Holy shit: Signs of Change is here!
It’s here! We thought this day would never come, but Signs of Change, the stunning visual archive of over five decades of social movement art edited by Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee (in association with NYC’s Exit Art gallery) has arrived, and it looks phenomenal. Worth the wait, if we do say so ourselves.
As some of you may know, during the final stages of completing Signs of Change, editor and friend Dara Greenwald was diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer. After multiple surgeries and treatments, Dara is on the road to recovery, but she’s still not out of danger, and she’s unable to work to support herself. With Josh serving has her primary caregiver, his availability to work is also severely limited. We need your help to support our friends during this difficult time! AK Press will donate the profits from all sales of the book on our website or at AK Press tables in the month of November, directly to Dara’s health fund. Don’t delay—order your copy today! (And, be sure to check out http://www.healdarag.org, to find out about other ways you can help support Dara and Josh.)
More about Signs of Change!
Drawn from an exhibition at Exit Art, a cultural center in New York City, Signs of Change is a visual archive of more than 350 posters, prints, photographs, films, videos, music, and ephemera from more than twenty-five nations. Surveying the creative work of dozens of international social movements, from the do-it-yourself graphics and media of the 1960s to today’s instantaneous digital technologies, it investigates the themes and representations of global struggles for equality, democracy, freedom, and basic human rights. This groundbreaking work illustrates the extraordinary aesthetic range of radical movements during the past fifty years and explores the rise of powerful countercultures that evolve beyond traditional politics, creating distinct forms of art, lifestyles, and social organizations. 178 pages of full-color illustrations!
Praise for Signs of Change!
“If you care about social change, this may well be the most important ‘art history’ book that you will ever read.” —The Yes Men, art activists
“Signs of Change evokes the form and fury of political movements as they imagined themselves in print, on posters, and in the midst of struggles throughout the world. It is a beautiful and timely book that will nourish the social and visual imagination for years to come.”—Paul Chan, artist
“Signs of Change took my breath away, tightened my chest, and made me understand just how much more work lay ahead of us. It’s a powerful inspiration.” —Swoon, artist
“Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now miraculously manages to do justice to both aesthetics of movements and the politics that motivate such ccreation. An impressive—and important—book.”—Stephen Duncomb
“Encyclopedic in scope and deeply moving in content…”—Nato Thompson, Curator, Creative Time, NYC
“Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee’s Signs of Change exhibition at Exit Art was—bar none—the most exciting New York exhibition for 2008. Signs of Change is moving, rich, timely, and challenging. In this troubled yet hopeful moment where Americans are taking stock of who we are, where we have been, and where we are going, Signs of Change could not be more powerful or more relevant.”—Trevor Paglen, Artist and Writer