Just Seeds: Blog

Judging Books by Their Covers: 22

2010-09-06T13:20:23Z

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!

]]> Turns out that Brown University has digitally cataloged the entire collection of Radical America, which Icky noted in a post here a couple month back (HERE), and all the old issues can be downloaded HERE. Where possible, I've noted the cover designers/illustrators. My guess is that a lot of the final design of the covers was done by Nick Thorkelson, and artist and designer on the editorial board, so if unstated, I'd say it's probably by Nick:

v5n5:1971 and v12n2:1978 (cover based on murals in Chicano Park, San Diego):

v12n3:1978 and v13n3:1979:

v13n5:1979 and v13n6:1979:

v14n4:1980 and v15n3:1981 (cover by Nick Thorkelson based on 1921 design by Mieczyslaw Szuka):

v15n5:1981 and v16n4:1982:

v17n6:1983 and v19n2:1985:

v20n2:1986 and v21n6:1987-1988 (cover design by Kristen Bjork)

Signal Reading Tonight!

2010-09-05T02:23:05Z

Argh! I'm doing a reading/slideshow for Signal, the new journal that Josh and I co-edited, which was published by PM press.
It's at the Waypost, 3120 N. Williams Ave, Portland, OR.
7PM
Saturday, Sept. 4th

'A Bundle of Sticks is Strong: Rooting for the Home Team'

2010-09-03T13:00:00Z

Here are some images from the show 'A Bundle of Sticks is Strong' that I just installed in Cleveland. The lights haven't been properly set, so some of the shadows are weird. That will be fixed by the opening. Even so, I think you can get the general idea of the show, which uses baseball as the proxy to speak about issues of immigration and Indigenous sovereignty.

For the show, I created two series of relief prints, nine in each series. Each series is a baseball team, one entirely Native (calling into question the usage of Indigenous people as sporting mascots), the other completely immigrant (evoking how Latina/o players are engaging with Arizona's anti-immigrant legislation). The prints were all created from incised Louisville Sluggers.

In addition to the relief prints, I also did a set of pennants. Plus, a life-size wall painting of an ICE officer/umpire and an entire baseball team with a chalk batter's box on the gallery floor.

Let me know what you think. I am interested in trying to possibly travel the show, so get in touch and let me know what you think of the new work.

Click through for more images!

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wikileaks...

2010-09-03T12:58:27Z

I nice new block print from Sam and Katah at Dragon Dance Theatre:

Yo! SCAM hits Justseeds HQ

2010-09-03T12:00:00Z

Even though I've never been to Miami, the first four issues of SCAM zine are nostalgic for me, and probably a lot of other people. So it's fortunate that Microcosm Publishing recently released an anthology of those issues so we can all put our dog-eared, duct-taped copies safely away. SCAM #7 is hot off the presses too. With all this fanfare the Justseeds headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA, is happy to welcome SCAM author Erick Lyle for a book / zine reading this Sunday, September 5th. If you're in the area, stop by early for a potluck-style bbq, with the reading starting about 9pm. We're at 3410 Penn Avenue (park bikes and enter in back), right across the street from Lawrenceville's doughboy statue, the likes of which will be in a SCAM story, someday, I'm sure.

New CDC Billboard

2010-09-02T12:34:43Z

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.

]]> The CDC recognizes that our colleagues in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) may require additional support and financing as they expand Israeli jurisdiction into international waters. Annual US aid to Israel will increase to only $3.15 billion by 2013. Although our Israeli allies are thankful for such generosity, the CDC believes that America can do better. In order to encourage additional tax-supported financial donations for Israel, the CDC launched the “Blank Check” billboard campaign.

The corrected billboards read, “THANKS FOR THE BLANK CHECK, AMERICA,” featuring a US Treasury bank note for $7,000,000. The amount is a daily average of America’s $2.70 billion aid package for Israel in fiscal year 2010.

Reflecting Israel’s national colors, the blue and white billboards also include the following caption along with a discreet Israeli flag:

“In May 2010, Israel was attacked by an unarmed flotilla carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza. Decisive action by Israeli soldiers stopped this assault. Though only 9 people were killed and hundreds were detained, Israeli prestige came under fire. With your support, Israel can prevent future attacks. Our troops are waiting to execute anyone entering Gaza, but the cost of ammunition will strain daily U.S. aid of $7 million. Your additional tax dollars can overcome this challenge. Please contribute generously and help us bring peace to the Middle East.”

As a private correctional facility, the CDC recognizes the need for control and security in areas under Israeli jurisdiction. Therefore, the department salutes our Israeli colleagues in their efforts to maintain Gaza as the world’s largest open air correctional institution, exposing Palestinians to the safety, efficiency and discipline found in California facilities.

The California Department of Corrections is a private institution dedicated to the alteration, rehabilitation and improvement of California’s most criminal advertising. Initiated in 1994, the department is operated by individuals who feel that California’s correctional facilities have been insufficiently managing the state’s most criminal elements.

For additional information on department programs and policies, contact the CDC Office of Communications at cdc@revolutionist.com.

collage of the week (47)

2010-09-02T12:00:00Z

Some Press...

2010-09-01T13:19:08Z

A couple nice articles have come out recently about my projects:

1) Beth Simpson is working up a new Champaign-Urbana-specific Celebrate People's History poster project. There's a nice write-up in a local blog the217.com HERE.

2) The Spectres of Liberty project I recently did in Syracuse with Dara Greenwald, Olivia Robinson, and Joanna Spitzner is up in a show in Rochester, NY, and got a great write-up in the free weekly, City Newspaper. Check it out HERE.

'A Bundle of Sticks is Strong: Rooting for the Home Team'

2010-08-31T13:00:00Z

Over the course of the summer, I have been crazy busy. I finished a book manuscript, wrote a couple of essays for books, worked on a new series of prints, did the artwork for Michigan Indian Day, and it seems like a dozen other projects as well. Of course, this was all coupled with a two-week residency at the National Museum of the American Indian in DC and lots of trips Up North (as we say in Michigan) with my daughters.

Tomorrow, I will be driving to Cleveland to install a solo exhibition based on eighteen new prints that I created from incised baseball bats. Thinking primarily about immigration and the usage of Native peoples as sporting mascots, the show brings together a team of 'Indians' and 'Immigrants'.

]]> According to the Artist's Statement:
Known as the national pastime or America’s game, baseball occupies a central role in our nation’s collective imagination. Phrases derived from the ballpark pepper our everyday speech: in the big leagues, covering your bases, hitting a home run, out in left field, on deck, rain check, right off the bat, stepping up to the plate, striking out, and swinging for the fences, to name only a few. The game has equally been seen as an emblem of our country abroad and has been enthusiastically accepted by fans worldwide, particularly in Latin America and Japan.

Against this diamond shaped playing field, Dylan Miner proposes that a different game is being played, one that reveals truths of our collective past and points toward potential futures. As an artist and historian, Miner discloses that Native peoples are commonly relegated to either the dustbin of history or to the rural marginality of reservation life. Immigrants, particularly those from the global south, are inversely presented as a threat to the future of America. This exhibition challenges conventional notions of what it means to be a United States citizen at a time when even the most basic Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is being contested.

Bringing together a series of eighteen relief prints created directly from the inventive use of incised Louisville Slugger baseball bats, Miner has composed a full roster of positions that compose two opposing teams: Indians vs. Immigrants. His muscularly rendered compositions of professional baseball players and community leaders unite the contested fields of sports and politics in a singular manner by posing the question of whether you are rooting for the home team. Who is the home team after all?

Scope more at the Cleveland State University Art Gallery

I'll upload photos from the installation later this week!!

Into Iraq by Art Hazelwood

2010-08-31T12:43:03Z

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.

]]> These linocuts were all created in the last years of the Bush administration. Several were used as the basis for posters. In the last months of the Administration during the 2008 elections the whole series was exhibited in Oakland at the now defunct Front Gallery. It took from that time to the present to print and bind the thirty books. But it is a good time for us to recall George W. Bush. It is a good time to recall the path that led the country on its downward cycle. It is a good time lest we think he or his ilk have disappeared or worse that they have any good ideas at all.

Judging Books by Their Covers: 21

2010-08-30T13:13:15Z

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.

]]> TDR 43, Spring 1969, cover photos by "Rubenstein" (above)

TDR 38, Winter 1968, cover design Fred McDarrah and back cover of 43, advertisement for issue 44, designer unknown:

TDR 44, cover design by Franklin Adams and TDR 56, December 1972, cover design by Brooks McNamara:

TDR 68, December 1975, Leonard Levitsky and TDR 86, June 1980, designer unknown:

RESOURCED Portfolio at the Armory Aug.27-29

2010-08-27T15:21:39Z

Come check out our 2010 portfolio RESOURCED this weekend in NYC!! RESOURCED features 26 artist prints that focus on the issues of resource extraction, climate change, and environmental justice.

@ the Armory in NYC
Aug.27-29 9am-?
68 Lexington Ave & 25th St.

We were invited to participate by the amazing wonderful Samson Contompasis, co-organizer of the event, and the owner of the Marketplace Gallery in Albany.

Artists from across the world converge in NYC to present an epic exhibition benefiting families who have lost loved ones due to the Afghan and Iraq wars. CONVERGENCE NYC will be presenting art to the public, Aug. 27th –29th , at the Historic 69th Fighting Regiment’s Armory located at 68 Lexington Ave & 25th St. During these three days the public is invited to enjoy art and live music, while getting the unique opportunity to meet and mingle with the over 70 participating artists. Fifty percent of all sales will be donated to the NY/NJ chapter of Operation Homefront.

"Grace Before Dying" photo show (Portland OR)

2010-08-26T17:10:17Z

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.

Art Against Empire

2010-08-26T12:58:59Z

The Center for the Study of Political Graphics has just uploaded a couple more online poster exhibitions, including Art Against Empire: Graphic Responses to U.S. interventions Since World War II. Art Against Empire includes my poster "Places the U.S. has Bombed Since World War II," and pieces by Tomi Ungerer, Winston Smith, Art Workers Coalition, Adolfo Mexiac, Rupert García, Alfredo Rostgaard, as well as fellow Justseeders Jesus Barraza, Melanie Cervantes, and Favianna Rodriguez. Check out the exhibit HERE.

collage of the week (46)

2010-08-26T12:00:00Z