New Years Wishes: Peace and Impeachment

Broken Missile by Peter Kennard. Photo by Luna Park.

For our last set of ad takeovers in 2019, we partnered with the British political artist Peter Kennard, who has spent five decades creating iconic visuals that combat war and oppression. We selected two of Kennard’s classic anti-war posters, plus one recent design, all touching on war, and one especially-timely piece as the impeachment inquiry moves forward.

Earth (New World Order) by Peter Kennard. Photo by Luna Park.

In his recent book Peter Kennard: Visual Dissent, Kennard wrote about the placement of his work: “The question of how to reach as large and varied an audience as possible is as vital to me as the work I make. I try to show my work in locations beyond the spaces designated for experiencing art. I want to develop forms that can easily slide from the gallery into the street and back again. For me, there's no right or wrong place to show my work.”

In what we promise was a complete coincidence, the above bomb-dropping ghoul just happens to be located right outside the Manhattan home of a certain art-loving arms dealer. Hopefully, he appreciates being part of Kennard’s large and varied audience.

And finally, there’s Trump. Sometimes, when Trump forgets who Frederick Douglass is or rants about how often people flush the toilet, it can be tempting to dismiss the president as a mentally-deficient clown. However, he is also commander-in-chief, the man who could unleash nuclear war with a tweet. Kennard’s SubTrump poster is a stark reminder.

SubTrump by Peter Kennard. Photo by Luna Park.

Offering up a Flower

Poster by Keya Tama. Photo by Luna Park.

For most of this year, we’ve been focused on work that has an explicit political message attached. It’s been a minute since we just put up something beautiful because it’s beautiful. And why not? This work from Keya Tama is a slight correction in that direction. A figuring offering a simple flower to New York City.

Keya explained to us, “All over the world and before recorded history the flower has manifested as a symbol of balance, love and the cycle of life. It is important to protect this symbol and continue its symbolic value especially when its co-opted by advertisers who drown out its significant role in cross-cultural iconography. Art in Ad Places acts as an inherently necessary counterbalance to the growing presence of advertising over art in public spaces.”

So (for now), just a bit uptown of advertising barrage that is Time Square… A flower.

Advice to the Museum of Modern Art

Poster by the Guerrilla Girls. Photo by Luna Park.

The Guerrilla Girls have a message for the board at the Museum of Modern Art. We decided to help make sure it got delivered.

From the Guerrilla Girls…

“Advice to the Museum of Modern Art about BIG donors with BIG ties to Jeffrey Epstein:
MoMA should kick Leon Black and Glenn Dubin off its Board immediately, drape the Black & Dubin Galleries in black, and put up wall labels explaining why. The Guerrilla Girls volunteer to help write those labels.”

This call from the Guerrilla Girls comes after reports that two major donors to MoMA, Leon Black (the chairman of the board) and Glenn Dubin, were both longtime friends of convicted sex offender and obvious scumbag Jeffrey Epstein. What makes this all quite awkward (to say the least, perhaps revolting is more accurate) is that both Black and Dubin maintained their friendships with Epstein well after his 2008 guilty plea for soliciting a minor. According to The New York Times, Epstein served on the board of Black’s family foundation until 2012, and they invested together in 2011. Vanity Fair reports that Dubin’s ties to Epstein run even deeper, including a Thanksgiving dinner and allegations of sex trafficking. For now, Black and Dubin remain on MoMA’s board, of which Black is also chairman.

Oh America

Oh America by Gee Vaucher with text by Penny Rimbaud. Photo by The Dusty Rebel.

Just a quick update from Long Island City: Two fresh ad takeovers from Gee Vaucher. The first piece here is Gee’s iconic painting “Oh America” overlaid with text from Penny Rimbaud. The second, featuring a quote from the Nazi leader Herman Goering, highlights a political tactic that been central to the American military’s endless wars of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Given the week’s news, a President pressuring another world leader to dig up dirt on a political opponent and yet another ramping up of American military force in the Middle East, both posters seem especially timely. Then again, when was the last time these messages weren’t timely?

Gee Vaucher. Photo by The Dusty Rebel.

You can find these both near MoMA PS1, where the New York Art Book Fair is being held this weekend. When you visit the fair, be sure to say hello to Gee at the Boo-Hooray table, Josh MacPhee at the Just Seeds table, and Heather Benjamin in the zine tent.

From Tweets to Ad Takeovers with Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher

Words by Penny Rimbaud. Photo by Luna Park.

Among the many gems in the classic Crass track Big A Little A is the line “If you don't like the rules they make, refuse to play their game.” That pretty well sums up the logic of ad takeovers.

While as part of Crass and for many decades since, poet-philosopher Penny Rimbaud and visual artist Gee Vaucher have made works that act as a sort of bridge between the Situationists and the culture jammers and subvertisers. These days, Penny is most visibly active on Twitter, where he shares short texts and images almost daily. We reached out, and he was kind enough to let us adapt a few of his tweets for Art in Ad Places, three pieces reformatted by us and one made by Gee.

Gee Vaucher with words by Penny Rimbaud. Photo by Luna Park.

We don’t always have a chance to stick around after our installations to see how the public responds to each intervention. But we like to believe that, even in midst of this hot New York summer, folks are stopping to read and ruminate on Penny’s texts. How can we live every moment as if that moment might be our only epitaph? How do we enact our ungovernable nature? These are crucial questions about the human spirit, and they are being considered in spaces usually reserved for the promotion of soulless consumption.

Both Penny and Gee have inspired us and been on our wish list of artists to work with since day one. It feels surreal to be sharing their work in this format. When we asked Penny why he said yes to Caroline’s out-of-the-blue Twitter message, he replied, “Why am I working with you? Because you asked, and because I like subversive art subverting consensual spaces, and I like free access in art and life in general.” An attitude that we greatly appreciate.

Words by Penny Rimbaud. Photo by Luna Park.