100 Days of Active Resistance

100 Days of Active Resistance is a beautiful compilation of images that “go deep in order to understand who we are, what the world is and how things could be better.” On Day 87 you’ll find the MAKE [THIS] BETTER poster.

Buy the book.

• In 2010 Vivienne Westwood and Lee Jeans launched an online manifesto-installation titled 100 Days of Active Resistance. The website invited people to submit an artwork, slogan or photograph responding to Westwood’s conception of Active Resistance to Propaganda, in which she argues for culture’s capacity to elevate humanity above self-destruction. It is not enough to follow world politics, see films and read the prizewinning bestsellers, she insists; this is superficial, you need to go deep in order to understand who you are, what the world is and how things could be better. This involves culture which can only be acquired by self-education: human beings should mirror the world. Starting on September 8, 2010, for100 days, one artwork was showcased online daily, ending with an exhibition displaying a selection ofthe best contributions. This volume gathers these works and commemorates the project.

DOWN-UP | Power to the Poster {dot} ORG

OCCUPY TOGETHER The posters provided on this page were graciously donated by graphic designers and are free for you to download, print, and hang up within your community, not only to promote local efforts, but the solidarity of all occupiers around the country.

Stronger Together

Poster Show Friday the 28th at the New BLK. See you there!

From the Nebraska Appleseed blog: Build A Stronger Nebraska Together

LINCOLN: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7TH

October 7 · 6:00pm – 10:00pm

The Ink Spot at Parrish Studios
1410 O Street
Lincoln, NE

OMAHA: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28TH

October 28 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm

The New BLK
1213 Jones Street
Omaha, NE

A poster show benefiting Nebraska Appleseed featuring art from:

Paul Berkbigler
Doe Eyed
Ella Durham + Sam Rapien
Justin Kemerling
Peter Morris
Oxide Design Co.
Cathy Solarana
Jake Welchert

Historically, the poster has been a powerful means of communicating ideals and advocating for change.

Nebraska Appleseed called upon leaders in the graphic design community to envision how we can build a stronger Nebraska through greater equality, opportunity and justice for all.

We partnered with Justin Kemerling of The Match Factory and Lincoln screen printer Jason Davis of Screen Ink to produce an art exhibition with a collection of posters to inspire all people of our great state to work together to create a more inclusive, more vibrant community.

These powerful posters – eleven designs, hand-signed and numbered, twenty-five prints each on 18″x24″ silkscreen prints – give voice to Appleseed’s core values of Community, Democracy, Equality, Justice and Opportunity.

Basement Studio | 20th & C, Lincoln, NE

When the Tugboat Gallery reopened in April of 2008, I enthusiastically said yes to the invitation of doing the monthly exhibition posters. One 12×18 screenprinted poster a month, editions of 60ish, for three years. Designed and hand-pulled in three different DIY studio locations over the years and put up on the streets of downtown Lincoln by the Tugboat crew.

Tugboat Gallery is an alternative gallery located in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska. It’s run by Peggy Gomez and Tugboat’s new co-captain Nolan Tredway. Joey Lynch and Jake Gillespie, along with Peggy, made up the initial force behind its creation. Located above Gomez Art Supply in the Parrish Studios, it’s part of a flourishing downtown art scene and a place to see some of the finest artwork in the Midwest.

And the spaces where the posters were printed were equally as fine.

Print Here

Bemis Underground | Downtown, Omaha, NE

The first studio, where screenprinting for me all began, was in the basement of a big old house on 20th and C in Lincoln’s historic district. Amidst boxes and other junk stored by the various tenants—including one Jason Hardy—coating, exposing, blasting, pulling and hanging all went down in the evening hours after the graphic designer day job. I was way into posters at the time and Tugboat was the perfect project. The designing typically happened fast with the printing process taking up to 8-12 hours depending on number of colors and print complexity. There wasn’t too much time to over think the design, and what happened was, for the most part, a satisfying result that kept my own design process moving forward and on its toes. While speaking to the art, the final design really just had to look badass. Once it did, it was time to print.

I’d get the names of the artists (typically a group show), the name of the exhibition (occasionally Peggy or I would have to come up with one) and some images of the work being displayed, then I’d get to it. Design the poster, get approval from Peggy, and on to the screenprinting—transparencies, coating, exposing, blasting, printing, reclaiming. Repeat.

It felt raw. Down and dirty. It smelled of ink and emulsion. It felt like wood and paper. And it looked delightful as the colors would layer over top of each other. Indeed, blue over yellow makes green. And magenta over turquoise looks fucking awesome.

Old Hardware Store | Vinton Street, Omaha, NE

When my wife Katie and I moved to Omaha, Joey Lynch let me in on both of his spaces over the course of the next 2+ years. The first was in the Bemis Underground, the second in an old former hardware store in south Omaha. Generously shared spaces complete with power washer and drying rack. And lots more room to let the ink fly and the tape deck spin. The solid array of Jason’s unrivaled mixtapes that accumulated over the years is quite impressive. What can I say, no one makes a mixtape like Jason Hardy. No one.

All three spaces were as DIY as it gets—from the light tables, to the blast area, to the printing press. They were inspiring zones of “getting down to the making” and uncomplicated hideouts from the business side of graphic design. The first, since Jason and I both lived in apartments in the old house, was a place for collaboration, late night concepting and frequent beer drinking. The Omaha spots were home to the artwork and endeavors Joey was involved in. Inspiring to say the least, with huge artwork screens, print projects for Saddle Creek Records and the creation of the Daily Grub all happening around the printing of poster after poster.

Looking back at the three-year collection of poster after poster, Three Way might be my favorite. Four colors, three arrows, two screens and one cow. Enough said.

Three Way | September 2008

Stacks of Tugboats

I’ve now moved on from being the “Tugboat Poster Designer.” With evolving interests and new work opportunities, I’m focusing the screenprinting aspect of my design practice on personal projects and collaborative efforts. But, of course, the Tugboat 37 will always have a special place in my heart. As will the spaces where the shit went down.

VIEW ALL 37 POSTERS

– Justin Kemerling, Designer. justinkemerling.com

The talk, so moving. The artist, so inspiring. It MUST spread to communities across the world. It is up to us. It is time to act, to do, to make change.

• JR, a semi-anonymous French street artist, uses his camera to show the world its true face, by pasting photos of the human face across massive canvases. At TED2011, he makes his audacious TED Prize wish: to use art to turn the world inside out. Learn more about his work and learn how you can join in at insideoutproject.net.

TED Prize Winner JR & INSIDE OUT from TED Prize on Vimeo.

2011 TED Prize winner JR has made his wish: “I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project. And together we’ll turn the world INSIDE OUT.”

To participate, upload your portrait: InsideOutProject.net.

TED2011: The Rediscovery of Wonder Happening this week in Long Beach. I’m at TEDActive in Palm Springs. It’s going to be an amazing few days.

This year’s TED Prize Winner: JR. One Artist. One Wish to Change the World

More in the coming days…

HOW Magazine’s Blog features The Haiti Poster Project, now with over 510 artists:

• Over a year ago, in the wake of a tragedy, designers and artists were called to action by The Haiti Poster Project. Limited edition posters are donated and signed by their creators, and funds from their sales benefit Doctors without Borders for Haiti’s relief efforts.

Stop and Play is an organization, online portfolio and idea exchange/curatorial forum. We use art as a medium to raise awareness and funds to help protect the living. This website compiles images, texts, videos and news from a range of different subjects aiming to inform and inspire you to join us as an art internet curator and act. We place a special effort in working together and speaking out with those who show what the media does not cover, living realities which do not sell, that have been omitted, forgotten, lost or suppressed and must be brought to light. The closer we get to this, the bigger our hopes and chance for a future where the living exists with the equal rights they were born to. We filter with the desire to provide valuable and life changing information. Our home is your home and we want to publish what you love and show the world new ways of making a difference through our PROTECT THE LIVING THROUGH ART SPECIAL PROJECTS, which you are invited to be a part of. Together we fight for the rights and the love for our bigger family, bringing different organizations/players together. We believe all knowledge is golden as long as you celebrate it, and we have chosen art as our instrument as it lives in all of us, indifferent of our backgrounds. We must immediately share the knowledge that enlightens our daily lives but which also travels way beyond our humble and precious existence. Our knowledge is our art, and together we curate and work to make a difference.

A Design Shop for Prints & Projects

After a very long hiatus, the online store of the Match Factory has been relaunched. It’s now a design shop where you’ll find our projects ranging from the personal to the political. And the optimistic. All screenprints are hand-pulled by yours truly and all projects are self-initiated in keeping with our original statement of intent: because making is part of things.

We’ll be adding more projects in the future and will of course keep things lively. Prints about love? Yes of course. And political activism? Why most definitely. Ah, sweet-sweet variety.

As it’s a design shop for our prints and projects, all sales will go to the making of more prints and projects. And the cycle will go on as long as it makes sense for us.

Thank you for your interest, and for your support.

The Image Gallery

100 Days of Active Resistance Every day for one hundred days, one image representing ideas of Active Resistance in the world will be selected from submissions and shared online.

• ‘The principal idea of Active Resistance is that you get out of life what you put in and that real experience of the world involves thinking’ – Vivienne Westwood.
• 100 days of positive thought, active change, speaking up and being heard. From small personal actions to larger collective moments of change, Vivienne Westwood Anglomania and Lee Jeans encourage communication and individuality through an online installation, sharing interpretations of Vivienne Westwood’s Active Resistance.

Day 87: Don’t just sit there. What would you make better?

I just downloaded Live At Ancienne Belgique from Yeasayer

Celebrate the close of 2010 with some live Yeasayer.

Let’s Swap is a place where artists and designers can swap art for free. It’s brought to you by stellar NYC design firm Hyperakt: meaningful design for the common good.

The first featured swap: Food for Thought / Jason Lynch

• If you had to make a sandwich of all the stuff that inspires you to create, what would it look like? That’s precisely what Hyperaktivist Jason Lynch has illustrated. Airplanes, good coffee, crafty booze, robots, and loud guitars are all prominently featured in this limited edition 22″ x 30″ poster, printed in gray and fluorescent orange by Jason on a gorgeous Folio bright white stock.

Food for Thought by Jason Lynch

Katie and I are part of the “Accepted Swaps” for our print You’ll Find Me Frolicking. We’re thrilled to be a part of such a great project.

You'll Find Me Frolicking by Katie + Justin Kemerling

The finer details:

Share and share alike. And spread the word.

By Scott Albrecht from Re:Form School

MORE

HVD: High-Value Detainee

HVD #56SS / First Name: Hassan

“[W]e don’t kick the [expletive] out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the [expletive] out of them.”

A man walks down the street in a foreign city. A car stops, men dressed in black with masks over their faces jump out, grab him and spirit him away to where a private plane — usually a Gulfstream jet — is waiting. The man is shackled, perhaps hooded, perhaps drugged. The plane takes off and travels to somewhere in Poland or Romania, Egypt or Syria. The man is held captive, perhaps for months. What he endures is often physical and mental degradation and pain.

The scenario may sound like a spy thriller or a video game, but extraordinary rendition is all too real.

(break)

The term extraordinary rendition is used to describe the practice of secretly capturing suspected criminals or terrorists without the knowledge of anyone else, including the governments of the countries in which individuals reside. They are then secretly rendered to other countries, secret detention centers or “black sites.” This way individuals can be transferred to other locations to be tortured by proxy without ostensibly violating the United Nations Convention Against Torture and without the writ of habeas corpus.

(break)

The role of the artist is to transcend conventional wisdom, to transcend the word of the establishment, to transcend the orthodoxy, to go beyond and escape what is handed down by the government or what is said in the media. [Howard Zinn, Artists in Times of War].

Obtain Clearance Here

Please sit down and look into the camera

HVDs: "Damn Right."

Watch Your Head

You Are Extraordinary, Safe and Happy to be on the Right Side

The United States is a country of laws. Our leaders have sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. We believe in the rule of law. The United States Government must protect its citizens. We and our friends around the world have the responsibility to work together in finding practical ways to defend ourselves against ruthless enemies.

And these terrorists are some of the most ruthless enemies we face. We cannot discuss information that would compromise the success of intelligence, law enforcement, and military operations. We expect that other nations share this view. The United States has respected—and will continue to respect—the sovereignty of other countries.

The United States does not transport, and has not transported, detainees from one country to another for the purpose of interrogation using torture. The United States does not use the airspace or the airports of any country for the purpose of transporting a detainee to a country where he or she will be tortured.

The United States has not transported anyone, and will not transport anyone, to a country when we believe he will be tortured. Where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured.

The Official U.S. Booklet

Welcome to Extraordinary Rendition. Otherwise known as the right side of history.

The Wall of Surveillance

An agent records while Air Force One circles in the background

The National Security Agency’s (NSA) warrantless electronic surveillance program was created by the government to monitor individuals inside and outside the U.S. without the judicial oversight mandated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

We Are Watching You

It's Patriotism

The Big Bad Wolf

Delightful Pink Bunny Heads

Opening Night in the Underground

(break)

This exhibition is a collaboration by Tim Guthrie and Doug Hayko with Jamie Burmeister, Peter Cales, Justin Kemerling, Landi Olsen, Nolan Tredway, Carol Zuegner, Sarah Baker Hansen, omahaliveartdivisionaims and aims to encourage discourse about the practice of extraordinary rendition.

Read the STORY

December @ Tugboat

PLEASE POST POSTER SHOW

The first friday opening reception is on 12/3/10 and runs from 7-10pm. BE THERE!!

Tugboat Gallery
Lincoln, NE
116 N. 14th Street
Above Gomez Art Supply in the Parrish Building

A poster show featuring the art and design of Denny Schmickle, Joey Lynch, Bonnie O’ Connell, Fred Hosman and Justin Kemerling.

The show itself runs from 12/3/10-12/29/10

Re:Form School by The Masses from Redu on Vimeo.

“We have the ability to reshape what education is going to look like for the next 20 years.”

“When are you gonna demand from education what you demand from your remote control?”

Extraordinary Rendition | Underground

RSVP via Facebook

Extraordinary Rendition | Underground

RSVP via Facebook