again."
It's never too early to start making plans...
Posted April 11, 2007 by in Art & Politics
The 2008 RNC Welcoming Committee has put out a call inviting anarchists, anti-authoritarians, radical artists, and activists from all over the country to converge on the Twin Cites this fall- August 31st through September 3rd. This Pre-RNC convergence will give activists a chance to get to know the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, and give them the opportunity to begin some serious planning to confront the RNC in 2008.
Questions to be asked and answered include:
What do you want to see happen in 2008?
How do you think we can get there?
What resources do you have to contribute?
What will you need?
The Pre-RNC weekend will kick off with Critical Mass on Friday August 31st, and continues for the next three days with tours, workshops, skillshares, games, strategizing sessions and L(A)bor Day activities. There'll be a lot to do- everything from brunch to street medic training to capture the flag- the activities are intend to be as diverse and accessible as possible.
The organizing committee has also made a specific call for volunteers: they are looking for people to run skillshares and workshops of all sorts- if you have skills, knowledge or experience that you want to impart, you are encouraged to let them know.
RNC Welcoming Committee Website: http://www.rncwelcomingcommittee.org/
To receive updates from the Welcoming Committee email: rnc08-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
Or you can become a myspace friend: http://www.myspace.com/rnc2008welcomingcommittee
Questions? Email us: pReNC@riseup.net
Red Hook: An Exploration of Identities
Posted March 29, 2007 by in Art & Politics
This is the first-ever post by IminentDisaster, who's been working on an incredible installation in Red Hook for the last few weeks:
This site-specific intervention in Red Hook, Brooklyn provides a point of entry to explore the forces affecting a community’s evolution of identity over time. By looking at the tensions between historical record and individual memory, we can reflect upon on the role of our imaginations and come to a deeper awareness of our potential to shape the identity of our communities through our lived experiences within them.
Red Hook has been at the center of many discourses about gentrification, but during these expositions, the identity of the community is most often quantified through property values and business development. By shifting the emphasis of identity to lived experience instead of economic productivity, the average person acquires a position capable of challenging the dominant power structures, even with limited economic means.
The first layer of this project is constructed from wheat pastes of every New York Times article since 1851 with “Red Hook” in the title. There were about 200 articles that fulfilled this query. The content of the articles was otherwise unaltered.
The next layer of the installation is a series of illustrations based on the content of the New York Times articles. The full text of the articles was run through a web-based Tag Cloud generator to visualize the frequency of word usage for 3 different time periods (1851-1929, 1930-1969, 1970-2007). Each bubble in the vignette is sized proportionally based on how often it was used. Since words like “housing” and “authority” are too broad and undefined used alone, the imagery within the bubbles is based on the context in which the word was used within the articles.
The last layer is an interactive component that will come together during the project’s opening. Participants will ask to write down specific and meaningful memories they have about Red Hook. These will be added to the installation on Saturday, March 31st.
Red Hook Project Opening:
Saturday, March 31st, 6 P.M. – 9 P.M.
@ The Art Lot, Corner of Columbia and Sackett Streets
Red Hook, Brooklyn
More Information: http://a.parsons.edu/~rhasty
Flickr Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/disasterstrikes/sets/72157600033525115/
Call for Art: Movimiento Por Justicia Del Barrio
Posted February 27, 2007 by in Art & Politics
This is an open call for artists to design logos for Movimiento Por Justicia Del Barrio, an immigrant-led social justice organization based in East Harlem. The group was founded in December of 2004 to organize resistance against the devastating effects of gentrification in their community. The immigrant base and leadership of their organization has led Movimiento Por Justicia Del Barrio to also address the pressing issue of immigrant rights. In 2005, their predominantly Mexican membership decided to become adherents to Zapatista’s Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and joined The Other Campaign, a national movement to change Mexico initiated by the Zapatistas. Since then, the group has facilitated a comprehensive Consulta Con El Barrio to invite popular community participation in developing strategy and focus for the struggle for community based justice.
Increasing attention and support from the public and the press has created a need for logos to represent their group. Movimiento Por Justicia Del Barrio is looking for two logos, one to represent the organizations local organizing efforts, including their fight against gentrification, and another to represent their transnational organizing as part of the Zapatista-initiated movement in Mexico, The Other Campaign.
If you are interested in making a submission for one or both of the logos, please email movementforjusticeinelbarrio@yahoo.com or call (212) 561-0555 for a few simple guidelines.
Responding to limited responses to their call, Movimiento Por Justicia Del Barrio is EXTENDING THEIR DEADLINE FOR SUBMITIONS.
Here is a more detailed call written by members of Movimiento Por Justicia del Barrio.
Open call to artists for the creation of the logos for our immigrant-led social justice organization!!
“BEST POWER TO THE PEOPLE MOVEMENT IN NYC”-VILLAGE VOICE ‘06
“IT IS REAL GRASS-ROOTS DEMOCRACY, AND IT IS BEING PRACTICED BY THE IMMIGRANTS WHO LIVE IN EAST HARLEM”-DAILY NEWS ‘06
Who we are:
We are the color of the earth. We are women, men, youth and children of corn. We are immigrants. We have not lived in our home countries for a long time, but home is still the air we breathe, still the pulse of our heart, it is still the thought that fills our minds. We were born in our lands and our lands were born in us.
We are Movement for Justice in El Barrio, an organization of immigrants fighting for justice in East Harlem.
As immigrants, we were forced to leave our native countries because of a savage neoliberal economic system. Here in the U.S, we are affected by neoliberalism on a daily basis. Gentrification pushes us out of our homes in El Barrio. Exploitation at the workplace forces us to work twelve hours daily for poverty wages. Racist immigration policies attempt to criminalize and dehumanize us.
In New York, we fight against neoliberalism in all its forms. We fight against racism, xenophobia, sexism, classism, and homophobia.
We fight for humanity.
Movement for Justice in El Barrio is a rapidly expanding immigrant-led social justice organization led by immigrants in El Barrio (East Harlem, NYC). Founded in December 2004 to fight a voracious trend towards gentrification, Movement for Justice in El Barrio has received passionate support and attention from the public and the press and is in need of logos to represent the group!!!
As immigrants, our organizing is necessarily both local and transnational at the same time. In 2005, our predominantly Mexican membership made the decision to become adherents to Zapatista’s Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and joined The Other Campaign, a national movement to change Mexico initiated by the Zapatistas.
Therefore, we are looking for TWO LOGOS. One to represent our organizing around local issues here in El Barrio, including our fight against gentrification and greedy slumlords, and the city and financial institutions that facilitate the displacement of immigrant families from their homes and another to represent our transnational organizing as part of the Zapatista-initiated movement in Mexico, “The Other Campaign”.
If you are interested in making a submission for either one of the logos, or both, please email movementforjusticeinelbarrio@yahoo.com or call (212) 561-0555 for a few simple guidelines.
Jeff Luers' sentence reversed!
Posted February 19, 2007 by in Art & Politics
Incredible news from Oregon: Jeff "Free" Luers' legal team finally won an appeal, and his ridiculous 22-year sentence could potentially be cut by two-thirds. From FreeFreeNow.org:
We have some good news. The Court of Appeals just unanimously ruled that Jeff's case will be reversed and remanded back to the Circuit Court for resentencing as a result of Judge Velure's errors in imposing the original draconian sentence. The opinion just came out this morning and we are still reviewing it for details, but it looks like Jeff could potentially get about 15 years taken off his 266 month sentence. We will provide you with more information as it becomes known. The entire opinion is available here for those who are interested. Congratulations to Jeff and his family! Thank you to everyone for their support! Now, on to the next phase of the appeal for which donations are desperately needed in order to cover legal costs. Donation options are available here.
Fore those who don't know, Jeff Luers was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the arson of the Romania car dealership in Eugene, OR, and an attempted arson of Tyree Oil. The total damage amounted to burned tires on 3 SUVs , the tires were replaced and the SUVs were resold. No harm to any living things. Outrage over the unjust sentence spanned the globe. Luers is currently imprisoned at the Oregon State Prison and CLDC has continuously assisted Jeff with various legal matters during his incarceration.
Memorial for pedestrians killed by cars
Posted January 10, 2007 by in Art & Politics
Right: A memorial for Peter Hornbeck, a friend of a friend. Pete was killed January 10, 2004, when a driver going close to 100 miles an hour ran him down in the intersection of Park Ave. & 96th St. The driver abandoned the car and fled the city. He was later caught and sentenced to several years in prison.
I didn't know Pete but I know a friend of his. We worked together on this memorial and installed it during yesterday's second annual memorial bike ride for cyclists and pedestrians killed in New York.
After 19 months of installing ghost bikes for slain cyclists around New York, this is the first memorial we've created for a pedestrian. In 2006, 135 pedestrians and at least 14 cyclists were killed by motor vehicles in the five boroughs.
We tried to come up a simple visual icon (like the white bikes), but couldn't come up with any one symbol that seemed appropriate. In Bogota, Colombia, a simple black star is stenciled onto the sidewalk, but that didn't seem right. The traditional "chalk outline" seemed too gruesome. Suggestions are welcome. Email us at visual.resistance@gmail.com.
Propaganda III World Tour
Posted January 4, 2007 by in Art & Politics
Start Soma a gallery based in San Francisco is calling for work for the first global, peer-to-peer, open source art show- PROPAGANDA III. They are inviting artists from around the world to create political artwork for the third installment of the PROPAGANDA art show that began in 2003.
This year Start Soma launches PROPAGANDA III, a political poster art show that will tour the world through 2008 with dozens of one day art shows worldwide - the current schedule includes stops throughout North America, South America, Australia, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. There will be no censorship of any sort. Expressed political viewpoints, be they left, right, or center, will be displayed side-by-side, both online AND in the traveling show.
Submission Guidelines:
• 18 x 24 inch posters (45.72 cm x 60.96 cm)
• All posters must have overt political content. The nature of this content is up to the individual artist.
• Submitted posters must be produced in multiples - this includes stencils + digital prints, as well as offset, silkscreen, linocut, woodcut, and photocopies.
• Include artist name, country, and URL in the bottom right-hand corner of every poster.
• Submit three copies of each poster - one for the traveling exhibition, one for permanent archiving, and one spare in case the traveling poster is lost or damaged. Unfortunately, none of the posters can be returned.
• The final collection will be donated to the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles which houses the largest collection of Post World War II political graphics in the United States.
Send your posters to the START SOMA GALLERY by March 15, 2007:
START SOMA
672 South Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94110
Send digital versions of artwork to info@startsoma.com with the subject header PROPAGANDA III SUBMISSION - they will be creating an online gallery of all the work included in the traveling exhibition.
Start Soma will also continue to add galleries and venues worldwide to the traveling schedule. If you run a space and are interested in hosting the show contact Start Soma for details.
If you have any questions, please contact John Doffing via john@startsoma.com.
Street Art Workers posters hit the street
Posted December 29, 2006 by in Art & Politics
Street Art Workers Releases New Poster Project:
Land & Globalization Poster Series
Wheatpasters and Distributors Needed!
The newest project from the Street Art Workers (SAW) takes a look at how corporate globalization has affected our world, how it has impacted the land, and how people are fighting back. This collection of 25 posters represents artists from 20 cities in 10 different countries. These posters illustrate specific struggles in countries like Brazil and the United States, and they also tackle international issues around poverty and gentrification. Along with a strong critique of imperialism, the posters show how communities throughout the world are resisting corporate power for a more just and sustainable world.
The two-color, 17" x 23" posters come in packets of 25, and are printed on easy to paste-up newsprint. We are looking for people to paste these up in their cities, and are selling them in bulk as cheap as we can get them out and onto the streets...
For example:
10 packets (250 posters): $20
or,
40 packets (1000 posters): $40
For more specifics, or to order packets, please see http://streetartworkers.org/help.html
Posters can also be ordered from Microcosm Publishing and Last Gasp.
We especially need help funding overseas shipping! We printed thousands of these packets and much of it came out of our own pockets. Please help with a donation, or order packets to paste up in your city! All of the money we recieve goes into the continued distribution of this project; anything we may make in surplus will fund our next project. If you are affiliated with an independent distro or bookstore, please get in touch with us about consignment orders.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Who Are We?
Started in 2001 and based in the U.S., Street Art Workers (SAW) is a network of printmakers, stencil artists, graffiti writers and designers who use the streets for art and activism. As a volunteer-run group, we make street art for grassroots campaigns and post each other´s work across North America. Since 2001, our projects have talked about prisons (2002), the mass media (2003) and utopian ideas for the future (2004).
Our art is a creative tool for social change. We support community organizing by making and distributing high-profile publicity across North America. We want to inspire people who have been attacked, oppressed or ignored by the rich and powerful -- communities of color, queers, women, seniors, the disabled and the working class. We emphasize connections between communities and stand against all oppression including racism, sexism and homophobia. We oppose anti-Arab violence as well as anti-Jewish attacks in the U.S.
We want our art to be thought-provoking and politically radical but not simplistic or dogmatic. We want to push ourselves as individual artists and as group to make work that is creative, complex and emotional without being abstract or self-involved.
Our website: Street Art Workers
Contact us by email: streetartworkers (at) gmail (dot) com
JustSeeds needs your help!
Posted December 21, 2006 by in Art & Politics
For 10 years, JustSeeds has been a critical resource for radical artists working outside the "art world" system. In the process of becoming a decentralized artist-owned cooperative, the floor suddenly fell out from under them. The collapse of Clamor Magazine leaves JustSeeds without a distributor, and about $10,000 in the hole.
The community of art-activists around JustSeeds have launched national projects like the Celebrate People's History poster series, Street Art Workers, Drawing Resistance, Cut & Paint, and a hell of a lot more. Their also the main inspiration and example that led Visual Resistance to do what we do. Now they need your help to continue.
Below is a letter from Josh MacPhee:
1. Last week the company that was filling Justseeds' online orders (including hosting the webstore, processing payments, and shipping products), unexpectedly went bankrupt, immediately shutting down Justseeds' online store. This was a complete shock to me, as the fulfillment company was going through a transition of ownership, but no one had mentioned the possibility of collapse or bankruptcy. On top of shutting down distribution, the fulfillment house owed Justseeds upwards of $10,000 (most of that money in turn was owed directly to artists and zinesters who sold items on the site).
This has come at a terrible time - the holiday season is hardly the time to close up shop. Additionally, justseeds was in the process of transitioning to become an artist/worker owned and operated collective, with over a half dozen artists linking together to make a much more exciting and dynamic website and store. All the artists involved would make the site the primary venue for distributing their work, bringing dozens of new prints, posters, books and zines to the site. We also had plans of merging with the political street art website VisualResistance.org to add a political art blogging feature. Now this is all in jeopardy. The formation of our new collective entity will be near impossible if we are saddled with such a huge debt before we even get off the ground.
2. I'm asking people to help rebuild Justseeds.org. Your donation will keep political art available and support artists doing work that is not fundable through art world and granting channels. Any donations would be more than welcome, from $5 to $500. If 1,000 people gave $10 each, that would cover the debt. You can donate by going to www.justseeds.org/donate.html. Any money that comes in will go directly to servicing old debt and then getting the new collective up and running.
In addition to monetary support, I would be happy to receive suggestions of new fulfillment houses, pro-bono business and accounting advice, and help spreading the word about the situation. This is a critical moment and justseeds might go under, which would have an impact on a large community of artists and writers who depend on justseeds for distribution and supporters who depend on it to access to art they can't find anywhere else.
3. Although the online store is down, I will continue to sell items, particularly Celebrate People's History posters, wholesale to stores and other distributors. If you know of a store that might be interested in carrying the posters or other Justseeds items, please ask them to get in touch.
For those that have subscribed to the Celebrate People's History poster series, I WILL BE honoring and fulfilling the subscriptions. According to the fulfillment house, four new posters went out to subscribers late last week, and hopefully should arrive just before or after christmas - let's cross our fingers. I had plans to print another four in January and February, but this is now dependent on dealing with some of the debt.
Thanks to everyone that has supported Justseeds since I started it back in 1997. Hopefully we'll be able to continue for another ten years.
Solidarity,
Josh MacPhee/justseeds.org
josh [at] justseeds [dot] org
Street Signs and Solar Ovens
Posted December 3, 2006 by in Art & Politics
Street Signs and Solar Ovens: Socialcraft in Los Angeles at the Craft and Folk Art Museum
Curated by the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest
October 22 - December 31, 2006
An inspiring exhibition featuring artwork created with social activism as its inspiration is currently on view at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles. The exhibit explores inventive objects and strategies created by artists in response to the environmental, social, and political issues of our time. Featured works include protest art meant for public display as well as tools for socially conscious living.
Artists included in the exhibition:
Edith Abeyta, Steven Anderson, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Mike Blockstein, CARACEN, Chris Burnett, C.I.C.L.E., Code Pink, National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Sandra de la Loza, Sam Durant, Eric Einem, Karl Erickson, Fallen Fruit, Finishing School, Gaian Mind, Fritz Haeg, Evan Holloway, L.A. Commons, Laura Howe, Karen Lofgren, Kelly Marie Martin, Matrushka, Jennifer Murphy, Nico of Teocintli, Christopher Nyerges, Path to Freedom, Sheila Pinkel, Oliver Ressler and David Thorne, Oscar Sanchez, The Arroyo Arts Collective, The Phantom Street Artist, The South Central Farm Support Committee, Christina Ulke, Votan, Allison Wiese.
Who’s Walls? Who’s Art?
Posted December 3, 2006 by in Art & Politics
I saw an interesting story posted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the other day. It concerns a building in Downtown Milwaukee known as the Sydney Hih Building. The Sydney Hih has housed untold numbers of artists and musicians since the 1970’s within its dilapidated labyrinth of studios and practice spaces. Everyone left their mark in the form of graffiti, stickers, stencils, murals, etc… It was a legendary space, and everyone who passed through had stories to tell. The building has since been sold to developers and the colorful exterior has been painted beige. The following story concerns the marks that were left on the interior of the Sydney Hih. The story was written by Steven Potter and posted on JSOnline.
The following text and photos were taken from JSOnline. The first photo is a picture of the west side of the Sydney Hih in 2002 before they ripped down the freeway overpass and painted the building beige. The last photo is the Sydney Hih as it stands now. For more information on the development plans visit JSOnline here.
Developer Salvages Art That Was Created On The Spot:
Since being built in 1876 to house offices, a laboratory and a pharmacy, the enormous Cream City brick building known as Sydney Hih has been home to an eclectic mix of people and passions.Previous tenants have operated a Mexican restaurant, record label, craft shops and even an underground nightclub. Most recently, the space at Old World 3rd St. and W. Juneau Ave. has been a haven for musicians and artists. And those artists left their mark on the building - literally.
"We found art on doors, windows, walls and everywhere else," said Rob Ruvin, who bought the building last year and plans to develop it and adjacent land into retail and office space as well as a hotel and condos next year.
"Some of it's graffiti art, some of it's portraits, other paintings or poetry," he continued. "It seems just about everyone who came through the doors left something behind, whether it's just a note or a piece of art."
Ruvin salvaged about 100 pieces and recently showcased a few at Elsa's on the Park. "We saved it so people can have a glimpse behind the doors of Sydney Hih," he said.
The exhibit came down last week.
"Initially, (the art) seemed kind of random," Ruvin recalled. "But we've found there's a lot of thought and heart that went into the work."
One of the building's more prolific artists/tenants, a tattoo artist who identifies himself as Pooh Bear, says the art holds special meaning.
"A lot of it was political or very personal; it was like my diary," said the 28-year-old Milwaukeean. He was surprised to learn that his and others' works were being shown in the downtown restaurant.
"We were wondering and worried about what happened to it," he said, adding that he would either like the art returned or to be compensated for it. "Some of it isn't finished."
Ruvin originally planned to show the artwork in a Manhattan restaurant but has decided to contact as many artists as possible before making any decisions.
"We'll continue to gather more artifacts, compile more history, conduct interviews and then determine the next step," he said, adding that he doesn't want to "do anything against the artists' wishes."
"We've thought about a number of options, possibly even incorporating some of it back into the building," he said. "A coffee table book might be the best answer."
Here are a few other interesting before and after pictures of the Sydney Hih I found.
LOWAVE : RESISTANCE(S)
Posted December 1, 2006 by in Art & Politics
Festival des Cinemas Differents de Paris 12/10/06
The Resistance(s) program to be held during the Festival des Cinema Differents in Paris was inspired by a DVD of the same name presenting films and videos by artists from North Africa and the Middle East. The Resistance(s) DVD was published by Lowave in April 2006.
The Resistance(s) program at the Festival des Cinema Differents also includes films by American artists who are also resisting through their art.
Work Included in the Program:
Transit- Taysir Batniji (Palestine) 2004
Dieu Me Pardonne- Mounir Fatmi (Morocco/France) 2001-2004
Untitled part 3b: (as if) beauty never ends- Jayce Salloum (Lebanon/Canada) 2003
Allah Akbar- Usama Alshaibi (Iraq/USA) 2003
1991 Next Hundred Years- Abu Ali (Spain) 1991-2004
W- Michael Betancourt (USA) 2005
Short/Cuts- Brandon Bauer (USA) 2006
NYC Indymedia journalist Brad Will shot dead in Oaxaca, Mexico
Posted October 28, 2006 by in Art & Politics
We received word last night that New York City activist and journalist Brad Will was shot and killed yesterday by paramilitary forces while filming from a barricade during a protest in Oaxaca, Mexico. Brad was a well-known and respected figure in the NYC activist community and the US global justice movement , a friend to many, a brave, funny, and tireless fighter who travelled and reported extensively from struggles throughout the Americas.
At least two other people were also killed on the streets of Oaxaca yesterday. Indymedia reports that Brad was filming from the Santa Lucia Barricade when plainclothes paramilitaries opened fire on protesters from a distance of 30-40 meters. Brad was shot in the chest and died on the way to the hospital.
Indymedia reports:
Brad had been in Oaxaca taking video and reporting on the state wide popular uprising and teacher strike that began in June with the violent attempted removal of the striking teachers from their encampment in the center of Oaxaca City by federal police forces. 3 others were also killed alongside him (making 4 dead in total); 1 member of Radio Universidad was also injured: he was taken to the hospital in a volkswagen van as police would not let any ambulances come.Since the beginning of the strike in June, teachers and other groups have formed the APPO - the Popular Assembly of the Oaxacan People - and have called for the removal of the governor of state Ulises Ruiz of the PRI. There is a long history of Mexico using government sponsored paramilitaries to repress social movements, including a massacre of hundreds of students in Mexico City in 1968. As reports of protesters surrounded by armed government forces and police continue to pour in, activists in cities around the world are planning protests at Mexican embassies in outcry against the violent aggression against the people of Oaxaca.
Zapatista subcomandante Marcos, speaking on behalf of the Other Campaign, released a statement last night calling for justice:
“We know that they killed at least one person. This person that they killed was from the alternative media that are here with us. He didn’t work for the big television news companies and didn’t receive pay. He is like the people who came here with us on the bus, who are carrying the voices of the people from below so that they would be known. Because we already know that the television news companies and newspapers only concern themselves with governmental affairs. And this person was a compañero of the Other Campaign. He also traveled various parts of the country with us, and he was with us when we were in Yucatán, taking photos and video of what was happening there. And they shot him and he died. It appears that there is another person dead. The government doesn’t want to take responsibility for what happened. Now they tell us that all of the people of Oaxaca are mobilizing. They aren’t afraid. They are mobilizing to take to the streets and protest this injustice. We are issuing a call to all of the Other Campaign at the national level and to compañeros and compañeras in other countries to unite and to demand justice for this dead compañero. We are making this call especially to all of the alternative media, and free media here in Mexico and in all the world.”
There is ongoing coverage as more information emerges from NYC Indymedia, global Indymedia. For Independent Media from Oaxaca check out Indymedia, and in Mexico Centro de Medias Libres. For background information in the situation in Oaxaca, see Upside Down World and browse through the archives at NarcoNews.com
Brad's friends in New York are calling for emergency actions this weekend to demand that the US State Department press the Mexican government investigate Brad's murder and expressing solidarity for the social movement that Brad gave his life to document. In New York, a protest has been called for today, Saturday, October 28, at 3 p.m., outside the Mexican consulate general in New York at 27 East 39th Street.
Please come out if you can, and if you're in other cities please check your local Indymedia for information on local actions, or organize your own. The situation in Oaxaca is extremely urgent and while this awful tragedy hits very close to home for us, it is only one part of the ongoing repression against a vibrant and powerful grassroots movement for justice in Mexico.
UPDATE: We're also getting word of more events at the consulate --- here's the full list of events:
Saturday, October 28, 3pm: Demonstration
Saturday, October 28, 7pm: Vigil
Monday, October 30, 9am: Demonstration
All events at the Mexican consulate general in New York at 27 East 39th Street, at Madison Avenue.
Update November 9th 2006
MEMORIAL AND CONVERGENCE IN HONOR OF BRAD WILL
November 11th-12th, 2006
Friends Of Brad Will for more information about the service and Encuentro that are to happen at St. Marks Church
No Need For Sleep
Posted October 20, 2006 by in Art & Politics
No Need For Sleep is an exhibition of original art and zines by artists from around the country. This exhibition celebrates the artists, their independent productions, and the do-it-yourself culture of zine making. The exhibition will be up during the Madison Zine Fest in Madison, Wisconsin before moving on to Milwaukee in November. This exhibition is curated by Colin Matthes, for more information visit Ideas In Pictures.
The Exhibition includes work by:
Icky A.- Nosedive (Portland, OR)
Mike Ball- Clap Yr Hands (Philadelphia, PA)
Peter Burr- Bountiful Little Dudes, Hooliganship, Cartune Exprez (Portland, OR)
Mary Mack- The F-Word, Chick Pea, Not Quite Venice (Pittsburgh, PA)
Josh MacPhee- Stencil Pirates, Cut and Paint, Pound the Pavement (Troy, NY)
Polina Malikin- The Archaeology of the Recent Future Association (Milwaukee, WI)
Cristy C. Road- Indestructible (Brooklyn, NY)
Ally Reeves & Shaun Slifer- Ross Winn-Digging up a Tennessee Anarchist (Pittsburgh,PA)
Meredith Stern- Dragomen, Crude Noise, and Mine zines (Providence, RI)
Tea Krulos- Riverwurst Comics (Milwaukee, WI)
Other work will be included by:
Hot and Cold zine (Oakland, CA) & Street Art Workers.
Madison,WI Exhibit Information:
The 6th Floor Art Space is located at 455 Park St. in the Humanities Building of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The reception will run from 6-9pm the night of the Madison Zine Fest Saturday, October 21, 2006.
Milwauke, WI Exhibit Information:
Exhibition will be held at the Cream City Collectives Gallery located at the corner of Clarke and Fratney Sreet in Milwaukee 's Riverwest neighborhood. 732 E. Clarke St., Milwaukee, WI 53212
Opening reception: 6-11pm, Friday, November 17, 2006.
Gallery Hours are Mon-Sat 1 p.m. - 7 p.m. Sun 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Milwaukee Paper Company Hits The Streets
Posted October 8, 2006 by in Art & Politics
A group calling itself the Milwaukee Paper Company has hit the streets of Milwaukee with their new poster campaign. Here are a few images, to see more photos visit milpaperco's flicker photo page.
Help Visual Resistance
Posted August 15, 2006 by in Art & Politics
With several projects in the works and a massive benefit gallery show just behind us, Visual Resistance is in the red. While we've fundraised for other groups or friends in the past, we've never used this site to ask donations for VR projects. So, if you like what Visual Resistance does and can spare a few dollars -- or more! -- please consider clicking the button below:
The main upcoming project we're involved in is the long-awaited publication of Street Art Workers' 2006 posterbook on Land and Globalization.
Street Art Workers (SAW) is a national network of some of the best printmakers and street artists working today. This year's campaign is a major step forward for the group, as it's their first foray into mass production. The end result of nearly a year´s work will be 3,000 sets of a gorgeous, two-color, newspaper-sized booklet of 25 posters from artists from over 20 cities in 10 countries!
In other words, SAW is producing almost 65,000 large posters for free distribution around North America and beyond. If you want to see these posters on the walls of your city, help SAW and VR out by chipping in.
Below is a sneak preview of six of the 25 posters from this year's campaign:
A House Divided
Posted July 24, 2006 by in Art & Politics
Milwaukee like many cities around the country has been seeing a condo boom in the past few years. Gentrification is redefining the character of long established neighborhoods, driving up housing prices, pushing up property taxes, and driving some people from neighborhoods where they have lived in their whole lives. This (very large) stencil was recently spotted on Milwaukee's east side.
Visual Art and Social Change at the Midwest Social Forum
Posted June 7, 2006 by in Art & Politics
The Midwest Social Forum is an annual gathering of grassroots organizations, community activists, workers, educators, students, and others committed to making a better, more just world possible. The Midwest Social Forum provides an open space for exchanging experiences and information, strengthening alliances and networks, and developing effective strategies for progressive social, economic, and political change. This year the Midwest Social Forum will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from July 6th-9th.
There will be a number of sessions relating to visual art and social change at this year's Midwest Social Forum. So far the confirmed sessions include:
•Images Matter: Lessons from the Art and the Graphic Campaign of the Abolitionist Movement
Hosted by Nicolas Lampert, co-editor of Peace Signs: The Anti-War Movement Illustrated.
•Graffiti Art Workshop
Hosted by T.R.U.E. Skool, Inc., a group promoting hip-hop culture and positive social change based in Milwaukee.
•Ants and Economics in the Americas: The Beehives Popular Education Graphics Campaigns
A workshop hosted by the Beehive Design Collective.
Along with these offerings the Midwest Social Forum will have workshops, panel discussions, presentations, and strategy sessions relating to a wide variety of topics involving social change and activism. Please visit the website for more information.
Sustainable Eating Online Zine- Call For Submissions
Posted June 4, 2006 by in Art & Politics
Sustainable Eating is an online zine exploring the connections between the food we eat and our personal, community and environmental health. Currently, Sustainable Eating is seeking submissions from writers, artists, activists, cooks, and gardeners for issues #4 & #5.
**Issue #4 (Fall/Winter 2006): Roots
Issue #4 will explore how food connects us to the land and to each other. How are you rooted to place by food? In what ways is your community connected through the production, harvest and sharing of food? What is the role of food in your personal, family, or ancestral roots? What root foods do you enjoy? What are the root causes of hunger, the exploitation of land, labor and animals, or other food injustices.
Deadline for Submissions: August 1, 2006
Issue Available Online: Fall/Winter 2006
**Issue #5 (Spring/Summer 2007): Unnatural Eating
Factory farms, GMOs, irradiated foods, hormones, seasonal foods available year-round, regional crops available world-wide, fast food diets, no-carb diets, microwaves, lunch breaks in front of your computer... in so many ways modern food production and eating patterns are far from natural. Analysis, critiques and alternatives to today's unnatural food systems and diets are all welcome for this issue.
Deadline for Submissions: February 1, 2007
Issue Available Online: Spring/Summer 2007
All kinds of submissions are welcome, including: personal essays; news articles; feature stories; interviews; profiles of people, organizations and projects; artwork; and fiction. Sustainable Eating encourages you to interpret this theme in any way you wish, so please do not feel restricted to traditional concepts of the topic. If you are unsure about how your idea might fit with these themes, please feel free to contact Sustainable Eating with a proposal.
Please send your submissions, suggestions, feedback, and questions to: se@semagazine.com.
http://www.semagazine.com
Refuse and Resist!
Posted May 19, 2006 by in Art & Politics
I found this in my inbox from the Clamor blog recap under the heading "New Counter-Recruitment Tool Featuring The Coup" first posted on May 11th. There is a link to a website about an upcoming film titled "Sir No Sir" that should be of interest to anyone doing anti-war and counter recruitment work. On the website you can view the trailer for the film and also see the short piece "Punk Ass Crusade" by the Ruckus Society featuring The Coup. Check it out!
Paper Politics in Portland
Posted April 28, 2006 by in Art & Politics
Paper Politics makes its next stop in Portland. Over 175 political prints by artists from around the world. The work will be on display May 3rd-June 16th, 2006 at the Food For Thought Gallery at the Portland State University, 1825 SW Broadway, Portland, OR. Opening event will be May 11th, 7-11 PM.
Version>06 Parallel Cities
Posted April 28, 2006 by in Art & Politics
Version fest held annually in Chicago focuses on emerging discourses and practices evolving between art, technology, social critique and activism. Version Fest examines local systems and external networks that use visual and conceptual art strategies, innovative social practices, creative uses of new technologies, effective organizing structures, emerging activist/artist initiatives, campaigns, public interventions and DIY projects. This year Version Fest runs from April 20th through May 7th.
The Version Festival presents a diverse program of activities featuring an experimental art exposition, artistic disturbances, exhibitions, networked urban events, screenings, interactive applications, performances, street art, presentations, talks, workshops, an art rendezvous and action. Alternative spaces will be open for staging actions. Public spaces and corporate places will be terrains of intervention. Version is a seventeen-day open laboratory to activate our communities and amplify ideas and practices.
For more information on the projects, program, artists, and venues involved in this year's Version fest visit their website. http://versionfest.com/version06/festival/
Counter-Recruitment in NYC
Posted April 14, 2006 by in Art & Politics
The Friends of William Blake, a working group of artists and activists who first put out the "The People's Guide to the Republican National Convention" a 33-by-22-inch full-color fold-up map of New York that listed more than 600 points of information- including the locations of RNC events, protest sites, bathrooms, and legal pointers have just released a guide to counter-recruitment in NYC.
The New Yorkers' Guide to Military Recruitment in the 5 Boroughs and it's associated website (www.counterrecruitmentguide.org) is full of practical information and may be freely used, copied, and distributed under the creative commons license. Locations where the guide may be
picked up in New York are listed on the website, and a full PDF version may also be downloaded through the site.
If you'd like to be involved in distribution of the guide, or would like to reserve a bulk order of the guide for your organization, e-mail crguide@gmail.com.
The $20,000,000 question
Posted April 5, 2006 by in Art & Politics
Wooster Collective has been asking various people in the street art world what they would do if they had twenty million dollars to spend on public art. Here's our response:
None of us would be doing this if we didn't believe that public art can be an inspiring form of communication and expression. However, most public art (at least from what we've seen) fails because it divides the public from the art, creating a barrier between what is made and the people who are to view it. Also, the city bureaucracies that run most public art programs select the most non-controversial (bland, sterile, meaningless) designs, and most people end up scratching their heads and thinking art is a waste of money.
To avoid this problem we would take the $20,000,000 and form a non-profit group that would facilitate community-based art projects and programs. The more participatory and hands-on the better. Instead of throwing money at art stars, we'd help community groups and school kids fund raise (writing grants, getting donated materials) and plan projects. We'd set up an office and workspace where people can learn silk-screening and other printing techniques, a computer lab, a design shop, an outdoor graf gallery, the works. We'd focus on building permanent infrastructure for arts production and education.
A great example of how to involve people in an art project--regardless of their artistic background--is through murals. Though murals often rely on a lead muralist who lays out an image and makes it work within a given space, the process of exchange that can occur lets everyone have a voice in shaping the outcome. Everyone helps in the actual painting process. Murals also involve the community in ways that other projects, such as The Gates, simply cannot. Murals invite dialogue; they reflect what is going on in a community, its past and its future. It's a picture of the community talking about where it's been and where it wants to go.
If Bloomberg really wanted to address the "problem" of graffiti in a creative way, he would allocate 10% of the Vandal Squad budget to a public mural program. Philadelphia has done this with great success. Almost all murals in the city are graffiti-free. There is a certain sort of respect for murals, especially ones that involve the community. Its absurd for businesses to pay thousands of dollars to remove graffiti when a mural could just as easily be painted, and probably with a lot less money!
PS: In NYC there are already groups doing similar things, especially El Puente, Groundswell Community Mural Project, and Artmaker's Inc., so maybe we should stop dreaming and just donate some money and time to them...
Read everyone's responses in Wooster's Roundtable archives. What would you do with $20million? Let us know in the comments!
Photo at top courtesy of Artmakers Inc. (c) 2005.
Chalking is Not a Crime
Posted April 3, 2006 by in Art & Politics
The Gothamist recently posted a story about a festive day of street chalking, which was ruined by a pair of self-righteous snitches and some bored police officers. An eyewitness and participant in the day of chalking describes his experience.
We took a grand old stroll near the cube in Astor Place. On the sidewalk around the cube, we saw a ginormous yin yang drawn in chalk on the sidewalk, and two girls drawing stuff around it. We grabbed some chalk and joined in... Others joined in and left whatever messages they pleased. Eventually, one of the girls started to draw on the cube itself. Verily, this was the trickle that started the flood, as everyone else followed afterwards. Including us. People climbed ontop of the cube to defa-- draw on it. It was a grand old time.
Judging from these pictures, the chalking engaged the interest and participation of many a passer-by. Fun for the whole family. Sadly, a pair of cranky graffiti haters were so disturbed by the chalking that they decided to call the police. The authorities arrived and arrested several chalkers, as well as a group of girls who had protested the arrests by chanting "let them go!" These two girls eventually spent 26 hours in police custody, were tried and eventually their charges were dismissed.
Seth, one of the individuals arrested, posted these comments on the Gothamist, reflecting on his experience in detention.
i spent 26 hours in jail for this shit, was rather ridiculous. it wasnt free speech or defacement, it was us having a little bit of fun that didnt hurt anyone. everything was temporary, but the cops treated us like shit. noone was caught with drugs, though they mistook a bag of maple sugar candy my friend had for crack before they tested it. it was outrageous to waste my weekend like this, and thats not mentioning how many different ways the cops broke the law in processing us. they held us for 12 hours in the precint, denied food, water, or bathroom usage. one of the guys in the cell with me was a diabetic (arrested on a different charge) but his request for medical attention or a sugar level check after he realized he couldnt feel his fingers was delayed for 2 hours while the cops told him to wait. meanwhile, it was 6 hours after we had been taken in before the precint bothered to notify our parents. i resent how some people have made us out to be the villan of this piece, but our having fun was not a justification for how the cops had theirs at our expense.
One of the kids who was arrested, calling himself "the marshmallow kid," summarized his experience before the judge.
after spending 26 hours in police custody (2 of them were released after 20 hours) we were released by the judge who basically said: "this is a bullshit charge. chalk is not considered grafitti and therefore the charges pressed against you are unjustified and you should not have been arrested to begin with. stay out of trouble for 6 months and it wont be on your records. get out of my face.
The marshmallow kid's statement is true. Chalking on the sidewalk is technically not a crime because there is no mention of it in any of New York City's graffiti laws. However, many police, who either don't know this or pretend to not know this fact, will arrest and detain you anyway.
For more info on local chalk artists, check out this post about the Ellis G's chalk shadows.
First photo by cooler1011, second photo by minusbaby.
Repression and resistance in Barcelona
Posted March 10, 2006 by in Art & Politics
Via ekosystem comes word of a crackdown against so-called "quality of life" offences in Barcelona. Zosen writes:
[The] new law says is illegal to skate, do graffiti, posters, stickers, give flyers, eat or drink on the streets, put your wet clothes on your window (to get dry), prostitution, throw up on the streets, street sellers (like cd's, dvd, artesany, food,,,,), musicians (without permission), malabars, acrobacies, jump,,,,etc...is fuckin' crazy our city now is grey!!
A wide coalition protested the new laws in December. Orianomada writes on flickr:
ManiFESTAacción contra la ordenanza cívica (algo así como el TOLERANCIA CERO de New York) que quiere aprobar el ayuntamiento de Barcelona, el 23 de Diciembre de 2005, promueve limitar y reprimir el uso del espacio público. En esta manifestación estuvimos, prostitutas, skaters, grafiteros, movimientos sociales y vecinales, artistas callejeros, etc.Rough translation: Protest/party/action against the civic ordinance (something like New York's ZERO TOLERANCE) that the Barcelona City Council wants to approve on December 23, 2005, aims to limit and to repress the use of the public space. In this manifestation we were prositutes, skaters, graffiti writers, local and social movements, street artists, etc.
You can check out photos of the protest on flickr, and a short video on YouTube.
For all you Spanish and Catalan readers out there, here are some links to more info on the new ordinance and acts of resistance them: El carrer és de tothom (a bilingual blog in Catalan and Spanish), Cinismo, and Barcelona Indymedia.
All you English-only readers better enroll in some Spanish classes quick, because all I could find was this one English blog that covered the issue: Mudd up!
Artist Profile: Justin Tolentino
Posted February 3, 2006 by in Art & Politics
Justin Tolentino started writing graff sometime around middle school. In his own words, he says that he went from “just scrawling on the walls all the way to clean lines, pop art, faces, and other iconography.” Graffiti style is ever present in Justin’s work and its always there as an influence. Now as a curator for Lemp Art Stables, Justin is helping shape and define the local art scene in St. Louis, getting people to talk about graffiti in more positive and constructive ways. A good example, for the 2002 St. Louis Art Fair he helped work on a community art piece that captured peoples responses to and about 9/11. He asked people to write down their emotions, thoughts, and ideas, which he then translated into graphic images. The images and words were then layered to create a collective collage that communicated through the elements and style of graffiti. More recently, he was part of large exhibition that transformed an abandoned downtown mall into a vibrant art space. He contacted us a little while back and we took the opportunity to ask him some questions...
You recently worked collaboratively with Peat Wollaeger on an installation for an art exhibit sponsored by artdimensions. Can you tell us a bit about the site, the installation and working with Peat?
the site of the installation is the st. louis centre an old mall in downtown that has fallen to the waste side over the years of downtown st. louis losing and now regaining a positive vibe... artdimensions has a large formal gallery space for proper showing and during this event there were several other space artists revamped to their taste to sell and show off their work...working with peat is great... peat is my partner in crime in st. louis as far as street art and shows we take part in all over the world...
What is going on in the St. Louis scene art scene? How did you get involved with Lemp Art Stables and how do they fit into the art community there?
well its on its way, thanks to artdimesnions and some other galleries that showcase younger more hip art... the lemp art stables was just another space that artdimesions revitalized and turned to a young art mecca but as you know when someone finds out that you have a good thing going people wanna take it way from you... so artdimensions in the face of adversity has taken on new and stronger galleries in more up and coming areas in st. louis...
What is the general attitude towards graffiti/street art in St.
Louis? New York, along with some other cities, is facing a serious
crackdown on graffiti, is St. Louis experiencing the same?
its frowned upon... we held the largest graffiti competition wall in the nation and when the city got bombed up they started cracking down... but that was back in 96-98 the city has a small amount of graff heads but the diversity of work is lacking... but i think if would be great if there were more bill-post, stencil, and taggers out there... it would make my day doing any type of traveling...shit, i get geeked seeing big ass super-soaker tags...
How have you developed your style over the years? Who/what
inspired you to go out onto the streets?
every day life, people i meet... situations in my life that i have a hard time explaining in words... over the years i feel i just have been developing line and shape using only two colors... this graff artist stun from Minneapolis inspired me at a young age and made me wanna go out there and get up... and seeing twist, Chicago's graff, and, mike giant made me realize how diverse this all could be and that it could be about more that just writing my name...
Do you find yourself trying to "say more" with your work when it is in a gallery?
no i think that im trying to express the same type of message on the streets as in my gallery work...
The Woostercollective recently had tremendous feedback when they posted stories about the Playstation street art campaign. What was your reaction to the ads? Did any show up in St. Louis?
i understand doing corporate work, if you love your art and you love making it, thats all you wanna do, and if you can make money doing it more power to you...just make sure you dont have any issues with the company your working for...and i didn't see any in st. louis...
What do you have lined up for this year?
trying to develop further as an artist and make lots of work... i have like 50 new ways of doing paintings in my head and i have to let them come out one by one... the only problem is i cant paint as fast as i come up with them...im working on a new show at www.chestersblacksmith.com in park city utah... and im going to horn island again do a show in memphis with Jonathan lee and several other amazing artists... oh yeah and if you can get it check out my spread in the mag outta sydney without-reason ilovewr.com
Whose work should we be looking out for?
chris burch at giantkillerz.com another st. louisan
john lee at brokinengrish.com boy from the old schooll
Thanks go out to Justin for answering our questions!
Be sure to check out his site--www.studiotolentino.com
and click here to find out more about Art Dimensions.
Here is a link to Lo-Fi St. Louis, which has a great video that documents Justin and Peat's collaborative show.
Chilean Stencils and Politics
Posted January 20, 2006 by in Art & Politics
A while back, I asked my friend Salvador to take some pictures of political graffiti during his trip to Chile. Salvador is back and he has brought 26 pictures of excellent stencils and slogans he spotted on the street. A wide spectrum of radical politics color Chile’s urban landscape. Some pieces are explicitly anarchist, others socialist; others are less ideological but deliver a clear and powerful message of dissent and hope for a better world. Click here to view all of the pictures on Salvador's Flickr account. The image above reads, "Rebel Action Muralists"
This might also be a good time to mention the recent presidential election in Chile. Michelle Bachelet, a 54-year-old pediatrician, is Chile’s first female president and the first democratically elected women president in Latin America. Bachelet is part of a new generation of political leadership for the center-left Concertación coalition – an oftentimes testy alliance of the Christian Democratic Party, the Socialist Party, and the Party for Democracy and the Radical Party.
Bachelet is the daughter of a high-profile Air Force general who strongly supported the government of President Salvador Allende in the 1970s and who later died as a result of torture received in Pinochet’s prisons. She and her mother were later briefly arrested and tortured, before exiling themselves – first to Australia and then East Germany. She returned to Chile from exile in 1987 to practice medicine and continue her involvement with Socialist Party politics.
Bachelet is also a single mother of three and a self-declared agnostic. For many, her political victory represents an important challenge to the sexist machismo and Christian intolerance of Chilean political institutions. Her socialist ideology also represents another obstacle for the United State’s quickly sinking neo-liberal agenda in Latin America. Of course, many remain skeptical that any political party can ever bring freedom or sustainable solutions to the people of Latin America. The first image bellow (from left to right) reads, "The political parties are not part of the solution. They are part of the problem. Annul and Organize!"
The second image reads, "Political prisoners. On hunger strike since 12/4/2004. To the streets!!!" The third image reads, "Because they take everything from us. We reclaim everything. We will take everything. Capitalism is misery."
Political graffiti on the rise in Zimbabwe
Posted January 19, 2006 by in Art & Politics
With almost all other venues for speech and debate closed off, activists are using graffiti to speak out against Mugabe's dictatorship in Zimbabwe:
A few streets away from Robert Mugabe's heavily guarded official residence is a wall painted with screaming red graffiti telling Zimbabwe's president that "At 80, it's time to go". . .Other graffiti insulting the president and ZANU PF have multiplied recently on walls in Harare and other major cities and towns. Along a street named after the president himself, a dissident artist has scrawled, "Mugabe is a dictator."
With nearly all avenues of protest closed, Zimbabweans frustrated by the Mugabe regime use graffiti to express their anger with the system. The words on the walls are a clear indication that the majority of the people in the towns and cities are completely fed up with the ruling party and yearn for change. . .
So popular has this type of protest become that nearly every wall along the streets of Harare is painted with graffiti. Some hurls insults at the president's young wife, Grace, known as "The First Shopper" for the way she spent huge amounts of money in the top boutiques of London, Paris and New York before Britain, France and the United States banned her and her husband from entering their countries. Grace, a former secretary, was once photographed at Singapore's Changi International Airport with fifteen trolley-loads of exotic foods and electronic goods at a time when the World Food Programme said half the Zimbabwe population was starving.
Link.
The art of secular mystery
Posted December 23, 2005 by in Art & Politics
Stepping away from politics into another way of moving people through art, Paul from Eyeteeth links to an essay of his from February that asks the question: how can art connect us to the divine without distracting us with religion?
Art, it seems, allows us to ponder the sacred in non-dogmatic terms --- i.e. divinity for the reality-based community. Of course now is not the heyday for that bunch. But perhaps there's hope in what theologian Finley Eversole called a "spiritual underground." For him the term referred to a complex notion that artists who confront the emptiness of a godless world --- writing in 1963, he was thinking of Rothko, Pollock, and de Kooning --- connect us to the holy by presenting its inverse: "If our artists have been incapable of religious faith, they have at least shown us that modern man is incapable of unfaith." But I suggest that artists make up a spiritual underground in a different sense. While many mainstream religions are being hijacked by rigid fundamentalists, contemporary artists make up a loose-knit band of the covertly spiritual. If artists of the "secular mystery" can create work that resists co-optation by religious and political ideologues, perhaps we can call on them in more enlightened times to reacquaint us with the joys of asking questions we don't yet have the answers for.
Read the whole thing here. It's a good read, especially during a season suffused with pseudo-religious feeling, and explores terrain hinted at inMark Vallen's essay discussed a few days ago.
Image at top from Pixietart's flickr photostream.
A boot stamping on a human face
Posted December 21, 2005 by in Art & Politics
I'm sure by now you've all heard about the Bush administration's four-year campaign of illegal spying on American citizens. Last Saturday, the NY Times broke the story that the National Security Agency has been monitoring the communications of as many as 500 Americans at any given time. This monitoring went on without warrants, on Bush's personal order, in clear violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Fourth Amendment.
Also revealed in the past week, the Pentagon is keeping a database of protests against military recruitment which labeled a kiss-in a credible threat. And it turns out the FBI is keeping tabs on probably every organization I respect in the United States. What else? A Dartmouth student who checked out Mao's Little Red Book was visited by Homeland Security agents. A German citizen was kidnapped by the CIA, flown to Afghanistan, held for five months, beaten and tortured, and finally let go on a deserted stretch of road in Albania.
These are only the revelations from the past week. It goes on.
VR members have had compelling personal reasons of late to fear arbitrary government power. All this abstract political stuff has a way of getting really damn real sometimes. No one is immune to spying, arbitrary arrest, or other government intrusions. Feeling a little unable to deal with the recent wave of paranoia-inducing stories, I was glad to find an email from Scott Boylston in our inbox this morning:
like me, i’m sure you’re deeply disturbed by the latest blatant attempt at desecrating our constitution by bush and his puppeteers. i’ve attached a poster design i just did in response to the events of this past weekend. the image is taken from bush’s press conference yesterday. maybe you can put a call out for quick responses to this latest tyranny? we as a country have acquiesced to his insanity so many times in the past (times when i thought that surely, our country could see through his lies), and i’m afraid this, too, will be railroaded down our throats with little resistance from our congress and our people. it seems to be a very important point to make a stand.
Download the poster (pictured above) in JPG or PDF formats.
If anyone has poster or stencil designs related to free speech, free association, surveillance, spying, privacy, political prisoners, or police state tactics, send it in and we'll post in on the site for download. For now, I'm re-posting some designs Scott sent us last year below the fold:
PS --- Many people are speculating that the NSA snooping is aimed at online communication --- e-mail and IP addresses. On general principle, you should consider using the following tools for maintaining your privacy online: Firefox, PGP, and TOR. Anyone with a blog should read the EFF's guide on How to Blog Safely.
Mark Vallen on political art
Posted December 20, 2005 by in Art & Politics
Mark Vallen has a great essay up on his blog Art for a Change responding to Larry Beinhart's recent article bemoaning the lack of "political" art in a recent group exhibit. Reading both Beinhart's original article and Vallen's reply made me think of our recent discussion with rations about art, marketing and authenticity, and I've got to say I'm still torn. Beinhart writes:
Our public dialogue is anemic. The Right has hijacked the pulpits. Public relations speech and imagery are the order of the day. Public policy is sold the same way as cheap goods at Wal-Mart, with no regard for their quality or utility, or our need for them, but only to move product and contribute to the grosses of the grossest....152 artists were given an opportunity to show a small piece of work. Each and every one of them, individually, made a decision not to be political, social, religions or scientific.... the artists abdicated. Universally.
No czar or commissar told them to, no corporate sponsor paid them to, nobody from Homeland Security came around and hinted that they would be taking names, no influential critic said the age of relevance is dead, no greedy gallery owner said I can’t sell anything with a political or social theme.
No doubt he's painting with a broad brush here, but his frustration is familiar. Vallen's response, however, transcends the political/apolitical dichotomy Beinhart sets up by arguing that all art is political, whether the artist knows it or not:
Beinhart falls into the trap apolitical intellectuals in the art world often find themselves ensnared in; the notion that art is somehow beyond or removed from politics --- and that it only becomes political when artists make a concerted effort to make it so. For most people "political art" conjures up visions of clichéd Bush-bashing posters, works effortlessly categorized as propagandistic, easily separated from the mainstream --- and so dismissed without difficulty. It is a label given to a small number of works with a perceived or overt left/liberal bias, and as such, a categorization that deflects identifying the political workings and tendencies of the status quo and its attendant cultural institutions. The term "political art" is never used to describe the works of a David Hockney or Ed Ruscha, and the dominant cultural establishment that backs such artists is on no account referred to as "political" --- though it clearly is.
Vallen is making the case that "establishment" art is by virtue of its position conservative. (The history of CIA support for abstract expressionism would seem to back him up on this point).
In a related essay he makes a different point, asking if the "transcendent qualities of art" places it "above the corrupt world of politics and the vulgar materialism of society." All three essays are worth reading in full. I don't have any grand pronouncements here; I think I tend to support Vallen's argument, but I default to Beinhart's when I'm feeling frustrated with the state of the world, the art scene, and my own efforts.
Generally speaking though, Vallen's two arguments --- that all culture is political and that art can transcend conventional politics --- are pretty much my starting points for thinking about art, politics, commerce, advertising, freedom, hope, and all the rest. I'd like to hear what people think; drop us a line or leave a note in the comments.
Image at top: Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) by Mark Vallen.
Stan 'Tookie' Williams, R.I.P.
Posted December 15, 2005 by in Art & Politics
As I am sure everyone knows, Stanely Tookie Williams was murdered by the State of California December 13th at 12:35 am PT by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison. He was 51 years old and had spent 24 years on death row. Williams' execution has inspired an outpouring of support from various people and groups.
Today our friend Brandon Bauer sent us a beautiful stencil in honor of Williams' death, writing:
Another reason why the death penalty must be abolished. Stanley Tookie Williams is another casualty of the injustice system --- I made a stencil in his honor and have attached the template as a PDF. Feel free to download the image, print it out on cardstock, cut out the dark areas with an x-acto and get the image up on the street.
Click here to download the stencil template (1MB PDF file).
Art against the death penalty and prisons has played a vital role in informing the public about the prison system and offering support to those unjustly locked up. One great example was SAW's Art vs. Prisons. Another comes from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics. The following brief history introduces their exhibition, "Can't Jail the Spirit! Political Prisoners in the United States":
Throughout the twentieth century, posters have been one of the primary tools for organizing support for political prisoners. Potent graphics give witness to the prisoners' existence, inform the public about their status, mobilize support on their behalf, and prevent them from being forgotten by future generations. Can't Jail the Spirit! includes posters from the labor and anarchist movements of the early twentieth century, the McCarthy period, the Puerto Rican independence movement, the protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and concludes with current political prisoners. Nearly thirty years of posters demanding freedom for Leonard Peltier remind us that these posters have a life-and-death function for those still imprisoned.
Since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated in America, over 1,000 "convicted" prisoners have been killed. Though support is still high, it is declining as more and more people become aware of the profound flaws in the judicial system. Governor George Ryan also caused a sensation on January 11, 2000, when he commuted over 100 death sentences in Illinois, saying:
He had concluded that capital punishment was applied unfairly and arbitrarily and risked executing persons who were innocent. For these reasons, the Governor said he would no longer "tinker with the machinery of death."
More recently, Mumia Abu-Jamal has finally won a chance to be heard in court. It has been nearly 25 years since Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial that put him on death row. During this time he has witnessed wide support for his release, including some of the most inspirational and informative art about the prison system and the death penalty. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia agreed on Decemeber 7, 2005, to hear arguments on three separate defense claims of constitutional violations during his trail and state appeals. The catch however is if he loses, he may end up back on death row as "the Third Circuit is also considering the prosecution's appeal of a lower court ruling that overturned Mumia's death sentence."
Regardless of what your thoughts are about the death penalty or Williams's case, there probably has not been a better time in recent memory for a productive dialogue about the issue, especially as Abu-Jamal's case, and others, develop in the coming months. Do your part in any way you can.
As a reminder the deadline for posters on the Prison Industrial Complex that we featured over the summer is quickly approaching. The show is scheduled for Spring 2006 and will be held at the Watts Towers Art Center.
Deadline is January 30th, 2006. Once again the guidlines and where to send:
Criteria for posters CSPG collects: 1). It must be produced in multiples such as silkscreen, offset, stencil, litho, digital output etc. 2). The poster must have overt political content. If you would like to create a poster for an organization doing prison work or to donate posters, please contact:Center for the Study of Political Graphics
8124 West Third Street, Suite 211
Los Angeles, CA
90048-4039
tel: 323.653.4662
fax: 323.653.6991
email: cspg@politicalgraphics.org
www.politicalgraphics.org
a big thanks to Brandon for sending us the stencil!
Good karma
Posted December 9, 2005 by in Art & Politics
This email from Shaun in Pittsburgh came our way via the Street Art Workers email list:
I thought this was interesting, and a positive example of what happens when we release designs into the world. This is a design Claude (in SanFran) did a few years ago, I think for the Utopia/Distopia project. But those were printed blue, this appears to be reproduced on a photocopier or printer. I don't know if the person who put these up had one of the original stickers or if they got the image off our website, but there are a ton of these in and around my neighborhood in Pittsburgh, PA as of last month...
The original design can be found here. The 2005-2006 SAW posters are being selected right now --- a full gallery of downloads for the SAW archives is coming soon, so go bookmark Street Art Workers and keep checking back!
X-Giving
Posted November 24, 2005 by in Art & Politics
I'm not big on holidays in general, and the whole Thanksgiving-to-Chistmas season, with its frantic consumerism, stressful travel, and insipid jingles tends to make me a mumbling misanthropic mess. But in the spirit of recent entries on Zapatista murals, this year let's be thankful for the long history of indigenous resistance and the artists that celebrate it:
The above posters are by Claude Moller, Chris Stain, and Roger Peet, respectively. You can get them and lots of other great art at Justseeds. (Don't do it tomorrow, though --- it's Buy Nothing Day). And if you're in the mood to make something for a stranger --- which is basically what street artists do all the time --- you can get involved in Asbestos's Secret Santa Swap.
La Caravana de Artistas en Resistencia
Posted November 22, 2005 by in Art & Politics
In August, our friend Mariel traveled from the U.S. to Mexico to join La Caravana de Artistas en Resistencia. This group of artists took a bus to Chiapas to paint murals in several Zapatista communities that have never before had political murals...
La Caravana de Artistas en Resistencia was the culminating part of an encuentro at the Universidad Autonoma de Chapingo, an ex-hacienda turned agriculture university outside d.f. apparently they host a lot of radical conferences there. The encuentro was organized by a Mexico D.F. based group called la L.I.P Gargola and a Minneapolis based political art collective called the Babylon Collective.
The incredible existing murals in Oventic, are by muralista extraordinaire, Gustavo Chavez, the spearhead of the whole experience. The prevailing themes in the murals are the things that make up the EZLN movement, democracy, justice, freedom, strong women, and of course Zapata, Che, Marcos, corn, children, and snails. The book held by the woman in my mural has the Tzotzil words for democracy, justice, and freedom on it.
The mural that I worked on was in a community that is one of the only communities with women authorities. So we thought it would be wonderful to highlight the strength of Zapatista women, how they are really such a force in the movement. We designed the mural with community members and they were very positive about having a woman at the center (she is with a baby because, of course, no matter what a Zapatista woman is doing from the age of 6 on she usually has a child with her--also, when we first met with the authorities in a very official meeting one of them was breastfeeding) and of course expected Zapata and Marcos to be represented.
Lots of murals have snail symbols to to represent the new caracol (snail) system of organizing the communities in Chiapas. The woman's blouse is also significant because the women in La Magdalena de la Paz have a weaving/sewing collective and make these very distinct blouses. I actually have a photograph of two women from the community (masked) standing next to the image of themselves. Also an important part of La Magdalena de laPaz is a women's literacy group that was started a few years ago-- hence the book.
Folks in the community were reluctant to help us paint, but were very eager to watch every brush stroke, which made for some funny incidents. One day when we returned from Comida we found the flowers from 'El Cima del Maiz.' It turns out that we were painting corn completely wrong, and this was a big problem. People were talking. "The corn stalk only has THREE ears! You should erase this one...and that one...and here is a flower from the top of the plant, so you will know how it looks. Of course we fixed the corn right away, but i was wondering the whole time, do they care that i painted it purple, pink and orange? Apparently not. Later, when i told a friend of mine in Cuernavaca about this incident she said, "What, don't they have corn in your country???" Also, the Marcos you see was like, version #4. We blocked him in in the lower right corner, but on the same day as the corn incident the corn-flower man approached us and said, "You know, people are talking. About Marcos. It's such a shame that he's so low down to the ground. hard to see! and so little...." He didn't even have to finish his sentence, we were already fixing it.
It was really great that the folks felt so comfortable to tell us exactly what they wanted, because it's their mural. They will be living with it on their presidencia until they decide to paint it over. One of the best parts of painting it was that it was right in the middle of the community, where everyone walks by. when the woman was developing all these women would walk by with their children, so shyly but would smile when they saw themselves represented on the only mural in their community.
We had fun with the kids in the community too. they spent a lot of time doodling/painting on the wall where the Magdalena and Guadalupe were. We kind of incorporated some of their images into that wall, but the authorities told us to erase most of them (I'd like to go back and do a mural skillshare with kids/young adults...) It was really interesting. We just handed them paintbrushes and paint and within minutes the wall was covered with images of snails, Marcos with his pipe, EZLN signs, masked Zapatistas...
So i've written a novel. No need to add any of my babbling to the website, but I am including other photos (including ones of gustavo murals), so if you have any more questions just ask!
paz,
Mariel.
Road Trip for Relief
Posted November 11, 2005 by in Art & Politics
November 20th-27th there is going to be a ROAD TRIP FOR RELEIF to New Orleans organized by a radical group called Common Ground. Anyone and everyone should get in their cars, trucks, vans, whatevers, fill up your car with people, and drive down to New Orleans to show your solidarity with the 9th Ward. Join a caravan or organize your own and make a stop in another city along the way to pick up supplies and other donations. My friend Blair is organizing an NYC caravan and recently returned from working with this radical group.
Here is what Blair has to say:
I worked with a group called Common Ground. The group has two parts; the collective and the free health care clinic. I worked mostly with the clinic. I also worked to mobilize clinics in other areas. We were stationed in Algiers, across the river. Algiers had no flooding, just rain and wind damage. However, everyone was still forced to evacuate. Algiers had and still has shelter that could hold approximately 40,000 displaced persons. It is currently holding ZERO. The state won't allow any building to occupy anyone. 'It is not safe for anyone'. Well, it is 'safe enough' for FEMA. Algiers has never had available health care before the Common Ground Clinic. Malik Rahim donated our clinic space. Malik is a long time community organizer, Green Party candidate and former Black Panther. The Common Ground Collective is a mass distribution center operating out of his home. Seven blocks away is our health clinic, in his donated a Mosque. We literally have bed sheets hanging from found pvs piping dividing some kind of doctor's spaces. We have four spaces blanketed off and about 8-10 stations made up of dumpster-dived chairs. The Common Ground Free Health Clinic has served over 16,000 people in New Orleans since the levy's broke (a few weeks out dated). The collective has done this with zero aid from any major relief agency. In this small space, complete with recycled furnishings, has seen more patients per day and kept more accurate records than ANY hospital or health clinic in ALL of New Orleans AND surrounding towns. And it is the ONLY one that stayed open during Rita.
finish reading this post to find out how to get involved...
If you are interested in leaving from NYC or being picked up along the way contact Blair: 347.385.1514 (NYC contact, and also helping connect folks in Canada, Minnesota and Wisconsin)
On the Common Ground blog you can communicate with many others from around the country to find other caravans
If you want to donate goods, major things that are need are:
-tarps (30'x20/50')
-electrical supplies for rewiring houses (wire,
outlets, breakers, etc)
-12 amp, 100 foot extension cords
-sheetrock
-good quality tools
-tents (12'x20/30')
-ready to run computers
-generators!!!
-truscks/tractors
-mobile kitchens
-liquid vacs (wet/dry vacs)
-chainsaws
-respirators
-shoves
-brooms
-mops
-hammers and nails
-sledgehammers
-drills and thick screws
-rubber boots
-gloves
-mesh body protectors/suits
-N95 masks
-all types of cleaning products
-tools
-winter clothes
-bedding
-medical supplies
Supplies can be sent to:
Common Ground Relief Center
331 Atlantic AVE
New Orleans, LA70114
Or, if you are interested in donating directly to a family, let Blair know. She is in touch with a number of families and can send them funds directly. She can also give you the full report on her experiences, which upon reading I was simultaneously enraged and filled with hope at people's efforts.
NYC Indymedia needs new space
Posted October 26, 2005 by in Art & Politics
NYC Indymedia does invaluable work, especially on their free biweekly paper the Indypendent. Their website, paper, and space have all served as powerful and much-needed resources for activists in this city, especially in busy periods such as the build-up to the Iraq war and during the Republican National Convention. After several years in their current office, they're being forced to look for a new space:
Help! NYC Indymedia is moving out of its longtime office at 34 E. 29th St. at the end of November and is looking for a new space.We are seeking to either share a space with another movement organization or rent an 800-1,000 square ft. office (at below market rates), preferably in Lower Manhattan.
Keywords: News, Media, Alternatives, Local, Communication Rights,
NYC Indymedia has been one of the most consistently active chapters in the global Indymedia network over the past five years and has done amazing work. We currently put out a biweekly television show ("Blacked Out TV") that airs locally and nationally and three newspapers (The Indypendent, El Independiente and IndyKids). Having a space to work out of is crucial to our long-term growth.
If you have any leads or suggestions to pass on, please email imc-nyc at indymedia.org or call 212-684-8112. Thanks for your support!
If anyone out there can help, it would be more than appreciated. Also, moving has tons of incidental expenses, so if you can spare it, donate to the NYC-IMC here.
Mayoral Campaign Criticisms
Posted October 23, 2005 by in Art & Politics
Since we are a NYC based collective, and there is an upcoming mayoral election, I wanted to point out a really slick website called Fire Bloomberg.
The site leads to a wealth of information about the past few years of the Bloomberg administration, with links to all articles on topics ranging from Housing to Transportation to Womyns Issues and more. The site suggests:
Bloomberg claims to have helped regular New Yorkers. But once you read through Bloomberg's Record, you'll see that Bloomberg has hindered regular New Yorkers.
There are also critiques on Bloomberg's commercials, picking apart inconsistencies in the data used in them.
I decided to check it out in more detail, after I saw an assumingly young teenage boy in a Park Slope cafe with a pin, bearing the logo of the website (the Bloomberg image above). It reminded me of the pins that many folks used to wear during the Guiliani administration, and how easy it is to dislike politicians that take advantage of inflated real estate markets.
Interview with M-City
Posted October 14, 2005 by in Art & Politics
Ever since we saw M-City's work highlighted on the Wooster Collective site we have been floored by the magnitude and originality of their work. Several months in the making, here at last is an interview with Mariusz, the person behind the project.
How did you start this project? What were your influences and inspirations?
My work, even before M-City, has always dealt with themes related to the city and the elements that make it up or that are connected with it. I think that a main influence has always been the surroundings that I live in and a fascination with industrial places. From my window at home I see cargo containers, from another window the chimney stacks of the hydroelectric plant. In Gdansk there is a shipyard where most of the terrain dealing with ship production has been closed due to economic reasons. There remains plenty of buildings, a production hall, cranes, and streets that have been an incredibly inspirational. Besides that there is an artist collective there with several galleries that has the climate and feeling of a squat. All of this is situated within lovely geometric lines and isometric perspectives from which the project is built.
Can you discuss the status of Street Art in Poland?
Very few people in Poland interest themselves with muralists. In the city where I live once a year there is a festival dedicated to large scale painting—the only one of its kind in Poland. It is difficult to find places to put work up, not to mention finding the money. Most of the legal realizations are covered out of my own pocket. Street art, murals, etc...for now have not been commericialized. There are many differing people interested in street art but with very little connection to each other. There is minimal interest and coverage in the media and newspapers. There is only one street art festival in Warsaw. A negative example of commericalizition is the global popularity of graffiti, which was falsely created, and as a result the artistic level of graffiti has strongly dropped. Cities have been flooded with cheap work. Large sections of old painters have stopped painting and the young painters still have a lot to learn.
Much more after the jump...
How has your work been received by the public?
Black and white colors and the large amount of object details draw people to the work. It is easier to draw the attention of a viewer when he knows what the work means or what it is about, in being able to recognizing related images, graffiti sits in opposition to this, where the most important thing is the aesthetic and not the readability, which results most often in not understanding. The projects objective from the beginning was to draw the whole public into playing with the work. On the bigger projects I am inviting friends or bystanders. The initial sketch that might arise for a project is very broad, though in reality it is limited by the global composition and shape of the city. What occurs in the middle of the modern city is mostly by chance. Thanks to the modular composition of M-City every person involved in the project can by themselves pick elements of the city and place them in space. There are no limits to the combinations, therefore everyone can create her own world, oftentimes one mimics the situation they are in or the place that they live.
How do you decide on a location for a project?
I try to find a place that is both visible and lonely—though finding such places is not easy. I don’t like it when one work interrupts another. Its better to integrate with the surrounding. Most of the time I try to take advantage of places that are legal. To make a large wall it sometimes takes several days.
The scale of your work is incredibly large, yet there are smaller details to take in--food not bombs, etc--are these scenes noticed by people?
The work can be understood from several viewpoints. It’s like a view from an airplane—the closer to the ground the more details. You can look at it from a distance as a specific ornamental form or as a specific relation to a place, because sometimes the city shape duplicates city fragments from the surrounding. Most often histories and stories hide themselves within the details. The more people I invite to build the walls these stories emerge.
Whose work is currently inspiring you?
For example, the water color writings, or brail word graffiti. Or interfering with space like this guy. Any 3-D objects etc...anything that tries to somehow break with classical conventions.
Are you thinking of a visit to the US?
If someone would sponser the visit then why not. Mostly the cost of the flight is very expensive and after that I would have to get a visa which is not easy. Right now I am not working and not studying which means I am the ideal candidate to be rejected for a visa. Recently I had a proposition from LA and I am waiting for what may come out of that.
Here is alink to the orginal text in Polish. If anyone has suggestions for translation please write us!
Can't tell the cops from the robbers
Posted October 6, 2005 by in Art & Politics
Will from UntitledName.com has photos of police officers stealing bicycles locked to street signs in Williamsburg. He writes:
Around 7 pm on October 5, 2005 the NYPD removed bicycles locked to the entrance of the Bedford Avenue L station in Williamsburg. Locks were cut, bicycles were tagged and driven away in vans without prior warning. Although signs indicate property attached to these MTA railings will be removed, there was no such warning for bicycles removed from nearby signposts.In fact, according to New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law Article 24, Section 1115, it is completely legal to lock a bicycle to a signpost, lamppost, bus stop pole, parking meter or any other public street fixture as long as it does not alter or interfere with the operation of public traffic signals and signs. Because of potential harm, locking to a tree is illegal.
This situation underscores the need for more outdoor bicycle parking, one of the many important issues Transportation Alternatives is working on. If you walk or bicycle in New York City, you should really consider becoming a member.
I just called the 94th Precinct, which includes Bedford & N. 7th, to find out what excuse the cops would use and they wouldn't talk to me. Call 'em up at (718) 383-3879. See more pictures here, and a discussion on Indymedia which includes a scan of the NYPD's official guide to Bicycle Safety & Security that specifically recommends locking to street signs.
UPDATE: Apparently the law is unclear on whether cyclists have the right to lock to "street furniture." City Council member Margarita Lopez recently introduced a bill that would codify this right: contact your councilmember and ask them to support Bill 685.
Media "Blackout" in New Orleans
Posted September 7, 2005 by in Art & Politics
With the recent destruction of New Orleans, and the lawless aftermath there now exists an exetremely volatile circumstance. While the mayor declares a final evacuation to "forcibly remove" those that remain, the city of New Orleans will finally be a militarized zone. Reporters covering instances of "looting" or shootouts will continue to have their images and equipment confiscated and be physically threatened (Reporters Without Borders). The portrayal of people in most need will be demonized and marginalized as criminals, further encouraging racist stereotypes. The death and destruction are also images that the administration doesn't want the general public to see. Much like the returning corpses and caskets of occupied Iraq, the media was requested, by FEMA, not to run images of dead bodies, because "the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect." In my opinion FEMA is more interested in covering up the destruction which they are required to prevent and respond to.
There also will be an amazing opportunity for slimy politicians and businesses to make a buck, as Democracy Now! reports today,
"...former head of FEMA, Joe Allbaugh, may stand to profit from the catastrophe in the Gulf region through his various lobbying efforts."He headed FEMA until March 2003 just as the U.S. was launching its invasion of Iraq. Then Allbaugh helped form a lobbying firm called New Bridge Strategies in order to help clients "take advantage of business opportunities in the Middle East following the conclusion of the U.S.-led war in Iraq." New Bridge Strategies was also formed by several top executives from the lobbying firm then known as Barbour Griffith & Rogers. The head of that firm was Haley Barbour who is now the Republican governor of Mississippi. Earlier this year Joe Allbaugh signed on as a lobbyist for Halliburton subsidiary KBR in order to "educate the congressional and executive branch on defense, disaster relief and homeland security issues." Just last week the federal government announced that Halliburton would be hired to repair the Gulf Coast military bases damaged by Katrina. And now the Washington Post is reporting that Allbaugh is also helping Louisiana "coordinate the private-sector response to the storm."
It appears very convenient to remove the citizens of a locale, especially "dangerous" people of color, so that Multi-National businesses like Halliburton may have an easier time revitalizing a city that has been totally demolished.
I find the connections and possible financial gain by the same manipulative politicains and businessmen who brought us the Iraq war, apalling and disgusting. And I wish to encourage all journalists and photographers to document every aspect of the military occupation of New Orleans, as well as the carnage and death that is becoming more apparent every day. There are many outlets for this reporting and it is exetremely necessary for civil society to know how this disaster is being handled. For those that don't have access to news media and are documenting these events, some suggestions are posting imagery and reporting on Indymedia, or even publishing photos on Fickr. Media activists in Houston are setting up a microradio station right now! There are so many forms of Independent media and they need to be utilized. If you have other suggestions please post them in the comments.
Pure Horror
Posted September 1, 2005 by in Art & Politics
The scenes from New Orleans are heartbreaking and bring back horrible memories of New York on September 11. But where that tragedy was an instant shock, the full toll from Hurricane Katrina is only slowly sinking in, and the situation in the affected area only seems to be getting worse every day. Our hearts go out to everyone affected. Relief is badly needed --- not least because the government seems to be absolutely unprepared --- anyone with the means, if you haven't done so already, please donate to the Red Cross, the American Friends Service Committee, or America's Second Harvest, and anyone in the Southeast or Gulf Coast can open their doors to refugees through HurricaneHousing.org. Please recommend further ways to help in the comments, or drop us a line at visual.resistance[at]gmail.com
UPDATE: Here's a list of grassroots organizations doing Katrina relief.
Fixed
Posted August 30, 2005 by in Art & Politics
VisualResistance.org is back online ,with some changes; most notably a new intro page with quick links to projects we've been involved in. This blog is only a small part of what we do as a group, so we figured it was time to highlight our "offline" existence. We'll be adding to those pages soon, as well as changing the layout of the blog. Stay tuned.
The Antiwar Movement: Desperation & Hope
Posted August 18, 2005 by in Art & Politics
I missed this story when it first came out but it’s been sticking in my brain since I found it a few days ago:
A U.S. Air Force colonel has been charged with painting obscenities on parked cars bearing pro-President Bush bumper stickers, police said on Wednesday.
Lt. Col. Alexis Fecteau, who supervises 41 full-time and part-time reservists at the National Security Space Institute in Colorado Springs, Colo., is suspected of vandalizing 12 cars at Denver International Airport over a six-month period, Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said.
Full article here. Think about the sheer incongruity of the story: a 42-year old Air Force colonel spraypaints “Fuck Bush” on cars, over and over again. Think about the aimless fury that implies. The festering rage with no logical outlet. Then think: 42-year old Air Force colonel.
There seems to be this growing antiwar sentiment in the military and among military families. Cindy Sheehan — the mother of Army specialist Casey Sheehan, killed in Sadr City, Iraq in April 2004 — is only the most prominent example. Her story has gained national attention as she and an ever-growing number of supporters camp out in front of Bush’s Texas ranch demanding an answer to the question “How many more soldiers have to die before we say enough?”
She’s not alone, by any means: see here and here and here and here… but you get the point. In a media landscape filled with a rotating crop of empty-vessel experts in nothing, where party talking points masquerade as conventional wisdom, Cindy Sheehan has managed to break through as that rarest of televised things: a real person. That’s why Bush & Co. can’t shake her: she’s not some party hack, she’s not just some loudmouth crank, and she’s not selling anything. She’s a real, regular person, and living proof of the horror that is the Iraq war.
What’s remarkable about all this is that it’s happening in a context where the antiwar movement is, for all intents and purposes, non-existant. There haven’t been any significant antiwar demonstrations since last year’s Republican National Convention. Antiwar voices rarely, if ever, get a hearing in the corporate media. The post-election feeling of powerlessness, combined with the ineptness of the so-called leadership of groups like ANSWER & UFPJ, has produced this remarkable lull in antiwar activity at the exact same time that a growing majority of Americans have turned against the war.
Anyway, my point is this: every day since Cindy started her vigil I’ve been following the news from Crawford obsessively. I’ve been moved by her courage and her honesty, and faced with the awesome beauty of a lone individual putting themselves on the line, I’ve felt like an unforgiveable waste for not doing more myself to help stop this disaster. So, what can we do? Or, what are you already doing? What new artwork is being produced, what new efforts being launched? The community of friends, collaborators and readers around VR has consistently amazed me with their talent and dedication, so I’m turning to you all for ideas and inspiration. Email visual.resistance[at]gmail.com or use the comments below as a clearinghouse for information on new projects, new artwork, new ideas…
Image at top by John Emerson for the No RNC Poster Project.
VisualResistance.org emerges from coma!
Posted August 17, 2005 by in Art & Politics
The tech problems we’ve been experiencing for the last 4 days should be cleared up now. The photolog still has some bad amnesia, but the main page (this one) and the Critical Mass page should be up and running. Please e-mail eliotmail[at]gmail.com if you’re having problems viewing the site or if you spot missing files or bizarre errors.
Thanks to everyone who emailed us with tips on good hosting companies; more suggestions are welcome. So, now that everything’s back to normal, check out the highlights from the recent content our host temporarily deleted: Space Invaders Under Attack, “I’m not an art critic, I’m a cop”, Banksy in the West Bank, and interviews with David Lester and Cristy c. Road.
New site for Critical Mass art
Posted May 27, 2005 by in Art & Politics
We've been working hard this week to set up a new website for our Critical Mass campaign. Today feels like this city's first summer day --- just the right time to kick-start a good project and go for a nice bike ride with a thousand of our closest friends.
If you want to help support Critical Mass this is the site to share ideas and inspire fellow riders (and pedestrians). Whatever your medium or interest, check out the site, give us feedback --- and some new designs! --- get out of the house, and hit the streets.
The link: http://visualresistance.org/criticalmass.
Critical Mass Art: An Update
Posted April 22, 2005 by in Art & Politics
A reminder and update about Visual Resistance's Art for Critical Mass call: we've got 5,000 stickers coming next week, just in time for the April ride. We've got a half dozen posters in our gallery ready to be downloaded, printed, and posted. And we're just getting started.
We need more poster and stencil designs, and we need to hear from you folks about getting this out --- and up! We will be distributing our stickers at the next ride, and are starting to print posters and get them distributed. But we'd like this to be an ongoing effort over the spring and summer, using the images you design to help support Critical Mass rides and speak out for the right to free assembly.
Send your designs, plus any ideas, suggestions, or tips to us at visual.resistance [at] gmail.com. Feel free to spread the word, print some posters, cut stencils, and let us know what you think.
