The exhibit “Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest” opened tonight at the Letterform Archive in San Francisco. Curated by Silas Munro and Stephen Coles, the show features more than 100 examples of agitprop, including posters, broadsides, buttons, signs, and other ephemera. Two of our pieces are included: “Trump 24K Gold-Plated” (2016), and Mark’s “Patriotism ≠ Consumption” (BlackDog, 2002).
Mark gave the following remarks at the opening:
“I would like to start by acknowledging Silas, Stephen, Rob, and all of our friends at the Archive for including Angie’s and my work in this exhibit. Thank you!
“I have two quotes to share with you. The first is from the writer Joan Didion; the second is from the artist William Wegman.
“In her preface to Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion writes that she ‘had been paralyzed by the conviction that writing was an irrelevant act.’
“Later, I came across an interview with William Wegman in which he said, ‘When I paint I feel like I’m doing something irrelevant, but I no longer care.’
“For many of us—artists, designers, writers, curators—what we do can seem like an irrelevant act. I have learned that this is to be expected.
“I have been designing agitprop posters since 1990. Not one of them has ever prevented a war, or ended police brutality, or kept fools like Donald Trump from getting elected. One might reasonably conclude that this work proved ineffective and is therefore irrelevant.
“However, I’ve come to the conclusion that asking if my work is relevant is like asking if breathing is relevant. I work for the same reason that I breathe: to live.
“I find relevance in the very act of creation; in giving my thoughts a physical form—even when that form is ephemeral. Or imperfect.
“I also find relevance in the gathering and preserving of these ephemeral forms to establish a historical record or construct some larger narrative. Like this exhibit.
“We are lucky to have the Letterform Archive here in San Francisco. To everyone at the Archive: thank you for the work that you do. Your work is vital and relevant, and it makes relevant the work of many others, myself included. Thank you.”
See our “Trump 24K Gold-Plated” poster and others under Design is Play Studio Posters.
Photographs courtesy of the Letterform Archive.