I have just been interviewed as a part of UW-Milwaukee’s series of Graduate Student Features. The following is a re-post of the interview. The original interview can be found here.

Featured Student: December 2009
Brandon Bauer

Brandon Bauer is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Wisconsin. His practice involves the critical use of collage, montage, and appropriation, and the exploration of the contextual meaning of images and objects. Brandon has exhibited work in the Aces(s) electronic media festival in Pau, France, The European Media Arts Festival in Osnabruck, Germany, and at Project 101 in Paris among several other national and international venues. Brandon’s work has been produced in DVD editions, used as illustration for various editorial publications and books, and has been published in poster editions. Brandon also currently co-produces a broadcast video art program through Milwaukee Public Access channel 96.

Brandon co-edited the book Peace Signs: the Anti-War Movement Illustrated, published in two editions and released in 2004. Gustavo Gili of Barcelona, Spain published the Spanish-language edition, and Edition Olms, based in Zurich, Switzerland, published editions in English, French, and German. In 2003 a DVD of Brandon’s early experimental video, Signaldrift: a Day Under the City, was released by the Paris-based video art label Lowave. In 2009, the experimental-noise label FTAM released a DVD of Brandon’s collaborations with noise musician Peter J. Woods, titled Hungry Ghosts.

Brandon received his BFA in painting from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 1996, and his MA from the UWM in 2008. Brandon is currently completing his MFA in Intermedia at UWM and is a 2009-2010 Graduate Student Fellowship recipient. Brandon is an adjunct Time Based Media faculty member at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.

1) How would you describe your field of study/research to a friend who is not in your graduate program?

I am in the Interdisciplinary Visual Arts program in the Peck School of the Arts at UW-Milwaukee. Choosing the Interdisciplinary focus means that I approach my work in a conceptual manner, and then I decide how best to realize the work materially. My practice involves the critical use of collage, montage, and appropriation, and the exploration of the contextual meaning of images and objects. Art creates a critical space. Images and objects brought into an art context and divorced from the ways they normally function or circulate in the world are considered in a new light within this critical space. Art can bring a new focus to the ordinary, the everyday, or the overlooked, and can force interactions between images or objects that may not be readily apparent in another context. Images and representations can be taken at face value in other forms, but within the sphere of art larger cultural issues about image circulation, narrative structures, or the ideological constructions of representations can all be investigated in intriguing and challenging ways. I see art as a unique and crucial space to examine, address, and comment on larger issues within our culture.

2) What brought you to UWM for your graduate studies?

I was living in Milwaukee, and had been familiar with UM-Milwaukee and the Peck School of the Arts. The Peck School of the Arts has consistently brought great things to the Milwaukee art scene, from the public lecture series, visiting artists, film screenings, and excellent slate of exhibitions though Inova, it seemed like a very strong program.

3) What’s been your best experience so far?

I would have to say, collaborating with A. Bill Miller—then a graduate student and now a lecturer in the UWM Art Department—on our installation “Beer Barons and Brewery Workers” at the historic Blatz building downtown for the Make Your Own History exhibition in the spring of 2008. It was great to meet him, and begin a collaborative relationship with our art. The project was fun and challenging as well, creating a site-specific work in the Blatz building that spoke to the larger history of the brewing industry in Milwaukee. That collaboration has spawned further projects, and Bill and I continue to work together today.

4) If you were able to merge another discipline with yours, what would that be and why?

I would love to work with Architecture and Urban Planning. I feel artists can have a lot to contribute to ideas about public space and urban navigation. I am interested in the theories of the Situationists, and the conceptual architectural projects that Situationist artists like Constant Nieuwenhuys developed, as well as the ideas of contemporary architects like Rem Koolhaas. I love how Koolhaas describes space as a sequence or montage, using film language. With collage and montage being the conceptual starting point at the heart of my practice, I find it exciting to think of these ideas in terms of an immersive space, especially on the kind of scale that architecture can function. Not only that but, with new green building techniques and innovations like zero energy video walls, the notion of architectural montage and sequence can be pushed in interesting, immersive, and sustainable ways.

5) What is your favorite stress-reduction activity?

I would have to say playing with my little baby girl—Eden! Everyday she grows physically and mentally. It is amazing to witness her as she grows and develops. She is a very happy little girl, and she brings a lot of joy to my wife, Wendy, and me!

6) What do you most enjoy about Milwaukee?

I love this city. It really is my home. I feel Milwaukee is severely underrated. Obviously there are problems here as well, and those should not be ignored, but with that being said, we do have a lot to be proud of here. We have a beautiful lakefront, which we can thank the history of Milwaukee socialism for, as well as the other imprints that history has left on this city. Milwaukee is also very fortunate to have places like Growing Power, and Simple Soyman—who make the best tofu ever. Not to mention places like the Oriental Theater, and all of the wonderful restaurants all over the city. There really is a lot to love, as well as a lot to work towards to make this city even better.

7) Is there anything that you’ve had to “give up” as a graduate student?

The short answer would be a social life… Between full-time graduate study with TA and PA appointments, teaching as an adjunct at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, producing a video art television program through MATA Community Media, continuing to exhibit my work both in Milwaukee and around the country, not to mention my wife Wendy has now started graduate school as well, and as I mentioned, our beautiful little baby girl who is full of life and full of boundless energy… needless to say a social life has really gone to the wayside. I hope that when I am done with my MFA it will not be to late to resurrect some of it.

8) What are your plans for after graduate school?

Looking for a full time teaching position, as well as continuing to work on my artwork and exhibit it.

9) What trait do you find most necessary to succeed in graduate school?

Dedication, hard work, and self-motivation to push yourself further than you thought you could go. Graduate school has been an insane pressure cooker for me, but it has been incredibly productive and challenging. I have to give a lot of credit to my committee, who has consistently pushed me to refine and expand my ideas and not let me settle for simple answers—unless the simple answer came through a lot of hard work and was found to be the best answer! You really do need to push yourself; I cannot stress that enough.

10) Do you have any advice that you would give to a new graduate student in your program?

I think the biggest piece of advice I would give would be to choose your committee wisely. Take the time to meet as many different faculty as possible in your first year and find out who understands the ideas you are developing, and find those who challenge you in ways that are most helpful to your process. Having a good committee can mean all the difference in this program. There are a lot of great faculty to work with, but not everyone is going to be the right fit for the direction you want to take in your work. The faculty are very dedicated to what they do, and they take what you say seriously, so take what you do and say seriously while you are here. You are ultimately building a relationship with your committee that will carry you through the program so it is important to find the right balance of voices and personalities to work with in that process.

I am a featured artist in the new book Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today that has just been released by PM Press.

Here is the description of the book from the PM Press website:

Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today is a major collection of contemporary politically and socially engaged printmaking. This full color book showcases print art that uses themes of social justice and global equity to engage community members in political conversation. Based on an art exhibition which has traveled to a dozen cities in North America, Paper Politics features artwork by over 200 international artists; an eclectic collection of work by both activist and non-activist printmakers who have felt the need to respond to the monumental trends and events of our times.

Paper Politics presents a breathtaking tour of the many modalities of printing by hand: relief, intaglio, lithography, serigraph, collagraph, monotype, and photography. In addition to these techniques, included are more traditional media used to convey political thought, finely crafted stencils and silk-screens intended for wheat pasting in the street. Artists range from the well established (Sue Coe, Swoon, Carlos Cortez) to the up-and-coming (Favianna Rodriguez, Chris Stain, Nicole Schulman), from street artists (BORF, You Are Beautiful) to rock poster makers (EMEK, Bughouse).

Check it out! It is an excellent book on contemporary political printmaking with great essays addressing the history of political printmaking as well as challenges for the future of socially engaged printmaking and social activism.

I have some work in the “Crossing Over” exhibition at the UW-Milwaukee Union Art Gallery. The exhibition features work by undergraduate and graduate students in UWM’s Peck School of the Arts Department of Visual Art who received scholarship and fellowship awards in 2009.

I included in the exhibition the piece “Remediation Composite #1″- a recent animated video collage looped on a monitor.

Here is the gallery information:

UWM Union Art Gallery
2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.
Milwaukee, WI 53211
414.229.6310

Click here for the UW-Milwaukee Union Art Gallery blog.

Hours: Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri & Sat 12-5pm; Thu 12-7pm

I just found out a piece I did in the Clarion Alley in San Francisco back in 2000 has been documented and included in a new book titled “Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo“.

The title is a little misleading because the book only deals with work in the Mission District rather than the whole of San Francisco, but it has great history on the murals of the Chicano movement that are found throughout the district as well as the famous mural alleys- Balmy and Clarion.

The book delves in to the history of the Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP), and also looks at the artists of what has come to be known as the “Mission School”- including artists like Barry McGee, Margaret Killgallen, Chris Johanson, and others. Beyond that there are photos by a whole slew of great artists like Swoon, the San Francisco Print Collective, Ester Hernandez, the Billboard Liberation Front, and Claude Moller. It is a very good mix of street art, graffiti, and mural painting both historic and up to date, and the book is well researched and documented with some very good essays.

Click here for a link to a review of the book on the Brooklyn Street Art site by Josh MacPhee.

Video Art at 10th Street Gallery celebrating the diverse approaches to video art and experimental film production in the city of Milwaukee. The program was curated by Richard Mutz.

Featured Artists and Filmmakers:

Jesus Ali, Brandon Bauer, Laura Bennett, Maria Bolivar, Kate Brandt, Ted Brusubardis, Kelly Hendzel, Caroline Kastelic, Bill Miller, Dayna Moses, Richard Mutz, Annushka Peck, Brian Perkins, Joseph Reeves, & Marla Sanvick

Screening Information:
Date: Friday, October 2, 2009
Time: 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Location: 10th Street Gallery (entrance under the In Tandem Theatre awning)
Street: 628 N. 10th Street
City/Town: Milwaukee, WI

Justseeds has just been awarded the Grand Prix at the International Biennial of Graphic Arts in Slovenia!

Jørgen Craig Lello & Tobias Arnell, Reverse View, 2009 (from the Biennial website)

Justseeds has been awarded the Grand Prix at the Biennial- the jurors have uploaded a video discussing some of the selection process and why they chose Justseeds for this prize. In the background behind one of the jurors you can see the display of the Voices From Outside portfolio project.

Untitled (Biennial Juror Video) from MGLC on Vimeo.

For more info check out these posts from the Justseeds blog:

Grand Prix at the International Biennial of Graphic Arts
(posted September 10th, 2009)
28th Biennial of Graphic Arts
(posted August 17th, 2009)

Here is information on the Biennial:

28th Biennial of Graphic Arts
September 4-October 24,

International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC)
Grad Tivoli, Pod turnom 3
1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
telephone: (+386) (0)1 241 38 00
fax: (+386) (0)1 241 38 21
e-mail: lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si

Click MGLC Info to download a PDF about the 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts.

Phosphene: a Spontaneous Video Art Installation at The Borg Ward Collective in temporal accordance with Milwaukee Noise Festival. September 24th – 26th. Organized by Master-List 2000, Jibangus, and the BATHAS Internationale.

Televisions. Video Loops. Art. Music. Noise. One Place. One Weekend.

The Borg Ward
823 W. National Ave
Milwaukee, WI

Gridworks Post

RCP.ML2K.PDF Issue #2 Fall 2009 “What We Do Is Secret”- cross-referencing the cycle of liberation/suppression.

Download here- or visit the RCP.ML2K.PDF Project webpage.

An interview with C. Matt Luther is now posted on the Random Artwork/Artist Interviews site.

C. Matt Luther is an artist currently living in Milwaukee who works across various mediums, from traditional forms such as painting, drawing, and printmaking, to more ephemeral forms like zines and street projects. Collage is at the center of all of his work, as well as a critical attention to forms of mediation we are surrounded by in our daily lives. The interview includes downloadable PDF versions of some of his recent zines!

Click here to read the interview. Check it out!

Next stop for the Paper Politics Exhibition is Richmond, VA!

Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today
200 prints from 200 artists

Ghostprint Gallery
220 W. Broad St.
Richmond, VA 23220
www.ghostprintgallery.com

Opening Reception:
Friday, August 7th, 7-10 pm

The show runs August 7th-August 29th, 2009
Wed-Sat, 1-7pm or by appointment

And be sure to keep an eye out for the new expanded Paper Politics catalog to be published by PM Press.

A.Bill Miller of Gridworks and Master-List 2000 and I are collaborating on a PDF webzine. The first issue “Crunch Crisis” is out now and can be found here: RCP.ML2K.PDF Webzine Issue 1 (Summer 2009)

Here is the description of the project from the Rhizome project page:

RCP.ML2K.PDF is a PDF webzine available for download online. The project explores image circulation, as well as the fluid and adaptable nature of images in the digital environment, and explores the contextual nature of collaged images and image sequences. The project was developed with the intent to create an artwork that participates in the gift economy of file sharing.

Check it out!

Download here: RCPML2KPDF#1

My Milwaukee 14 Celebrate People’s History poster will be included in the CPH Postcard Set #2 put together by Justseeds and Sumptown Printers.

Here is the description from the Justseeds website:

A collaboration between Justseeds and Stumptown Printers, this is a beautiful letter-pressed boxed set of 16 full color offset printed postcard versions of Celebrate People’s History posters originally printed between 2001-2005. Some of the posters reproduced are sold out or extremely limited, like Paul Robeson, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Muhammad Ali. Here’s a complete list of the postcards included: Paul Robeson, Gabriel Dumont, Haymarket, Judi Bari, Mothers of East Los Angeles, the Suicide Club, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Muhammad Ali, the Milwaukee 14, the Great Arizona Mine Strike, Cochabamba, Louise Olivereau, Highlander Folk School, the Silent Majority, Nueva Cancion, and Las Gorras Blancas.

16 offset postcards
4″x6″
letter-pressed box
2000 sets

The End of Television is here! 40 plus artists (myself included) are being broadcast on the now abandoned analog signal in Pittsburgh.

For more info check out the End Of Television Blog.

I was going through some old files and stumbled upon an old artist statement from 2002… I made a PDF you can download. It’s not bad- typewritten, collaged and everything!

Check it out: 2002 Statement (PDF)

My new project Random Artwork/Artist Interviews has launched! The first interview was conducted with the political art collective Justseeds! The site will serve as a space for interviews of contemporary artists and collectives to discuss their work and the ideas that inform their artistic practice.

Check it out!

A nice mention of my interview with Nathaniel was given by Art Connect in a review of Nathaniel Stern’s Implicit Art blog.

Check out the post here.

A selection of BATHAS public access TV episodes were installed for the PSOA open house on Saturday April 18th.

The first Random Culture PDF webzine has been posted! Click Random Culture- Volume 1, Issue 1: Paper Cuts (PDF) to downlaod a copy here, or check the Zine page for downloads in the future.

Enjoy!

My review of Jacques Rancière’s The Future of the Image was just published in the current edition of the FATE journal discussing the book’s use in foundations level education and pedagogy.

FATE is a national organization dedicated to the promotion of excellence in the development and teaching of college-level foundations courses in both studio art and art history. The biennial conference will be held this year from April 1st-4th in Portland OR.

Click The Future of the Image (FATE Review) (PDF) to read my review.

A Short an Incomplete History of Experiment Film and Video will be featured in the Living Arts New Genre XVI Festival in Tulsa this year! The piece will be included in the New Genre Video Matinee.

The festival runs from February 26 – March 10, 2009. Check out the Living Arts Website here.

The Texas Commission on the Arts selected my video “A Short and Incomplete History of Experimental Film and Video” for the Dallas Video Festival “Best of Fest” multi-city Tour through Texas!

Cities Featured on the Tour:

Houston
San Angelo
Beaumont
Edinburg
El Paso
Corpus Christi
Sherman
Brownsville
Lubbock
Amarillo
And More!

Tour Poster (PDF)

The Hungry Ghosts DVD is now available! The DVD is a release of the collaborations between Peter J. Woods and I in 2007.

The DVD Includes:

Hungry Ghosts (21:04) (2007) Brandon Bauer and Peter J. Woods
Psychoplasm (21:28) (2007) Brandon Bauer and Peter J. Woods

+ Extras

Videos By Brandon Bauer: Endless Productivity (2006), Noise Collages (2007), The Spin Zone (2007), BAMN- By Any Means Necessary (2007), State of the Union (2008)

and Peter J. Woods Live at Six Flags Great America (2008)

The DVD can be purchased through FTAM for a mere $8.00 USD… Not a bad price in this economy- Noise for the people!

The following is a re-posting of an interview of me conducted by Nathaniel Stern for his Implicit Art blog, and was cross posted on the My Arts Space blog. The interview is the first in a series of MFA student features from the graduate program at the Peck School of the Arts, at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.

Enjoy!

UW-Milwaukee Grad Student feature: Brandon Bauer

Brandon Bauer is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His work explores how the strategy of collage creates or obscures meaning. Brandon’s art has been exhibited in the Aces(s) electronic media festival in Pau, France, The European Media Arts Festival in Osnabruck, Germany, and at Project 101 in Paris among several other national and international venues. His work has been produced in DVD editions, used as illustration for various editorial publications and books, and has been published in poster editions. Brandon has recently completed his MA at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and is currently pursuing his MFA with a focus on intermedia. Brandon is an adjunct Time Based Media faculty member at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.

Talk about your current practice. What do you make and why is that important to you?

In many ways I consider myself a collage artist, although I have an expanded definition of what collage is or can be. The products of the mediated world are my material starting point. It has only been in the last few years that I have fully embraced the concept of collage as my medium, and recognized the need for me to confront mediated images directly. I became aware in the last few years that I had always been responding to mediated forms in my work, and with that recognition, I found that I needed to work with these forms in a direct way. My recent exhibition Words Are Not Enough at the Inova/Arts Center Gallery in Milwaukee was a critical examination of the products of the media sphere as well as different ways in which to work with them, analyze them, break them down, recombine them, unform them, and manipulate them. The exhibition was an investigation of ideology and the construction of discourse in the media as well as a critique of these operations.

Images and details from the Words Are Not Enough exhibition, Inova/Arts Center Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Fall 2008

What got you to this point? What were you doing or making before, and how did that lead you to this kind of production?

I realized I had always been responding to the media in one way or another, and collage has been a constant component in my work, so in the last few years I decided to really concentrate on these forms, strategies, and methods. I think I first realized I was responding directly to media and mediated images in the 1990’s when the images surfaced of the emaciated prisoners in the camps during the war in the Balkans. After seeing those images I began working on a series that came to be called Hungry Ghosts; the series encompassed paintings, drawings, and mixed media works that all depicted tall, withered, cadaverous figures. The collage element came into the works as newspaper pages and headlines buried in the paint so that they could only be seen or revealed by looking closely at the work.

I Bury the Dead in My Belly, from the series Hungry Ghosts, mixed media on wood, 60 x 40.5 inches, 2001

The biggest change in my work came as a result of 9/11 and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Those events really made me reassess the role of art and the need to find a more responsive critical practice. Working on an oil painting for a month in the seclusion of the studio was not going to allow me the kind of direct critical response that I felt was necessary in face of the rush to war that occurred. It was actually quite an empowering moment to be an artist, I wasn’t the only one to feel that way, and that is what made it so empowering- there was an amazing surge of artistic activity as artists all over the world attempted to put their talents in the service of a critical response to the rush to war by the Bush administration. I was very fortunate to co-edit a book called Peace Signs: The Anti-War Movement Illustrated, that chronicled the worldwide graphic response to the march to war by the United States. The Spanish language version of the book won the Ciutat prize for design in Barcelona for the year 2003. This was the first time that this massive surge of creativity was mounted to try to stop a war before it had even started. Most anti-war art historically has been made during ongoing conflicts, or when specific atrocities came to light, or in the case of graphic works like Goya’s Disasters of War, or Otto Dix’s Der Krieg, made years after the fact. Anyway, it was during this time that I tried to find a more responsive critical practice, and looked for different ways of getting the work out there into the world. I did a number of flyers and stickers to be placed directly on the street, and started doing illustrations for publications like Clamor Magazine and Earth First!, as well as working with other activist based art groups like Visual Resistance and Justseeds. All of this made me think more critically about the function of art, and eventually led me to work with media as a material in a more specifically critical way.

Peace Signs: The Anti-War Movement Illustrated cover

More Dead and Wounded Everyday sticker and placement, created to mark the 1,000 U.S. casualty in the Iraq war, 2004

Corpobot, Illustration for Clamor Magazine May/June 2004

Who inspires you – that you know personally, as well as historically or in contemporary practice?

I am constantly inspired by my friends and so many of the people around me and what they do. Colin Matthes is a good example. He is insanely productive and an immense talent; his last exhibition, War Fair: Occupation Games for Citizens and Non-Combatants, was astounding – a combination of interactive carnival games as a critique of contemporary warfare. Colin and I collaborated on an exhibition in 2007 called Over There, which brought together work we had both been producing independently as well as collaborative art we made specifically for that show. I think that collaboration opened up avenues and possibilities for both of us that we have continued to expand upon in our own ways. I love collaborative projects in general; that kind of work always motivates me and inspires me.

Brandon Bauer and Colin Matthes installing work for the Over There exhibition, Brooks Barrow Gallery, Milwaukee WI, September 2007

As for historic inspirations, I always come back to the collage and photomontage work of the Dada artists as well as the Neo-Dadaist assemblage work like Rauschenberg’s “combines” and the work of Bruce Connor. I consistently find new ways to appreciate the work from these two periods on many different levels. As for contemporary artists, I am very interested in the work of Thomas Hirschhorn, especially his public monuments, and the work of Cady Noland really intrigues me. I respond to the fearlessness of Hirschhorn’s work, and the fact that he takes the general public seriously as readers of philosophy. I love the innate democratic quality of his public art, and the fact that he is unafraid to confront theory with praxis. I am intrigued by Noland’s work with appropriated materials and her investigation of the undercurrent of violence in the American character. She is an artist whose work I want to spend more time with. My list of inspirations could really go on forever. I try to absorb everything I can, am an omnivorous reader and always hungry visually. Lately I have been reading a lot of Jacques Rancière – his analysis of montage informed a lot of the work in my last exhibition, and I have recently picked up some of his non art-related critical writing on democracy, to see where it might lead me.

Tell us about your favorite and least favorite works of art from your entire repertoire – why they deserve those titles and what you learned from them.

Least favorite… that is honestly a very difficult question for me because I get something out of everything I make, successful or not. I tend to rework things endlessly so a piece I am not happy about may get cut up and recombined into a new work, or may be worked over until it feels right. It’s like Colin said as we were collaborating on work for the Over There exhibition, and I’m paraphrasing him: “either it’s going to be great or I’m going to run it into the ground- there is no in-between”… That’s basically it, I’m either going to make it work or create an absolute disaster. Usually my unsuccessful pieces get re-purposed or reworked into new pieces. Art is a fluid process for me, and in that way there are no real failures… I almost wish I would make a spectacular disaster- it may be my greatest work!

As for my favorite, that’s hard too… I guess I would have to say I really love the work I was doing in 2006, because that work was a point in which all of my concerns started coming together. I am particularly fond of much of the collage work I did then, as well as the video work in the short/cuts series, which was a series of 30 short videos experimenting with a variety of different aspects of the video medium. There was just an openness and honesty in the work I was making then, I was trying to zero in on what motivated me to make work and why, and I think it comes across in those pieces. My current work owes a great debt to that period of focused experimentation.

Grassroots Congress, mixed media and collage on paper 4 x 6 inches, 2006

IR, mixed media and collage on paper 4 x 6 inches, 2006

And, mixed media and collage on paper 4 x 6 inches, 2006

What are you working on right now, and where do you see your work headed next?

Right now I am in the midst of the preparatory work for a rotoscope animation project, and there are a number of threads I touched on in my exhibition Words Are Not Enough that I want to continue, expand upon and develop further. I also work with a number of other people on various projects and we have some irons in the fire. I recently contributed to a portfolio project through Justseeds about the prison industrial complex that will tour through Canada and has some other exhibition dates slated in the US. I will have a DVD released soon of video collaborations I did with the Milwaukee based experimental noise musician Peter J. Woods, and I am involved with ongoing projects for the BATHAS Internationale, which is an anonymous participatory umbrella collective project that explores how the modernist avant-garde notion of negation as revolt has been taken up by subcultures in contemporary society. I am in discussions with A. Bill Miller of Master-List 2000 about a BATHAS/Master-List 2000 net-art collaboration, but that is still in the initial stages. I will have a review of Jacques Rancière’s The Future of the Image published in the next edition of the FATE journal discussing its use in foundations level pedagogy. Beyond that my wife and I just had our first baby, so maybe I need to find an art practice that just involves me holding my little baby girl…

:
The House of Love and Dissent [translated]
Posted by Josh MacPhee on the Just Seeds Blog

Favianna, Dara and I are in Rome, preparing for our show at the House of Love and Dissent on Thursday. We’re hanging prints, People’s History posters, and images from Reproduce & Revolt. It’s going to be fun! Here is the poster for the show. Thanks to Erik Ruin for the hands (from the Realizing the Impossible cover).

Here is an Interview with Josh MacPhee about the show in Italian or translated.

More Just Seeds in Japan

Kei and Ill Commonz have been spreading the Justseeds goods around Tokyo. In November and December they had a couple more events, a report back from their trip to NYC, and an Anti-War and Resistance Fest. Here are a bunch of photos of the events, including CPH posters, Reproduce & Revolt images being silkscreened, video showings, etc…

Master-List 2000 is hosting the animated gif’s created by A. Bill Miller and I for the Make Your Own History exhibition held at the Blatz Building in downtown Milwaukee in the spring of 2008.

To see the work click here.

Here is a re-post from Bill’s blog:

Beer Barons & Brewery Workers
I’ve finally had a minute to put together a site for the Beer Barons & Brewery Workers project I did last Spring with Brandon Bauer. The work was presented at the Blatz Building in Milwaukee as part of the Make Your Own History group exhibition. This site is more in lines with what we originally intended for the project.

The gifs act as a portrait across time of two important moments in the history of Milwaukee.

Its made of 15 animated gifs, one for each of the 15 Beer Barons/ Breweries that were in operation in Milwaukee at one time. This was the rise of Milwaukee industry and how the city became what it is.

The texts come from Milwaukee newspaper coverage of Brewery Union Workers strike that, according to some local historians, eventually lead to the end of beer brewing in Milwaukee. This in turn lead to the departure of industry and jobs from Milwaukee and effects how the city became what it is now.

The gifs act as a portrait across time of two important moments in the history of Milwaukee.

Re-posted from the Just Seeds blog:

Voices from Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex

at Ste-Emilie SkillShare * 3942 Ste. Emilie * metro Place St. Henri
Vernissage Friday December 5th, 7pm-midnight
Exhibit December 5th – 14th inclusive

In connection with the historic Critical Resistance 10th anniversary conference Just Seeds Artists Cooperative has produced a print portfolio project that they are donating to prisoner justice organizations across North America. The portfolio consists of 20 prints, each by a different artist, that all either critique the prison-industrial complex or address alternatives to incarceration.

The vernissage will feature:
* a presentation on prison art
* letter-writing to political prisoners
* Certain Days 2009 Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar available for purchase

Presented by the Certain Days collective
& the Ste-Emilie SkillShare – both working groups of QPIRG Concordia

–> how to get to St Emilie Skillshare: mapquest
_______________________________________________
On Saturday in Toronto:

Let Freedom Ring
Calendar launch – book launch – panel discussion – art show
Saturday, December 6
6pm – Panel discussion about prison organizing
9pm – Launch party, with bar, snacks, and local DJs
(art will be up all evening)

$5/$15 with calendar

Whippersnapper Gallery
587A College Street, Toronto, ON

Calendar Launch

Certain Days 2009 Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar
42 gorgeous full-colour pages of art & writings, featuring DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving), Philly’s Pissed, Incite!, Sumoud, Alvaro Luna Hernandez, Inside Books Project, Laura Whitehorn, Robert Seth Hayes, David Gilbert, Herman Bell, Peter Collins, The Cuban Five, Victory Gardens, Common Ground, Native Youth Movement and more!

The calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between organizers in Montreal and Toronto, and three New York state Political Prisoners: Herman Bell, David Gilbert and Robert Seth Hayes.

Book Launch

Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners / Edited by Matt Meyer
Let Freedom Ring presents a two-decade sweep of essays, analyses, histories, interviews, resolutions, People’s Tribunal verdicts, and poems by and about the scores of U.S. political prisoners and the campaigns to safeguard their rights and secure their freedom.

Art Show

“Voices from Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex”
In connection with the historic Critical Resistance 10th anniversary conference Just Seeds Artists Cooperative has produced a print portfolio project that they are donating to prisoner justice organizations across North America. The portfolio consists of 20 prints, each by a different artist, that all either critique the prison-industrial complex or address alternatives to incarceration. One copy of the portfolio is currently touring Canada.

Great Night! Great Opening! Stop by the gallery this Tuesday (11/25) from 4-6pm for the gallery talks!

More images from the exhibition can be seen on the Just Seeds blog.

Wisconsin Books to Prisoners upcoming artshow in Madison – call for entries
Re-posted from Just Seeds Blog by Nicolas Lampert

Wisconsin Books to Prisoners is organizing an artshow on the prison industrial complex and will pair the Justseeds portfolio project with artwork that is done by prisoners. The exhibition will be in late January and I will post more information on the specifics in the coming weeks on the Justseeds blog. Below is their call for entries:

Wisconsin Books to Prisoners was the recipient of a powerful set of posters created by 20 printmakers from the JUSTSEEDS Visual Resistance art collective. These posters were created in anticipation of the 10th anniversary of Critical Resistance, a prison abolitionist movement, and call attention to the human rights catastrophe in U.S. jails and prisons, and the use of policing, prisons and punishment as a “solution” to social, political and economic problems.

The posters and artwork by prisoners will be displayed at a gallery in Madison at the end of January 2009. Art that addresses the condition of prisons and the daily drudgery and cruelties of prison life would be particularly appreciated.

Please do not send anything that you want returned or is not copyright free. Also, please let us know how you wish to be (or not be) identified. Submission are welcome throughout the years to come, but for this show the due date is: January 1st, 2009.

Many thanks in advance to those who make contributions to this event.

Please send artwork to:

Wisconsin Books to Prisoners
Rainbow Bookstore
426 W. Gilman St.
Madison, WI 537033

Here are a few preview photos of my Thesis exhibition “Words Are Not Enough” at the Inova Gallery on the UW-Milwaukee Campus.

Artist Statement: Words Are Not Enough

“With respect to the liberty of the signifieds of the image, the text has thus a repressive value and we can see that it is at this level that the morality and ideology of a society are above all invested.”
-Roland Barthes, Rhetoric of the Image

Our mediated world is an ever-shifting collage of competing voices, ideologies, and commercial interests that vie for attention in the larger social discourse. This fact is undisputable, but the overarching ideological construct of the mass media that these voices operate within is both exceedingly narrow and at the same time open to many possible interpretations. As an artist, one of my main points of investigation is the nature of the dialectical image, and how the strategy of collage creates or obscures meaning through the unification of heterogeneous materials in a work of art. The dialectical image is an image that brings together distinct worlds simultaneously to reveal a hidden truth.

The construction of meaning in the text of the media is a site of cultural struggle. This installation examines the text of the media by using mediated source material with a particular eye toward the language of overburdened signifiers and specifically loaded images and phrases. I have explored the notion of the dialectical image through a reworking of the text drawn from the mass media. By text, I do not mean solely the written word within these forms of mass communication, but also the meta-text of the larger ideological framework of the media as a cultural institution. Dialectically juxtaposing and reworking images, phrases, and video from our contemporary period and the historic cultural shift occurring in our country makes this notion of media as a site of cultural struggle all the more clear, while ultimately reinforcing the underlying ideology of our era. The act of appropriation from mediated sources begs the question of who owns the products of our mediated culture, and who controls the meanings they convey. The juxtaposition of these appropriated materials encourages a critical examination of the language of our mediated culture.

To read a copy of my thesis paper click: Words Are Not Enough (Thesis PDF)

Paper Politics in Syracuse!
Re-posted from Just Seeds Blog by Josh M.

The Paper Politics show is still tearing up upstate New York! It open at the Redhouse Gallery in Syracuse tomorrow night. If you’re in the area, check it out! Almost 200 political prints from around the world, with work from all the Justseeds artists, as well as tons of other great printmakers like BSAS Stencil, Christopher Cardinale, Tom Civil, Sue Coe, Amos Kennedy Jr., Jesse Purcell, Favianna Rodriguez and Nicole Schulman.

Paper Politics
Redhouse Arts Center
November 20th, 2008
Opening Reception: November 20th 5-8pm

Redhouse
201 South West St.
Syracuse, NY 13202

ma/mfa

Here are some images from the Sprawl Exhibition Curated by A. Bill Miller at the Borg Ward Collective in Milwaukee.

Images from Top to Bottom: #1.) Master List 2000 preparing for the Gallery talk, #2.) Curator A. Bill Miller, #3.) Re:Flux video still, #4.) BATHAS Window display, #5.) Annushka Gisella Peck, #6.) BATHAS Display, #7.) BATHAS Flyers, #8.) Nathaniel Stern, #9.) Major General Reality (projection), Master List 2000 (resting), and Annushka’s sculpture #10.) Soup Cans (projection).

SPRAWL: Project Description

We live in a conglomeration of superimposed information networks. Our physical world is being devoured and woven into the fabric of our digital environments. We are adapting to this situation as much as we are adapting it to fit our own needs. We believe in using, re-using, and mis-using every bit and byte with what is left of our finger tips. SPRAWL exhibits interpretations of how an information-rich world becomes an inseparable part of creative practice.

SPRAWL is a gray area between what is left and what is to come.

Artists Include:
Ric Stultz
Annushka Gisella Peck
Gina Rymarcsuk
Brandon Bauer
BATHAS Internationale
Paul Fuchs & JIBANGUS
A. Bill Miller
Lane Hall & Lisa Moline
Andy Ducett
Nicolas Lampert
Nathaniel Stern
Trent Hergenrader

{Sprawl art exhibition}{Curated by A. Bill Miller}
[ @ Borg Ward Collective ][ Nov. 7 - Nov. 23 ]
[ Opening Nov. 7, 6-10pm w/ Bands ]
[ Gallery Talk by Master-List2000, 7:30pm ]

I recently participated in a portfolio project through Just Seeds on the prison industrial complex.

portfolio covers

Artists Included in the Project

From the Just Seeds website:

Recently, Justseeds has completed a portfolio project for the Critical Resistance ten-year anniversary conference in Oakland, California that took place on September 26-28.

The project involved twenty artists from the US, Canada and Mexico who each created an original print that either critiqued or addressed alternatives to the prison-industrial complex. Each artist pulled 100 prints and the amazing JS crew at the Portland distro assembled the portfolios and created the covers that are displayed in the photos.

The point of the portfolio project was to donate work and to share graphics with groups working against the prison-industrial complex. In the end, each portfolio included the 20 prints plus a cdr with copy-right free TIFF files of the images (plus other anti-prison images from the recent book Reproduce and Revolt (edited by Favianna Rodriguez and Josh MacPhee.)

Justseeds donated the bulk of the portfolios to Critical Resistance and 30 other groups who are organizing against prisons.

My print for the portfolio addressed the racial disparities specifically in the Wisconsin Prison system.

I tried to make each print individual and slightly different from the rest in subtle ways- some by adjusting the background stencil, some by doing extra pulls of the silkscreen in with different colors, some use different papers, and some I dragged the screen in different ways to give variety to the pull.

You can see other photos on my flickr page.
For More Information visit the Just Seeds website.

A Short and Incomplete History of Experimental Film and Video will be screened at the Dallas Video Festival this fall, November 6th through the 9th. Check the festival website for dates, times, and screening information.

To view the page for this work on the Dallas Video Festival website click here.

I am currently working on the sound engineering for the University of Wisconsin-Milwuakee Peck School of the Arts podcast series of the Artists Now! lectures.

The episodes can be found on iTunes U Here.

BATHAS #14 is on the air. Check MATA Community Media Channel 96 for dates and times.

Next stop for Paper Politics is the Dowd Gallery at the State University of New York College at Cortland. The exhibition runs September 4th-November 6th 2008.

For more information visit the Dowd Gallery website.

MIAD’s Faculty Exhibition Part 1 is now open- this year I have included my new video work titled “State of the Union”.

Other Faculty in the exhibition:

Jason S. Yi, Kathryn Martin, Rosalie Beck, Zoë Darling, Waldek Dynerman, Dave Gilo, Deon Jahnke, Shana McCaw, Caroline Long, Mike Rebholz, Rebecca Schoenecker, Sonja Thomsen, Melissa Wagner-Lawler, Shane Walsh , Rina Yoon

Look for Part II of the Faculty Exhibition that will run from September 16 – October 4.

Dulabomber’s new album has just been released, “Tear Your Heart Out”. Ricky Tornado and James Spider are back at it with help from some very special guests Luke, Rydawg, Tyler, Joel C., Schribes, Ol’ Double B, Max, Sensual Steve Seiser, Smoking Joe Stockinger, and an album cover by Ms. Brandi Jo.

To find Dulabomber on Myspace click here.

Cut and Paint #2 is now out! This issue is packed with more great ready to paint stencil templates and also includes Street Stencil Photos from Buenos Aires and Barcelona, Mirco-stencils by bor*d, Eco-stencils, a stencil how-to, and much more!

The Zine can be picked-up through Just Seeds.

Here is the description of #2 from the Just Seeds website:

Expanding on the scope of the first issue, this edition has a number of writings including an essay by Emily Abendroth on a stencil project in Oakland and a short how-to-guide on moss stencils! Cut and Paint # 2 also features a number of photo spreads about stencil activity and Nicolas Lampert’s book review of Schlabone Berlin.

click here for my Emma Goldman Stencil
click here for my R.I.P. Tookie Stencil

The final class participating in Project Identity has successfully concluded its Majors secession for MIAD’s Pre-College Summer Program.

The rotoscoping animation course was team taught by James Barany, David Martin and Myself, and is part of the extended venture known as “Project Identity” that was undertaken by James Barany as part of his MIAD sabbatical.

A Project Identity installation will be exhibited at MIAD in October.

Please visit the Project Identity Blog for further information.

The Seeing Green catalog is now available for purchase through Just Seeds!

Here is the description from their website:

The Seeing Green exhibition catalog features images and text of 30 projects from an activist art show in Milwaukee in April 2008 that was curated by Nicolas Lampert. The show addressed issues of urban environmental sustainability where local artists created various projects including public interventions, street art, posters, books, films, and architecture. Familiar names in the show include Colin Matthes (Justseeds), Sue Simensky Bietila (Drawing Resistance/World War 3 Illustrated), and Brandon Bauer (SAW). This catalog is sure to inspire and exemplifies what artists can do to take a lead an envisioning a greener city.

full color
folds out accordian style to 10 pages
1500 printed

MAKE YOUR OWN HISTORY

May 2nd – May 17th, 2008
Opening Reception, May 9th, 7-10 p.m.
Closing Reception, May 16th, 6-9 p.m.
Gallery Hours: Mon-Sat: 12-5 pm

Catalogs will be available at the opening!

The Blatz Building
270 East Highland Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53202
(enter gallery from Broadway St.)

For more info visit the website and the blog… Visit Jennifer Bastian’s flickr site for some good work in progress images.

Artists included:

Jennifer Bastian
Brandon Bauer
Maria Bolivar
Max Estes
Kristen Haas
Jonathan Horvath
Tiffany Knopow
Madeline McGrath
A. Bill Miller
Ashley Morgan
Richard Mutz
Vijay Paniker
Annushka Peck
Holli Pitsch
Leah Schreiber

Detail photos of the Beer Barons & Brewery Workers installation drawings in progress.

Make Your Own History is a group exhibition of 15 emerging artists that uses the historic Blatz Building (a former beer brewing facility) as both a subject and location for narrative experimentation. Responding to the transitional state of the space, as well as how the site symbolizes Milwaukee’s own shifting identity, these artists have created site-specific works and interventions that complicate and challenge how history gets told and remembered.

For this exhibition A. Bill Miller and I are collaborating on a project titled Beer Barons & Brewery Workers.

Here is a video segment of the animated portraits we are working on for the installation:

From our statement:

The Project Beer Barons & Brewery Workers creates a dialog across the history of the brewing industry in Milwaukee. Animated portraits of beer barons from the era of the rise of the brewing industry interact with archival text about the 1953 brewery strike, a strike that anticipated the decline of the brewing industry in Milwaukee. The subtle and humorous animated gestures engage both the viewer and the texts shedding light on these important historical events. These two historical points become bookends to a history that is still very much a part of the fabric and character of the city of Milwaukee.

Along with the animations a site-specific drawing in the exhibition space weaves the portraits and texts in an abstract and fragmented way around a column and the floor of the installation space. This intertwining of these disparate events within the Blatz building is a physical representation of how these two events are inextricably linked to the history of this building, as well as to the larger history of the Milwaukee brewing industry.

Below are some examples of the portraits we have been animating.

I will post more information on the exhibition soon.

Seeing Green Film Screening, Wednesday, April 16th, 7:00-9:00pm
Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E. Locust Street

Screening of videos by:
Lane Hall and Lisa Moline
Brian Carlson
Lindsay Holden
Brandon Bauer
Ray Chi
Laura Klein
Eddee Daniel
Suzanne Rosenblatt and Spencer Tepper
Zachary Nesgoda

This event is free

Also, on Wednesday, curator talk by Nicolas Lampert 4:30-6:00.

Press:
To read the MKE article click here
Here is the post from Mary Louise Schumacher’s Art City Blog

for more information:
Seeing Green currently on view at Woodland Pattern
http://seeinggreenartshow.wordpress.com/

Due out April 15th!

I will have a few designs in this new book- Reproduce and Revolt!

Josh MacPhee & Favianna Rodriguez (eds.)
Reproduce & Revolt/Reproduce Y Rebélate
$18 ($19.95 cover price)

A collection of over 500 political graphics, Reproduce & Revolt/Reproduce Y Rebélate contains original art granted by the creators to the public domain, to be freely used on political posters, flyers, and campaigns. A bilingual (English & Spanish) book, it also includes a history of the reproducible political graphic and a design how-to for anyone interested in using the images in this book to help change the world. A powerful collection of graphic work by some of the world’s most active and interesting political propagandists, street artists and socially conscious graphic designers. Over 100 artists from over 25 countries are included!

You can order a copy from Just Seeds.

196 pages
10.5″x8″
Soft Skull Press
Click reproduce & revolt excerpts to download a PDF sample of the book.

Paper Politics is a traveling political art exhibition I have been involved in since its first inception in Chicago in 2004. The show is curated by Josh MacPhee and has an amazing range of print processes and political sentiments… Next stop Corpus Christi, TX!

(re-posted from the Just Seeds blog)

Paper Politics, the political print show I’ve been traveling around the continent has made it’s way to Texas! K Space Contemporary opens Paper Politics on Saturday, April 5th.
The exhibit showcases print art that uses themes of social justice and global equity to engage community members in political conversation. All the Justseeds artists are in the show, as well as 175 other artists from the US and around the world. An eclectic collection of work by artists who are primarily activists, as well as artists, whose work may not always be politically motivated, but who wanted to respond to the monumental trends and events of our times.

Opening: Saturday April 5th, 6-8 PM
Free Admission, Food & Drinks
On view April 5th-May 11th

Also:
Woodcut Printmaking Workshop with Paper Politics artist Mike Stephens
Saturday, April 12th, 10Am-1PM
$65 materials fee, call to reserve a space.