Of chick charts, hen charts and other such women’s stories
College authorities that had so far refused to take either our complaints on the chick chart seriously or had found the vandalism of college property by their students a matter of any serious concern, were now jolted into prompt action by the newspaper reports. Except that in line with the sexist philosophy permeating the institution the action was directed against the women students; especially those amongst us who had been consistently speaking out on the issue. Dr. Hala and Mr. Dwivedi had been unanimous in directing their ire at us for daring to speak to ‘outsiders’ about college issues that they described as ‘family matters’. Patriarchy was in full damage control. Section 144 was imposed within the campus forbidding any meetings or even groups of students to assemble. We were ordered to keep our mouths shut to ‘outsiders’. And our fellow male students, in two and threes took it upon themselves to shadow the more ‘troublesome’ elements amongst the women including me to insure that we behaved ourselves, did not speak or meet or conspire to further bring down the ‘reputation’ of ‘their’ esteemed college. And just to make sure that we were truly terrorized into submissive silence they would keep muttering as they followed us around, the words that had been emblazoned upon the driveway of the college they professed to love so much –“Fuck off!”
Jonathan Burton, Sea Monkey, 2008
Take Off Your Clothes,acrylic on hanji, 3.11 x 6.04, 2010
The North Korean painter Song Byeok began his career as an official propaganda artist, painting posters exalting the glory of Kim Jong Il. One day in 2000, everything changed for Song when he and his father attempted to cross a river into China to buy rice for their family. Song’s father was swept away and drowned while he — despite his connections with the regime — was arrested and spent six months in a prison camp.
A short time later, Song escaped the country and defected to South Korea, where he went on to attend university and study art. Today, the 44-year-old has earned acclaim in his second career, painting subversive and often hilarious satires of North Korean life and politics.
From April 13-20, an exhibition of Song’s work will be held at the Dunes gallery in Washington. The artist spoke by phone with FP from his home in Seoul about his work and hopes for North Korea’s future.
Drink. Smoke. Work.
Mad Men illustrated by Katie Kirk
20 years since the Bosnian war.
Thomas Wrede - Hochhaussiedlung II (Arco), 2009 Lambda Print / Diasec, Ed.5 2AP 190 x 150 cm / 120 x 95 cm (klein)
40 years and counting: Justice for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace. Decades of isolation in Louisiana state prisons must end
“I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body; and because its ghastly signs and tokens are not so palpable to the eye and sense of touch as scars upon the flesh; because its wounds are not upon the surface, and it extorts few cries that human ears can hear; therefore the more I denounce it, as a secret punishment which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay.”
How we can help
Gil Scott-Heron: where did the night go?
Julien Pacaud, Together, 2011. Julien’s current stint as a self-taught illustrator is keeping him busy until he’s able to return to his true passion: time travel.
