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Words: HL & The ove Movement
YO!
‘We the people’ are alienated by the absurdity of authority while honesty and simplicity get lost in the ashes of illusion. We know it. We can’t change it. This can be some seriously dick deflating news in moments when the news always seems brutal. In 1990, the Hip Hop duo of Eric B. and Rakim asked the question “Yo! What Happened To Peace?” , in their acclaimed song Paid In Full. Twelve years later Los Angeles based artist and curator, John Carr asked the same question and took some initiative in communicating his sense of civil responsibility. John decided to use his unalienable rights as a U.S. citizen and make a stand against the violence. He contacted some of the most exciting artists attached to various cultural or political movements and proposed an anti-war and pro-peace art show dubbed “Yo! What Happened To Peace?”.
Back in 2002, the first Yo! show started with 14 artists spreading the message of non-violence on handcrafted prints using stencils, silkscreens, letterpress, block print, and lithograph. There is no coincidence that poster (from activists to advertisers to the promotion of any sort of party propaganda) have long been successful at reaching people as they go about their personal whatever. Nor is it coincidence that Carr himself is a prolific screen printer. Yo! What Happened to Peace, was a call to artists to articulate something other than the consensual myths of mass media in terrifying times. The response was strong and the collection and various interpretations of this somehow rhetorical question continue to grow as the War on Terror continues to terrify. Since the Iraq War has carried on and grown almost miraculously uglier and uglier since its start in 2002, so has “Yo! What Happened To Peace?”, which has been exhibited all over the free world in galleries and museums in places such as Tokyo, San Francisco, New York, Milan, Rejkyavik, Washington D.C., Boston, Chicago, Rome, Brussels, Los Angeles, and London. This collection has grown from 14 posters to over 250 posters from over 150 artists from all over the world including Ames Bros., Chaz Bojorquez,
Robbie Conal, 3D, Eric Drooker, Emek, Shepard Fairey/OBEY, Karen Fiorito, Doze Green, David Ellis, Edward Culver, Firehouse, Brandy Flower, Forkscrew Graphics, Futura, Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca, JK5, Kayrock & Wolfy, Josh MacPhee, Mear One, Favianna Rodriguez, Seripop, Yuri Shimojo, Winston Smith, Seth Tobocman, Mark Vallen, Voodoo Catbox, Cody Hudson, The Love Movement and John Carr. As a show, this collection has appeared in museums and galleries, fashion stores and book shops. While much of the art is top grade, this isn’t the point. The point is for the art to engage a broad audience. If there were a shared political conviction in there, it may be the action itself, the fact that more and more artists are interested in supporting this project and putting the question out there. As the White House awaits the next cowboy to cum in the saddle, the Yo!Show will have a lot of work ahead of them, employing art to instigate dialogue and seeing if it can have a political impact. Visit yowhathappenedtopeace.org for more info on the Yo!Show, Books, and Submission Policy. Check out lovemovement.com for a well played Yo! T-shirt.
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Is this question rhetorical? Is the question important? Are answers realistic expectations? Has there ever been peace?
For all our technology, human civilizations remain as savage as ever … idealism to materialism to media-lism, and the circle of blade saws keeps spinning into the sand. Today, as Wolfgang Schirmacher points out, ‘the barbarians are wearing Mickey Mouse smiles. Governments and story spinners make exception the rule and fear the flavor of day.
YO!
What Happened to Peace?
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YO!