Poster House talk with Carol A. Wells, founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics
In part organised to reflect the Poster House exhibition.. Freak Power
Notes from the talk..
-Seeing artwork and questioning what you see is so important, it changes you, informs you and expands your mind.
-Posters could and used recycled images such as we want you for the war images which both the UK and US used the same image
-Goya, ripping the head from one of his children, then inspired political posters. Made on computer papers. Richard Cera also made a version in 2004 using the same Goya image
-War is not healthy for children and other living things, most disseminated poster and image of the Vietnam war. seen as a gentle image. At first it was rejected but then reproduced and very popular.
-Art is powerful and can change lives, MLK was against the Vietnam war. He was told though to stick to civil rights, don't add more enemies. He saw images in a magazine of how it had injured and affected children and was said to say whilst eating, "nothing will taste good again until this war ends."
-Poster that was carried after MLK assassination
-Poster was hidden from US population for a year, over 500 unarmed civilians were massacred by US army. The army documents everything and asked for film of photos at the end of every day for the government. A photographer, R L Heverley kept a roll of his own film and secretly kept it. The line was from an later interview with a soldier, saying and babies? and the soldier answered, and babies. People need to see what the US government can do with their tax dollars. Carol said, some younger viewers of the image have questioned if the younger children were photoshopped in. Protestors made 50,000 copies of the image to push the horrors of the war.
-Perfect culture jamming in adding a political poster into the advert line up. Used a pseudonym names to cover incase they were sued Apple.
-Posters are a critical educational tool, that isn't and wont be taught in school. Parts of history and politics that are left out
-Shepard Faireys Hope poster, changed history and also changed graphic design history, copied in many different ways
-Occupy movement, center-fold image used to rally people to occupy wall street. started with this poster. Around 1000 people went to that first rally and developed from that.
-Corita Kent poster to end..
Q&As
-Incredible upsurge in posters at the moment to react to the current political climate. Not only printed, mass produced and also free downloads which would not have been possible before. Carol first saw this around the Bush administration, means you don't have to have the budget to also print the designs, you can push the design out for others to print, worldwide.
CSPG only collects posters that have been made in multiples. This makes it an organising act rather than an opinion. Doesn't have to be a big edition or a great art, should see the range of art and that works are not just made from trained artists. Collecting the range of issues, viewers can see that the issue is drawing voices from many different places and social spaces. Lots of left of centre works, but also has right of centre works.
90.000 posters, of which 10% is digitised. Collection is online to show these..
Loved this quote from Carol..
Protest posters,
"If they're not making anyone mad, they're not doing their job."
-I asked..
In modern society, when we look at technologies such as social media etc, what do you feel is the most effective form of activism/protest?
Answer..
Arts are central to every movement and indelible to the change over more than last 100 years. The very first demo organised internationally using the internet, was 1m worldwide was 1st gulf war. Not one bit of corporate press covered it. In 2004 another internet organised event, but took NY Times 3 or 4 days to write about it,, because others were. We used phone tree in 1960s, to communicate. Carol was hesitant to put her personal details forward in modern world, but said it was such a major tool to use. Still need the paper to be printed as cant carry your computer round in a rally.
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