11 months ago
permalink

Song For Wendy

Temporary Services organized MUSIC MOUNTAIN, a series of concerts in the shared city spaces of Tingbjerg, a community in Copenhagen, Denmark. This concert took place on May 18, 2012.

This concert had a strange and oddly romantic quality. There were only a handful of steady audience members but Song For Wendy played a startlingly beautiful set that enveloped the space and provided a serene soundtrack for about an hour of everyday life in Tingbjerg. People made their purchases from the Kiosk, the 2A bus picked people up and dropped them off, kids walked by with their parents - sometimes asking their parents to stop and let them hear more music, people crossed the street as they exited the nearby nature path, and on a disturbing note, the police frisked a group of young men (not of Danish ethnic origin) who had been hanging around the shopping plaza as the show was ending.

You can download the entire concert here: temporaryservices.org/MUSIC/MOUNTAIN/songforwendy.mp3

For more information: temporaryservices.org/MUSIC/MOUNTAIN



11 months ago
permalink
Whoops! A quick correction to our June newsletter: the right link is now up for “New Axioms For Reading The Landscape: Paying Attention to Political Economy and Social Justice,” written by Don Mitchell. You can find it in the Free Stuff section at the bottom of the Reading Room page. Add it to your June reading list and check out the other suggestions posted by Regional Relationships in the current Reading Room. (via READING ROOM: REGIONAL RELATIONSHIPS : Half Letter Press, Independent Art & Publishing & Infrastructure)

Whoops! A quick correction to our June newsletter: the right link is now up for “New Axioms For Reading The Landscape: Paying Attention to Political Economy and Social Justice,” written by Don Mitchell. You can find it in the Free Stuff section at the bottom of the Reading Room page. Add it to your June reading list and check out the other suggestions posted by Regional Relationships in the current Reading Room. (via READING ROOM: REGIONAL RELATIONSHIPS : Half Letter Press, Independent Art & Publishing & Infrastructure)




1 year ago
permalink

Come to MUSIC MOUNTAIN tonight, Denmark, and hear the delectable sounds of Song For Wendy! Announce your presence at the Facespace invitation.

Up next - Papir & Troldmand Saturday. Yoke & Yohs Sunday.

(Video: HLJÓMSKÁLINN - Song for Wendy - “The Night” by MrHallisig)



1 year ago
permalink
We have a new installment of our Reading Room up on Half Letter Press. This one is the most extensive yet. There are new titles in stock at HLP and several things for free download. Check it out!
READING ROOM is an initiative of Half Letter Press that focuses on the books and writings of important contemporary artists, theorists, and critical thinkers as well as key themes in contemporary practice.
For this installment, we have invited Regional Relationships (Ryan Griffis and Sarah Ross) to curate a selection of titles for this page. We know them as people who love books: both reading and making them. They have chosen two new titles for the store and highlighted books already in stock that intersect with their own practice. If you scroll all the way down you will find some great FREE items they have provided. We are happy to be adding their recently launched subscription service to our store.
Go to Reading Room

We have a new installment of our Reading Room up on Half Letter Press. This one is the most extensive yet. There are new titles in stock at HLP and several things for free download. Check it out!

READING ROOM is an initiative of Half Letter Press that focuses on the books and writings of important contemporary artists, theorists, and critical thinkers as well as key themes in contemporary practice.

For this installment, we have invited Regional Relationships (Ryan Griffis and Sarah Ross) to curate a selection of titles for this page. We know them as people who love books: both reading and making them. They have chosen two new titles for the store and highlighted books already in stock that intersect with their own practice. If you scroll all the way down you will find some great FREE items they have provided. We are happy to be adding their recently launched subscription service to our store.

Go to Reading Room




1 year ago
permalink
Book Review: Revolution as an Eternal Dream by Mary Patten
By Daniel Tucker

Posted on March 26, 2012 
This Book Review appeared in Afterimage Vol. 39 No. 5 in the Spring of 2012:
Revolution as an Eternal Dream: the Exemplary Failure of the Madame Binh Graphics Collective
by Mary Patten, with a preface by Lucy Lippard and an afterword by Gregory Sholette/Half Letter Press/2011/84 pp./$13.00 (sb) [Purchase it here]
It is all too rare to see social movement history interwoven with art history—so what a pleasure it is to read Mary Patten’s memoir, which does exactly that. Patten recounts, through short essays paired with full-color graphics reproductions, her days in the May 19th Communist organization, working with particular commitment in the graphics and propaganda subcommittee known as the Madame Binh Graphics Collective from 1975 to 1983.
The text is sewn together with prose that critically comments on cadre activism from a mature, deeply honest, and self-reflexive position. Patten writes, “We were on the margins of the margins, the periphery of the periphery: far left or ‘ultra left’ in our intensely florid and dramatic politics.[PAGE 11]“ Later she introduces how art fit into these politics, elegantly explaining their approach to authorship and anonymity: “Those who choose this kind of political art practice find their lives intensely enriched and multiply connected to worlds beyond what they ever knew previously; worlds where possibilities beckon, and where ‘losing oneself’ also means sacrifice, sometimes to the point of self-obliteration.”[PAGE 49]
This book is unusual for a number of reasons. It is less a book than an essay, but an essay that is elaborated upon and contextualized by both a preface and an afterword. It is less a history than a memoir; a catalog, but without an accompanying exhibition. It is similar to a pamphlet, but with full color artwork never found in leftist propaganda.
I highly recommend this book to printmakers, politically motivated artists of any kind, and anyone interested in the way that art intersects with leftist history in general. Patten’s approach leaves many questions open concerning where these far left ideas went and what they mean today. But she reminds us that politics and art are ever-evolving outlets for our collective learning and dreaming—and in Patten’s case, despite let-downs, disagreements, and arrests, that remains eternal.
The Miscellaneous Projects of Daniel Tucker

Book Review: Revolution as an Eternal Dream by Mary Patten

This Book Review appeared in Afterimage Vol. 39 No. 5 in the Spring of 2012:

Revolution as an Eternal Dream: the Exemplary Failure of the Madame Binh Graphics Collective

by Mary Patten, with a preface by Lucy Lippard and an afterword by Gregory Sholette/Half Letter Press/2011/84 pp./$13.00 (sb) [Purchase it here]

It is all too rare to see social movement history interwoven with art history—so what a pleasure it is to read Mary Patten’s memoir, which does exactly that. Patten recounts, through short essays paired with full-color graphics reproductions, her days in the May 19th Communist organization, working with particular commitment in the graphics and propaganda subcommittee known as the Madame Binh Graphics Collective from 1975 to 1983.

The text is sewn together with prose that critically comments on cadre activism from a mature, deeply honest, and self-reflexive position. Patten writes, “We were on the margins of the margins, the periphery of the periphery: far left or ‘ultra left’ in our intensely florid and dramatic politics.[PAGE 11]“ Later she introduces how art fit into these politics, elegantly explaining their approach to authorship and anonymity: “Those who choose this kind of political art practice find their lives intensely enriched and multiply connected to worlds beyond what they ever knew previously; worlds where possibilities beckon, and where ‘losing oneself’ also means sacrifice, sometimes to the point of self-obliteration.”[PAGE 49]

This book is unusual for a number of reasons. It is less a book than an essay, but an essay that is elaborated upon and contextualized by both a preface and an afterword. It is less a history than a memoir; a catalog, but without an accompanying exhibition. It is similar to a pamphlet, but with full color artwork never found in leftist propaganda.

I highly recommend this book to printmakers, politically motivated artists of any kind, and anyone interested in the way that art intersects with leftist history in general. Patten’s approach leaves many questions open concerning where these far left ideas went and what they mean today. But she reminds us that politics and art are ever-evolving outlets for our collective learning and dreaming—and in Patten’s case, despite let-downs, disagreements, and arrests, that remains eternal.

The Miscellaneous Projects of Daniel Tucker




1 year ago
permalink
Here are some highlights from our March 2012 newsletter. Email us at publishers at half letter press d o t c o m if you would like to receive our e-news every month or so! (img above: Fan mail being sorted at the Federal Radio Commission, 1929, found at the Library of Congress site)

Half Letter Press News
March 2012

“Art does not exist in a vacuum; it is borne out of a particular political, economic, and social situation and has to be seen in that context.”

- Liberate Tate, from the essay “What’s Wrong With Oil Sponsorship Anyway?”. Included in Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil 

////////////////////

Hello friends!

Thanks as always for being a fan, a supporter, and a reader of the books, etc. available from all of us here at HalfLetter Press. We’re always excited to hear your input and well wishes. This month is full again of some great new stock, some fun upcoming events, and some free stuff for you to download and read!

We are currently working with Sarah Ross and Ryan Griffis, who are helping us create the next installment of Reading Room. Their first selection, Surface Tension, is already available on our site. Scroll down for a description. We’ll be in contact again when the installment is ready for your perusal. Looking forward to sharing this great group of readings with you! 

A former associate, Stephanie Pereira (one of our collaborators on the Chicago Ravioli Project) is now working for Kickstarter. We were excited when Stephanie invited us to create our own “curated page” on this fundraising site, and we encourage you to check it out and support some new and innovative work! 

Chicagoans: we’ll have a table at the Chicago Zine Fest (March 10, 2012). On Saturday, March 10, Marc will be tabling for HLP, and is a guest on the panel “Distributing and Marketing Your Zine”, along with Ayun Halliday (East Village Inky; Bust magazine contributor; former Neo-Futurist Theater performer) and Amy Leigh (twelveohtwo distro). It’s moderated by Billy of Loop Distro and happens at 4 pm at Columbia College Chicago. More information about this panel and the rest of the Fest is here.

People who celebrate March as Women’s History Month (or all of us who celebrate Women’s History each day!) might be interested in The New Woman’s Survival Catalog, a 1973 guidebook to the feminist movement co-edited by Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie. Thanks to Let’s Re-Make for making it available! Find it at http://halfletterpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=page&id=2 (scroll to the middle of the page)

You’ll see below that we have many new titles for you to choose from. Overwhelmed and unable to make a decision? We can relate. We now have gift certificates in the amounts of $5, $10, $20, and $50. Surprise your favorite reader, or give yourself a little HLP love. Contact us with shipping concerns, for gift ideas, and to chat about books you would like to see at HLP by emailing publishers@halfletterpress.com. You can also socially network with us through the magic of the internet - be our Facebook fan, follow us on Twitter, or check out our Tumblr posts. Let us know how we’re doing! 

////////////////////

NEW & NOTABLE



Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil

co-edited by Liberate Tate, Platform, and Art Not Oil
96-page full color perfectbound book
$15

This publication is an interrogation of oil companies’ sponsorship of the arts. This single issue and limited edition publication features artworks in dialogue with the BP Gulf of Mexico catastrophe and articles that set out the compelling arguments for an end to BP and Shell’s murky involvement with many of Great Britain’s favorite cultural institutions.

Each copy of this full color book is numbered and daubed with oil from Gulf of Mexico beaches by featured artist Ruppe Koselleck, as part of his ongoing Takeover BP project, in which Koselleck sells artworks to buy shares with the aim of ultimately taking over BP.

The groups Platform and Liberate Tate co-published Not if but when with the group Art Not Oil, as part of an ongoing collaboration. Liberate Tate is an art collective exploring the role of creative intervention in social change dedicated to taking creative disobedience against Tate until it drops its oil company funding. Platform is an arts and research organization bringing together environmentalists, artists, human rights campaigners, educationalists and community activists to create innovative projects driven by the need for social and environmental justice. Art Not Oil encourages artists – and would-be artists – to create work that explores the damage that companies like BP and Shell are doing to the planet, and the role art can play in counteracting that damage.



FASHION ILLUSTRATIONS BY D. ‘JAME

published by Public Collectors. Drawings by D. ‘Jame, courtesy of the collection of artist Michael Thomas
12-page full color stapled booklet
$2.50

These drawings by a fashion illustrator or designer named D. ‘Jame come from the collection of Michael Thomas, an artist based in Chicago. Thomas found the drawings at a thrift store in Chicago, and writes: “They were priced at $5 per drawing. I could only afford one and was unable to decide. The owner of the store said he was tired of having them around and I could buy them all for $20. There are thirty-three drawings. He said there had been more, but they had been sold.” The drawings are dated from 1970-77. The store owner purchased the drawings as part of a lot at an estate sale in Northern Indiana. No other information about D. ’Jame is known.

This booklet was produced for the exhibition “Archival Impulse” at University of Illinois at Chicago, which includes all of D.’Jame’s drawings from Michael’s collection, as well as additional collections on loan from other Public Collectors participants.



PHONEBOOK 3: 2011/2012. A DIRECTORY OF INDEPENDENT ART SPACES, PROGRAMMING, AND PROJECTS ACROSS THE U.S.

co-edited by threewalls. Includes essays and documents from Group Material, Renny Pritikin, Susan Sakash, FEAST Brooklyn, Ox-bow, Faheem Majed, Chances Dances, Paul Durica, Dara Greenwald, Amy Franceschini, Pilot TV, Jon Brumit and Sarah Wagner, PLAND, Andy Sturdevant, Robby Herbst and more. 
216-page softcover perfectbound book
$25

This latest volume of Phonebook is the biggest yet! Tons of useful information, good clean and clear design, and a resource you are sure to use. Phonebook 3 is a directory of independent art spaces, programming, and projects throughout the U.S. It also includes critical essays and practical information written by the people who run these spaces. From the editors:

“PHONEBOOK 3 includes artist-run spaces, public programming, unconventional residencies, alternative schools, and community resources; all of the projects that form and support art ecologies across the nation, as well as historical documents marking their past. Featuring essays and documents from Group Material, Renny Pritikin, Susan Sakash, FEAST Brooklyn, Ox-bow, Faheem Majed, Chances Dances, Paul Durica, Dara Greenwald, Amy Franceschini, Pilot TV, Jon Brumit and Sarah Wagner, PLAND, Andy Sturdevant, Robby Herbst and more.

With over 750 listings of artist spaces, residency programs, financial and administrative resources, and event series across the United States, this book is the essential guide to the current national landscape of artist-run culture. Including everything from nonprofit and community institutions to flexible and self-organized art spaces…”



THE UNHOLY BOW

by Terence Hannum
50-page softcover perfectbound book
$11

After countless ‘zines and other editions, this is Terence’s first perfect bound book, published by 5nakefork. It’s a series of visual and verbal meditations on headbanging. 

“Slowly the crowd gathers, heads hung as the musicians pick up their instruments. Upon the first note of feedback the heads start moving. Both performer and witness begin a ritualized dance in a flurry of hair, a profane genuflection. An unholy bow.”

5nakefork says: “THE UNHOLY BOW is the final publication in artist TERENCE HANNUM’s bi-monthly publication series for 2011 following his issues PURIFICATION, DARK MATTER/DUNKLE MATERIE (w/ Alexander Binder), DEATH POSTURE, ABLATION and NEGATIVE LITANIES. This issue focuses on the group ritual of the headbang ubiquitous in heavy metal culture, by cropping drawings and digital photo collages into a printed cadence and features a brief musing cadence from the artist.”



ART GANGS: PROTEST & COUNTERCULTURE IN NEW YORK CITY

by Alan W. Moore
185-page softcover perfectbound book
$18

Artist and Art historian Alan Moore worked with the artists’ group Colab and helped start the cultural center ABC No Rio. Meticulously researched from the small journals and alternative press of the time as well as artist’s archives and the author’s own personal experience, this book is a thorough, street-level history of artists’ groups and collective activity by artists in New York from 1969 to 1985. Most of these groups avowed a political purpose, were informed by leftist political thought, idealized collective action, and used art to advocate for social change. Many of the forms of artists’ organization pioneered by these groups have become standard practice in today’s art world. Others continue to remain invisible to the mainstream. By making art that engaged with questions of social justice, and working to enact social change through art, these groups helped invent many of the new forms that appeared in the 1970’s and 80’s.

Worth it for the footnotes alone, this book tells the story of innumerable collectives, artists, alternative spaces and journals, including such landmarks as The Artworkers Coalition, The Guerilla Art Action Group, Art & Language NY, The Times Square Show, Colab, PADD, and Group Material.



TRAUMA 1-11: STORIES ABOUT THE COPENHAGEN FREE UNIVERSITY AND THE SURROUNDING SOCIETY IN THE LAST TEN YEARS

by Copenhagen Free University (co-founders Henriette Heise and Jakob Jakobsen)
24-page staplebound booklet (dimensions 4 1/8” x 5 3/4”)
$2

We are big fans of the work of the Copenhagen Free University. They made some excellent publications during their decade or so of work together. We offer a handful of these publications and are the only place in the U.S. that sells them.

From the back cover of the booklet:
“Trauma 1-11 is an exhibition based on the Copenhagen Free University, a self-organised institution that was established by artists Henriette Heise and Jakob Jakobsen in 2001. This exhibition is made in collaboration with Emma Hedditch, Howard Slater and Anthony Davies who have close links to the Copenhagen Free University. Trauma 1-11 will be a personal journey through the period 2001 to 2011. It will be a staged interpretation of events in and around the Copenhagen Free University in a dramatised sequence of acts.

The Copenhagen Free University unfolded as a space for research and knowledge sharing within the domestic settings in a small flat in Copenhagen. The institution was dedicated to the production of ’critical consciousness and poetic language’ until 2007 where it ceased its activities. In 2010 the Heise and Jakobsen received a letter from the Ministry of Science noting them that if they ever wanted to conduct educational activities under name the Copenhagen Free University it would be breach a new law outlawing self-organised universities. This new law will in August be challenged with the opening of a new free university in a flat or in a park or in a square.”



LISA ANNE AUERBACH

Exhibition catalog, with an essay by Julia Bryan-Wilson, and including a conversation between Lisa Anne Auerbach and Jacob Proctor
64-page softcover perfectbound book
$7

Through an arrangement with our good pal Lisa Anne Auerbach, we were able to obtain a bunch of discounted copies of this great, color photo-heavy catalog from her 2009 exhibition at UMMA in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

This exhibition catalog includes two bodies of work. The first is Auerbach’s photo series “Small Business.” While riding her bike around Los Angeles, as well as parts of Florida, Auerbach stops to photograph tiny buildings that house enterprises like a BBQ joint, a key-maker, insurance office, a psychic reader, a thrift shop, and even a mini-post office. These all appear to be single-person operations.

The book’s other focus is Auerbach’s knitted sweaters and skirts which bear messages (some of which are in deliciously bad taste) on a range of topics that include 9-11 memorializing, abortion rights, the death of Michael Jackson, suicide bombing, riding a bike versus driving a car, Presidential elections, and booze. Well over a dozen of these sweaters and outfits are documented here.



GAAG: THE GUERILLA ART ACTION GROUP. 1969-1976: A SELECTION

by Jean Toche, Jon Hendricks, and Poppy Johnson
368-page softcover perfectbound book
$27.50

At long last, this classic compendium that documents all of this amazing radical group’s actions, statements and manifestos is back in print. For years this book was exceptionally hard to find and expensive. The reprint is faithful to the original in absolutely every way and looks terrific. We are hugely thankful to all who labored to produce this reprint, and happy for our friends Jean Toche and Jon Hendricks that this is finally available again. May it inspire and provoke future generations of shit-stirrers and starters!

Here are the details from Printed Matter’s website:

“This is the reissue of the 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.

GAAG: The Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969-1976: A Selection collects the manifestos, letters and press communiqués issued by the group (to Nixon, Hoover, The Secretary of Defense, Museum officials, and others). Their missives are printed as facsimiles, alongside other print material, including handwritten expenses, and related documents, that stand as statements of purpose and protest. Photographers Ka Kwong Hui, Joanne Stamerra, Jan Van Raay and others were often on hand as many of the actions unfolded, offering a remarkable and candid visual history to the group’s activities and confrontations GAAG: The Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969-1976: A Selection is a tremendous resource on the important work of the group, providing insight into social action and political art activities with lasting implications. The book stands both as a historical documentation as well as a model for contemporary and future critique and practice.”



SURFACE TENSION: PROBLEMATICS OF SITE

Edited by Ken Ehrlich & Brandon LaBelle. CD track selection by Stephen Vitiello
328-page perfectbound softcover book with CD
$25

Surface Tension examines the conversations that occur as negotiations between cultural production and the place of its reception. Such conversations are underscored as inherently complex, embodying intersections of the imagined and the real, and the intensities surrounding art, performance and architectural productions that seek public potential. The anthology explores site-specific practice and its legacy through critical and creative essays by leading theorists, architects, and artists from around the globe, including an insightful interview with Gordon Matta-Clark from 1976, a controversial essay by Juli Carson on the lingering debate surrounding Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc, Margaret Morgan’s plumbing of Modernist depths via the semiology of the toilet, and Kathy Battista’s unearthing of women artists’ groups in London from the 1970s. These are complemented by rarely heard audio works by Bruce Nauman and Yoko Ono, documentation on the Dutch artist Paul Panhuysen’s architectural and installation works and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s recent and highly-acclaimed public project in Rotterdam, excerpts from Eyal Weizman/Rafi Segal’s censored contribution to the World Congress of Architecture from 2002, as well as works by LA-artists Michael Asher and Simon Leung whose contextual practices address the politics of representation and public space.

Surface Tension looks towards proximate space and experiences of locality to tease out the tensions between global consciousness and the site-specifics of everyday life. This entails a consideration of the desires and impulses that occur within and against the contexts of cultural arenas, and how such interactions perform within the dynamics of spatial organization. Out of these relations comes the radically diverse ways space can be negotiated, manipulated, and traversed.

Additional contributions by Kim Abeles, Carol Brown, CopenhagenOffice, Octavio Camargo, Jeremiah Day/Concrete Steps, Dispute Resolution Services, Jennifer Gabrys, Jen Hofer/Melissa Dyne, Lucy R. Lippard, Colette Meacher, Christof Migone/Alexander St-Onge (undo), Laurie Palmer, Lize Mogel, Michael Rakowitz, Jane Rendell, Lizzie Scott, Atau Tanaka, and WochenKlausur.

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AND MORE! CLICK AWAY TO READ DESCRIPTIONS…



TALES FROM THE SUSTAINABLE UNDERGROUND: A WILD JOURNEY WITH PEOPLE WHO CARE MORE ABOUT THE PLANET THAN THE LAW




NOTES FOR A PEOPLE’S ATLAS: PEOPLE MAKING MAPS OF THEIR CITIES




ESCAPE THE OVERCODE: ACTIVIST ART IN THE CONTROL SOCIETY




DARK MATTER: ART AND POLITICS IN THE AGE OF ENTERPRISE CULTURE



AREA CHICAGO #11: IM/MIGRATIONS




EXPECT ANYTHING FEAR NOTHING: THE SITUATIONIST MOVEMENT IN SCANDINAVIA AND ELSEWHERE




KOSHKA ISSUE 01




HOW TO RIDE A BIKE IN PITTSBURGH




FILTER DETROIT: VOLUME 1



VISIONS FOR CHICAGO: A HIGHLY POLITICIZED PUBLIC ART PROJECT




PORTRAITS FROM ABOVE: HONG KONG’S INFORMAL ROOFTOP COMMUNITIES


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WANT TO ORDER?
Our website processes orders using Paypal, so you can use a credit/debit card, or your existing Paypal account. We will also accept alternative methods of payment including money orders, checks, and some trades. Some ideas are here.

To use an alternate method of payment, please contact us about it first and we can give you instructions on how to complete the transaction. 

ATTENTION STORES, DISTROS, SCHOOLS, LIBRARIES!
We offer volume discounts to schools and libraries and wholesale pricing to stores and distributors on some titles. We would especially like you to consider the books that we have published under the Half Letter Press imprint, including:

Revolution as an Eternal Dream: The Exemplary Failure of the Madame Binh Graphics Collective.http://halfletterpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20_3&products_id=244

Audible Dwelling 
http://halfletterpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20_3&products_id=242

Public Phenomena 
http://halfletterpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20_2&products_id=11

Here are some highlights from our March 2012 newsletter. Email us at publishers at half letter press d o t c o m if you would like to receive our e-news every month or so! (img above: Fan mail being sorted at the Federal Radio Commission, 1929, found at the Library of Congress site)


Half Letter Press News

March 2012

“Art does not exist in a vacuum; it is borne out of a particular political, economic, and social situation and has to be seen in that context.”

- Liberate Tate, from the essay “What’s Wrong With Oil Sponsorship Anyway?”. Included in Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil 

////////////////////

Hello friends!

Thanks as always for being a fan, a supporter, and a reader of the books, etc. available from all of us here at HalfLetter Press. We’re always excited to hear your input and well wishes. This month is full again of some great new stock, some fun upcoming events, and some free stuff for you to download and read!

We are currently working with Sarah Ross and Ryan Griffis, who are helping us create the next installment of Reading Room. Their first selection, Surface Tension, is already available on our site. Scroll down for a description. We’ll be in contact again when the installment is ready for your perusal. Looking forward to sharing this great group of readings with you! 

A former associate, Stephanie Pereira (one of our collaborators on the Chicago Ravioli Project) is now working for Kickstarter. We were excited when Stephanie invited us to create our own “curated page” on this fundraising site, and we encourage you to check it out and support some new and innovative work! 

Chicagoans: we’ll have a table at the Chicago Zine Fest (March 10, 2012). On Saturday, March 10, Marc will be tabling for HLP, and is a guest on the panel “Distributing and Marketing Your Zine”, along with Ayun Halliday (East Village Inky; Bust magazine contributor; former Neo-Futurist Theater performer) and Amy Leigh (twelveohtwo distro). It’s moderated by Billy of Loop Distro and happens at 4 pm at Columbia College Chicago. More information about this panel and the rest of the Fest is here.

People who celebrate March as Women’s History Month (or all of us who celebrate Women’s History each day!) might be interested in The New Woman’s Survival Catalog, a 1973 guidebook to the feminist movement co-edited by Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie. Thanks to Let’s Re-Make for making it available! Find it at http://halfletterpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=page&id=2 (scroll to the middle of the page)

You’ll see below that we have many new titles for you to choose from. Overwhelmed and unable to make a decision? We can relate. We now have gift certificates in the amounts of $5, $10, $20, and $50. Surprise your favorite reader, or give yourself a little HLP love. Contact us with shipping concerns, for gift ideas, and to chat about books you would like to see at HLP by emailing publishers@halfletterpress.com. You can also socially network with us through the magic of the internet - be our Facebook fan, follow us on Twitter, or check out our Tumblr posts. Let us know how we’re doing! 

////////////////////

NEW & NOTABLE

Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil

co-edited by Liberate Tate, Platform, and Art Not Oil

96-page full color perfectbound book

$15

This publication is an interrogation of oil companies’ sponsorship of the arts. This single issue and limited edition publication features artworks in dialogue with the BP Gulf of Mexico catastrophe and articles that set out the compelling arguments for an end to BP and Shell’s murky involvement with many of Great Britain’s favorite cultural institutions.

Each copy of this full color book is numbered and daubed with oil from Gulf of Mexico beaches by featured artist Ruppe Koselleck, as part of his ongoing Takeover BP project, in which Koselleck sells artworks to buy shares with the aim of ultimately taking over BP.

The groups Platform and Liberate Tate co-published Not if but when with the group Art Not Oil, as part of an ongoing collaboration. Liberate Tate is an art collective exploring the role of creative intervention in social change dedicated to taking creative disobedience against Tate until it drops its oil company funding. Platform is an arts and research organization bringing together environmentalists, artists, human rights campaigners, educationalists and community activists to create innovative projects driven by the need for social and environmental justice. Art Not Oil encourages artists – and would-be artists – to create work that explores the damage that companies like BP and Shell are doing to the planet, and the role art can play in counteracting that damage.

FASHION ILLUSTRATIONS BY D. ‘JAME

published by Public Collectors. Drawings by D. ‘Jame, courtesy of the collection of artist Michael Thomas

12-page full color stapled booklet

$2.50

These drawings by a fashion illustrator or designer named D. ‘Jame come from the collection of Michael Thomas, an artist based in Chicago. Thomas found the drawings at a thrift store in Chicago, and writes: “They were priced at $5 per drawing. I could only afford one and was unable to decide. The owner of the store said he was tired of having them around and I could buy them all for $20. There are thirty-three drawings. He said there had been more, but they had been sold.” The drawings are dated from 1970-77. The store owner purchased the drawings as part of a lot at an estate sale in Northern Indiana. No other information about D. ’Jame is known.

This booklet was produced for the exhibition “Archival Impulse” at University of Illinois at Chicago, which includes all of D.’Jame’s drawings from Michael’s collection, as well as additional collections on loan from other Public Collectors participants.

PHONEBOOK 3: 2011/2012. A DIRECTORY OF INDEPENDENT ART SPACES, PROGRAMMING, AND PROJECTS ACROSS THE U.S.

co-edited by threewalls. Includes essays and documents from Group Material, Renny Pritikin, Susan Sakash, FEAST Brooklyn, Ox-bow, Faheem Majed, Chances Dances, Paul Durica, Dara Greenwald, Amy Franceschini, Pilot TV, Jon Brumit and Sarah Wagner, PLAND, Andy Sturdevant, Robby Herbst and more. 

216-page softcover perfectbound book

$25

This latest volume of Phonebook is the biggest yet! Tons of useful information, good clean and clear design, and a resource you are sure to use. Phonebook 3 is a directory of independent art spaces, programming, and projects throughout the U.S. It also includes critical essays and practical information written by the people who run these spaces. From the editors:

“PHONEBOOK 3 includes artist-run spaces, public programming, unconventional residencies, alternative schools, and community resources; all of the projects that form and support art ecologies across the nation, as well as historical documents marking their past. Featuring essays and documents from Group Material, Renny Pritikin, Susan Sakash, FEAST Brooklyn, Ox-bow, Faheem Majed, Chances Dances, Paul Durica, Dara Greenwald, Amy Franceschini, Pilot TV, Jon Brumit and Sarah Wagner, PLAND, Andy Sturdevant, Robby Herbst and more.

With over 750 listings of artist spaces, residency programs, financial and administrative resources, and event series across the United States, this book is the essential guide to the current national landscape of artist-run culture. Including everything from nonprofit and community institutions to flexible and self-organized art spaces…”

THE UNHOLY BOW

by Terence Hannum

50-page softcover perfectbound book

$11

After countless ‘zines and other editions, this is Terence’s first perfect bound book, published by 5nakefork. It’s a series of visual and verbal meditations on headbanging. 

“Slowly the crowd gathers, heads hung as the musicians pick up their instruments. Upon the first note of feedback the heads start moving. Both performer and witness begin a ritualized dance in a flurry of hair, a profane genuflection. An unholy bow.”

5nakefork says: “THE UNHOLY BOW is the final publication in artist TERENCE HANNUM’s bi-monthly publication series for 2011 following his issues PURIFICATION, DARK MATTER/DUNKLE MATERIE (w/ Alexander Binder), DEATH POSTURE, ABLATION and NEGATIVE LITANIES. This issue focuses on the group ritual of the headbang ubiquitous in heavy metal culture, by cropping drawings and digital photo collages into a printed cadence and features a brief musing cadence from the artist.”

ART GANGS: PROTEST & COUNTERCULTURE IN NEW YORK CITY

by Alan W. Moore

185-page softcover perfectbound book

$18

Artist and Art historian Alan Moore worked with the artists’ group Colab and helped start the cultural center ABC No Rio. Meticulously researched from the small journals and alternative press of the time as well as artist’s archives and the author’s own personal experience, this book is a thorough, street-level history of artists’ groups and collective activity by artists in New York from 1969 to 1985. Most of these groups avowed a political purpose, were informed by leftist political thought, idealized collective action, and used art to advocate for social change. Many of the forms of artists’ organization pioneered by these groups have become standard practice in today’s art world. Others continue to remain invisible to the mainstream. By making art that engaged with questions of social justice, and working to enact social change through art, these groups helped invent many of the new forms that appeared in the 1970’s and 80’s.

Worth it for the footnotes alone, this book tells the story of innumerable collectives, artists, alternative spaces and journals, including such landmarks as The Artworkers Coalition, The Guerilla Art Action Group, Art & Language NY, The Times Square Show, Colab, PADD, and Group Material.

TRAUMA 1-11: STORIES ABOUT THE COPENHAGEN FREE UNIVERSITY AND THE SURROUNDING SOCIETY IN THE LAST TEN YEARS

by Copenhagen Free University (co-founders Henriette Heise and Jakob Jakobsen)

24-page staplebound booklet (dimensions 4 1/8” x 5 3/4”)

$2

We are big fans of the work of the Copenhagen Free University. They made some excellent publications during their decade or so of work together. We offer a handful of these publications and are the only place in the U.S. that sells them.

From the back cover of the booklet:

“Trauma 1-11 is an exhibition based on the Copenhagen Free University, a self-organised institution that was established by artists Henriette Heise and Jakob Jakobsen in 2001. This exhibition is made in collaboration with Emma Hedditch, Howard Slater and Anthony Davies who have close links to the Copenhagen Free University. Trauma 1-11 will be a personal journey through the period 2001 to 2011. It will be a staged interpretation of events in and around the Copenhagen Free University in a dramatised sequence of acts.

The Copenhagen Free University unfolded as a space for research and knowledge sharing within the domestic settings in a small flat in Copenhagen. The institution was dedicated to the production of ’critical consciousness and poetic language’ until 2007 where it ceased its activities. In 2010 the Heise and Jakobsen received a letter from the Ministry of Science noting them that if they ever wanted to conduct educational activities under name the Copenhagen Free University it would be breach a new law outlawing self-organised universities. This new law will in August be challenged with the opening of a new free university in a flat or in a park or in a square.”

LISA ANNE AUERBACH

Exhibition catalog, with an essay by Julia Bryan-Wilson, and including a conversation between Lisa Anne Auerbach and Jacob Proctor

64-page softcover perfectbound book

$7

Through an arrangement with our good pal Lisa Anne Auerbach, we were able to obtain a bunch of discounted copies of this great, color photo-heavy catalog from her 2009 exhibition at UMMA in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

This exhibition catalog includes two bodies of work. The first is Auerbach’s photo series “Small Business.” While riding her bike around Los Angeles, as well as parts of Florida, Auerbach stops to photograph tiny buildings that house enterprises like a BBQ joint, a key-maker, insurance office, a psychic reader, a thrift shop, and even a mini-post office. These all appear to be single-person operations.

The book’s other focus is Auerbach’s knitted sweaters and skirts which bear messages (some of which are in deliciously bad taste) on a range of topics that include 9-11 memorializing, abortion rights, the death of Michael Jackson, suicide bombing, riding a bike versus driving a car, Presidential elections, and booze. Well over a dozen of these sweaters and outfits are documented here.

GAAG: THE GUERILLA ART ACTION GROUP. 1969-1976: A SELECTION

by Jean Toche, Jon Hendricks, and Poppy Johnson

368-page softcover perfectbound book

$27.50

At long last, this classic compendium that documents all of this amazing radical group’s actions, statements and manifestos is back in print. For years this book was exceptionally hard to find and expensive. The reprint is faithful to the original in absolutely every way and looks terrific. We are hugely thankful to all who labored to produce this reprint, and happy for our friends Jean Toche and Jon Hendricks that this is finally available again. May it inspire and provoke future generations of shit-stirrers and starters!

Here are the details from Printed Matter’s website:

“This is the reissue of the 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.

GAAG: The Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969-1976: A Selection collects the manifestos, letters and press communiqués issued by the group (to Nixon, Hoover, The Secretary of Defense, Museum officials, and others). Their missives are printed as facsimiles, alongside other print material, including handwritten expenses, and related documents, that stand as statements of purpose and protest. Photographers Ka Kwong Hui, Joanne Stamerra, Jan Van Raay and others were often on hand as many of the actions unfolded, offering a remarkable and candid visual history to the group’s activities and confrontations GAAG: The Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969-1976: A Selection is a tremendous resource on the important work of the group, providing insight into social action and political art activities with lasting implications. The book stands both as a historical documentation as well as a model for contemporary and future critique and practice.”

SURFACE TENSION: PROBLEMATICS OF SITE

Edited by Ken Ehrlich & Brandon LaBelle. CD track selection by Stephen Vitiello

328-page perfectbound softcover book with CD

$25

Surface Tension examines the conversations that occur as negotiations between cultural production and the place of its reception. Such conversations are underscored as inherently complex, embodying intersections of the imagined and the real, and the intensities surrounding art, performance and architectural productions that seek public potential. The anthology explores site-specific practice and its legacy through critical and creative essays by leading theorists, architects, and artists from around the globe, including an insightful interview with Gordon Matta-Clark from 1976, a controversial essay by Juli Carson on the lingering debate surrounding Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc, Margaret Morgan’s plumbing of Modernist depths via the semiology of the toilet, and Kathy Battista’s unearthing of women artists’ groups in London from the 1970s. These are complemented by rarely heard audio works by Bruce Nauman and Yoko Ono, documentation on the Dutch artist Paul Panhuysen’s architectural and installation works and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s recent and highly-acclaimed public project in Rotterdam, excerpts from Eyal Weizman/Rafi Segal’s censored contribution to the World Congress of Architecture from 2002, as well as works by LA-artists Michael Asher and Simon Leung whose contextual practices address the politics of representation and public space.

Surface Tension looks towards proximate space and experiences of locality to tease out the tensions between global consciousness and the site-specifics of everyday life. This entails a consideration of the desires and impulses that occur within and against the contexts of cultural arenas, and how such interactions perform within the dynamics of spatial organization. Out of these relations comes the radically diverse ways space can be negotiated, manipulated, and traversed.

Additional contributions by Kim Abeles, Carol Brown, CopenhagenOffice, Octavio Camargo, Jeremiah Day/Concrete Steps, Dispute Resolution Services, Jennifer Gabrys, Jen Hofer/Melissa Dyne, Lucy R. Lippard, Colette Meacher, Christof Migone/Alexander St-Onge (undo), Laurie Palmer, Lize Mogel, Michael Rakowitz, Jane Rendell, Lizzie Scott, Atau Tanaka, and WochenKlausur.

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AND MORE! CLICK AWAY TO READ DESCRIPTIONS…

TALES FROM THE SUSTAINABLE UNDERGROUND: A WILD JOURNEY WITH PEOPLE WHO CARE MORE ABOUT THE PLANET THAN THE LAW

NOTES FOR A PEOPLE’S ATLAS: PEOPLE MAKING MAPS OF THEIR CITIES

ESCAPE THE OVERCODE: ACTIVIST ART IN THE CONTROL SOCIETY

DARK MATTER: ART AND POLITICS IN THE AGE OF ENTERPRISE CULTURE

AREA CHICAGO #11: IM/MIGRATIONS

EXPECT ANYTHING FEAR NOTHING: THE SITUATIONIST MOVEMENT IN SCANDINAVIA AND ELSEWHERE

KOSHKA ISSUE 01

HOW TO RIDE A BIKE IN PITTSBURGH

FILTER DETROIT: VOLUME 1

VISIONS FOR CHICAGO: A HIGHLY POLITICIZED PUBLIC ART PROJECT

PORTRAITS FROM ABOVE: HONG KONG’S INFORMAL ROOFTOP COMMUNITIES



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WANT TO ORDER?

Our website processes orders using Paypal, so you can use a credit/debit card, or your existing Paypal account. We will also accept alternative methods of payment including money orders, checks, and some trades. Some ideas are here.

To use an alternate method of payment, please contact us about it first and we can give you instructions on how to complete the transaction. 

ATTENTION STORES, DISTROS, SCHOOLS, LIBRARIES!

We offer volume discounts to schools and libraries and wholesale pricing to stores and distributors on some titles. We would especially like you to consider the books that we have published under the Half Letter Press imprint, including:

Revolution as an Eternal Dream: The Exemplary Failure of the Madame Binh Graphics Collective.http://halfletterpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20_3&products_id=244

Audible Dwelling 

http://halfletterpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20_3&products_id=242

Public Phenomena 

http://halfletterpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20_2&products_id=11




1 year ago
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BOOK RELEASE AND PERFORMANCE:Audible Dwellingby Learning Site
When: Friday, February 24, 2012, 16:00-19:00
Where: Trampolinhuset, Skyttegade 3, 2200 København N
Details: FREE and open to the public. Learning Site will introduce their book and answer questions. Karin Gudbrand will perform material related to the book.
ABOUT THE BOOK AND AUTHORS: Audible Dwelling examines the relation of speech to place and architecture to political and cultural landscape. Audible Dwelling is a mobile dwelling and a stereo loudspeaker system. This publication is a record of the research that inspired the Audible Dwelling project. This volume contains observations on the research by Learning Site and specially commissioned essays by Katarina Bonnevier, on the design work of Eileen Gray, and Justin Stapleton, on the history of transmission line speakers. This publication also contains full details of the first use of Audible Dwelling 1.0 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The themes covered in this publication include: the history and politics of speaking houses, the autocity as aesthetic and political landscape, the relationship of revolutions to renovation, and the gender and political opinions of furniture.
Learning Site (Rikke Luther and Cecilia Wendt) was formed in 2004. Learning Site is a platform for exchange and dialogue between people from different disciplines, practices and backgrounds who have a common interest in learning. Learning Site projects learn from, and respond to, the dynamics of local cultures, environments, resources and economies.
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE: Opera singer Karin Gudbrand will perform the cantata that opened the Second International Conference of Socialist Women, August 1910, at the former Peoplesʼ House, located at Jagtvej 69. The conference became famous primarily for its resolution to introduce an International Womenʼs Day, which later led to womenʼs right to vote.
Published by Half Letter Press [Chicago/Copenhagen/Philadelphia] ISBN: 978-87-92065-06-3 Copies will be available for purchase at the event as well as at: www.halfletterpress.com

BOOK RELEASE AND PERFORMANCE:
Audible Dwelling
by Learning Site

When: Friday, February 24, 2012, 16:00-19:00

Where: Trampolinhuset, Skyttegade 3, 2200 København N

Details: FREE and open to the public. Learning Site will introduce their book and answer questions. Karin Gudbrand will perform material related to the book.


ABOUT THE BOOK AND AUTHORS: Audible Dwelling examines the relation of speech to place and architecture to political and cultural landscape. Audible Dwelling is a mobile dwelling and a stereo loudspeaker system. This publication is a record of the research that inspired the Audible Dwelling project. This volume contains observations on the research by Learning Site and specially commissioned essays by Katarina Bonnevier, on the design work of Eileen Gray, and Justin Stapleton, on the history of transmission line speakers. This publication also contains full details of the first use of Audible Dwelling 1.0 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The themes covered in this publication include: the history and politics of speaking houses, the autocity as aesthetic and political landscape, the relationship of revolutions to renovation, and the gender and political opinions of furniture.

Learning Site (Rikke Luther and Cecilia Wendt) was formed in 2004. Learning Site is a platform for exchange and dialogue between people from different disciplines, practices and backgrounds who have a common interest in learning. Learning Site projects learn from, and respond to, the dynamics of local cultures, environments, resources and economies.

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE: Opera singer Karin Gudbrand will perform the cantata that opened the Second International Conference of Socialist Women, August 1910, at the former Peoplesʼ House, located at Jagtvej 69. The conference became famous primarily for its resolution to introduce an International Womenʼs Day, which later led to womenʼs right to vote.

Published by Half Letter Press [Chicago/Copenhagen/Philadelphia] ISBN: 978-87-92065-06-3 Copies will be available for purchase at the event as well as at: www.halfletterpress.com




1 year ago
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Art Gangs: Protest & Counterculture in New York City
We are really excited about adding this book by our good friend Alan Moore to the HLP store. It is really important history for radical art practice.

Artist and Art historian Alan Moore worked with the artists’ group Colab  and helped start the cultural centre ABC No Rio. Meticulously  researched from the small journals and alternative press of the time as  well as artist’s archives and the author’s own personal experience, this  book is a thorough, street-level, history of artists’ groups and  collective activity by artists in New York from 1969 to 1985.

Art Gangs: Protest & Counterculture in New York City

We are really excited about adding this book by our good friend Alan Moore to the HLP store. It is really important history for radical art practice.

Artist and Art historian Alan Moore worked with the artists’ group Colab and helped start the cultural centre ABC No Rio. Meticulously researched from the small journals and alternative press of the time as well as artist’s archives and the author’s own personal experience, this book is a thorough, street-level, history of artists’ groups and collective activity by artists in New York from 1969 to 1985.




1 year ago

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Those of you in Philadelphia and New York City have a chance to meet author, activist, and artist Mary Patten at the end of January! 
Philadelphia: Friday, Jan. 27 at 1 pm at The Print Center, 1614 Latimer St.
New York City: Saturday, Jan. 28 at 7 pm at Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen St.
Mary will be reading from her book Revolution As An Eternal Dream: The Exemplary Failure of the Madame Binh Graphics Collective at both events. Books will be available for sale and Salem from Temporary Services and Half Letter Press will be present as well. 
East Coast, hope to see you soon!

Those of you in Philadelphia and New York City have a chance to meet author, activist, and artist Mary Patten at the end of January! 

Philadelphia: Friday, Jan. 27 at 1 pm at The Print Center, 1614 Latimer St.

New York City: Saturday, Jan. 28 at 7 pm at Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen St.

Mary will be reading from her book Revolution As An Eternal Dream: The Exemplary Failure of the Madame Binh Graphics Collective at both events. Books will be available for sale and Salem from Temporary Services and Half Letter Press will be present as well. 

East Coast, hope to see you soon!




1 year ago
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In response to a post we made yesterday about Ghost Houses, Deborah Watson alerted us to this amazing work in Philadelphia.
Here is her letter to us:

Hi, I came across your blog about Ghost Houses.  Here is a link to my  most favorite one, in Philadelphia.  It’s on two walls facing a Sunoco  gas station.  The artists painted a trompe l’oeil reflection of a  church, St James Episcopal, that used to be on the site.  Even the  bricks in the mural are hand-painted!  It’s so subtle that you have to  realize that the shadows are not real.  Images are at the bottom of this page and you can click to enlargehttp://kimsenior.blogspot.com/2008/01/michael-webb-architectural-muralist.htmlThere  are any number of amazing murals in Philly courtesy of the mural arts  project, but this is the only one I know of that reflects a building  that used to be there. The artists won a 1999 design award from Society  for Environmental Graphic Design .EnjoyDeborah

Thanks, Deborah!!!

In response to a post we made yesterday about Ghost Houses, Deborah Watson alerted us to this amazing work in Philadelphia.

Here is her letter to us:

Hi, I came across your blog about Ghost Houses.  Here is a link to my most favorite one, in Philadelphia.  It’s on two walls facing a Sunoco gas station.  The artists painted a trompe l’oeil reflection of a church, St James Episcopal, that used to be on the site.  Even the bricks in the mural are hand-painted!  It’s so subtle that you have to realize that the shadows are not real.  

Images are at the bottom of this page and you can click to enlarge
http://kimsenior.blogspot.com/2008/01/michael-webb-architectural-muralist.html

There are any number of amazing murals in Philly courtesy of the mural arts project, but this is the only one I know of that reflects a building that used to be there. The artists won a 1999 design award from Society for Environmental Graphic Design .

Enjoy
Deborah

Thanks, Deborah!!!




1 year ago
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NEW AT HLP! Not if but When: Culture Beyond Oil, By Liberate Tate, Platform, Art Not Oil ‘Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil’ is a publication that sets out to   discuss oil sponsorship of the arts. The single issue, limited edition   publication features artworks in dialogue with the BP Gulf of Mexico   catastrophe and articles that set out the compelling arguments for an   end to BP and Shell’s murky involvement with many of the nation’s   favourite cultural institutions. Each copy of this full colour  1000 limited edition will be numbered and  daubed with oil from Gulf of  Mexico beaches by featured artist Ruppe  Koselleck, as part of his  ongoing Takeover BP project, in which  Koselleck sells artworks to buy  shares with the aim of ultimately taking  over BP.

NEW AT HLP! Not if but When: Culture Beyond Oil, By Liberate Tate, Platform, Art Not Oil

‘Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil’ is a publication that sets out to discuss oil sponsorship of the arts. The single issue, limited edition publication features artworks in dialogue with the BP Gulf of Mexico catastrophe and articles that set out the compelling arguments for an end to BP and Shell’s murky involvement with many of the nation’s favourite cultural institutions.

Each copy of this full colour 1000 limited edition will be numbered and daubed with oil from Gulf of Mexico beaches by featured artist Ruppe Koselleck, as part of his ongoing Takeover BP project, in which Koselleck sells artworks to buy shares with the aim of ultimately taking over BP.




1 year ago
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Thanks to Lauren Weinberg at Time Out Chicago for including our Social Mobility exhibition in her list of the “10 Best Art & Design Shows of 2011”! Here’s how the Designated Drivers section of the exhibition looked. 
Designated Drivers was one component of the exhibition. We hope to show the collection of drives elsewhere in the future. Please contact us if you’re interested in helping us do so. You can purchase the Designated Drivers booklet here. 

Thanks to Lauren Weinberg at Time Out Chicago for including our Social Mobility exhibition in her list of the “10 Best Art & Design Shows of 2011”! Here’s how the Designated Drivers section of the exhibition looked. 

Designated Drivers was one component of the exhibition. We hope to show the collection of drives elsewhere in the future. Please contact us if you’re interested in helping us do so. You can purchase the Designated Drivers booklet here




1 year ago
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Image: back cover of The Unholy Bow,  by Terence Hannum, artist and member of the highly and rightfully  acclaimed band Locrian. After countless ‘zines and other editions, this  is Terence’s first perfect bound book, published by 5nakefork. It’s a  series of visual and verbal meditations on headbanging.
“Slowly the crowd gathers, heads hung as the musicians pick up their   instruments. Upon the first note of feedback the heads start moving.   Both performer and witness begin a ritualized dance in a flurry of hair,   a profane genuflection. An unholy bow.”

Image: back cover of The Unholy Bow, by Terence Hannum, artist and member of the highly and rightfully acclaimed band Locrian. After countless ‘zines and other editions, this is Terence’s first perfect bound book, published by 5nakefork. It’s a series of visual and verbal meditations on headbanging.

“Slowly the crowd gathers, heads hung as the musicians pick up their instruments. Upon the first note of feedback the heads start moving. Both performer and witness begin a ritualized dance in a flurry of hair, a profane genuflection. An unholy bow.”




1 year ago
permalink
 
On Symptoms of Cultural Industry

Check out this interesting 32-page, offset printed, newsprint booklet published this year by James Voorhies and the Bureau for Open Culture. With help from Timothy Nazzaro, Nate Padavick, Rachel Sherk, and Cassandra Troyan From the introduction:“Why is it we are so moved by decaying environments? What propels the creative and cultural, the spontaneous and unpredictable in reponse to the dilapidation, vacancy and hardship of crumbling capital?”In this great little booklet, James Voorhies and co. start by contemplating the industrial ruins utilized by artists like Gordon Matta-Clark and move to the case of MASS MoCA and the artistic labor now performed in these “playgrounds of the factory city.” “On Symptoms of Cultural Industry investigates the role of artistic and cultural production in relation to the economic and social life of North Adams, Massachusetts. Through original research interviews with employees of Sprague Electric–the manufacturer that originally occupied the massive industrial complex that is today MASS MoCA–and in response to living in this city, the work comprehensively manifests as performance, video, installation and a book. It forms an intimate portrait of a city that has transformed from an economy of manufacturing goods and materials to increasingly manufacturing culture and information.”

Check out this interesting 32-page, offset printed, newsprint booklet published this year by James Voorhies and the Bureau for Open Culture. With help from Timothy Nazzaro, Nate Padavick, Rachel Sherk, and Cassandra Troyan 

From the introduction:

“Why is it we are so moved by decaying environments? What propels the creative and cultural, the spontaneous and unpredictable in reponse to the dilapidation, vacancy and hardship of crumbling capital?”

In this great little booklet, James Voorhies and co. start by contemplating the industrial ruins utilized by artists like Gordon Matta-Clark and move to the case of MASS MoCA and the artistic labor now performed in these “playgrounds of the factory city.” 

“On Symptoms of Cultural Industry investigates the role of artistic and cultural production in relation to the economic and social life of North Adams, Massachusetts. Through original research interviews with employees of Sprague Electric–the manufacturer that originally occupied the massive industrial complex that is today MASS MoCA–and in response to living in this city, the work comprehensively manifests as performance, video, installation and a book. It forms an intimate portrait of a city that has transformed from an economy of manufacturing goods and materials to increasingly manufacturing culture and information.”