Upload
peet-fetsch
View
216
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Poster Offensive is a poster show dedicated to peace and democracy. The PO was first organized in 2004 as a response to George W Bush being elected for a second term as President of the United States. The last Poster Offensive, PO 4, coincided with the Republican National Convention in St Paul, Minnesota. Artists have included Aesthetic Apparatus, Jon Forss, Burlesque of North America, Chank Diesel, the Decoder Ring Design Concern, Sharon Werner, Sarah Nelson, Bill Moran, Kent Aldrich, Eighthourday, Spunk Design Machine, and many more talented designers.
Citation preview
Originally published in conjunction with Poster
Offensive. Organized by Spunk Design Machine,
and Frank Stone Gallery Minneapolis, Friday
February 27th – Sunday February 29th, 2004.
Reproduced by Poster Offensive in 2010 in
celebration of a new website.
Poster Offensive 2004 Curators:
Lynn Stone, Frank Stone, Ben Pagel, Steve Jockisch,
and Mickey Smith.
Design: Spunk Design Machine
(www.spkdm.com)
Photography: David Bowman
Editor: Spunk Design Machine
(www.spkdm.com)
Second Edition Modifications: Poster Offensive
(www.posteroffensive.com)
Second Edition 2010 Poster Offensive. This work
is licensed under the Creatve Commons Attribution
Noncommercial No Derivative Works 3.0 United
States License. To view a copy of this license, visit
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/3.0/us/) or send a letter to Creative Commons,
171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco,
California, 94105, USA. No part of this book may
be reproduced or utilized in any form or any
means—electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system—without expressed
written consent of David Bowman, 4720 South
Lyndale Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55409
([email protected]) Poster Offensive,
253 East 4th Street, St Paul, MN 55101
([email protected]) and Spunk Design
Machine, 4933 South 34th Avenue Minneapolis,
MN 55417 ([email protected]). With the exception
of the poster index in the back of the book (pages
41-84). These images can be photo copied and
used for posting. Please do not sell these images or
use them for financial gain.
Printed and bound by Lulu.com.
Purchase a copy at (Lulu.com/posteroffensive1&2).
Visit us at (posteroffensive.com)
Introduction by Ben Pagel
Poster Photograph Introduction by David Bowman
Poster Photographs by David Bowman & Artist’s Statements
The Numbers by Jeff Johnson
George W. Bush is a Big Dummy by Sarah Nelson
Monster by Ben Pagel & Steve Jockisch
Open House by Chad Haggen
Lick Bush by Anchalee Chambundabongse
True Hollywood Stories by Chank Diesel
Inculcate by Matthew Larson
Untitled by Jack Wilcox
Thug Bully by Chank Diesel
You Won’t Even Read This by Jason Walzer & Andrea Floren
Thank You Mr. Bush by Katie Kirk
Foriegn Policy by Aaron Pollock
George W. Bush Says by Dan Ibarra & Michael Byzewski
Release The Peace by Kelly Munson
Hey Kids by Bill Tuomala
Shut Up & Vote by Bill Moran
Spectator by Mickey Smith
The War Series by Craig Duffney
Them by Todd Bartz
Poster Index | PO 1&2
The Numbers by Jeff Johnson
George W. Bush is a Big Dummy by Sarah Nelson
Monster by Ben Pagel & Steve Jockisch
Open House by Chad Haggen
Lick Bush by Anchalee Chambundabongse
True Hollywood Stories by Chank Diesel
Inculcate by Matthew Larson
Untitled by Jack Wilcox
Thug Bully by Chank Diesel
You Won’t Even Read This by Jason Walzer & Andrea Floren
Thank You Mr. Bush by Katie Kirk
Foriegn Policy by Aaron Pollock
George W. Bush Says by Dan Ibarra & Michael Byzewski
Release The Peace by Kelly Munson
Hey Kids by Bill Tuomala
Shut Up & Vote by Bill Moran
Spectator by Mickey Smith
The War Series by Craig Duffney
Them by Todd Bartz
Peace Kills by Jason Strong
Mother by Anchalee Chambundabongse
Oil by Nathan Strandberg
Man In Black by Jeffrey Johnson
Small World by Hilary Davis & Paula Maki
i
ii
1-38
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
34
36
38
41-84
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
Let’s Take It Back by Adam Turman
Uncle by Chad Hagen
Save Our State by Jarrod Riddle
Tea Party by Katie Kirk
My Body Is My Business by Haley Johnson
Fossil Fools by Bill Moran
Business Commentary by Sharon Werner
Prison Machine by Justin Martinez and Ben Pagel
Liberal by Patrick Maun
Lick Bush 2004 by Sarah Nelson
Patriot Acting by Aaron Pollack
Cocaine: Alive With Pleasure by Chank Diesel and
Amy Jo Hendrickson
People Hate You by Todd Bartz
Star Tribune by We Work For Them
Freedom, Liberty, Fear, Power by John Reichel
Home-Sweet-Homeland Security by Andrea Foren,
Robb Harskamp, John Neerland
Why They Hate Us by Kelly Munson
Power by Steve Jockisch
Grand Old Party by the Decoder Ring Concern
WMF? by Aesthetic Apparatus
PO1 poster by Steve Jockisch
PO2 poster by Steve Jockisch
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
Introduction
By Ben Pagel
Edited by John Cords
Armed with creativity and urgency a small group of
artists set out to forge another inroad on the long
and often humbling path to America’s reclamation
of awareness. The weekend of February 27th, 2004,
the Poster Offensive was staged at Frank Stone
Gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Participants
from Minnesota’s vibrant design landscape were
invited to employ the poster medium as an arena
for expressing a piece of contemporary political
sentiment. The poster was chosen as the medium
primarily for its inclusive nature. The political poster
has long been used as a vehicle to communicate to
a wide range of people, especially during times of
peril. It is an accessible popular artifact doubling as
a beautiful means to direct attention to a cause. A
poster is meaningless without context. By definition,
it needs to be posted. Thus a poster show was born.
The Poster Offensive was both a forum for voices
and a site for action. In both cases, the catalyst was
the artists’ interpretations of the current political
and social landscape, manifested in their creative
visions. The participatory action in this case grew
out of a profound sense of duty or responsibility to
defend and employ the rights we share as
Americans and as human beings. If there was a
common denominator among all the posters
chosen for the show, it was the artists’ unswerving
invocation of the right to freedom of speech, a right
that must be defended more than ever in the age of
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the Patriot Act. So
this was an opportunity for artists to take action
with their voices and make a statement during a
very critical time in American history—or world
history for that matter—and create on their own
terms with the tools, means, and skills they have at
their disposal through the politically potent medium
of the poster.
Not only was the Poster Offensive designed to offer
the invited artists an opportunity to convey a critical
political message, but it also was a chance to make
a positive statement during an obsessively negative
time. The most definitive sentiment of these
twenty-one artists is a profound sense of
disconnection from the actions, beliefs, and
rhetoric of our current political administration.
This disconnect is the direct result of the intentional
exclusion of voices of dissent from current political
debate and many forms of the popular media.
Yet the show attempted to transcend mere
discontent to embrace the ideal of complete
inclusion. This show, therefore, had a progressive
agenda that revealed both dissent and ways to
escape the dead-end of political despair. It is our
hope that this book represents this ideal.
The photos of the posters included in this book
were shot within a context indicative of the theme or
feel of each individual piece. However, in choosing
settings for the posters, we were careful to not let
the contexts determine or constrict the range of
viewers’ interpretations or responses. The settings
were intended to place the works firmly within the
realm of the familiar and the everyday, in order to
link them with lived experience, yet we also—
perhaps paradoxically—wanted the contexts to
defamiliarize what we all tend to take for granted; in
other words, part of the goal was to both implicitly
critique the banality of the television or boardroom
(for example), and to shock us into the realization
of how rare true political dissent is, particularly
encapsulated in an aesthetically pleasing form.
There is seemingly an endless list of reasons why
the Poster Offensive is important now: the situation
in Afghanistan and Iraq, the battle over gay
marriage, the unemployment rate, the oppressive
nature of American foreign policy, biased and
commodified media sources—the list could go on
indefinitely. Whatever the reasons may have been,
the most important fact is that the poster show
did happen.
Art has an illustrious history as one of the means to
resist war, to critique the powers-that-be, and to stir
minds. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the
political stances of these posters—the show and the
book—will have done their job if they remind us that
art has the ability to inform, to educate, to spark
imagination, and, perhaps most importantly, to
inspire us to act. This is a form of political
expression that both the participants and audience
can actively and readily participate in, and that
simply makes good sense.
I
PhotographyDavid Bowman
The Honeymoon Is Over.
Two big things happened on my honeymoon.
Venice flooded and George W. Bush barely won the
2000 presidential election. Hiding away in our 15th
century Italian hotel, we watched CNN election
coverage until the Adriatic Sea gently rolled in and
knocked out the power.
Back in the states, I worked slowly but steadily
through that first year to build my fledgling
photography business. The economy was still
strong from the prosperity of the Clinton years. I
borrowed money and started getting jobs. Nine
months after our honeymoon, we had a baby.
Everything was great ... for three weeks.
Although it happened a thousand miles from St.
Paul, we couldn’t escape the dread of September
11th, 2001. Things would only get worse. The phone
stopped ringing. It seemed that the world no longer
needed advertising photographers.
Ironically, I found work as a freelance fine art
installer for a local company doing work in
Manhattan, reinstalling artwork at the World
Financial Center, directly across the street from
Ground Zero. From the executive suites on the 55th
floor, we had a view of the Statue of Liberty to one
side, and the crater that used to be the World Trade
Center on the other.
One morning as we worked, an official procession
carried the last piece of World Trade Center out of
the hole. We looked out at the backs of workers
lining the decks below, taking a break, watching the
silent procession stream past.
When I was asked to create photographs for this
book, I knew it was something I’d like to do – as a
Democrat, as a photographer, and as someone who
believes that war equals death.
II
The NumbersJeff Johnson
We need to reclaim our humanity.
Once you dispel the myths and cover stories behind
U.S. Foreign policy, there is a sadness that
overwhelms someone who loves America. And love
it I do. The long, complicated, often bloody and
sometimes grand history of these United States is
worth studying. Upon that, you will inevitably find
that we are a nation of people with a proud and
persistent sense of question. I question this
American empirical policy of oppression and world
dominion. I question it loudly. The tools at my
disposal are graphic design and critical thought.
I believe that we are in the face of, and among the
citizenry inclusive to, this American Empire. We’re
all were born into this Empire, but I firmly believe
we not born to silently accept the murder, rape, and
torture that follow the narrow interests of the
Empire’s rulers. The question, study, and active
resistance of this Empire are, I feel, the purest thing
we can do to reclaim one’s humanity.
2
Monster Steve Jockisch & Ben Pagel
We wanted to create something that represented
some of our current observations and feelings:
awkwardness, uncertainty, ugliness, vague and
imprecise rhetoric, misrepresentation of power,
willingness towards aggression, etc.
6
Open House Chad Hagen
“We stand today at a crossroads: One path leads to
despair and utter hopelessness. The other leads to
total extinction. Let us awe have the wisdom to
make the right choice.” — Woody Allen
8
Lick Bush Anchalee Chambundabong
When asked to contribute to the Poster Offensive, I
was really excited. I knew I wanted to do something
that reflected my great dislike for the current
administration, but the challenge was to do it in a
way that didn’t just bash and rant. I wanted a strong
message that people would be drawn to.
I was told that during the Bush Sr. election
campaign, someone had made a pin that said “Lick
Bush.” That was it. Now how could I take it a step
further, without being too dirty? Well, here it is.
Thigh-high black leather boots and girly, hand
lettered pubic hair looking typography. And hot
pink, of course.
I think the message of this poster resonates well
with everyone. It voices the call for a change in
leadership and speaks defiantly for women’s rights
at a time when they are being threatened.
10
True Hollywood Stories (George W. Bush)Chank Diesel
I’ve been entranced by cable TV celebrity
documentaries since they started airing on VH1 in
1997. It’s amazing how the life of any old knob with
star status, from Billy Joel to Boy George, can be so
captivating. And so formulaic — without failure, 35
minutes into anybody’s life story, tragedy strikes.
Paying homage to this quasi-biographical style in
the summer of 2002, I created my own True
Hollywood Story/Behind the Music celebrity
portraits. From Ozzy Osbourne and Johnny Cash to
Martha Stewart and President Bush, the soaring
successes and bitter tragedies of our nation’s
luminaries were highlighted in my art, along with
pen-and-ink portraits as best as I could execute them.
A runner-up to the “man in black,” genuine
American hero Johnny Cash, this presidential
portrait was the among the most popular in my
biographical series. The piece really took shape
when I turned my drawing into a poster, using a
subdued American flag as a color backdrop. I
created this piece before I realized how truly evil the
Bush empire was, but even then I found plenty of
faults for fodder. Kinda crazy how the most powerful
man in the world is an irresponsible rich kid who’s
playing president. Is he paying penance for his past
or is he simply Papa Bush’s perfect puppet?
12
InculcateMatthew Larson
Our view of reality is stained with misconceptions.
As we grew through childhood, we learned to see
life that way from our cultural environment. We
absorbed fallacies and artificial assumptions
presented as facts. We were indoctrinated to accept
beliefs as though they described reality, when they
actually distort its perception.
14
UntitledJack Wilcox
The human hand is one of the most unique and
recognizable icons in the world. Even a crude
drawing of its general shape can communicate this
idea. Our hands are literally the most tactile way
that we interact with each other and the rest of the
world. The hand symbol is a timeless, quiet, simple
way to communicate “human” in any language.
The string was tied onto the fingers and initially left
there as a gentle reminder. Now that reminder is
making itself personally and painfully well known.
The “peace” hand sign was prolific in the ‘60s.
This updated version calls upon that same spirit of
humane and self-evident righteous social rebellion.
16
Thug BullyChank Diesel
I’ve been socially brainwashed into liberalism since
my birth in 1969. My parents, my older brothers
and sisters, my artistic and academic peers have all
ingrained in my mind my whole life that it’s wrong
to send young men to far-off countries to die for a
cause they don’t understand. In fact, I suspect I was
born in Canada because my father, a college
professor, moved our family there so my oldest
brother could avoid a trip to Vietnam.
Because I’m aware of my left–leaning genetics, I try
not to be a knee–jerk liberal. I try very hard to see
things from the current administration’s side of the
table, to have a better understanding of what they
might be thinking. Is it possible that they’re acting
in the best interest of the country?
But everything I hear and read and see on TV
convinces me that the current president is a bad
man fronting a bad family leading a good country
into a dumb war for his friends’ and family’s
personal profits.
Hrmph.
My “Thug Bully” poster is a bit heavy handed and
not that far from calling W “President Poopypants,”
but that’s just because the poster is meant to be a
type specimen for the font you see used here which
I designed. It’s called Drunk Cowboy, and it’s
inspired by our King George, an old-school Texas
cowboy, drunk on power.
What a dick!
18
You Probably Won’t Even Read ThisJason Walzer & Andrea Floren
Since the majority of Americans shape their
political perspectives and opinions through popular
media, we decided to create our poster as a
snapshot of newsworthy material for the week of
January 5, 2004. From front-page headlines to
back-page briefs, to make our point, we focused our
delivery as the media focused theirs.
The American mass media are relying more and
more on spectacle, celebrity worship, and the
dumbing-down of content. This primarily satisfies
both the corporate ownership’s agenda as well as
the advertisers, who need to reach a large audience.
The omission, or “burying,” of important
information creates an uninformed and complacent
society. Society needs to demand quality journalism
from a wide range of sources, and not settle for
corporate infotainment.
20
Thank You Mr. BushKatie Kirk
I think that many of us were feeling the same way -
angry and frustrated with the current state of our
country and the political environment within it.
When the chance to participate was offered by
Jeff/Spunk, I thought it was a great opportunity to
voice and vent.
This poster deals with issues including the
environment, education, censorship and war. The
deteriorating top collage works as a unit, entangled
and confusing-overlaying a mocking “thank you,” I
feel that this peice helps describe my day-t-day
frustrations with numberous issues, policies and
officials of this country. Too many times during the
last four years I have screamed at the radio.
22
Foreign Policy Aaron Pollock
My poster explores visually the cultural vacuum that
exists in America, perpetuated by the media and
the government to create a culture of fear, while at
the same time trying to sell the false idea that
everyday America is getting safer and the rest of
the world is not.
The text within the world map was taken from the
U.S. Department of State website:
Worldwide Caution:
The U.S. Government remains deeply concerned
about the security of U.S. citizens overseas. U.S.
citizens are cautioned to maintain a high level of
vigilance, to remain alert and to take appropriate
steps to increase their security awareness. We are
seeing increasing indications that al-Qaeda is
preparing to strike U.S. interests abroad. al-Qaeda
and its associated organizations have struck in the
Middle East in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and in Europe
in Istanbul, Turkey. We therefore assess that other
geographic locations could be venues for the next
round of attacks. We expect al-Qaeda will strive for
new attacks designed to be more devastating than
the September 11 attack, possibly involving
non-conventional weapons such as chemical or
biological agents. We also cannot rule out that
al-Qaeda will attempt a second catastrophic attack
within the U.S. Terrorist actions may include, but
are not limited to, suicide operations, hijackings,
bombings or kidnappings. These may also involve
commercial aircraft and maritime interests, and
threats to include conventional weapons, such as
explosive devices. Terrorists do not distinguish
between official and civilian targets. These may
include facilities where U.S. citizens and other
foreigners congregate or visit, including residential
areas, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools,
hotels, outdoor recreation events or resorts and
beaches. U.S. citizens should remain in a
heightened state of personal security awareness
when attendance at such locations is unavoidable.
U.S. Government facilities worldwide remain at a
heightened state of alert. These facilities may
temporarily close or suspend public services from
time to time to assess their security posture. In
those instances, U.S. embassies and consulates will
make every effort to provide emergency services to
U.S. citizens. Americans abroad are urged to
monitor the local news and maintain contact with
the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.
24
George W. Bush SaysAesthetic Apparatus
We knew going in that there would probably be a lot
of fairly serious pieces with important messages so
we wanted to do something a little different. We
don’t consider George W. Bush a respectable man
and we didn’t think that what we made should show
any respect to him or his identity. We wanted to
make something as stupid and asinine as we
consider him to be.
26
Release The Peace Kelly Munson
I follow politics religiously and often find myself
utterly frustrated with the decisions our elected
officials are making. Most of my initial concepts
were quite negative and pessimistic in tone; but I
ended up opting for an idea that was much more
hopeful. The idea that government is essentially
human, and therefore inherently good. My poster
illustrates a rather simplistic call to action, that our
role as the last remaining superpower should be one
of stewardship, not destruction.
28
Hey Kids Bill Tuomala
With this poster I hoped to help reaffirm Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s stature as the best American president
of the twentieth century. Secondly, I wanted to
remind us that government is capable of doing
great things. And lastly, I had fun poking fun at
Ronald Reagan and the conservative cult(ure) that
attempts to equate him with the likes of FDR.
30
Shut Up & Vote Bill Moran
My motivation for producing this poster was based
on fighting a sense of apathy among eligible voters.
It’s a privilege to live in a participatory democracy
and it doesn’t take much digging to see how many
places in the world where it doesn’t exist. Those
who complain about the state of affairs in this
country, then don’t vote, add insult to injury. It is
this audience that my poster attempts to address.
32
Spectator Mickey Smith
These volumes of the London-based magazine,
Spectator, were published in the mid 1970s.
The content of just one weekly column, dated
September 11, 1976, recalls a number of significant
world-wide political events. “Four people were shot
dead in Cape Town. One hundred and twenty
people were killed in a ‘normal day of fighting’ in
Beirut. A KLM jet was hijacked...”
At the time of this exhibition, another Spectator
weekly portrait read, “Four flights from Britain to
America were cancelled for fear of attacks by
al- Qaeda. A Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11
people in Jerusalem. At least 109 people were
killed when suicide bombers attacked the
headquarters of the Kurdish Democratic Party in
northern Iraq…”
34
The War Series (1 of 7) Craig Duffney
What’s a neurotic–apocalypse fearing–on an hourly
basis–no time for meeting girls because I need to
tape my windows shut with plastic guy do when the
shit hits the fan?
I cozied up to CNN and started drawing.
36
Them Todd Bartz
Hmmmm… What’s a poster? I had to think about
that one for a minute when Spunk asked me to
participate in the Poster Offensive show. A poster
for me would be a substitute for myself. Walking
down the street, at the bus stop, hanging at the
coffee shop. If I were standing there instead of my
poster, what would I say?
I thought about all the “issues” that I could preach
about or the causes that I could draw attention too.
But so many great designers had tackled those
things before.
One thing I thought was common to most problems
and challenges in the world: No one takes
responsibility. The Bush problem, high gas prices,
crime, discrimination, poverty, even things like
traffic and corporate corruption. Everyone blames
someone else.
But it’s not someone else. It’s your neighbor, your
brother or sister, your friend or even yourself. We
elected Bush. We drive gas-guzzling cars. We work
for the corrupt corporations. It’s not “their” fault or
“those people” or “that guy”. We are Them.
Personal responsibility. That would be my cause.
That’s what I…. er, I mean my poster would shout
from the street corners.
38
Home-Sweet-Homland SecurityAndrea Foren, Robb Harskamp, John Neerland
Digital print on paper
12" X 18"
80