The Peace Posters is a BROADSHEET NEWSPAPER and available for FREE …
Help us get them out into the world. To obtain copies of this Free Broadsheet for bedroom walls, workplaces, Street Poles, community notice boards, shopfronts and schools, please email:[email protected] with your address and how many copies you wish to receive! This is our biggest poster series yet.
Featuring 30 posters by Colin Matthes, HA-HA, Ann Newmarch, John Emerson, 7U?, Kathleen McCann, Olaf Ladousse, Lluis Fuzzhound, Marc Martin, Marc de Jong, Caitlin Poduska, M.P. Fikaris, Van Rudd, Iain McIntyre, Stewart Cole, Aris Prabawa, Tom Civil, Rasool Parvari Moghaddam, Mathew Kneebone, Erik Ruin, KA’a, Bretton Bartleet, Arlene TextaQueen, Lou Smith and Tom O’Hern. And poetry by Ocean Vuong, Anwyn Crawford, Mammad Aidani and Opal Palmer Adisa.
Published by Breakdown Press \\ Printed in Winter 2010 \\ Co-ordination and Artistic Direction by Tom Civil and Lou Smith \\ The project has been funded by the Graham F Smith Peace Trust: www.artspeacetrust.org
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ARTISTS BIOGRAPHIES
Ann Newmarch O.A.M was born in Adelaide in 1945. She was a lecturer at The South Australian School of Art (SASA) and The University of South Australia (UniSA) from 1969-2000 and a founding member of the Progressive Art Movement 1974-77; Women’s Art Movement 1976-84; Prospect Mural Group 1978-84; Artworkers Union and Collaborations Committee. From 1969 she has held over 30 solo shows and exhibited widely in significant group exhibitions in Australia and overseas including “Time Square Show”, New York 1980, “Australian Perspecta” 1981, “Sense and Sensibility” UK 1982, “Continuum’83” Tokyo, “The Great Australian Art Exhibition” AGSA 1988, “Balance1990” Brisbane, ”From Appropriation to Appreciation” Flinders University Art Museum 1988, “Chemistry” AGSA 2000, “Identity” Flinders Uni Art Museum 2007, “Leopard” Adele Boag Gallery 2007, and “WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution” Museum of Contemporary Art, LA, USA, 2007. Ann Newmarch is represented in many major publications and is represented in all State Galleries and Major Collections.
Anwyn Crawford is a writer and artist from Sydney, currently living in New York. Her illustration for Tony Birch’s poem “Hygiene for a Nation’s Soul” appeared in The Stolenwealth Poster Series (Breakdown Press, 2006).
Aris Prabawa grew up in Solo in Central Java, Indonesia, in a tight, communal community of immediate and extended family built on sharing and helping one another. The society within which they lived was controlled by a military dictatorship which was oppressive, violent, sexist and unjust. He moved in 1994 to Yogyakarta, and in 1995 began a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in print making at the Indonesian Institute of Art. In 1998 he was involved in establishing the art collective Taring Padi (fang of the rice plant). This collective used art as a tool for social change and as a way to share and explore political ideas, communicate with others and build new and creative ways of living. He is currently a practicing artist living in Lismore NSW.
Arlene TextaQueen, Australia’s felt-tip super-heroine, exposes real women un-dressed-up in accessories, poses and habitats of their own desire. Her ‘Textanudes’ of punk babes, burlesque beauties, transgender cowgirls and sunburnt camel wranglers have been shown widely and wildly in galleries with acronyms such as MCA, PICA, AGNSW, GSCAS, ACMI and GOMA, internationally in New York, Chicago, Portland (OR), Los Angeles, and Montreal as well as appearing as commissioned tapestries, animations, surfboards, billboards, calendar teatowels, and playing cards. Her work is held in many public and private collections and she is represented by Sullivan + Strumpf Fine Art in Sydney and Gallerysmith in Melbourne.
Bretton Bartleet is a graphic activist, artist and designer based in Melbourne, Australia. Formerly working as the Art Director for The Big Issue magazine, a publication that aims to empower the homeless and long-term unemployed. He is now focusing his attention on various other projects and work that aim to cultivate positive social change.
Caitlin Poduska is 19 years old, lives in Melbourne, and is currently attending TAFE doing a Diploma of Illustration. After she graduates she intends on working as a freelance illustrator or starting her own business. This poster is about peace-building from the youth upwards. If we as a society want to cultivate peace, then we must teach and be the example for the generations to come. In the end, we learn some of our fundamental values from our parents and elders, so we must step up and be the role models that we want for ourselves. http://caitlinpoduska.blogspot.com/
Colin Matthes lives in Milwaukee, WI, USA, and works across a range of media including drawing, sculpture, installation, public art, print, and zine-making. He works on collective art projects including Justseeds (www.justseeds.org), Street Art Workers (www.streetartworkers.org), and Cut and Paint zine (www.cutandpaint.org).
His website is colinmatthes.com.
Culley Palmer is a subsistence farmer in Northern NSW. He’s lived in Brisbane and has had a variety of jobs such as labouring, turfing, removals, packing fresh food and cleaning at a homeless shelter. Culley is associated with the Pacifist Anarchist Catholic Worker Movement. In July 2009 he was involved in the resistance to US army training in Australia called Exercise Talisman Saber. Culley was one of eleven people who entered Shoalwater Bay training area during the exercise to oppose the exercise and interfere with the live firing components of the exercise
(http://talismansabre.wordpress.com/).
Erik Ruin is a Philadelphia-based puppeteer and printmaker. He works and/or has worked with UpsidedownCulture Collective, Street Art Workers, the Prison Poster Project and Barebones Productions. He is a member of Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative and co-edited with Josh MacPhee Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority. www.justseeds.org.
The work of Ha-Ha explores the power of mass media within Australian popular culture. The reality TV phenomena, the religion of sport, criminal lifestyles, get rich quick and instant fame become the obsessions and the new virtues of the 21st century. By using multi-layered stencils of up to 40 layers, Ha-Ha’s work is a reflection of popular culture. He gets his images directly from the newspaper or from photographing the subject to tell a story of the here and now. Without the aid of a computer, his cutting technique produces life-like imagery. Ha-Ha is a self taught artist who started off by spray painting stencils on the street and has since then graduated to the gallery. He has been exhibiting for over 8 years he has held 10 solo shows in Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart and Sydney. He is represented by three commercial galleries across Australia.
Iain McIntyre is a writer, paper plane enthusiast and activist based in Melbourne. His most recent book is How To Make Trouble and Influence People: Pranks, Hoaxes, Graffiti and Political Mischief-Making from across Australia which is available from Breakdown Press. He is currently researching and documenting American creative activism for a US edition of the Trouble series whilst keeping active with the housing action group City Is Ours.
John Emerson is an activist, graphic designer, writer, and programmer based in New York City. He has designed web sites, printed materials and motion graphics for leading media companies as well as local and international non-profit organisations. Since 2002, he has published Social Design Notes, a weblog of writings and clippings on the intersection of design and activism: http://backspace.com/notes.
KA’a is a collaboration between two artists currently based in Melbourne: Kirsty Furniss, an international stencil artist and Mathieu Augereau, a French aerosol painter. Their artwork exists at the frontiers between painting and graffiti, abstract and figurative, aesthetic and social commentary. Overall KA’a’s motivation is to create works that are contrasting and engaging, that address controversial issues with a subtle and aesthetic interpretation. KA’a creates street art, paintings as well as political images to contribute to a number of environmental and social justice groups and campaigns: http://web.me.com/mathieuaugereau/ka-a.
Kathleen McCann was born in Belfast in the 1960s. She left Northern Ireland with her family in 1972 to escape the civil strife known as “The Troubles”. They moved to the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne where Kathleen eventually studied education at Victoria College, Rusden. Kathleen became involved in environmental politics with Friends of the Earth. She began a business in illustration and cartooning, working for the environment movement, women’s groups, Indigenous organisations, NGOs, government agencies and various publishers. In 1996 Kathleen developed the now iconic hand and radiation symbol for the Mirarr Traditional Owners fighting the proposed Jabiluka uranium mine in Kakadu. The symbol is now widely used to denote anti-nuclear sentiment and Indigenous solidarity both in Australia and internationally.
Lluis Fuzzhound was born in Spain in 1977 and moved out to Melbourne with his family when he was one… he’s been living between here and there all his life travelin back and forth. He got into art very young, mostly comics and cartoons. He’d love to eat his “Coco Pops” in front of the TV every afternoon after school, then in High School he got a bit anal like most adolecents do and wanted to be a real artist, so after he finished High School he moved to Valencia because it was in Europe and was old. There he lived for 12 years and worked as many shitty jobs as he could: he was the gardener at the local jail, he worked in the rice fields in mud up to his knees, he picked oranges with a crazy group of Spaniards that ended up knifing each other, he worked in a carwash with African immigrants….and he also had his first solo exhibition there. Now he lives here in Melbourne doing artwork for Rock ‘n’ Roll bands and cartoony art stuff that he enjoys. To see more artwork please visit www.lluisfuzzhound.blogspot.com. He also take on commissions!
Lou Smith is a Melbourne-based poet who grew up in Newcastle, NSW. Her poetry has been published in many Australian and international journals and anthologies including Wasafiri, Mascara Poetry, Kunapipi and Overland. She is a zine maker and radio programmer and has produced and programmed the DIY Arts Show on 3CR Community radio for the past 8 years. Lou is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne. She is co-founder of Breakdown Press.
Mammad Aidani is an interdisciplinary scholar with a background in socio-linguistics, philosophy, literature, and psychology. He is also a poet and playwright. His research examines the cultural meanings attached to suffering and the types of identities and modes of belonging that shape the local world of diasporas. His works in the past decade concentrated on diaspora communities experiencing trauma and the use of performing arts as a medium to address the trauma of violence. He has worked with many marginalised groups: socially and economically disadvantaged families, migrants, refugees, and young people, in producing performances where individuals and groups, can tell their stories without shame. In 2007 his play, Mother Dust, was performed at Contact theatre, Manchester, UK. His play Remembering the Cherry Tree was performed in 2007 at the Carlton Courthouse theatre; La Mama, Melbourne, Australia. His forthcoming book Welcoming the Stranger: Narratives of Identity and Belonging in an Iranian Diaspora will be published late 2010, by Common Grand Publisher. Mammad’s latest plays ‘If as …’ and ‘The Stranger in the Corridor’ will be performed in September 2010 at La Mama Theatre.
Marc de Jong www.prdctvsm.com
Marc Martin is an illustrator and graphic designer. His work can be found at
www.smallandquiet.com.
Mathew Kneebonehas spent most of his life traveling around the sun, through this journey he has sought to learn about how to say something worthwhile.
Michael P. Fikaris is a tour guide and illustrator. He has also been making comic books since 1991.
www.fikarisart.com \ melbournestreettours.com
Born in 1988 in Saigon, Vietnam, Ocean Vuong currently resides in New York City as an undergraduate English Major at Brooklyn College, CUNY. His poems have received an Academy of American Poets Prize, the Beatrice Dubin Rose Award, the Connecticut Poetry Society’s Al Savard Award, as well as two Pushcart Prize nominations. His work appears in Word Riot, the Kartika Review, Lantern Review, SOFTBLOW, Asia Literary Review, and PANK among others. He enjoys practicing Zen Meditation and is an avid supporter of animal rights. Visit his site for more info: www.oceanvuong.blogspot.com.
Before landing in Madrid in 1992, little is known about Olaf Ladousse. Suspected to be Belgian, French or Albanian, his studies in the UNAM Mexico University and his degree in Parisian School of Design “Les Ateliers” clearly deny an outer-space origin. Let’s say he’s Turkish from Cyprus. He started a career of illustration because of little opportunity to work as an industrial designer in Madrid, quickly started an international mute comics fanzine ¡QUÉ SUERTE! and the girl band Las Solex where they all play guitars. Part of his political preoccupation is to draw in El Cartel, that he founded with Mutis, Eneko, Jaques Le Buiscuit and César Fernández Arias. The collective has been gluing self-published posters in the Madrid streets since 1998. The same year Olaf invented the “doorag”, a circuit-bending instrument that he uses with the LCDD band (Los Caballos De Düsseldorf). He currently mixes his engraving art with comics and sounding doorags altogether in exhibitions. www.olafladousse.com; www.elcartel.es; www.myspace.com/lcdd; www.myspace.com/lassolex.
Opal Palmer Adisa PhD, is an internationally recognised literary critic, poet, prose writer, storyteller, artist, and the new editor of The Caribbean Writer. Her forthcoming books this year are: Painting Away Regrets, novel, and Caribbean Erotic, an anthology of poems, stories and essays, co-edited with Donna Aza Weir Soley, both from Peepal Tree Press. For more info on Adisa, visit: www.opalpalmeradisa.com.
Rasool Parvari Moghaddam holds an MA in Graphic Design and is a staff member of the Department of Graphic, Faculty of Arts and Architecture University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran.
Guy Sterling has been banging his head against the “art” game for about 15 years and he will continue to do so until he either falls over or starts receiving arts grants. Working under a mess of ridiculous pseudonyms including 7U?, producing stupid noise and cut n paste appropriation in a variety of mediums. He is a little known member of Sydney’s oven-guard movement with fuck all “art” prospects on the horizon. www.667u.com.
After 24 years of brownnosing and ladder climbing, Stewart Cole has created a world wide arse kissing syndicate. His dictatorship has been a blight upon this rotting planet, and he has left his trail of debauchery all across the land, pillaging local shopping precincts, and ruining communities. His interests include deforestation, the mining industry, growing infrastructure, seeking employment, paying for goods and services, secret agendas, hidden rooms, big cars, breeding humans in secret laboratories and furthering the alienation of those who are weak. wellbalancedandfriendly.blogspot.com
Tom Civil is a community graphic designer and artist. Since completing a Bachelor of Environmental Science he has gone on to become involved in the independent media, street art and publishing community. Tom has worked as a graphic designer for many political and community organisations. His stencil work has been featured in the publications Melbourne Stencil Art Capital, Street|Studio, the film Rash, and he has been a feature artist in Melbourne Stencil Festival 2004/05/09 and the London Cans Festival in 2008. He has also worked with his brother Ned under the guise of the Evil Brothers. Civil has exhibited in a variety of art spaces and run mural and stencil-making workshops in different communities and given various public talks about the political nature of street art. He is also the co-founder of Breakdown Press.
www.flickr.com/photos/tomcivil.
Tom O’Hern is a Hobart-based artist. He draws big pictures of things that boys like such as skulls and bats. Sometimes he draws on walls. Tom studied fine art at the University of Tasmania. Tom says the four horses of the apocalypse in the swastika in his poster, is like the ultimate school boy slayer graffiti. He remembers kids in primary school used to idly scratch swastikas into their desk and draw them on their pencil cases. Then again the same kids would draw peace symbols and skulls, so there probably wasn’t a whole lot of thought going into what it meant. There wasn’t really a lot of thought given to what was happening in other parts of the world or even what had happened within walking distance of where they sat.
“Van Thanh Rudd is a visual artist and activist based in Melbourne, Australia. He embraces the challenges that are involved in mixing art with activism. Lately his works have involved painting, collages, cartooning, installations, performance and tree/street graffiti. If I had a choice, I’d prefer to avoid his work altogether. I wished he painted portraits of my pets instead of dedicating his stuff towards real change. Rudd loves crapping on about his art, the art world, the real world and anything to do with……..REVOLUTION! He and many activists around the world realize how corrupt my administration is and the fact that the banks are really getting richer during this capitalist crisis. Yeah, sure….I admit that one day, the people will show us that this current system is totally, totally up shit creek and that something else is possible”. (U.S President, Barack Obama, 2010)www.van-thanh-rudd.net
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Community and Arts Organisations Working Towards Peace
Peace Organisation of Australia is a non-profit and non-religious organisation committed to promoting peace through education, lobbying and direct action. poa.org.au/admin
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a global grassroots movement for disarmament through a legally binding, verifiable and timebound Nuclear Weapons Convention.
www.icanw.org
International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is a global network of over 90 countries that works for a world free of antipersonnel landmines and cluster munitions, where landmine and cluster munition survivors can lead fulfilling lives. www.icbl.org/intro.php
Cluster Munition Coalition is an international civil society campaign working to eradicate cluster munitions, prevent further casualties from these weapons and put an end for all time to the suffering they cause. The Coalition works through its members to change the policy and practice of governments and organisations towards these aims and raise awareness of the problem amongst the public. www.stopclustermunitions.org
Medical Association for the Prevention of War (MAPW) (Australia) works for the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction and the prevention of armed conflict. www.mapw.org.au
International PEN, the worldwide association of writers, emphasises the role of literature in mutual understanding and world culture; and promotes literature in various ways, including opposing restraints on freedom of expression and working to promote literacy itself. Today International PEN has 144 centres in 102 countries across the globe, and is a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, imprisoned and sometimes murdered because of the words they write.
pen.org.au
Thylazine Foundation of Arts, Ethics and Literature www.thylazine.org/peace
Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression. www.poetsagainstthewar.org
Friends of the Earth (FoE), believes that social and environmental issues cannot be separated from each other. As a result, FoE is a social and environmental justice organisation. It seeks to work towards a sustainable and equitable future and seeks to work in a way that empowers individuals and communities. www.melbourne.foe.org.au
TreatyRepublic is the website of Robbie Thorpe, committed activist on issues relating to Australian history, Indigenous sovereignty, lack of treaty, land-rights justice, genocide and national denial. Robbie is from the Krautungalung people of the Gunnai Nation, the traditional owners of Lake Tyers, Victoria. www.treatyrepublic.net
3CR, Community Radio 855AM is a dynamic, community hub that has produced radio for nearly 35 years. The radio station was established in 1976 to provide a voice for those denied access to the mass media, particularly the working class, women, Indigenous people and the many community groups and community issues discriminated against in and by the mass media. Live streaming and podcasts at www.3cr.org.au.
Indymedia is a collective of grassroots media-makers providing a platform for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate coverage of struggles and movements working for social, environmental and economic justice. Everyone is a witness. Everyone is a journalist. indymedia.org.au
Psychologists for Peace (PFP) is an interest group of the Australian Psychological Society. Its members are psychologists, and others, who are concerned about the prevalence of war and conflict in our world and are interested in applying their professional skills to issues relating to promoting peace and preventing war. They are working to promote peace in the world and prevent conflict through psychological research, education and advocacy. www.groups.psychology.org.au/pfp
Architects for Peace is a humanitarian, not-for-profit incorporated professional organisation that aims to provide an alternative forum for debating political, environmental and social issues in the professional urban context.
www.architectsforpeace.org
Melbourne anti-war network is a coalition of groups organising regular anti-war actions join the e-group at [email protected]
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, founded in 1915, WILPF empowers women to work for peace and justice in every Australian state and territory, and in 45 countries around the world. www.wilpf.org.au
People for Nuclear Disarmament have been active in Australia since 1960 and have a significant presence in the world’s disarmament movement. NSW: www.pndnsw.org.au
Japanese for Peace www.jfp.org.au
Stop the War coalition www.stopwarcoalition.org
Australian Peace Committee (SA) is an organisation aimed at promoting disarmament, human rights, justice, development and peace. Huge listings of useful links on this website. www.peacecourier.com
The Peace Convergence is a bi-annual protest camp established to show opposition to the destruction of the environment and the continued Australian involvement in the US war machine. It is held in Yeppoon. Rockhampton and Byfield adjoining the Shoalwater Bay Training Area on the beautiful Queensland central coast. www.peaceconvergence.com
Catholics in Coalition for Justice and Peace is a coalition of individuals and groups, working for the emergence of just social structures in Australia and overseas. It works as an integral part of the Church at the service of the world and especially of the victims of injustice. www.ccjpoz.org
Asylum Seeker Resource Rentre has become the largest provider of aid, advocacy and health services for asylum seekers in Australia. They work directly with asylum seekers, both living in the community and detention, to provide direct aid and support as they seek refugee status in Australia. They also campaign and lobby on behalf of asylum seekers and all Australians who want to change the unjust policies that Australia has adopted. Most importantly, at times of despair and hopelessness, we are there to offer comfort, friendship, hope and respite. www.asrc.org.au
International Day of Peace Alliance has as its sole charter, to raise awareness of the International Day of Peace and encourage participation across all cultures, religions and peoples. Comprised of about 15 volunteers from different backgrounds and organisations, they are a catalyst organisation, raising awareness of the day through maximising their networks. www.idpa.org.au
International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) is an Australian not for profit organisation that creates positive change for women and their communities. www.iwda.org.au
Food Not Bombs shares free vegan and vegetarian meals with the hungry in over 1,000 cities around the world to protest war, poverty and the destruction of the environment. With over a billion people going hungry each day how can we spend another dollar on war? www.foodnotbombs.net
The Graham F Smith Peace Trust is a grassroots, non-profit organisation, which is totally staffed by volunteers. It was established in 1989 to provide the opportunity to continue Graham’s work, who spent his life working for peace, justice, human rights and for the dignity of labour. www.artspeacetrust.org