Big Fag Press

Claude Moller Presents Street Art Workers

On January 28th, 2008, Claude Moller came and gave a talk at Sydney, an event co-presented by Big Fag Press.

Claude is an artist from San Francisco, and he spoke about the
Street Art Workers (SAW) ) and their Land and Globalization poster campaign. His presentation involved a provocative discussion about how we might judge “quality” in poster aesthetics. We also debated the effectiveness of art as activism (and vice versa).

A founding member of SAW, Claude presented the DIY entrepreneurial strategies employed by the group, and showed slides documenting their large scale international poster project.

More about SAW:

Established in the U.S. in 2001, SAW is a global network of artists who use graphic art to support social change. SAW makes and distributes posters internationally to publicize the work of local grassroots activism. The group relies on street art to take back cities and towns from the businessmen, cops, and politicians who
define public space for their own benefit. Since 2001, SAW projects have talked about prisons, the mass media, and utopian ideas for the future.

SAW’s latest campaign, Land and Globalization, looks at how corporate globalization has affected our world, how it has impacted the land, and how people are fighting back. This series includes 25 posters representing artists from 10 different countries and over 20 different cities. These posters illustrate specific struggles in countries like Brazil and the United States, and they also tackle international issues around poverty and gentrification. Along with a strong critique of imperialism, the posters show how communities throughout the world are resisting corporate power for a more just and sustainable world.

Claude’s work has been featured in numerous magazines and books, including Stencil Pirates, The Interventionists and Peace Signs.

James Dodds Prints up a Pole Poster

Back in 2004, when Mickie went to auction to bid on the Big Fag Press, no-one else wanted it and so we got it for a song! One ole timer printing fella shuffled over to him, sized him up, and said “I guess we’re gonna see your handy work on telegraph poles around town then, eh?”

At the time, we would have said yes. But strangely, this poster by James Dodds is the first that has been designed specifically with poles in mind. Here he is, in the photo above, showing the print that he produced on the press (later to be guillotined in half of course). Note its three colour design: two colours off metal plates, and the third colour produced using hand-cut “ruby”, thus keeping the cost down! The gap at the bottom of the poster is for him to insert info about his upcoming events, whatever they might be, using a fat marker pen.

Notice the scratches on the right hand poster James is holding up? Well, in the process of handling the fragile metal plate, James put a scratch on it. Naturally that small scratch shows up in the print. So rather than throw in the towel, or a tantrum, he went along with it, using sandpaper to enhance the scratch effect and make it part of his overall design.