Featuring two sticker packs recently scanned for the Street Art Graphics digital image collection. The first is a set of ten designs by Shepard Fairey for the limited edition Obey Giant Gold Sticker Pack released in 2010 in an edition of 1,000. All of the stickers are printed in gold, red, and black on a cream background. Nine stickers include the signature Obey Giant face within a star logo. The package includes the text, “Manufacturing Quality Dissent Since 1989. Propaganda Engineering. Urban Renewal. Obey Giant Environmental Enhancement Kit: Peel and Adhere to Customize and Improve Any Surface. Phenomenal Results in…
Peña Nieto sticker from Mexico
I picked up a few Mexican stickers from a group called Sublevarte Colectivo at the Boston Anarchist Book Fair last fall, and one of my students wrote descriptions for them for the Street Art Graphics digital image collection. “Vota a Peña Nieto” literally means “Vote for Peña Nieto.” This is an image one sees all the time in Mexico, in campaign ads, bomber stickers, and painted on the sides of houses. While this suggests that one should vote for Peña Nieto, the message of the image is turned around with the word “asesino.” “Asesino” means assassin and is a direct…
Impact 8 International Printmaking Conference (2013)
My paper proposal was accepted for the upcoming Impact 8 International Printmaking Conference to be held in Dundee, Scotland, August 28 through September 1, 2013. The title of the conference is Borders & Crossings: the artist as explorer. Here is my abstract below. This presentation will include the research I’ve done in the last six months on early examples of street art stickers. Street Art Stickers: Silent Agitators, Paper Bullets, and Night Raiders Publicly placed stickers with printed images and/or text have been used for decades as a form of political protest or to advocate political agendas. In the early…
“Stickerette” ad in 1917 I.W.W. Solidarity newspaper
This is the first image I’ve ever seen of someone putting up stickers. I found it in two issues of an I.W.W. newspaper called Solidarity published in Cleveland on September 9 and 16, 1917. Stickerettes were advertised in Solidarity between at least June 24, 1916, and August 25, 1917, though I’ve seen a reference that they might have been advertised as early as November 20, 1915. In 1916, one could buy stickerettes in packages – 110 per package cost 15 cents, or a box of 1,100 cost $1.00. I’ve been trying to find photographs of stickerettes put up on buildings or…
The Wicke case continues
Good news. Guy Wicke is indeed the son of James T. Wicke. Here is what Guy wrote in response to my email. James T. Wicke is my father. He died suddenly when I was 17, so obviously anything from his youth or political activism during the 60s-70s is a treasure beyond words for me. The Pied Piper Lane address is my grandparents’ house (his childhood home). I’ve never heard of the organization he was supposedly acting secretary of, but I wonder if it was a bit of tongue-in-cheek grandiosity. He was a fan of that type of humor. Or maybe…
Tracking down info on the “night raiders”
It’s been difficult finding information on the “night raiders” gummed labels and stickers that I posted about previously. Google searches for the sender of the envelope—J S Kennard—and text on the stickers—FANSHEN, FANSHAN, Peace Products, night raiders, and Vietnam War—have yielded next to nothing. I’ve only got one lead with FANSHEN, but need to do some more research before I can post anything. Today, however, on ancestry.com, I found out that a James T. Wicke, formerly from Wausau, Wisconsin, died at age 51 on January 16, 1999, in Chicago. Survivors included a son, Guy F. Wicke, who is now a…
Chris Christie – manga style
The Japanese characters translate to “Republican Party,” according to a colleague of mine at work. Now, what to make of a sticker representing NJ Governor Chris Christie drawn in manga style? Post-Hurricane Sandy superhero running for office? That’s my best guess.
“White Power” and “Good Night White Pride” stickers
This was the first photo I took in Berlin when I was there in August 2012. Although simplified, the cross and circle reminded me of the “white pride” symbol I’ve seen online from white supremacist groups like Stormfront and others. The sun cross symbol is often associated with neo-Nazi groups, and the Anti-Defamation League refers to it as a hate symbol called the Celtic Cross or Odin’s Cross. The ADL has a Web site called Hate on Display, which I’ve been using as a reference to figure out what’s going on in certain stickers I pick up. The ADL makes…
New (old) stickers for archive
Today I found ten German political stickers dating from 2004 that I hadn’t yet scanned and catalogued. The stickers were included in The Gallery Has a Posse: Contemporary Sticker Art, an exhibition at SLU in 2006 that featured stickers primarily from the United States. I had forgotten about these other ones, however. I know I sound like a broken record, but finding these older stickers only confirms the importance of creating a sticker archive. I’ve also decided to abandon A Sticker A Day. It’s too casual. I’d rather show stickers less often in Stickerkitty, but when I do with more…
More on I.W.W. “stickerettes”
I’ve had the luxury of spending several hours during the last few days doing research on the I.W.W. stickerettes that I posted about previously on June 3, 2012 and July 28, 2012. I’ve decided that I need to include some historical background information about stickerettes in my sticker book, which I am tentatively calling Takin’ it to the Streets and Stickin’ it to the Man: Contemporary Sticker Art as Cultural Expression and Political Protest. It’s a terribly long title. The other title I’ve been thinking of lately, however, is simply Paper Bullets. Short and sweet! The commercial artist Ralph Chaplin…