Pretty Vacant: The Graphic Language of Punk

For an intellectually inquisitive, testosterone fueled, bored suburban teenager, punk provided the perfect slicer and experiencing Pretty Vacant: the graphic language of punk is like delving back into a different time. Posters, flyers, fanzines, pins and more from the collection of Andrew Krivine, function as a visual archive to the punk and post-punk era. Old TV's played video footage and music videos.

On the exhibitions website I found a piece of work (perhaps an alternate album cover) for The Clash's album Black Market Clash and thought it was a great cultural piece that reminded me of Russian Revolutionary Propaganda posters-an aspect I have already been exploring. Additionally, the clash are one of my favourite bands and in my own work I have tried to include as many aspects of my personal taste and interests and reflect on them in relation to different artists. Unfortunately, I am unable to find the artist that produced this poster but the entire exhibition is full with incredible pieces from a variety of professional to punk enthusiasts. 

Love is Enough

In January I went to 'Love is Enough' at modern art Oxford to see some of Warhol's screenprints that have influenced my work in the flesh. 

Love is Enough draws together iconic and rarely seen works by two giants of the 19th and 20th centuries. This unconventional combination of artists’ work is curated by Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller who cites Morris and Warhol as his two greatest artistic influences.

Deller draws many surprising connections between these two artists who left an indelible mark on their generations and arguably those that followed. Morris and Warhol both established printmaking businesses and distributed their work through new forms of mass production. Both were natural collaborators who worked with the prominent artists of their time to develop working methods that did much to redefine the artist’s relationship to the studio and factory. Morris achieved this through his mastering of craft techniques and his rejection of industrial processes and Warhol through the activities of the Factory, which often parodied the industrial culture of the mid-late 20th century.

Works sourced from public and private collections across the UK and the USA include a panel from the epic and rarely seen Holy Grail tapestry series completed by William Morris in 1896. Alongside will be shown a selection of Warhol’s iconic silkscreens and archival material from the treasure-trove that is the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, including a signed photograph of Shirley Temple posted to a thirteen-year old Andy from the actress in 1941.

Russian Revolutionary Posters

Ten Days that Shook the World’ was how the American journalist John Reed described the 1917 October Revolution. The disasters of the First World War had led to the collapse of the Tsar’s autocracy. Promising peace and the re-distribution of land, Lenin’s Bolshevik Party seized power. Supported by militant soldiers, workers and peasants, they declared the world’s first Communist state.

To win support for their ideas, the Bolsheviks took control of the printing presses. Despite a shortage of supplies and equipment, they rapidly produced newspapers, leaflets and posters. This growth of colourful propaganda posters transformed towns and cities, creating a street art available to all. The continual renewal of images, as well as multiple copies pasted up together, reinforced the fundamental messages of communal power and solidarity. Lenin and the Bolshevik leaders were portrayed as heroically unifying, while their enemies in the Civil War were reviled.

After Stalin became leader in 1927, the propaganda machine promoted the collectivisation of land and the drive for industrialisation, oblivious to the terrible hardships caused by these policies. Stalin’s benevolent image was everywhere, but it barely masked the terror of the show trials and executions that blighted the 1930s. The revolutionary fervour conveyed through the early posters now enforced a repressive dictatorship.

The ideas conveyed in these posters were far from reality. However, the posters themselves became part of the texture of everyday life in the Soviet Union, and reflect the officially approved history as it was experienced by its citizens.

A Latvian subject of the Russian empire, Gustav Klutsis came to Russia proper during the 1917 Revolution as part of a volunteer machine-gunner unit that helped to topple the czar and safeguard the new Soviet leaders, including Vladimir Lenin. Klutsis had studied painting at home and continued in art schools during and after his military service. By the early 1920s, Klutsis had worked his way through the rigorous exploration of elemental shapes and basic materials called for by that movement and began to put the Constructivist ethos of honesty and utility to use in propaganda. 

This is my own response to Klutsis. Using an image of Ben from the initial photographs and adding the phrase 'bad behaviours' (one of Ben's own songs https://soundcloud.com/ben-pilston/about-lunatics-demo) in Russian to add a more contemporary purpose.

Don't Be a Jerk

On a trip to London in the summer I found this piece of 'graffiti' on the northern line travelling from my friends flat in Angel to Waterloo to visit the tate modern. It reminded me of Barbara Kruger's piece 'Don't be a Jerk' - a simple message among the complexities of city life.

Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist. Much of her work consists of black and white photographs overlaid with declarative captions. The phrases on her works often include pronouns such as 'you', 'yours', 'I', 'we' and 'they', and often include reference go cultural constructions of power, identity and sexuality. Much of krugers work challenges the viewer. She develops her ideas on a computer then later transfers them onto into billboard size images.

Feminism, consumerism, and individual autonomy and desire. Frequently appropriating images from mainstream magazines and using her bold phrases to frame them in a new context. Kruger has said that "I work with pictures and words because they have the ability to determine who we are and who we aren't". In my own work I have been influenced by Krugers bold statement text and societal comments.

Anthony Cozzi

Anthony Cozzi is a screenprint artist that uses a variation of stew and techniques within screenprint inch. His use of bold colours is different to many screenprint artists. I especially like his piece 'Norma'. I think it's a clever and thoughtful piece that references warhols classic Marilyn Monroe portrait- but gives a more 21st century edge and adding the layered skeleton adds another dimension and perhaps anything meaning. 

Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jeane was seen as one of the most beautiful women in the world but the skeleton, in the complementary colour, emphasises the fact that under her beauty, she was human just like everyone else.

Design Ideas

These are my practice design ideas for my final piece. I learnt an important lesson in that the more details I cut out the better the outcome. However, this wont be a problem with the silk screen printing as i will be using the exposing photo-sensitive emulation with a negative acetate image on top which will create a 'stencil' that includes all of the smallest details.

Additionally, experimenting with coloured paper and composition on the page was a useful learning curb to keep in mind for my final.

Screen Printing Prep

Below are the images I will be using to create silk screen-prints in the style of Andy Warhol's prints of Mick Jagger (1975). I have edited the photos to bring out the negative so when it comes to printing the image will be clearer. I asked Ben to give me is best Mick Jagger poses, and he certainly delivered. We are both huge fans and really enjoyed taking these photos and I know Ben, as a musician, is excited to see the final outcome.