seth tobocman – peter kuper – sue coe – peter plate – crass – jello biafra.
these used to be my “heroes” among the political artists of the 80’s.
and of course, we did not need another hero…
but uhm, where are they now? what are they up to? is their stuff online?
seth tobocman / peter kuper
seth and peter are the founders of [as well as major contributers to] the legendary political comic magazine world war 3 illustrated. WW3 may still see the occasional, upcoming release, although the last issue does date back to 2002, i think…
founded in 1980 WW3 has been the longest running political comic mag, however the website called worldwar3illustrated.com does not appear to be online any longer.
i did not find an official website for seth tobocman either, but there’s an interesting interview from 2002 at metropolismag.com. peter kuper does have his own website – peterkuper.com/ – where he showcases his work and his publications. but the site does not seem to be very well maintained [few news, broken links etc.] peter kuper’s books like the system [1997] are amazing.
more work by seth
and another interviu
sue coe
graphicwitness.org has a great profile/portfolio of sue coe online, eventhough i dont think this is her official website, or is it? sue coe keeps painting/collaging in her trademark dark, haunting, yet deeply moving way. here work is still very political. allthough her main focus these days seems to have shifted to the animal rights movement.
peter plate
now see, if anyone should have a blog, its this guy. i used to know peter as a slightly arrogant, highly opinionated, but always very intriguing guy during my time in san francisco. he taught himself to write novels while living in squats and on foodstamps so he could dedicate all his energy to his passion. at that time his books were self-published and distributed free of charge. he would accept only donations. but most amazing were his performances at open mic’s, parties and poetry readings, where he would recite his work from memory without missing a word. i still own 3 collections of his ficition, including the one where he exposes his penis on the cover [an exploded view]. ah, the glorious 80’s…
here’s a short exerpt from the back of peter plate’s book joaquin in the fog:
fiction is a secret code, a message from the unknown. ears need voices. transmission requires reception. our communications are a plasmatic media eroding monolithic silences.
[…]
we are writing about life the way we see it: history has been a failure, and the future longs to be subverted. every moment that resonates between yesterday and tomorrow is a nexus, a window that has been closed too long.in our crumbling nation, in the land of functional illiteracy, we know the truth: write or die.
turns out peter has been writing quite a few novels since, the last 5 or so all published by seven stories press. the latest, fogtown, came out just this last june.
Crass/Gee Vaucher aka G Sus
hah. Crass! i cant even start to say how influential this band and their artwork have been. their integrity has influenced a whole generation of bands and artists.
but Crass – being crass – stopped for good when they stopped. Crass will never reform, it says on this website dedicated to their work. eventhough they recently re-issued all their records – thats albums on vinyl, mind you – they wont be milking the band reunion cow. even if some of the old Crass members happen to perform at the same event, they make sure not to be on stage at the same time.
the artwork by G Sus, later Gee Vaucher, remains to this day one of my favorite approaches to political art.
jello biafra
jello can still be found sort of everywhere. he famously ran for president in the 2000 presidential election, but he keeps rallying and organising political protest up to this day. jello could be called one of the spiritual fathers of the blogging movement when he famously said: “dont hate the media, become the media”.
however his own online presence is sort of minimal and mostly granted through his record label alternative tentacle’s website.
as far as performing he still mostly does the spoken word thing. like so:
The Big Ka-Boom, Parts 2-69 [the war against terrorism… abbreviated twat…]
The Big Ka-Boom
Seth Tobocman’s new website is at http://sethtobocman.mahost.org … WW3 Illustrated is on issue #35 – “Life During Wartime” – which was just released June 30, 2004… Christopher Cardinale -> http://www.christophercardinale.com -> did the cover artwork… Needless to say, WW3 Illustrated is put out about 2x a year now… Also, Seth and other artists have a Political Arts Collective WW3 Arts in Action -> http://ww3artsinaction.org … As well as Seth and other artists are collaboratively putting an art show entitled ‘3 Cities Against the Wall’ that will be sometime early 2005… It is slated to show in Tel Aviv, Ramallah and New York City…
cool savannah, thanx so much for this info. i did not find all this via google for some reason. but hey. here we go! cheerz
12/02 @ 8pm – $5-$10 sliding: ‘Three Cities Against the Wall’ Benefit w/Grace Paley & Nathalie Handal…
DATE: Thursday, December 2nd
TIME: 8:00pm
COST: Sliding Scale: $5-$10 (Proceeds to benefit “Three Cities Against the Wall.”)
LOCALE: ABC No Rio – 156 Rivington Street (between Clinton & Suffolk), Manhattan
EVENT: Benefit for Three Cities Against the Wall w/Grace Paley & Nathalie Handal
GRACE PALEY
– one of the U.S.’s most revered short story writers, a
bard of Jewish New York and a Senior Fellow of the National Endowment for the
Arts. She is also a lifelong political activist and feminist, a member of the
War Resisters’ League, Resist, and Women’s Pentagon Action.
W: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/paley.html
W: http://www.jewishculture.org/writers/about/bios/paley.html
NATHALIE HANDAL
– editor of The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary
Anthology (Interlink Books), an Academy of American Poets bestseller
and winner of the Pen Oakland/Josephine Miles Award. Her plays have had
readings and have been produced in numerous venues throughout the U.S.
and the UK. She teaches at Columbia University.
W: http://www.nathaliehandal.com/
“Three Cities Against the Wall” –
will open in February, 2005 in New York, Tel Aviv, and Ramallah (West Bank), each location featuring the work of artists from all three cities. The show is dedicated to breaking down barriers between the Israeli and Palestinian communities.
Need more info on this event or “Three Cities Against the Wall” in general, please contact Seth Tobocman by e-mail sethdavid@mutualaid.org or by phone 1-212-505-6457. Seth Tobocman – http://sethtobocman.mahost.org
W: http://www.abcnorio.org/againstthewall
Event: Seth Tobocman and Meirav Shaul
Date: Thursday, August 25, 2005
Time: 8:00pm
Location: ABC No Rio – 156 Rivington, LES, NYC
W: http://www.abcnorio.org
Seth Tobocman – http://sethtobocman.mahost.org
with Eric Blitz and Steve Wishnia
and
Israeli Cartoonist
Meirav Shaul – http://www.meiravshaul.tk/
(of the Dimona Group)
Projecting Their Work
Proceeds to benefit the exhibition Three Cities Against the Wall: Ramallah, Tel Aviv, New York
NOTE: This is a HOWL FESTIVAL EVENT
– http://www.howlfestival.com –