Autograph ABP presents Sunil Gupta’s Mr Malhotra’s Party (2007) – new online portfolio !

http://www.autograph-abp.co.uk


Sunil Gupta (born 1953, New Delhi, India) is an internationally-acclaimed artist, curator, writer and cultural activist. His photographs represent diasporic journeys through the personal and the political - since the early 1980s his work has been exhibited widely, including recent solo shows at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, Canada (2006), photo-london 2007 and as part of the thematic India showcase at the Rencontres d'Arles, France (until 16 Sept 2007). Pictures from Home, a comprehensive monograph of Sunil Gupta's photographic work was published by Autograph ABP in association with Chris Boot in 2003.



Full portfolio available to view online. For further information about this artist, print sales, reproduction and exhibition enquiries, please contact the office 020 7729 9200 or email web@auto.demon.co.uk






Autograph ABP is an international photographic arts agency that addresses issues of cultural identity and human rights. We develop, exhibit and publish the work of photographers from culturally diverse backgrounds and advocate their inclusion in all areas of exhibition, publishing, education and commerce in the visual arts.


* * *

Autograph ABP
Rivington Place
London
EC2A 3B

T +44 (0)20 7739 8748 [temporary]
E renee@auto.demon.co.uk
W http://www.autograph-abp.co.uk

if you're in NY

(I once started to listen to him at a conference, and he was such a slow starter that I left, and later everyone raved about how great he'd been, so I'd recommend it!)

Conversations with Contemporary Artists
Lectures & Gallery Talks
Kerry James Marshall

Friday, September 14, 2007
6:30 p.m.

The Celeste Bartos Theater, mezzanine, The Lewis B. and Dorothy
Cullman Education and Research Building
4 W. 54 Street

Join leading contemporary artists as they discuss their work, the
creative process, and issues in contemporary art.

Kerry James Marshall's mixed media works address the perspectives of
African Americans through references to popular culture, history, and
the civil rights movement. His work draws inspiration from art-
historical sources from the Renaissance to black folk art. Born in
Birmingham, Alabama, Marshall has a BFA and an honorary Doctorate
from the Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles. He has exhibited in the
United States, and at international exhibitions such as Documenta X.
In 1997 Marshall was awarded a MacArthur Foundation grant.

Tickets ($10; members $8; students, seniors, and staff of other
museums $5) can be purchased at the lobby information desk, the Film
desk, the Cullman Building lobby, or online at www.ticketweb.

com.

Sign language interpretation and FM assistive listening devices
(headsets and neck loops) are provided for all sessions.

Tickets ($10; members $8; students, seniors, and staff of other
museums $5) can be purchased at the lobby information desk, the Film
desk, or online at www.moma.org/thinkmodern.

Learn more about Adult Programs at MoMA:
http://www.moma.org/education/adults.html

View all upcoming Conversations with Contemporary Artists:
http://www.moma.org/calendar/programs.php?id=74&ref=calendar

where I've been

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

WBRC-TV | Birmingham - Real Family Funeral Depicted as MasterCard 'Priceless' Ad

From a broadcast on the Fox affiliate in Birmingham: http://www.myfoxal.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=4013025&version=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1


And Hank's response in the Sunday, August 12, Birmingham News:

In July, Hank Willis Thomas' Priceless #1 was installed on an exterior wall of the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama. The 2004 work, a recent acquisition by the museum, sparked immediate controversy, chiefly because city residents believed the piece was an actual advertisement that disparaged African Americans. In response, Thomas wrote the following commentary, which appeared as an op-ed piece in the Sunday, August 12 edition of the Birmingham News.

Twenty-seven year-old Songha Thomas Willis was shot dead, execution style, in front of dozens of people during a robbery in which he did not resist. His friends were robbed for their gold chains. Nothing was taken from Songha but his life. That was on February 2, 2000--the day I lost my best friend, roommate, cousin, and for all intents and purposes, big brother.

"The worst part of it all is that we don't even have to ask if the killer was black," was the first thing a friend said on hearing the news. The murderer was caught three months later after committing another robbery-murder at the same club in Philadelphia on another Tuesday Hip-hop night. Why do it again? I have struggled for eight years to find creative ways to deal with my cousin's murder and the senseless violence, genocide if you will, between African-American males.

According to Bureau of Justice statistics, in 2005 blacks were six times more likely to be murdered than whites, and 94% of black victims were killed by other blacks. The overwhelming number of victims and offenders were young black males. How is it that less than six percent of the population could make up for the overwhelming number of homicide victims and offenders in this country? We are too often seen as an amorphous or archetypal group. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Or more damaging.

In July, the Birmingham Museum of Art installed "Priceless #1," a deeply personal piece for me. (It has also been exhibited in San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Miami and Charlotte.) The photograph was taken at Songha's funeral. Later, I added text to say what the picture alone cannot. I remember standing in the funeral home with my family, trying to figure out which would pay better homage to my cousin's life: the $2,000 casket that would be thrown in the dirt or the $5,000 casket that would be thrown in the dirt. It was an impossible decision. My cousin was killed over a petty commodity and here we were being marketed to and going into debt during the grieving process. $10,000 for a funeral? He owed that much in college loans he couldn't even repay.

His funeral was the most ethnically, racially, culturally and economically diverse place I have ever been. I told the 700 people who came to say good-bye that their presence was the greatest gift to my cousin and family, and to remember that every time they hear about yet "another black male homicide," they should know that it was probably somebody just like Songha: a normal black man. Not a criminal. Not a hustler. Not a drug addict. (Though they are all someone's children, too.)

All too often, I explain my cousin was murdered and people, both black and white, give that "what did he do?" look. And I feel anger and guilt, because I can hardly blame them for thinking that way about people who look like him and me. In the 80s and 90s, a lot of young African American men were getting killed over Michael Jordan sneakers. Today, they're getting killed over gold chains, looks, and words. All things considered--Darfur, Rwanda, Nigeria, Chicago, New Orleans--it is fair to assume no one cares much about another dead black man.

From 1865 to 1965, more than 2,400 African Americans were lynched in the United States of America. Between 2003 and 2007, nearly 3,700 US soldiers were killed in combat in the so-called war against terrorism. In 2003 alone, there were 6,912 African American homicide victims. Lynching a black man is no longer acceptable. Debate rages over the loss of life in Iraq. But the past 30 years are arguably the most hostile times for black men since the abolition of slavery. They also have been the most economically and socially rewarding. How could this be?

"Art" means something different to me since Songha died. I want to commemorate, provoke thought, and indict the viewers of my work as well as myself. I try to make pieces that get people talking about these issues. As a means to reach a broader audience, I often use the language of advertising to identify and examine the complexity of challenges and ideas that exists in my community and country. When one person dies, dozens if not hundreds of people are directly affected and, in an instant, connected by the shared experience of loss. My work is for them, about them. We all should be looking for answers, or at least better questions. Something has to change.

just because

This is my favorite photo of me, taken on a recent vacation. I just look happy and relaxed, which I was. I usually don't post photos of myself here (though they're certainly all over my website), but I just felt like it. And it's the first time I can remember that I found a hat that fit my head!

Deidra--you rock!

I spotted this at Feministing (which you should check out, because there's a brief interview): Deidra, who calls herself "just a concerned black female," started this blog to track missing black women (who are mostly ignored by the media): http://blackandmissing.blogspot.com/

Go Theodore!

Posted on AUGUST 8, 2007:

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
Hammonds House brims with anger and defiance with two exhibitions

By Felicia Feaster

You want angry?

The recent Eyedrum Furious show teased but failed to deliver foaming outrage. But Our Flesh of Flames at Hammonds House Museum brings it.

As nitroglycerin-volatile as the title promises, Our Flesh of Flames is so provocative that it may be a good thing it’s tucked away on a leafy, serene street in the West End.

Philadelphia artist Theodore Harris’ collages and collage-based prints suggest a newspaper cut up and culture-jammed by a punk-rock revolutionary. Instead of journalistic “objectivity,” there is subjective fury. It’s a rage directed at a country underpinned by big money and the sedative appeals of God and country. In Harris’ work, it’s not Iraq that’s the war zone; it’s America.

Harris’ repeated visual motif is the provocative image of the U.S. Capitol turned upside down like an inverted cross.

Mixed in with that vision of a country whose cherished democracy has essentially gone belly-up are images of raging fires, hooded Klansmen, Bubbas waving Confederate flags, police cracking batons on civilian heads, dripping blood, wounded American soldiers, helicopters and demolished buildings.

It’s a world under siege, teetering on the brink of apocalypse. And it’s not hard to figure out who’s suffering the most: frightened black faces peeking out of tenement buildings, crying black children and the well-dressed man in a haunting image culled from the Civil Rights era, his pants torn by police dogs.

Some may recoil at the didacticism of Harris’ imagery. The artist marries a rightfully cynical view of American history as seen through black eyes with the imprecision of extreme emotions. But such excess eventually yields diminishing returns. Like the current overuse of the slur “Nazi” to describe political opponents, some of the power of language, both visual and verbal, is lost when it becomes routine and reflex.

If Harris alone weren’t firestarter enough, his work is accompanied by poems from the ‘60s Black Arts Movement founder and activist/poet Amiri Baraka. Baraka ignited a controversy some years back when a post-Sept. 11 poem, “Somebody Blew Up America” - which was deemed anti-Semitic - led some to demand he give up his title as the poet laureate of New Jersey.

Conjoined with Baraka’s fighting words, which sound like the explosive rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire, the power of Harris’ imagery is undeniable. Some of his most gripping pieces are not the one-dimensional prints, but his original collages that profit from a more layered, human touch. In “Police .45 666 Shooter,” a child’s dime-store-gun packaging serves as the backdrop to that aforementioned Civil Rights demonstrator set upon by police dogs. The collage shows how clashing visual elements of color and black-and-white, history and consumerism can make for a far richer, more pathos-laden work.

Despite Harris and Baraka’s taste for visual extremes, the fury expressed in Our Flesh of Flames is a welcome change from a larger culture of apathy. In a fascinating matchup, Hammonds House curator Kevin Sipp has juxtaposed Harris and Baraka’s still-smoldering embers of radicalism with some older-school anger.

Hammonds House also plays host to a selection of posters drawn from Black Arts Movement editor and poet Joe Goncalves’ collection. These politically incendiary, visually shocking works are culled from the salad days of 1960s and ‘70s black activism. They were also formative years for Baraka, who is eulogized in one Black Panther Minister of Culture Emory Douglas poster on display.

Many examples of Douglas’ graphically stark works (also compiled in the recent Rizzoli book Black Panther: The Evolutionary Art of Emory Douglas) are included. Also featured are illustrations by Charles Bible and Larry Neal, whose works often recall Soviet socialist-realist posters but with a closer-to-home, more American brand of fury.

Bible’s Jack Chick-worthy 1970 illustration of a righteous black girl toting a gun is an unshakably pointed image and distillation of an era’s rage. Combined with a poem, as in the Baraka/Harris collaboration, Bible’s image is loaded with narrative juice. Wondering if she should take up the pen or the firearm, the radical girl ponders, “Maybe I should not write at all but clean my gun and check my kerosene supply.”

Like Chick’s religious comics, these posters often merge darkness and kitsch to disorienting effect. A classic example of the clammy uncertainty many of the images inspire is a 1969 Douglas poster of a heavily armed child wearing a “Free Huey” button. With his massive, pleading eyes shedding fat Margaret Keane tears, the image suggests a Black Panther Hummel. Do you cuddle the despondent child or back away slowly? The posters’ architects obviously understood the power of marrying innocence and violence - the images viscerally reject the patronizing, emasculating, mainstream culture’s vision of “black.”

Though the references to dashikis, “fascist pig cops,” jive and the “black boogaloo” can inspire a giggle or two, just wait until the next century digs our supersized cars, porno aesthetics and garish headcheese architecture. The dated words and images are also part of the exhibition’s charm. They hark back to a time when people wore their politics on their sleeves and in their “naturals.” It was a time in every way unlike our own, when people expected something more.

why it's never just about race (as if that weren't enough)

(forwarded from Hank Thomas)

Stop Intel's Racist Attack - Act Now

I almost fell out of my seat when I saw Intel's new advertisingcampaign. It shows six bowing African American athletes before a chino-clad, oxford-shirted white manager with the slug: "Maximize the

power of your employees."

The ad (shown at left) demonstrates the gross insensitivity of Intel to issues of racial and economic discrimination. Now it's time to send Intel a message that it needs to respect our mores and rules of law.

Paul Otellini, Intel's CEO, made $9.8 million last year. At that paygrade, it's not hard to be out of touch with the values of modern society.

Intel is not just promoting insensitive images, it's also leading a signature drive for a California ballot measure that would eliminate class action lawsuits over civil rights issues. Read FTCR's new analysis of the initiative, sent to CA officials. Please take a moment to send a free fax message to Intel's board of directors now calling upon the company to withdraw that pending ballot measure.

Intel has already apologized over its advertising campaign and is withdrawing it. Now Intel must recognize the insensitivity of its attack on class action system, where the rights of victims of discrimination are vindicated. Denny's Restaurants never would have gotten the message to stop discriminating against African Americans, but for a class action lawsuit.

Intel's pending ballot measure would destroy those protections. Please fax the company today and stand up for economic and racial equality; and forward this message to your friends and family today.

________________________________

Intel's pending ballot measure would destroy the class action system by:

Making it extremely difficult for individuals who are discriminated against to file a class action case because only cases involving economic losses could go forward;

Requiring evidence of wrongdoing before a case can move forward, but taking away consumers' and employees' existing right to gather that evidence;

Allowing lawsuits to be dismissed if a government agency is supposed to regulate the industry, even when the bureaucrats and political appointees responsible lack the resources, or simply refuse, to take action to stop the wrongdoing;

Permitting rich and powerful defendants to delay trials for years by allowing unjustified appeals at the beginning of a case;

Delaying justice, costing taxpayers twice as much and clogging the courts by requiring plaintiffs to file two separate lawsuits if they want to both stop an outrageous practice and receive refunds or be compensated for any damage they've suffered;

Intimidating low-wage employees by requiring individual members of a lawsuit be identified and exposed to possible retribution by their employers for joining an action about working conditions, or refusing to abandon their complaints.

________________________________

Read FTCR's full analysis here.

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights is a non-profit,

non-partisan public interest group. Contributions are tax-deductible.

oh, this is rich

I spotted this on a listserv I'm on; comments from the person who posted it are up top. It's so ridiculous it's hilarious.

Okay, this right-wing, religious zealot, FL state rep was caught in a park trying to pay a guy to let him go down on that guy and his defense is...wait for it...the guy was black and scary so he was just saying what he had to say to get away from him.
So he uses hate of black people to prove he really hates gay people.
I was about to loudly complain that I've now seen it all. Then I realized, I can only hope that this is the end.-

OrlandoSentinel.com
State Rep. Allen explains sex case: Fear made me play along Laurin Sellers

Sentinel Staff Writer
August 3, 2007
TITUSVILLE


State Rep. Bob Allen told police he was just playing along when a undercover officer suggested in a public restroom that the legislator give him oral sex and $20 because he was intimidated, according to a taped statement and other documents released Thursday.

Allen has already denied any wrongdoing, but the recordings and documents offered new details about what he and police say happened on July 11 inside the men's room at Veterans Memorial Park.

"I certainly wasn't there to have sex with anybody and certainly wasn't there to exchange money for it," said Allen, R-Merritt Island, who was arrested on charges of soliciting prostitution.

"This was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park," Allen, who is white, told police in a taped statement after his arrest. Allen said he feared he "was about to be a statistic" and would have said anything just to get away.

Allen, who couldn't be reached for comment Thursday, has repeatedly declared his innocence, his intention to fight the charges and his desire to stay in office.

Three undercover officers said they were staking out a nearby condo hoping to catch a burglar when Allen entered a park bathroom at about 3:30 p.m.

The officers, who didn't recognize the seven-year legislator, said they thought he was behaving suspiciously and thought that he was looking for a sexual partner, according to the reports released by the Brevard-Seminole State Attorney's Office.

In a written statement released Thursday, Titusville Officer Danny Kavanaugh recalled entering the restroom twice and said he was drying his hands in a stall when Allen peered over the stall door.

After peering over the stall a second time, Allen pushed open the door and joined Kavanaugh inside, the officer wrote. Allen muttered " 'hi,' " and then said, " 'this is kind of a public place, isn't it,' " the report said.

The officer said he asked Allen about going somewhere else and that the legislator suggested going "across the bridge, it's quieter over there."

"Well look, man, I'm trying to make some money; you think you can hook me up with 20 bucks?" Kavanaugh asked Allen.

The officer said Allen responded, "Sure, I can do that, but this place is too public."

Then Kavanaugh said he told Allen, "I wanna know what I gotta do for 20 bucks before we leave.' " He said Allen replied: "I don't know what you're into."

According to Kavanaugh's statement, the officer said, "do you want just [oral sex]?" and Allen replied, "I was thinking you would want one."

The officer said he then asked Allen, "but you'll still give me the 20 bucks for that . . . and that the legislator said, "yeah, I wouldn't argue with that."

As Allen turned and motioned for the officer to follow him to his car, Kavanaugh identified himself as a police officer by raising his shirt and exposing his badge.

When Allen was being placed in a marked patrol car, he asked whether "it would help" if he was a state legislator, according to a police report. The officer replied, "No."

Laurin Sellers can be reached at lsellers@orlandosentinel.com or 321-795-3251.

Copyright © 2007, Orlando Sentinel

free the jena 6!

(I'd heard about this story, but Isabelle Lutterodt sent out this E-mail and it was
perfect to post.)



Hello!

I just heard about this and it really got me 'wound up' as they say in the UK!

Not sure if you heard but this is really outrageous and needs action..
Please go to the links below.. Make your mind up and do something about it.
The more attention this gets the better! For 6 young men to be sent to jail
for the REST (or majority) OF THEIR LIVES is not acceptable...especially not
when the trial is a shame and the DA is a racist.

http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml
http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/
http://www.petitiononline.com/aZ51CqmR/petition.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/6685441.stm
http://jenasix.org/
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070801/NEWS01/70
8010329/1060/NEWS01