#HowlAtHome Activity #5: Poster Art for Pride

I was honored to be asked by Katherine Cheairs at Howl Arts to contribute my take on poster art and suggest a Pride poster-making activity as part of their #HowlAtHome initiative. I thought about my favorite ideas regarding posters. Scooter and I were at Van’s house, after not being there for a few months, and we made some posters with acrylic paints and poster board. We talked a lot about vintage gay protest posters from the 70s. Above, you see Van and I holding posters we came up with. I painted LGBTQIA_ 🎉?+ (Scooter mentioned the “party hat” emoji represents drag artists) and Trans Lives Matter: Nina Pop, Scooter painted I Am a Faggot and Faggots Are Fantastic and Stop Bugging Gays, and Van painted Love Power, which ended up being the cover of the initiative. As howlarts.org puts it:

Creative Art Activities in a Time of Social Isolation Poster Art for Pride with Jorge Clar

We’re putting together arts activities inspired by our signature Vega Arts Workshop Series. Anyone can do it! No background in art-making is necessary to complete these activities using simple, low-cost materials found in your home, or easily acquired at essential services locations as well as online retailers. A new activity will be shared every two weeks.

#HowlAtHome celebrates PRIDE through the power of posters. Though we might not be able to gather together for this year’s pride march as we’ve done in the past, we can still show our support, excitement, and solidarity through Poster Art. We are excited to have our beloved, Jorge Clar, share with us his passion for the power of posters.

The modern poster took off in the 19th century when the printing industry perfected color lithography and mass production. Author Roger Marx, in his book ‘Masters of the Poster’, said the proliferation of placards on the streets of Paris turned them into “the poor man’s picture gallery.” Advertising products and services, the commercial success of poster art led fine artists like Jules Chéret—“the father of the modern poster”—, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Pablo Picasso to explore the format. In the 1960s, there was a resurgence in the popularity of posters with the rise of Pop Art and protest movements. Personally, I am a big fan of Swiss posters from the 1960s and 1970s, specifically those designed by Josef Müller Brockmann, who made bold graphic statements using the Akzidenz-Grotesk typeface, which was also an integral part of New York City subway signage during the 1970s. I also love Bauhaus posters, especially the ones by László Moholy-Nagy, a Hungarian painter who taught at the school, which show a masterful balance of line and color. As a young child, I was fascinated by street posters, and velvet posters with images in fluorescent color. When Puerto Rican beauty queen Marisol Malaret won the Miss Universe contest in 1970, my uncle gave me a handful of posters with her likeness wearing a tiara. I was so excited I climbed the mango tree in my backyard and hurled the posters into the air, hoping they would fly. My uncle, who was gay, would plaster posters of Raquel Welch in a bikini and Charles Bronson barechested in his den, and I was fascinated by these images. —Jorge Clar

Tag photos of your artworks on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook with #howlathome and #howlhappening to share your creations with us and connect to everyone who Howls at Home! Please email an image of your final project to Katherine Cheairs, Howl education director, at [email protected].

Activity #5—Poster Art for Pride

For this activity, think of what a poster can do to help celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride. Conjure a symbol of queer pride; think of what being a part of this spectrum means to you. Posters throughout history have been crucial in the spreading of ideas. Using simple graphic elements, one can make a statement that can be seen from a distance—across a room, displayed on a window, or carried outside, depending on the circumstances. Ideas for your poster can include notable figures of gay liberation or a statement related to your own experience.

Pro Tips: As part of my artistic practice, I do performances that incorporate line drawings, which in turn include words. These elements informed my choices for these poster designs. I used tempera paint and a one-inch wide paint brush in creating the posters. These were done on poster boards which are readily available at drugstores. You can use brown craft paper, upcycled cardboard boxes…any rigid surface of your choice. Your recycling bin is a great resource! Depending on the surface, you can decide whether to use markers or paint. If using markers, I recommend Japanese Posca wide-tip paint markers which you can get online, or chisel-tip Sharpie markers, available at most drugstores. I have included a short instructional video on how to do simple hand-lettering with either a brush and tempera or chisel-tip marker.  —Jorge Clar

«DIVAN» (A Spotify playlist)

On day 22 of 2020, from a portal: 134 Mount Tabor Way.

Through the doorways, I see and feel. The atmosphere now exactly as it was when the house was built…dream of the XIX century. In stillness, I feel the vibrant hum of the physical.

And so, lying down on this «Divan», ever rightfully in place: Internal-external editor, celebrating the nature of relationship.

Here are 45 minutes of music by Hidrogenesse musicalizing twin-soul Catalan writer María Dolores de la Fe’s mid-70s television appearance where she explains Christopher Columbus is a woman, Pet Shop Boys, Tears for Fears, Lene Lovich, Silvetti, Orlando Riva Sound, Patrick Cowley, The Human League, Blondie, Cerrone, and Kraftwerk.

In this photo, I am reclining on Van’s Directoire settee wearing a Liz Claiborne dress gifted by BrightHeart of the Mountain.

«PRISMATIC» Spotify Playlist

As an homage to my recent Prismatic performance, HERE is a playlist of 23 songs that journey from the external world—with its passions and drama—to the inside world of a spiritual forest of repose and beyond.

Prismatic, the performance, was presented within the context of Kelly Bugden + Van Wifvat’s Prism show, shown at the Ivy Brown Gallery during the summer of 2018.

For this playlist, I selected songs that would allude to the journeys of both artists, from the Rock-it gallery in Minneapolis—which was founded and run by Van from 1979 to 1982, and was a meeting place for the Minneapolis art tribe that migrated to the East Village in the early 80s—to the B-52s, with whom Kelly would travel with and photograph.

I also wanted to incorporate songs from the classic East Village scene, and also allude to the cowbell, which has a similar sound to the pipe I banged on towards the end of the performance.

I included David Bowie’s “Watch That Man,” which I only recently heard for the first time but means a lot to Van and Kelly, as well as an obscure song by the cult Italian disco group Macho, “Cose There’s Music In the Air,” produced by the legendary Mauro Malavasi. I love the chorus of the song: Where’s there’s action/There’s reaction….”

The Prismatic performance was meant to unleash healing energies into the world via the activating of a Portal. As the avatar of New York, the mission is complete, and great changes and healing are already in motion.

Hapi Phace and I visited the 14th Street Target on its opening week. He encouraged me to buy the t-shirt I’m wearing in the photo, along with Levi’s Engineered Jeans from the aughts, Keen yoga shoes, Sabine Be ‘be happy’ glasses outfitted by Artsee, Camino de Santiago bandanna which Tony Allicino gave me, and a serendipitous Prismatic tote bag by Cavallini & Company, which I found at Random Accessories on 4th Street. Hapi spotted the location near the Peach Mental Palace where he was staying and took the photos you see here.

A Bouquet of Gratitude

I remember sitting at my grandma Bessie’s balcony on one of her large mahogany rocking chairs as a 5-year-old, thumbing through Selecciones del Reader’s Digest and parochial newsletters.... Somewhere within I remember reading the phrase Ramillete espiritual...a spiritual bouquet.

I thought about this phrase on my way back from my friend Anna's wedding reception at Terrace on the Park. I was waiting for a car to head back into Manhattan with Kelli, Zoe, Maury, and Rachel, and then I realized I had forgotten my party favor box upstairs. I raced into the elevator and then the banquet hall, got the box, saw the bridal bouquet on a service cart next to some dishes, and rescued it.

The flowers on the bouquet, to me, represent thoughts of gratitude, the greatest magic of all.

I went to Van and Kelly’s studio and asked Van to take my picture in front of a mysterious lignum vitae plank we had found on Union Street in Red Hook, near Figleaf, one night. Lignum vitae is known as guayacán in Puerto Rico—one of the densest woods in existence—used to build galleons and for beams in Old San Juan houses.

The only thing left standing of my father’s childhood home in Sabana Hoyos, Arecibo, is a lignum vitae column…now hidden within the forest. The plank Van and I brought to the studio has 54 holes, which he filled with wooden “host” sculptures.

The night the photo was taken I was wearing Koos’ favorite jacket, and his wool pants—which he made for himself—Adidas Campus sneakers, Scooter portrait tee, and Blue necklace with Lemurian seeds from Amma’s bazaar.

Activating the Portal

For my recent Prismatic performance at the closing of the Kelly Bugden + Van Wifvat show Prism this past 15 August at Ivy Brown Gallery, events and objects aligned to facilitate the activation of a portal.

While being at the studio throughout the making of the pieces, I absorbed the energy of their fabrication—the soul infused into the resulting sculptures.

As the opening of the show neared, chopine bases as counterweights were being made for a sculpture comprising charred wood columns and a water gilt pole. I thought of the gold and black of Egyptian tombs—and the kernel of the performance emerged.

We planned to have the performance on the closing day of the show as a celebration.

Part of the allure of the Prism was the transformation of notions of functional objects into objects of art inhabiting a different area of functionality—both mental and oneiric.

As Rafael Sánchez and I were discussing one day, the one object that could be activated to go between the physical dimension and others is the Portal.

This conversation crystallized the performance for me; it would be a salute to spirit in three parts. Rule of Threes!

After my introductory call to an invisible friend and a salute to an imaginary catalpa tree, I walked past the Ladder towards the Portal holding papier-mâché branches—which Hapi Phace had made for the Karload of Klowns troupe I belong to—and an antique wagon wheel with eight spokes Van procured as a prop. I invoked the Buddhist levels of consciousness, represented by the spokes of the wheel: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mental, awareness, and all-encompassing foundation consciousness.

Then it was on to the Stage Set installation of the show, where I stood in front of its silhouettes of morphed building-shoes and recited poems about my love of New York buildings since childhood. Revealing the poet as an avatar, an age of wellness is ushered in.

From there I went to the altar-like installation of sculpted lambs with crystals and petit fours on the water gilt mirror. I sang an ícaro to the ancestors in Spanish and saluted all those present. I used a piece of pipe Van had found on Bond Street, near the Gene Frankel Theatre, as a cowbell.

For the performance, I wore a papier-mâché hat Joel Handorff made especially for the performance, ‘be happy’ frames by Sabine Be (outfitted by Artsee), military camo cape from Uncle Sam and vintage painter pants by Smith’s—both of which Scooter LaForge turned me on to—and Adidas Stan Smith sneakers hand-painted by Halla Moda/The Old Black.

Drag March

The Drag March from Tompkins Square Park to Stonewall Inn is always a highlight of Gay Pride Weekend. I am remembering how much fun was had last year, and so I’m sharing this snapshot of Van and me which Henry took.

We are standing near the Temperance Fountain, next to the playground. When I first moved to New York, in 1987, I would go late at night (or at lunchtime from work at The Strand) to the swings and listen to cassettes on Jesse’s Sony Walkman Sports.

My favorite tape was Bananarama’s Wow. If it was lunchtime, I would listen to John Robinson’s In the Mix on WBLS-FM.

What joy it gave me last year to play near where the swings were, but in a different way.

Jean-Antoine Watteau: After a Fashion

My dad would sometimes tell stories about World War II. He was stationed in Persia, and fortunately, the fighting never got there. Because he knew how to type, he worked as an assistant in a military office, and was in charge of figuring out how many supplies would fit in warehouses.

In a way, it was like 9 to 5 job in a faraway land, and during the evenings, he would hang out with many local friends he made. Dad always mentioned how much he loved Persian culture and food, and exalted the kindness of the locals.

I was speaking with Joel one day and he mentioned having a sudden epiphany: He thought my customary pose was like the one in a painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), and found the image in a book and showed it to me.

As things have a way of surfacing when they come to mind, The Frick Collection announced an exhibition titled Watteau’s Soldiers soon after. On the first week of August, Van, Joel and I went to see it.

Watteau is known mostly for his paintings of aristocracy and actors, and yet in the early years of his career he painted scenes of military life. Instead of focusing on battle moments, however, his interest was directed towards the quiet moments between the fighting, where the soldiers were in rest and reverie. They made me think of my dad’s experience during wartime.  

Many drawings that appear to be studies for some of the paintings on display were also on view, showing how Watteau would develop characters somewhat fully before including them on a painting.

The paintings in the show had a psychological richness because, unlike others of the time, characters were not arranged on the canvas incidentally, for the sake of visual composition. They were placed more in relation to the richness of their psychology, each one displaying a personality and uniqueness of behavior within the moment.

At the end of our visit, Van posed by a beautiful door in his Scooter bespoke Bambi t-shirt, which includes a sequined bird pin I had bought with my mom at H&M during the aughts, perfectly matched with a Walter Van Bierendonck/Ikea Glödande tote bag and bespoke knit hat by Van’s great niece Grace Dugan. Ann Demeulemeester pants and Adidas Stan Smith sneakers completed the look.

Van took a photo of Joel and I that reminded me of Watteau with its psychological depth. You see us expressing individuality within the group composition; women in the background look out the door into the distance. Joel was wearing one of his trademark Hawaiian tees. I’m was a Uniqlo Andy Warhol tee, necklace by Bubi, Anni Shades frames, Brooks Brothers seersucker pants and Toms espadrilles.