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German 103 Writing Assignment – SLU Fall 2019

In the fall of 2019, St. Lawrence University students in Dr. Brook Henkel’s German 103 class incorporated contemporary political stickers from Germany for a writing assignment, similar to what his students did in 2017 and in 2018. (Click on those two links for the actual writing assignment, preparatory readings, etc.). The work of two students, Stefan Dragićević ’22 and Sophie Lehmann ’20, is featured below. Thanks also to Brendan Reilly ’20 for the German-to-English translations. Note: the right-wing NPD and Freiheit/Islamismus stickers pictured below were donated to me in 2017 by Irmela Mensah-Schramm, a 74-year old Berlin-based woman who has…

Sticker making workshop with St. Lawrence University First-Year Program class

Two SLU professors, Steve Barnard (Sociology) and John Collins (Global Studies), brought their First-Year Program class to the gallery in November 2019 for a hands-on sticker making workshop. The name of the course is “Question Everything: The Art of Information Activism,” and the syllabus states: This course is for students who want to be activists for change and activists for truth. Activists are people who seek to transform dominant social structures through collective action that often stretches beyond the official political system. Activists start by asking deep questions about the world. Why is there so much injustice? How can we…

“Paper Bullets” review in Berliner Zeitung

Kleben und leben lassen Eine Ausstellung in Mitte widmet sich der einhundertjährigen Geschichte von politischen Stickern. Eine Reise von Montreal über New York an die Spree Von Paul Linke Es gibt ein paar Orte in Berlin, die als Hall of Fame der alternativen Stickerszene bezeichnet werden: die Fassade des Kino Intimes und das gesamte RAW-Gelände in Friedrichshain, in Mitte das Haus Schwarzenberg und die S-Bahnbögen am Hackeschen Markt Richtung Alexanderplatz. Wer dort klebt, lebt in einer tendenziell linken Welt, im Dauerwiderstand gegen Kriegstreiber, Spekulanten, Rassisten, Nazis. Im Gegensatz zum Sprühen ist Kleben keine Sachbeschädigung, sondern eine Ordnungswidrigkeit. Die Wurzeln der…

“Paper Bullets – the expanded version” at Neurotitan Gallery in Berlin, Germany

In the summer of 2019, I was given the opportunity to present an expanded version of my Paper Bullets exhibition at the acclaimed Neurotitan Gallery in Berlin, Germany. Oliver Baudach, the director of Hatch Kingdom Sticker Museum, was the driving force that made the project possible. It was an enormous undertaking, in that for the first time I drew from my entire collection of thousands of new, unused, historical and contemporary political stickers from around the world. Neurotitan is a non-commercial, alternative art gallery that features urban art. Housed in the Haus Schwarzenberg in Mitte, the gallery dates back to…

“SHE SLAPS: Street Art Stickers by Women Artists from Around the World” traveling exhibition at SLU

The exhibition SHE SLAPS: Street Art Stickers by Women Artists from Around the World closes at St. Lawrence University this week. Here is the co-curator’s statement I wrote about the project: SHE SLAPS features 536 street art stickers by 85 contemporary women artists from 20 countries around the world. Drawn from the private collection of Oliver Baudach, founder and director of Hatch Kingdom Sticker Museum in Berlin, Germany, the exhibition includes stickers individually drawn, painted, and/or printed by the artists, as well as silkscreen, offset, and digital designs that were printed in larger runs through commercial services. In the spring…

Symbols of Hate

I found another alt-right sticker in Potsdam, NY, last week. This one was a heavy vinyl sticker compared to the lightweight paper “Pepe the Frog” white power stickers I found last January along the same block. In a December 30, 2016, Vox article called “The 2016 culture war, as illustrated by the alt-right,” author Aja Romano writes that the figure on this sticker represents: “…the head of the Egyptian frog-god Kek superimposed over an image of his counterpart, the Egyptian snake god Kauket, in a seal inscribed with the Latin phrase ‘satis mentibus obvia,’ or, ‘resist closed minds.’ It’s complicated,…

German 103 writing assignment at SLU – fall 2018 – three examples

In the fall of 2018, St. Lawrence University students in Dr. Brook Henkel’s German 103 class again incorporated contemporary street art stickers from Germany for a writing assignment called “Politische Plakate und Aufkleber in Deutschland” (similar to what his students did in the fall of 2017). As before, I introduced the assignment by giving a brief talk with slides describing the ubiquitous sticker culture in Berlin, focusing on topics such as urban development, gentrification, police authority, surveillance, and identity politics. Students then came to the gallery where I work to look at three sets of original, unused stickers from my…

Competing Narratives

Two small paper stickers found along the same NYC block this morning: The captain of chaos sticker on the top gets a big “NO.” The sticker on the bottom is from a #WalkAway” campaign, created by “former liberal” Brandon Straka.  According to Wikipedia, “The campaign’s stated goal was to ‘[encourage] others to walk away from the divisive left, but also [take] back the narrative from the liberal media about what it means to be a conservative in America.’ As of November 2018, the video had over 400,000 views on YouTube and 1 million on Facebook.” As of today, the video…

NYC and Brooklyn political stickers, January 2019

A sampling: Karla Ann Coté is a photojournalist and videographer who documents protest movements, among other subjects. She was at the Women’s Unity Rally in Foley Square in NYC on Saturday, January 19th. After seeing a “white power” sticker in Potsdam, NY, recently, I found another weird sticker in Brooklyn that states “Q-Anon Is Real” or, with what looks like a Jewish Star of David on the lower left, more likely “Q-Anon Israel.” “Q,” like “Pepe the Frog” in the Potsdam sticker, is also linked to U.S. President Donald Trump. I remember seeing pictures of people at Trump rallies wearing…