by Flor Y Canto
Wednesday, Jun. 02, 2004 at 8:19 AM
mail@florycanto.org (323) 906-1978
"Tijuanna No!" by Winston Smith. Giclee print of original collage printed on Premium Luster Paper. Original collage is 14" x 48" Smith is one of the artists included in the show.
winstonsmithwebimage.jpg, image/jpeg, 520x169
Drawing Resistance: A Traveling Political Art Show
Dates of the show: June 5 – July 11, 2004
Reception: June 5, 2004 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Flor Y Canto
3706 N. Figueroa
Los Angeles, CA 90065
Drawing Resistance is a show of two-dimensional artwork by 31 artist/activists from North America. Organized by Sue Simensky Bietila and Nicolas Lampert, the content-based show speaks to subject matter vital to understanding the world today. Some of the topics include the anti-globalization movement, working class rights, the destruction of the environment, corporate control, police brutality, homelessness, gentrification and the Zapatista liberation movement in Mexico.
Rather than exhibiting Drawing Resistance in one city, the show travels to cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico on a monthly basis for a 5-year continuous period (2001-2005). In each city that the show is exhibited, local hosts select the space and the events, which compliment the traveling exhibition. Drawing Resistance has no funding and relies solely on the communities that host the show to transport it to the next site. The show's collective organizing method draws upon the D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) culture, and like a punk band on tour; the art show is getting in the van! In the first two years, Drawing Resistance has traveled over 5,000 miles to over 19 cities in the US and Canada and countless numbers of individuals have made the show unique to their own vision.
The show raises a number of vital questions that are not often considered. The Detroit writer, David Sands stated that Drawing Resistance “doesn’t have a lot to do with curators, museums, or hard-to-figure-out splotches on the wall. Instead, it has much to do with what’s missing from most of the me-me-me money-money-money world of contemporary art. That is, a sense of urgency beyond one’s individual self; a feeling of anger-hope-responsibility for the world and the people around us; a bridging between creative and political realities that artists all too often choose to ignore.”
Three generations of political art are represented in Drawing Resistance. Chicago artist, Carlos Cortez is old enough to remember the days of Depression-era political art. Seth Tobocman and Peter Kuper’s storyboard magazine World War 3-Illustrated along with the legendary punk album-cover art of Winston Smith (Dead Kennedy’s) and John Yates provide a crucial bridge to the current generation. Styles range from the bright watercolors of Domitila Dominguez (Questions & Swords: Folk Tales of the Zapatista Revolution, written by Subcommandante Marcos) to the spray paint/stencils of Josh MacPhee to the collages of Freddie Baer.
“Drawing Resistance is a bracing, enlivening panorama of radical humanism, stretched wide by the expansive hopes and traumas of our times. Long may it travel.” -- William Eisenstein, Urban Ecology
The web site for the show (www.drawingresistance.org) includes information, artist biographies, the show schedule, press, in depth interviews and links.