#temporary services

Fanzine Friday #17: Public Phenomena: Informal Modifications of Shared Spaces (2010) by Temporary Services

Temporary Services is a Chicago-based group that takes "an active interest in the vernacular culture found in publicly trafficked space." This particular issue focuses on roadside memorials; parking place savers for shoveled spots; block club signs in the West and South sides of Chicago; and homemade basketball hoops. It also features a photo of a truck in a tree in Beloit, Wisconsin, erected for reasons unknown.

For more information on Temporary Services and their projects, visit their website at https://temporaryservices.org/served/.

We are sad to share that our friend Jean Toche, co-founder of Guerilla Art Action Group (GAAG), was found dead on July 9th. Marc has written a letter that we include below.

— Temporary Services (Brett Bloom & Marc Fischer)

Marc wrote:

Earlier this afternoon I received an email from Jon Hendricks that Jean Toche has died. Toche was found in his bed at home in Staten Island by police today. Foul play is not expected to be the cause. 

Toche, along with Jon Hendricks, Poppy Johnson, Silvianna, Joanne Stamerra, and his late wife Virginia Toche, was a member of Guerrilla Art Action Group. The group's primary years of work were between 1969-1979, but much of their activity happened between 1969 and 1971. Temporary Services, along with our friend Stephen Perkins, reached out to Jean in 2008 and interviewed him for a lengthy booklet. You can download a free PDF of it in a link below. 

Jean was a delight. He had done few if any interviews in many years and the invitation was obviously meaningful to him. He insisted on answering our questions through the mail and treated the pages like a performance space. He was extra happy with the booklet we made and shared copies with friends all over the world. 

Brett from Temporary Services was able to visit Jean at his home soon after we printed the publication and later I was able to make the same visit with Alan W. Moore. Jean was an extremely generous host, plying us with champagne and rich cheeses and paté in his garden. The garden was a great source of pride for him and he showed us before and after photos of what the yard looked like when he and Virginia moved in many years before. 

Our friendship continued for years after the booklet and Jean constantly sent us hilarious inflammatory letters about whatever was happening in the world that pissed him off on any given day. He wrote countless letters to the editors of various papers—the New York Times in particular—and CC'd Temporary Services and others by sending photocopies. At some point he stopped using envelopes and wrote his outrageous messages on postcards. There was at least one letter that was sealed with nothing in it, and Jean's entire text scrawled on the back of the envelope. 

Jean Toche never stopped fighting. He enraged his neighbors with his political views. His told me his cat was threatened at one point. He used his voice mail as a medium and would regularly change the message—often recording calls for action so violent and absurd that I'm not going to repeat them. I suspect he was always home whenever I called but let the call go to voice mail just so the caller would have to hear his message. 

Well into his 80s, he never stopped paying attention to the world around him. He made a nude photo and text piece at one point expressing solidarity with Pussy Riot. He loved to antagonize the art world in his mailings and if there was a bridge that went from Chelsea to Staten Island, I'm sure he would have tried to burn it. At some point I became a lousy penpal and in 2016 the mailings from Jean fell off. It was hard to keep up with him but I should have done a better job. 

Guerrilla Art Action Group's work is very important and should be more well known than it is. The primary book on their work, published by Printed Matter, was reprinted a while back and I'm glad Jean got to see that happen in his lifetime. It's still available and well worth seeking out. 

Congratulations to Andrea Steves on the successful completion of her Public Collectors Joong Boo Residency!

Andrea is one half of the group Fictilis, based in Oakland, California. Fictilis organized the much-discussed and debated Museum of Capitalism exhibition that is currently on view in Oakland, and includes the work of Temporary Services (the group I'm a member of with Brett Bloom).

I first met Andrea and her collaborator Timothy Furstnau in San Francisco several years ago when Temporary Services showed our publications at The Lab. Andrea and Tim were volunteering there and we became fast friends. Several years later, they invited Temporary Services to be part of their ambitious new museum project and we excitedly agreed.

Andrea is in town this weekend for a conference and I was glad that she could sneak away long enough for a residency. She requested that we make a visit to Swap-O-Rama (a massive flea market in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood) so our day began with a scenic drive south down Kedzie Avenue until we eventually wound our way over to Swap.

Swap-O-Rama has been described by one Yelp reviewer as "Capitalism's cold rock bottom" so it felt a little extra necessary for an organizer of the Museum of Capitalism to see this. From my perspective, this was not the most interesting trip to Swap, in that I didn't find anything super exciting except one sweet cheese pastry. Still, the market was bustling and all of its usual features were in evidence, from the people selling cans of "Oops" paint, to the many repackaged electronic items that looked to have been rescued from Best Buy dumpsters. There were also many of the typical vendors that were selling barely unpacked boxes pulled from storage unit auctions. I had assured Andrea that she might be able to have her photo taken atop a Mini Pony but there was no Mini Pony. That's probably a good thing from the Mini Pony's perspective.

We did see some of the also promised pirated merchandise that Swap is reliable for. I was hoping for the "Sharkie" brand knock off Sharpie markers that I bought there once. We couldn't find those, but we did find a different type of fake Sharpie. We also found really bad bootleg Teletubbies jigsaw puzzles and Andrea picked up one of those.

After a couple hours of baking in the sun, looking at thousands of objects and touring the claustrophobic indoor section of Swap, we headed back north to Joong Boo Market. The parking lot was chaotic as usual but the Snack Stand was surprisingly reasonable. We both ordered the Sashimi Salad (a favorite selection of many residents - probably because I recommend it so strongly) and it was extra good today with more fresh fish bites than usual.

Our conversation spread out over the course of about four hours from the time we got into the car to the time we left Joong Boo. We talked about the reception the Museum of Capitalism has been getting, we talked a lot about making books and collaborating with designers and publishers, we talked about the rapidly changing housing situations in Chicago and Oakland, and of course we talked about food. You can't have a Joong Boo Residency and not discuss food. Andrea also asked me about the whole Whitney Biennial experience (Public Collectors was included in the 2014 iteration of that show) so I told her all about that. I still have a ton of great feelings about that experience and project so I'm always happy to discuss it.

After finishing all of our food, we took a very fast look at the rest of the market but honestly, after Swap, it's kind of hard to look at much else. Our eyeballs were full! Andrea got a couple food items for later and I grabbed a can of ice coffee and some Matcha flavored Kit Kats (yes, this is a thing), and we headed off.

Center spread illustration by Ruby T from At Work with Thomas Kong by Dan Miller. [Purchase] $8.00

New from Temporary Services. Our 117th publication!

At Work with Thomas Kong by Dan Miller, with illustrations by Ruby T

[Purchase] $8.00

Thomas Kong makes collages and assemblages out of advertising, packaging, and other surplus material while managing Kim’s Corner Food, a convenience store in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood.