• About

Situationniste Blog

~ A Situationist Book Collector's Blog

Situationniste Blog

Monthly Archives: July 2020

Hip Survival Bulletin” and “From the Old Reality Comes the New” [1969]

21 Tuesday Jul 2020

Posted by elhajoui in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

[BLACK MASK / U.A.W.M.F.]. MOTHERFUCKERS. Hip Survival Bulletin and From the Old Reality Comes the New in Rat Subterranean News, vol. 2, no.1, March 14-21, [1969], p.8 and p. 20. New York: Rat Subterranean News, 1969. 20 p.; ill.; 28.5 x 42 cm.; ill. Wrappers with stock market chart.

Includes two Motherfucker pieces:

– “Hip Survival Bulletin”: “This one page report in the Rat giving late information on the takeover of the Straight Theater in San Francisco a la the U.A.W.M.F. action against the Fillmore in New York, notes on an affiliated Boston group, and a call for regular communication among ‘Hip Communities'”(Opposition: Black Mask, Ben Morea, & U.A.W.M.F., p.21). Reproduced in Kugelberg 84

– “From the Old Reality Comes the New”: “This illustrated statement by the two groups [Motherfuckers and International Werewolf Conspiracy] appeared in the Rat, describing and celebrating the new, activist-focused, communal reality” (Opposition: Black Mask, Ben Morea, & U.A.W.M.F., p.21). Reproduced in Kugelberg 85

2020-07-16 22.22.352020-07-16 23.27.012020-07-16 23.27.062020-07-16 22.22.51

Never (1969)

20 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by elhajoui in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

[BLACK MASK / U.A.W.M.F.]. MOTHERFUCKERS. Never in Rat: Subterranean News, May 2-8 1969, p.9. New York: Rat Subterranean News, 1969. 20 p.; ill.; 28.5 x 42 cm.; ill. Wrappers with a comic strip.

“This brief statement by the Motherfuckers employs’found art’ , in this instance, re-adapted panels from Marvel’s Hulk comics” (Opposition: Black Mask, Ben Morea, & U.A.W.M.F., p.22). Reproduced in Kugelberg 87.

2020-07-16 22.23.032020-07-16 22.24.05

 

Q. What is Culture? A. Shit [1968]

19 Sunday Jul 2020

Posted by elhajoui in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

KING MOB. Q. What is Culture? A. Shit. London: King Mob, n.d. [October 1968]. 3 sheets; 21 x 34 cm.; black ink on white and pink stock

“This booklet was published to coincide with King Mob’s antagonistic participation in the occupation at the L.S.E. It reflect on art school occupations and demonstrations such as that at Hornsey College of Art. It prefigured King Mob’s publication of the magazine Letter on Student Power. Using language derived from the revolutionary groups the Situationists and the Enrages of Paris in May 1968, as well as the Paris surrealists of the early 1920s, this publication continues King Mob’s espousal of a transcendence of art into the poetry of life: ‘art schools are part of an empty, meaningless culture of death which must be subverted and destroyed on every level…THE NEW ARTIST DOES NOT WRITE OR PAINT BUT CREATES DIRECTLY – THE NEW ARTIST PROTESTS'” (Tate Modern)

See below for pictures from both my copy and the Tate’s exhibit.

We locate a copy at the Tate, part of the King Mob collection.

2020-07-12 01.27.432020-07-12 01.28.082020-07-12 01.28.352020-07-12 01.28.482020-07-12 01.28.59IMG_1542IMG_1543IMG_1544

King Mob 2 1/2: Reich, Geronimo, Dada…[1969]

18 Saturday Jul 2020

Posted by elhajoui in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

KING MOB. King Mob 2 1/2. n.p. [London, United Kingdom]: King Mob, n.d. [ca. 1969]. 1 p.; ill.; 57 x 76 cm.; black and red ink on white stock

Perhaps the most famous of the King Mob posters. Text reads: “If You Don’t Believe In Lead You’re Already Dead” : Reich, Geronimo, Dada: American​ ​Revolutionaries With A ​Message for England. : Up Against The Wall Motherfucker. : “Your ​Civilization Represents Death. You Eat Dead Food. You Live Dead Lives. You Dig Dead Art. You Fuck Dead Women.” ; “We’re Looking For People Who Like To Draw.” ; King Mob No 2 1/2.”

We locate copies at Cornell and the New York Public Library, though the Tate also appears to own a copy (see here for the exhibition in which it was displayed, along with other posters from the Camden Poster Workshop)

b4854c4e598d3358b8373010bfde0dc7

Maybe if someone told these students about Dada they’d forget daddy. What is Dada? Ask your tutor [1968 or 1969]

17 Friday Jul 2020

Posted by elhajoui in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

[KING MOB]. Maybe if someone told these students about Dada they’d forget daddy. What is Dada? Ask your tutor. n.p. [London, United Kingdom]: The Black Cat Rides again, n.d. [1968 or 1969]. 1 p. (two-sided); 21 x 34 cm.; black ink on yellow stock

Another King Mob leaflet criticizing students in the aftermath of the occupation / sit-in of the London School of Economics . “Ignorance is the main characteristic of the english student. He doesn’t even know he’s worse off than his comrades in Germany & France. Jesus who else would put up with such humiliation and bullshit” What follows is a “revised history of the L.S.E week. We do not claim these events, we claim to situate them. They have beenselected from the back pages of newspapers whose front pages were replete with the activities of responsible agitation”

As we do not locate other copies on OCLC, we would appreciate any further input on this document from our readers.

2020-07-11 23.43.082020-07-11 23.42.58

Luddites: ’69 [1969]

16 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by elhajoui in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

KING MOB. Luddites:’69: our leaders tell us we must support them in their passive struggle against the bosses. n.p. [London, United Kingdom]: King Mob, n.d. [1969]. Broadside; ill.; 77 x 51 cm (folded).; silk screened poster. Black and red ink on yellow stock

Printed at the Poster Workshop in London. “[King Mob] publications often took the form of détourné pop-cultural images, such as the poster Luddites 69, in which Andy Capp, the stereotypical northern working-class cartoon character, shoots policemen, below a text reproduced from a nineteenth-century Luddite broadside: ‘I ham going to informe you that theers six thousand me cuming to you sooon and then we will goe and blow up all about hus, labring peple cant stand it no longer…’ Elsewhere, The Beano’s Bash Street Kids rag their teacher, who asks: ‘What do you demand in pitting the power of everyday life against hierarchical power?’ ‘Simple,’ respond the kids, ‘we demand everything, teacher!’” (Tate Museum)

We located copies at the Tate Museum (King Mob collection) and at Yale’s Beinecke Library.

2020-07-11 23.08.24

[Cartoons] The Following are a Collection of the Cartoons…[1968]

15 Wednesday Jul 2020

Posted by elhajoui in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

KING MOB. [Cartoons]  The Following are a Collection of the Cartoons Which Were Rejected by the Committee of Public Safety……n.p. [London, United Kingdom]: King Mod / Black Hand Gang, n.d. [1968]. n.p. [8 stapled loose sheets]; ill.; 21 x 34 cm.; black ink on white stock

Posters produced by King Mob / Richard “Irish” Bell during the London School of Economics student occupation of 1968. However, “the cartoons were rejected by the Committee of Public Safety who patrolled the L.S.E. A stage managed repetition of the French ‘May’ posters – largely irrelevant to the English situation – were preferred…Posters were furtively taken down by the security guards – guards not only of a worthless property (the L.S.E. mausoleum) but a worthless morality too”. King Mob continues its critique of the L.S.E. occupation: “The L.S.E., like all other ‘English’ occupations so far, was a mere introjection of the bourgeois order. Who do we want: all the shit of the bourgeois society????? COMRADES, STOP BUGGERING ABOUT”

In presenting the posters in King Mob: A Critical Hidden History, David Wise writes: “There follows what was soon to be regarded as sexist and crude by the first wave of nice, refined feminists who alarmingly quickly dismissed King Mob in a simplistic way as male chauvinist. Had they never been in a public urinal (?) to find this is the type of stuff which goes down – often more in women’s toilets than men’s – though of most this now in our cleansed day and age is instantly wiped clean by hired firms of graffiti busters. These cartoons were of course a detournement of bog-wall style and deployed precisely for shock value in reaction to a fairly dire occupation at the London School of Economics, heavily manipulated by the paid-up intellectuals of the New Left Review … ” (p. 223)

We locate a copy at the Tate, part of the King Mob collection

2020-07-11 17.30.382020-07-11 17.30.542020-07-11 17.31.112020-07-11 17.31.242020-07-11 17.31.402020-07-11 17.31.512020-07-11 17.32.132020-07-11 17.32.342020-07-11 17.32.41

The Death of Art Spells the Murder of Artists. The Real Anti-Artists Appear [1968]

14 Tuesday Jul 2020

Posted by elhajoui in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

KING MOB. The Death of Art Spells the Murder of Artists. The Real Anti-Artists Appear. n.p. [London, United Kingdom]: King Mob / The Black Hand Gang, n.d. [1968]. 1 p.; ill.; 21 x 34 cm.; black ink on pink stock.

2020-07-11 16.42.08

Violent anti-art leaflet calling for the imitation of Valerie Solanas’ shooting of Andy Warhol, followed by a list of potential targets- Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Mike Kustow, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Mary Quant, Twiggy Shrimpton, Miles, Marianne Faithful. The names of Andy Warhol and Mario Amaya are crossed out, as both had both been shot by Solanas (Warhol was severely wounded in the attack)

“Gradually, the attack on art acquired a quasi-terrorist edge later highlighted in the leaflet celebrating Valerie Solanas’ attempted offing of Andy Warhol in New York. A leaflet was rapidly produced entitled, ‘The death of art spells the murder of artists. The real anti-artist appears.‘ which rounded off with a death list of mainly English artists playing on and detourning the Bob Dylan lyric; ‘so don’t think twice, it’s alright.’ Again, though our leaflet said little or nothing about this and despite having this leaflet to hand, an intervention was done without sufficient explanation, though for sure it helped promote our terrifying image but not much else. A band of King Mob adherents with masks covering their heads and faces burst into a meeting of students occupying Hornsey College of Art, in north London and showered the gathering with leaflets. Insults were traded, ‘fucking art students without an idea’ and inevitably the protagonists were thrown out. To be sure, the level of action and discussion among Hornsey students was fairly abysmal – even stupid – but perhaps there were better ways of getting something essential across rather than exclusively utilizing threatening images. Well, maybe because nonetheless a tiny minority of these art students did pick something up from the King Mob, Valerie Solanas leaflet even though we weren’t aware at the time. Our mock death threats had however been building up over the previous months…Finally it must be emphasised that these death threats were nothing more than aggressive image making tactics to purposefully inspire fear as none of us entertained the slightest intentions of offing artists; we merely wanted to encourage them on their way, pushing them towards the self-destruction of their own artistic roles” (David and Stuart Wise, King Mob: A Hidden Critical History, pp. 79-80)

We locate a copy at the Tate as part of the King Mob archive

Boredometer of the Rise and Fall of the New Proletarian Poverty, Figuring Lancaster Student Occupation [1970s]

13 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by elhajoui in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

[KING MOB / Ron Hunt?]. Boredometer of the Rise and Fall of the New Proletarian Poverty, Figuring Lancaster Student Occupation. n.p. [United Kingdom]: n.p., n.d. [1970s]. 1 p.; ill.; 42 x 59 cm.; black ink on white stock

Little is known about this spectacularly visual poster. It offer a critical commentary on the Lancaster Student Occupation, which allows us to date it back to the early 1970s. This situ-style detournement of “Bash Street” comics suggests it could have been produced by Ron Hunt or members of King Mob (the language is very similar to the Bash Street Kids to go the Sit-in leaflet, which we posted about early this week) but we are not altogether certain). Readers with more information should contact us

“The occupation was very feeble qualitatively. Imagination was at a low bar. ‘Politics’ was in charge. People sat on their arses listening to people talking (a la J.C.R or seminar group or lecture) rather than extending themselves as far as the creative social imagination could reach; thus a good opportunity for a collective celebration was lost due to basically sexual timidity and deferential respect for property and persons, two major blocks to the realisation of the human imagination in life”

We do no locate copies on OCLC or in the trade

2020-07-11 16.30.392020-07-11 16.30.51

2020-07-11 16.30.56

It Was Meant To Be Great But It’s Horrible” Confessions: S. Claus 1968 [1968]

12 Sunday Jul 2020

Posted by elhajoui in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

[KING MOB]. It Was Meant To Be Great But It’s Horrible” Confessions: S. Claus 1968 . n.p. [London, United Kingdom]: n.p. [King Mob], n.d. [Dec. 1968]. 1 p. (two-sided); 21 x 34 cm.; black ink on white stock. 1 p.; ill.; 21 x 34 cm.; black ink on white stock

Description below courtesy of bookseller Andrew Sclanders at beatbooks. See here. I could not have written a better description of this item.

2020-07-11 16.05.56

“Written by Dave Wise and Ian and Diana Clegg, and distributed to shoppers in Oxford Street by King Mob during their anti-consumer intervention at Selfridges department store in December 1968. Text, with Christmas decorative illustrations designed by Dave Wise.

A King Mob contingent (including Fred Vermorel and Malcolm McLaren) visited Selfridges during Christmas 1968 and, with an amphetamine-fueled Ben Trueman dressed as Santa Claus, proceeded to give away free gifts to children. After the police were called, ‘Santa’ was arrested and the kids were made to give their presents back.

The texts reads [in part]: “It’s lights out on Oxford Street this year. No more midnight neon. No more conspicuous glitter for compulsive sightseers to gawp at the wonders of capitalism…You don’t deserve Christmas this year. You haven’t worked hard enough. You haven’t trotted fast enough through the in-put, out-put, clock-on, clock-off, the vicious circle of production and consumption. Save and spend, screw yourselves into the ground in preparation for the one time in the year when you’re allowed to let go, feast yourselves, overreach yourselves in a frenzied effort to enjoy – and spew it up afterwards”.

McLaren, who incorporated King Mob’s ideas into his promotion of the Sex Pistols (he based his ragged handwritten ‘Anarchy in the UK Christmas Day’ flyer for their Christmas 1977 concert in Huddersfield on this broadside), later mythologized the event in his 1991 film, ‘Ghosts of Christmas Past’ (Beatbooks)

See David Wise – King Mob: A critical Hidden History, p. 232

We locate a copy at the Tate (part of the King Mob collection) and another one at Yale.

← Older posts

Past entries

  • January 2023 (3)
  • November 2022 (3)
  • October 2022 (3)
  • September 2022 (2)
  • July 2022 (1)
  • June 2022 (1)
  • May 2022 (5)
  • February 2022 (6)
  • January 2022 (3)
  • December 2021 (3)
  • November 2021 (4)
  • October 2021 (12)
  • August 2021 (1)
  • July 2021 (8)
  • February 2021 (4)
  • January 2021 (2)
  • December 2020 (8)
  • November 2020 (2)
  • October 2020 (3)
  • September 2020 (5)
  • July 2020 (15)
  • June 2020 (3)
  • May 2020 (3)
  • April 2020 (1)
  • February 2020 (3)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • November 2019 (2)
  • October 2019 (3)
  • September 2019 (3)
  • August 2019 (1)
  • July 2019 (9)
  • June 2019 (14)
  • April 2019 (10)
  • March 2019 (5)
  • December 2018 (5)
  • November 2018 (8)
  • October 2018 (1)
  • September 2018 (7)
  • August 2018 (1)
  • July 2018 (8)
  • June 2018 (9)
  • April 2018 (2)
  • March 2018 (5)
  • February 2018 (6)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • December 2017 (1)
  • November 2017 (1)
  • May 2017 (1)
  • March 2017 (6)
  • January 2017 (2)
  • August 2016 (10)
  • July 2016 (4)
  • May 2016 (1)
  • April 2016 (5)
  • March 2016 (3)
  • February 2016 (7)
  • January 2016 (12)
  • December 2015 (10)
  • November 2015 (2)
  • October 2015 (2)
  • September 2015 (5)
  • August 2015 (6)
  • July 2015 (1)
  • June 2015 (11)
  • May 2015 (4)
  • April 2015 (8)
  • March 2015 (3)
  • February 2015 (2)
  • January 2015 (3)
  • December 2014 (4)
  • November 2014 (1)
  • October 2014 (12)
  • September 2014 (16)
  • August 2014 (8)
  • April 2014 (6)
  • February 2014 (9)
  • January 2014 (3)
  • August 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (1)
  • June 2013 (13)
  • May 2013 (5)

Recent Posts

  • The Antinational Situationist No. 1 / Den Antinationale Situationist No.1 [1974] January 9, 2023
  • Erklæring vedrorende processen mod internationale situationister I Den Tyske Forbundsrepublik [1962] January 9, 2023
  • I Partiti Non Hanno Piu Niente Da Dirci [1966] January 8, 2023
  • Présent fait aux lecteurs de Lire Debord, traitant des curiosités et difficultés rencontrées dans l’ouvrage [2022] November 27, 2022
  • Adages / Vaneigem & Stas [2022] November 16, 2022
  • Chansons du proletariat révolutionnaire: Paroles et musiques [1996] November 12, 2022
  • Attila Kotanyi: L’architecture du silence [2022] October 31, 2022
  • Première exposition de psychogéographie [1957] October 30, 2022
  • Piero Simondo: Alle radici del Situazionismo [2004] October 30, 2022
  • Cahier pour un paysage à inventer invitation card [1960] September 6, 2022
  • [Photograph] Debord, Marc’O, Fillon, Cocteau [1951] September 5, 2022
  • In Unserer Spektakulären Gesellschaft…[1970s?] July 28, 2022
  •  Malgré le blasphème [1950] June 16, 2022
  • J.V. Martin’s first U.S. solo exhibition in New York, through July 9, 2022 May 31, 2022
  • May 28 – Book Launch party with Donald Nicholson-Smith in New York! May 21, 2022
  • Deuxième internationale lettriste [1963] May 18, 2022
  • Guy Debord – original photograph [1968] May 16, 2022
  • Our first book is out! On the Poverty of Student Life (2022) May 8, 2022
  • Alexander Trocchi : 3 original photographs [ca. 1954-late 1970s] February 14, 2022
  • Sigma: A Tactical Blueprint [1964] February 13, 2022
  • de Kunst-meridiaan 4-5-6 / Taptoe 58 [1958] February 12, 2022
  • Verso I cinquuant’anni dell’ I.S. [2007] February 11, 2022
  • La Gibigianna. L’uomo di Alba [1960] February 10, 2022
  • Don’t Network: The Avant Garde after Networks [2018] February 10, 2022
  • Times Literary Supplement 3262 [1964] January 9, 2022
  • Maurice Wyckaert @ Taptoe + Original Ink Drawing [1956] January 4, 2022
  • J.V. Martin [2010] January 3, 2022
  • Caspari – unpublished manuscript on Maurice Wyckaert [ca. 1960]. December 2, 2021
  • Guy Debord – letter to Constant [1960] December 1, 2021
  • Asger Jorn – letter to Maurice Wyckaert [1957] December 1, 2021
  • Guy Debord et al’s letter to Willem Sandberg [1958] November 30, 2021
  • Maurice Wyckaert’s exclusion letter [1961] November 29, 2021
  • Maurice Wyckaert – Original photographs November 28, 2021
  • Guy Debord: Correspondence with Maurice Wyckaert [March 1, 1958 – December 6, 1960] November 27, 2021
  • Typed letter to Monsieur E. BOGAERT dated 12 May 1970 [1970] October 16, 2021
  • Typed letter to Monsieur BOGAERT dated 9 August 1969 [1969] October 16, 2021
  • Rapporto Veridico Sulle Ultime Opportunia di Salvare il Capitalismo en Italia [1975]; Prove Dell’Inesistenza di Censor [1976] October 16, 2021
  • [GUY DEBORD] Typed letter [to Renaud Burel] (signed “Guy”) dated 20/01/1991 October 12, 2021
  • Manifesto of Rationalism [1968] October 11, 2021
  • Pinot-Gallizio: Industrielle Malerei [1959] October 10, 2021
  • Elogio di Pinot-Gallizio [1958] October 9, 2021
  • l’Internationale Situationniste prend l’offensive [1963] October 7, 2021
  • Bollettino d’informazione del Movimento Internazionale per una Bauhaus Immaginista [1954-56] October 6, 2021
  • Avant la guerre: 66 métagraphies influentielles [1954] October 6, 2021
  • Nous avons la douleur de vous faire part de la perte de GUY DEBORD mort a l’Internationale Situationniste [1966] October 6, 2021
  • La Langue verte et la cuite [1968] October 1, 2021
  • [Announcement] Signal 07: A Journal of International Political Graphics and Culture [2021] August 13, 2021
  • La Vertigine del Gioco: L’Azione dell’Internazionale Situazionista tra Arte e Politica [2021] July 29, 2021
  • Constant New Babylon Letter [1962] July 12, 2021
  • Forma urmează situației. Orașul Contemporan Anticipat de Situaționiști. [Form follows Situation. Contemporary City as forseen by the Situationists] [2020] July 7, 2021

Archives

Blog Stats

  • 147,324 hits
Follow Situationniste Blog on WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Situationniste Blog
    • Join 139 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Situationniste Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...