Example Two – The Safety Pin
Self proclaimed anarchist, Jamie Reid was the creator of some of the most iconic, punk-related images of the time. With connections to situationists (an organization made up of social revolutionaries, including many artists) he was unafraid to make an unconventional statement that went against societal expectations. ‘Anarchy in the UK’ is a seminal piece by the artist, created for use as cover art for the single ‘Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols, from the album ‘Never Mind the Bollocks: Here’s the Sex Pistols’ for which Reid also created the album artwork. The image shows a damaged British flag, held together using safety pins an attempt at reparation, with two disjointed signs presenting the band name and
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song title pinned in the centre.
This highlights the importance of the safety pin as an image in punk subculture. Originally used for practicality purposes, the safety pin soon took on a new meaning amongst punks. It became part of the bricolage theme of pulling unrelated items together to create something new. New context was given to this item so that it made a statement both when appearing alone (possibly through the ear of late 1970’s punk) or as part of an item of clothing, bringing together two elements. The initial use of the safety pin had no intention of highlighting the item itself as a fashion commodity in punk style, however the metaphors held by this item soon caused it to become a representative icon. The safety pin is a strong example of bricolage influence in punk style, with this DIY tool becoming an iconic symbol and furthering a raw discourse of ideals because of it’s related metaphors. Themes of nationalism and patriotism are prominent in this piece of art as a torn or damaged flag is indicative …show more content…
of disrespect towards the nation. Example Three – God Save the Queen The similarity between this piece, ‘Anarchy in the UK’ and the piece ‘God Save the Queen’ allows for an interesting comparison.
‘God Save the Queen’, also created by Reid, depicts a recognisable, black and white image of the queen layered on top of a British flag (still in tact). Ripped lettering in the style of a ransom note is covering both the eyes and mouth of the queen, conveying a message that implies threat and violence. This raised questions at the time over the appropriateness of the artwork and was seen as a highly disrespectful attack on the queen by many who supported the monarchy. The phrase ‘God Save the Queen’ is a positive phrase when used in it’s original sense, conveyed by the national anthem, however, this cover art offers an alternative context for the phrase (a key theme of bricolage). The bringing together of these various elements creates a more sinister, anti-monarchy, anti-nationalist message, two ideals that are very much in keeping with punk ideology. Many punks were against both the monarchy and nationalism due to the economic state of the time, while many working-class member of society were living in times of austerity, there were many young people that felt little sense of pride in their nation (unlike the generations before them) and so rebelled against this conformity to nationalism. Those within the monarchy continued to live in luxury through trying times, highlighting the difference between the rich and poor and furthering the beliefs of
many punks against nationalism. In it’s original sense, the phrase used in this artwork conforms to what is expected by many of those in British society of the time. This alternative message, made available through use of bricolage allows a punk values to be exuded through visual language. This piece of art gained a lot of publicity for the Sex Pistols, Jamie Reid and punk subculture as a whole due to it’s controversial nature. With an influx of mixed attention, this piece of art influenced the popularity of, and simultaneously the discontentment towards the punk movement. Example Four – The Anarchy Shirt by McLaren and Westwood In 1976, Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood created a fashion item named the “Anarchy Shirt.” The shirt had a bleached finish, looking brownish-orange with a collage feel to it and so the piece is a key example of bricolage used in punk fashion. ‘The Anarchy Shirt is the visual equivalent of the music made by McLaren’s charges the Sex Pistols; jarring, violently expressive and an act of collage representing an exciting and scrambled manifesto of desires.’ (Gorman, Paul, 2014) The shirt contained stenciled slogans such as ‘Only Anarchists Are Pretty’ and ‘Dangerously Close To Love’, an upturned Nazi eagle, a ‘Mao-like’ arm band with the word ‘chaos’ painted on this and a silk image of Karl Max attached to the front, chosen in particular for the fact he was the creator of the Socialist and workers’ movements in the 19th century (McLaren also stated that he and Vivienne Westwood were a fan of Marx’s beard). McLaren’s interest in juxtaposition lead to the creation of this fashion item with the inclusion of various items with very different meanings.
Within the impoverished urban streets arose a youth culture captivated by infamy and self-pride. A youth culture virtually undistinguishable from members of modern society with a passion, setting them apart from the community. The members of this underground subculture could be your next-door neighbor, your son or daughter, or the contractor repairing your roof, yet you would have no idea that they strive to “bomb” objects and surfaces found in everyday life. It is the subtle differences that distinguish a graffiti artist from the average member of society, such as their, mindset, desires, speech and active lifestyle.
This photograph, taken in 1967 in the heart of the Vietnam War Protests, depicts different ideologies about how problems can be solved. In the picture, which narrowly missed winning the Pulitzer Prize, a teen is seen poking carnations into the barrels of guns held by members of the US National Guard. This moment, captured by photographer Bernie Boston symbolizes the flower power movement. Flower power is a phrase that referred to the hippie notion of “make love not war”, and the idea that love and nonviolence, such as the growing of flowers, was a better way to heal the world than continued focus on capitalism and wars. The photograph can be analyzed through the elements of image as defined by ‘The Little Brown Handbook’ on page 86. There are a total of nine elements that contribute to the communicative quality of an image. The message that this particular image tries to convey is the strong sense of way that conflict should be handled; by way of guns or by way of flowers. The ‘way of guns’ is violence and excessive force which heavily contradicts the ‘way of flowers’ which is a more peaceful and diplomatic way of handling conflict or disagreement. This photograph depicts these ideologies through its use of emphasis, narration,point of view, arrangement, color, characterization, context and tension.
Queen Elizabeth masterfully used imagery in her speech to boost the soldier’s morale and gain loyalty and respect as a woman leader. In the beginning of the speech, Queen Elizabeth said, “Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects”. The queen’s intent was to paint her as a trusting and respectful leader an...
Pathos: The emotions that are really being played on the most are anger. People have so much anger when they can not understand the world or what is going on in it. The audience becomes furious to all the killing and death in the world and they need someone there to sympathize with them. Anti-Flag gets the listener angry by exposing the faults of the world. The listener appreciates this because Anti-Flag will not sell into the wrongs of the world. It uses the emotion of finding comfort in that there is someone else out there that has the same views as the listener does. The band uses punk rock music as a common ground with the listeners and expresses their views through their songs. This relates back to the author because this is a great way to protest through music.
One arm has a black and white stripped sleeve, the notorious apparel of a convict, is handcuffed but not restricted, and holding an automatic rifle with an attached drum magazine. The other is an arm in a formal suit holding onto a drum mallet while the rest of the body is made up of a large musical drum. The arm of the convict represents crime in America. This is another example of Europeans viewing Americans as the villain. Along with all the racism in America, it is also chock-full of criminals. The automatic rifle with a large drum magazine is the face of American gangsters. This represents the amount of organized crime and gun violence there was in the United States which was just another reason for Europe to see us as evil. The other arm is in a suit looks to be literally beating the drum that is a part of him. This metaphor is quite literal. The phrase “beat the drum” is an expression meaning support and praise. The arm being in a suit represents the working people in America. The beating of the drum symbolizes that they are passionate and supportive towards the American invasion of Europe, yet another factor why the Americans are illustrated like
From New York to the rest of the world, Jeff Ferrell’s “Urban Graffiti” aims to show how graffiti serves as resistance to social arrangements and political power for many. The youth use graffiti as a way to provide alternate solutions for oppressions and cultural conditions. Ferrell demonstrates how young artists utilize this art form as a way of raising awareness and resisting social constraints. For example, in London, certain billboards in 1982 were aggressively altered to advocate the voice of the feminists and animal activists. Graffiti writing usually takes place in urban areas where discrimination and division of racial groups are heavily seen. Jeff Ferrell recounts how these young taggers work exclusively during late hours to avoid
...siderably. From a mark of criminality to an embraced art form, the body modification has represented various expressions of the bearer’s inner self. However, despite the efforts to normalize tattoos in the society, the social stigma of deviance perceived by the larger society still remains deeply etched in the art. It is apparent that the intended message a bearer wants to communicate through a tattoo may not be perceived correctly by others. These motivations behind tattoos are filtered through cultural and historical lenses that often result in unintended perceptions of tattooed bodies. In addition, the attempts of using tattoos to change social conditions often reinforce the very conditions they seek to counter. Though these stigmas and misinterpretations see no sign of fading, tattooing will remain as a powerful vehicle of self-expression and social commentary.
The conveying message of DIY (do-it-yourself) set a platform for people to think and make stance for themselves. The rejection of norms was one of their base reasoning. Through vulgar lyrics and shocking outward appearances, socially the movement may have been the one of the first cultures that thought rebellion. Bluntly raising questions against authority through lyrics influenced teenagers the idealism of freeing oneself again the government. Using such a platforms set the stage for a new age of thinking. Punk "deliberately cultivated an image of violence, deviance, and repugnance at the very inception of the subculture” (Leblanc 39). Despite the image that Punk Rock portrayed, its messages on self-expression and independence have inspired many generations to come both musically and
Drawing inspiration from the heydey of the Hardcore punk scene, this poster was made to reflect the stark similarities between the political climate of the eighties and the current one that is taking place. During the eighties, Hardcore punk was made to give lesser lower class to middle class people a voice against a government they could not identify with. In addition to this, many used hardcore as a way to express themselves and their many griefs caused by society. Hardcore music was loud, chaotic, and fast which caused everyone to move quickly and forgo societal norms. This type of music had a powerful message, and there needed to be a way to spread this message to newcomers who might not have heard of the hardcore scene. Hardcore posters
It might be surprising to many but when the majority of us think of Frank Shepard Fairey, they think of his Andre the Giant art piece. His artwork is unique and can be seen by many as a similar form of pop art. His art is considered to be unique because although the majority of his art pieces are all well centered in the middle of the canvas they all use warm colors and for the most part all his art is made out of stencils. Hence, although they all might use the same style each art piece is unique in its own way because it makes individuals think in depth about the society. Furthermore, it aims at targeting political views and making his audience question their society, since his artwork for the most part expresses his political views. Frank uses stencils and stencil like shading in his art pieces as well as spray paint. Most importantly other sources that he includes in his art work includes the
Andres able to illustrate his idea into readers’ mind by using comparison words and metaphor techniques across the article. For instance, “Like hairdo, make up, or baggy jeans, tattoos and piercing can be subjected to fade influence or peer pressure in an effort toward group affiliation” (Martin, 2000). It is interesting how Andres compares tattooing and piercing to the makeup and a baggy jeans. He uses makeup and a baggy jeans to show the trending style of the culture and how it has a power to influence teens. The child psychiatrists can easily understand how the number of teens getting tattoo and pierce from the result of peer
The writing on the poster is in incursive and it says “Dearest art collector, it has come to our attention that your collection, like most, does not contain enough art by women we know that you feel terrible about this and will rectify the situation immediately all our love, guerrilla girls.” The message is a very serious message with a slight twinge of humor and when the used that soft penmanship it was like they were saying” yes we are girls and were serious” This is a prime example as to how the guerrilla girls used symbols to protest the unjust treatment of women in the art world. “WANT TO EARN BIG MONEY IN THE ART WORLD?” is another poster that uses symbols to make a statement. In this art piece they used a dollar, ran a big thick black line that is cut up in to six pieces through the dollar. The line went separated the dollar into thirds. These symbols show the differences in what women make versus what men
In the article “Revolution in a Can” by Blake Gopnik, he states, “The most elaborate images from Egypt, Libya, and Haiti today look very much like the 1980s paint jobs on New York subway cars and warehouse facades, and yet their point is not to function as art but to work as carriers of content and opinion” (114). In other words, graffiti is used to show how people truly feel inside. This is important because in addition to being considered art, it also serves the function of expressing oneself if that freedom does not exist. As a matter of fact pieces like this can be found all over the world. They are located on the Palestinian West Bank, on a wall on Benghazi in Libya, and in Tahrir Square in Egypt. A piece of graffiti art that epitomizes this is Begging for Change by graffiti artist Meek. The work engaged the public since it was done right near a train station. It features a homeless man holding a sign that reads, “Keep your coins, I want change”. The piece radiates a very powerful message stating how money can’t solve
This week to describe anarchy via art I have chosen to look at a graphic novel, to be more specific I have chosen to look at V for Vendetta. Firstly, what is anarchism? Anarchism means “without rulers” and that is exactly what it is. It is a premise that human beings can live justly and harmoniously without government and that the imposition of government upon human beings is harmful and evil. It is the inexistence of a government (seen as tyrannical) and the ultimate freedom for the individual. So how is this ideology portrayed in V for Vendetta? In the movie the government in the UK has decided that security is the most important thing and because of that they severely restrict the rights and freedoms of the people. V, sees this as unjust
Artists depict their opinions and give advices about the world through different forms of art such as graffiti. Modern artists in cities like Miami, are espousing graffiti as a legitimate art form, embellishing the artist’s notoriety. These art movements are empowering the minorities rather than discouraging and demoralising the masses. Despite the fact that the majority of people see graffiti as a destruction of property, in accordance with Harry Katz and Nieman Reports, the first political cartoon created by Benjamin Franklin preceded to 1754 at the verge of French and Indian war. The motif of the cartoon was to entice the British colonies to “Join or Die” in tribute to consolidating for defence against the French and Indian forces. Franklin,