There’s no greater pleasure than watching something grow. This time from seeds to art.

Sowing Discord at Minnesota’s Seed Art Competition, by Isabella Segalovich, Hyperallergic, September 5, 2023

At the Minnesota State Fair, some crop artists promoted timely political messages with corn, quinoa, and flax seeds.

SAINT PAUL, Minn. — The longest line at the second biggest state fair in the United States wasn’t for the prize cows, roller coaster rides, or various deep-fried foods served on a stick: It was for the seed art.

The wait was worth it. Past scores of vintage seed sacks and neatly stacked corn cobs vying for Best of Show ribbons, visitors craned their necks to marvel at the bounty of intricate mosaics made completely out of seeds at the Minnesota State Fair, which ran from August 24 to September 4. While the vast majority of participating crop artists were Minnesotans, the country’s only state fair seed art competition has also graciously expanded its dozens of categories to include out-of-state competitors, as long as they stick to one rule: Every seed must be grown in Minnesota.

I was struck not just by this craft’s painstaking nature but also by the diversity of its subject matter, which ranges from impressive portraits and still lifes to timely pop culture references and biting political commentary. This year’s show included tributes to lost luminaries (Judy Heumann, Paul Reubens aka Pee Wee Herman), hot pink Barbie memorabilia, OceanGate (“the little sub that couldn’t”), excitement over Minnesota’s marijuana legalization, displays of support for trans youth and adults, clap backs to Ron DeSantis (“Minnesota, where woke goes to bloom!”), and lots and lots of yacht-smashing orcas. Read the rest of the article here.

Photo collage from 2018 and 2019 April Fools’ Day Parades
Courtesy Joey Skaggs Archive
http://aprilfoolsdayparade.com

 
Parade Description
Courtesy ChatGPT (chat.openai.com)

The New York City April Fools’ Day Parade is a satirical parade that has been held annually in New York City since 1986. The parade is organized by American artist and satirist Joey Skaggs, who sought to use the format of the parade to parody social and political issues, as well as the media’s coverage of them.

The parade typically features a variety of tongue-in-cheek floats, costumes and performances that often mock current events and poke fun at politicians, celebrities, and other public figures. It is known for its irreverent and often absurdist humor, as well as its willingness to tackle controversial and taboo subjects.
While the parade is not officially sanctioned by the city, it has become a beloved annual tradition and is enjoyed by locals and tourists alike. It typically draws a large crowd of spectators. Participants are encouraged to show up in costume and join the fun.

The New York April Fools’ Committee is not a formal organization, but rather a loosely organized group of artists, writers, performers, and other creative individuals who come together each year to plan and execute the parade. It is also supported by a network of volunteers and donors who contribute their time and resources to make the event a success.

When the “woke” bite back…

In Iowa, DeSantis gets snowflake gift with ‘fascist’ hidden on it, by Ellen E. Clarke, Tampa Bay Times, Mar 11, 2023

The Florida governor posed for a photo with the gift, as did Iowa’s governor.

In Iowa on Friday to promote his new book, Gov. Ron DeSantis posed with a gift from a supposed supporter. The gift, a framed cutout of an intricate snowflake, features the word “fascist.” Read the rest of this article here.

Apparently, Toronto’s approach to its crumbling infrastructure is “Don’t fix it if it’s broke”. Hats off to James McLeod and Tom Ruhig.

Flashback to the Joey Skaggs 1992 Brooklyn Bridge Lottery hoax 30 years ago! His “leaked” inter-office memorandum, purporting to be from New York Mayor David Dinkins, offered to sell the Brooklyn Bridge in a public lottery. Seemed that was the only way the bridge’s crumbling infrastructure would ever get restored.

Artists Parody Toronto’s Failing Infrastructure With Museum Labels, Hyperallergic, by Elaine Velie
October 13, 2022

In Toronto, museum-quality wall labels now accompany a broken water fountain, a chopped-off tree, and a sign announcing the abrupt end of a bike lane. In a project they call AusterityTO, James McLeod and Tom Ruhig placed 14 plaques on examples of failing infrastructure across the city. Ahead of Toronto’s upcoming municipal elections, AusterityTO seeks to highlight what the artists see as the shortcomings of the city’s current mayor John Tory, who is seeking a third term. Read the whole article here

Loud and clear from artist Karen Fiorito…

Billboard Art in Phoenix Is Tackling Abortion Bans, by Lynn Trimble. Hyperallergic, October 2, 2022

The Grand Avenue Billboard Project enables artists like Karen Fiorito to publicly express their political views.

PHOENIX — On a billboard that looms over the Grand Avenue arts district, artist Karen Fiorito has installed artworks decrying abortion bans and obstructionist politicians. One side of the billboard features the five conservative Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, and the other highlights 11 politicians who’ve opposed legislation aimed at improving education, health care, voting rights, and more. Read the whole article here.

Activist Chaz Stevens is addressing the challenge to separate church from state and keep religion out of the classroom.

An activist plans to test Texas’ ‘In God We Trust’ law with signs in Arabic, Wynne Davis, NPR, August 26, 2022

There are those who heed the warning “don’t mess with Texas,” and then there are those who do the exact opposite.

Activist Chaz Stevens is in the second group.

He’s taking on a Texas law that requires public schools to display signs and posters with the national motto “In God We Trust” in “conspicuous places.” The law requires that the signs were either donated or purchased from private donations to the school. Read the rest of this story here.

A gift from Joey Skaggs:

Just like Ex-President Donald Trump, you can have your very own Classified Top Secret Cover Sheet. Use it to secure your private papers or gift it to other people so they can protect their documents too.

Download and print your Top Secret Cover Sheet here.

And, if you don’t already have one, print your own customizable and framable Donald J. Trump Presidential Pardon created by artist Joey Skaggs (just change out his name for yours).

There are two great film festival opportunities to watch “Joey Skaggs: Metamorphosis, Cockroach Miracle Cure“, the sixth film in the new oral history web series, “Joey Skaggs Satire and Art Activism, 1960s to the Present and Beyond“:

  
 
The first, the International Social Change Film Festival, starts on Monday, September 12, 2022 with an online-only screening available for a month. Later in the Fall this festival will have in-person screenings. The time and place are TBA.
 
 
On September 30, 2022, the New Jersey International Film Festival will host an in-person screening at 7pm. Starting at midnight the same day, the film is available for online streaming for 24 hours. Details are here.

Coverage in New Jersey Stage: Cockroaches, Hidden Worlds, Dancing to Agatha Christie, and Forgotten Children are among Highlights of New Jersey Film Festival in September, by Gary Wien, New Jersey Stage, September 2, 2022
 
 

The 37th Annual New York April Fools’ Day Parade goes worldwide and kicks off early with a call to everyone to activate everywhere.

“MASK UP. HELP STOP THE SPREAD OF PUTIN!”

This year, New York’s beloved annual April Fools’ Day Parade, which pokes fun at outrageous displays of dishonesty, greed, hypocrisy, deceit, and bigotry, is going global. For the past 36 years, the public has been invited to create outrageous floats and dress up as look-alikes in colorful costumes to reflect the folly of duplicitous politicians, crooked corporate leaders, superficial celebrities, and whoever else has proven to be a total fool in the past year. The parade, which has always been a protest against war, corruption, propaganda and deceit, has marched down 5th Avenue from 57th Street to Washington Square Park for the crowning of the King of Fools.

This past year has provided no shortage of fools to choose from, but nothing can top the most egregious, corrupt, exploitive, vile and horrific actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The theme of the 2022 parade is “MASK UP. HELP STOP THE SPREAD OF PUTIN!” and we’re not waiting for Friday, April 1st, to start the parade. People everywhere are encouraged to activate IMMEDIATELY.

We stand with the people of Ukraine and with Russians who oppose Putin’s despotic aggression. To help make their voices heard, we’re offering these Putin masks to download, share, print, wear, and put in public places everywhere.

Individual masks and instructions for use are here.

Says Parade organizer Joey Skaggs, “Use your freedom to express yourself. Silence is consent.”

Former NRA President David Keene, and gun rights activist John Lott neglected to do their own background checks when they were invited to speak at the graduation ceremony of a non-existent high school in Las Vegas.

A Parkland Victim’s Dad Tricked A Former NRA President Into Speaking At A Fake Graduation, by Amber Jamieson, Buzzfeed News, June 23, 2021

Instead, the 3,044 empty seats represented the students who did not graduate this year because they were killed by gun violence.

In a speech to the James Madison Academy 2021 graduating class, David Keene, a former NRA president and current board member of the gun rights group, called on the teens to fight those looking to implement tighter gun restrictions.

“I’d be willing to bet that many of you will be among those who stand up and prevent those from proceeding,” he said, to a Las Vegas stadium of thousands of socially distanced chairs on June 4.

“An overwhelming majority of you will go on to college, while others may decide their dream dictates a different route to success,” said Keene. “My advice to you is simple enough: follow your dream and make it a reality.”

In a speech to the James Madison Academy 2021 graduating class, David Keene, a former NRA president and current board member of the gun rights group, called on the teens to fight those looking to implement tighter gun restrictions.

“I’d be willing to bet that many of you will be among those who stand up and prevent those from proceeding,” he said, to a Las Vegas stadium of thousands of socially distanced chairs on June 4.

“An overwhelming majority of you will go on to college, while others may decide their dream dictates a different route to success,” said Keene. “My advice to you is simple enough: follow your dream and make it a reality.”

The full article and more videos are here, complete with former NRA President David Keene’s, author and gun rights activist John Lott’s self-righteous perspective on the prank.

“Are there more naked women than women artists in museums?”
The Male Graze

ACTIVISM: Does art imitate life or life imitate art?, by Anne Douglas, Morning Star Online, June 25, 2021

That’s the question posed by no-holds-barred activists The Guerrilla Girls in their latest assault on male behaviour in the arts

Pic credit: Rob Melen, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea

GUERRILLA GIRLS, the anonymous group of US feminist female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world, are bringing their unique form of “culture jamming” to billboard displays across Britain.

They formed in New York City in 1985 with the mission of highlighting gender and racial inequality in the visual arts community and, to remain anonymous, members don gorilla masks and use pseudonyms referencing deceased female artists.

Their latest project involves large-scale billboards across Britain in iconic locations from Glasgow Barrowlands to London Bridge, countryside locations and seaside towns until July 18.

They are part of The Male Graze which explores bad male behaviour through the lens of art history.

“What art historians call the male gaze, the masculine, heterosexual perspective in European and American art, mostly by white men, that depicts women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer, we call The Male Graze,” The Guerrilla Girls said.

“Lots of women are naked in post-colonial Western art. Some are idle: sleeping, splayed out on beds and couches, lounging around with their friends, bathing and maybe even dancing.

“When active, there is usually a sexual element present — voyeurism, seduction, harassment, assault, rape and sometimes murder.

Read the full article here.

The New York April Fools’ Committee Is Proud to Announce:
NEW YORK CITY’S 36th ANNUAL APRIL FOOLS’ DAY PARADE

New York’s irreverent April Fools’ Day Parade, poking fun at the past year’s displays of hype, hypocrisy, deceit, bigotry, and downright stupidity, is back for the 36th year!

The public is invited to create outrageous floats and dress up as look-alikes in colorful costumes to reflect the folly of the nuttiest politicians, crooked corporate leaders, silly celebrities, and whoever else has proved to be a total fool in the past year.

Floats should be no wider than 10’ and no longer than 30’. They can be self-propelled, towed, pushed or pulled. Customized bicycles, tricycles, baby carriages and helium balloons are welcome. The Parade Committee assumes no liability for damage caused by satire.

The theme of the parade this year is “DENY, DENY, LIE, LIE!” The parade’s Grand Marshall is Texas Senator Ted Cruz in a sombrero dragging a rolling suitcase. He’ll be followed by the QAnon Marching Band singing the Village People’s “Macho Man.” Color commentary will be provided by former Fox News commentator Lou Dobbs. Security will be provided by the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who will be standing back and standing by.

The parade will lead off with Donald Trump Jr. driving a Trump 2024 Campaign Bus. Anyone voicing opposition to his dad’s claims of voter fraud will be promptly thrown under the bus. Next up is the Georgia Republican Election Officials Float waving 11,780 Biden votes they’ve miraculously found for Trump. This will be followed by a float with a Scale Model of Mount Rushmore with Trump’s Face Added, an Exhibition of Displaced Confederate Statues, and a Shipping Container brimming with Stolen Podiums, Flags, Computers, Important Papers, and Cell Phones from the January 6 Capitol Insurrection. All of these and some Spin Art attached to a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) on the Mobile Ethereum Mining Float will be auctioned by Christie’s to help fund next year’s event (Cryptocurrency only).

Visit http://aprilfoolsdayparade.com for more details.

A new bold and evocative public work of art from Banksy

Banksy Scaled the Prison That Once Jailed Oscar Wilde to Paint His Latest Mural, by Sarah Rose Sharp, Hyperalleric.com, March 5, 2021

Banksy confirmed the artwork in a clever video stitched together with a Bob Ross tutorial.

Blockbuster street artist Banksy has laid claim to his latest work of public art — an olde tyme prison escape stenciled on the wall of the defunct HM Reading Prison in Reading, Berkshire, England. The prison, also known as Reading Gaol, was built in 1844 and operated until early 2014. Until this week, it was perhaps most famous for housing writer Oscar Wilde during a two-year imprisonment (1895-1897) after a conviction for “gross indecency.” Following his release, Wilde published The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a poem that narrates the 1896 hanging of Charles Thomas Woodridge, convicted of murdering his wife.

The Banksy mural features a figure in prison stripes and a cap. He appears to be climbing down the exterior brick wall on a rope ladder instead of a ream of paper, anchored by a typewriter. The image is likely an allusion to Wilde as Reading’s famous inmate and his subsequent poetic work that both documents Woodridge’s hanging while also identifying with him as a fellow prisoner.

Watch the Instagram video:

The artist left his work open to speculation for a few days before taking to Instagram with a video documenting the mural’s clandestine application, with narration supplemented by overlay from Bob Ross’s famous public access painting program, The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. The audio selections first seem to merely narrate the creation of the mural, details of which are captured in the tight halo of the artist’s headlamp, but once we cut to shots of the mural in full view the following day, the audio clips telegraph the artist’s statement on the work. Read the whole article here.

He’s the life of the party now..

Sen. Ted Cruz Piñatas Created at Dallas Party Store, by Holley Ford, nbcdfw.com, February 22, 2021

First. it was former President Donald Trump, then U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Now, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has his own piñata courtesy of a Dallas party store.

Last week, Cruz sparked widespread outrage for flying from Houston to Cancun, Mexico for a family vacation as millions of his fellow Texans endured historically low temperatures, widespread power outages and water losses. Read the whole article here.

Who is Joey Skaggs?

Find out more as the New Jersey Film Festival screens the first four oral histories in the new series, Joey Skaggs Satire and Art Activism, 1960s to the Present and Beyond this Friday, February 12, 2021.

The screening is virtual and is available for streaming anywhere (not just in New Jersey) for 24 hours as of 12:01 am. From the moment you begin watching, you have 24 hours to finish it.

Teaser trailer