[Reader-list] Myths, Mangoes and ordered houses - re: 10 myths about pakistan

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Yasir (Dear All )

Thank you for pointing out the role of wall chalkings in mobilization of
people for 'jehad'.  I think chalkings or writings on the wall are an
important indicator of the socio-political mood of a space. In this regard,
I want to stretch this idea of chalk writing as a form of mass
communication, to posters, wall posters and how they are able to hold a
muted conversation with a multitude.

For instance, the article pasted below talks about posters as a graphic form
of protest.

An excerpt-

Posters have a distinguished history as vehicles of protest, propaganda and
commerce, from 15th-century broadsheets supporting the Protestant
Reformation to 19th-century theater billboards by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
In the 20th century, politics and art merged in powerful propaganda posters
in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Communist China. The American
counterculture of the late 1960s inspired a renaissance of protest posters,
in psychedelic colors.

It would be interesting to know what sort of posters are in vogue in
Pakistan today. I would like to believe that almost all of them would have a
local flavor but certainly there must be some which relate to broader
issues.

May I suggest you to please share with us, if you can, your own reflections
about how were posters related to Islamic jihad designed or framed.etc Were
they similar or different to say posters distributed at sufi shrines,
especially in terms of iconography and here I am, of course,  specifically
referring to Yusuf Saeed's monumental work on posters and  syncretic
cultures.

Regards

Taha




http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44847-2005Jun4.html

Graphic Forms of Protest

 By Linda Hales
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 4, 2005; Page C01

 A graphic printed on a T-shirt demands, "Curb Your God."

A poster for designer jeans shows one pant leg knotted, as if the wearer
were an amputee. The words War Wear have been appended to the brand's label:
Rifle.


Another poster mimics Apple Computer's colorful advertising campaign for the
iPod. Except this one is about "iRaq" and the logo is a bomb, not an apple.
The black figure silhouetted against a hot pink background is not dancing to
iTunes but is a hooded prisoner from Abu Ghraib, balancing on a box with
hands attached to a white cord.

These are three of more than 400 provocative, emotionally charged graphics
in "The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics"
(Rockport). The book of posters, buttons, illustrations and other graphics
was compiled by Milton Glaser, dean of American graphic designers, with
Mirko Ilic, a noted illustrator and art director. An exhibition of 100
designs opened yesterday at New York's School of Visual Arts, where Glaser
and Ilic teach.

In an age dominated by moving images, these freeze-frame visuals hold their
own. They represent the activist strain of graphic design. Like contemporary
advertising, it thrives on shock, wit and instant recognition. But as
playwright Tony Kushner writes in the book's foreword, there must also be
"some galling truth . . . imprisoned beneath the surface of public
discourse" that causes a designer to fire a signal flare.

Glaser calls the collection an international survey of "nontraditional
dissenting opinion." The designer, who is best known for the "I H NY" logo,
says that lately he has been focused on the importance of expressing
dissent. The essence of his view is captured on a button he designed, which
declares "DISSENT *Protects **Democracy*."

"Once you say that dissent protects democracy, people get the idea right
away," Glaser said by phone this week. "When you have dissenting opinion, it
comes out of some idea that fairness or appropriateness has been violated."

Work on the book began with a global call for submissions. Glaser and Ilic
received more than a thousand richly varied examples. Most of those selected
were created after 2000 and address politics, racism, corporate power,
pollution, religion, media, animal rights and food. Three sections are
devoted to war and strife -- in the former Yugoslavia, in Iraq and between
Israel and Palestinians. Concepts of peace and equality get as much space.

Images dominate all but 12 of the book's 240 pages. Minimal text includes an
interview with Glaser. Ilic is represented by cover art for the alternative
magazine World War 3 Illustrated showing a ferocious hound in camouflage
fatigues preparing to devour a bone labeled Iraq. The caption does not
indicate whether the artist was illustrating a story or drawing his own
conclusions. The Bosnian-born New Yorker has described himself as an
"individual anarchist" willing to "poke fun at any power, because all of
them are corrupt."

Emotions run high, whatever the topic, but techniques and symbols run the
gamut. The iRaq poster by Copper Greene relies on parody. The T-shirt
designer, Daniel Young, needed only typography to express concern that
so-called divine directives are sparking violence and intolerance. The jeans
were designed by Slovenian artist Tomato Kosir as a commentary on
consumerism and war. The Coca-Cola logo appears in many guises. Fingerprints
are popular images. So is raw meat.

Samantha Hoover, assistant director of communications for the School of
Visual Arts, says creative people tend to be liberal. But the book was not
intended to be one-sided. Palestinian and Israeli points of view were
included, Glaser points out. Communism is skewered. So is President Bush. A
design team from Slovenia played off the American Dairy Association's "Got
Milk?" campaign for a "Got Oil?" poster on which Bush sports a mustache of
oil. The poster shows how astonishingly global advertising has become.

Posters have a distinguished history as vehicles of protest, propaganda and
commerce, from 15th-century broadsheets supporting the Protestant
Reformation to 19th-century theater billboards by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
In the 20th century, politics and art merged in powerful propaganda posters
in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Communist China. The American
counterculture of the late 1960s inspired a renaissance of protest posters,
in psychedelic colors. These days, Hoover senses renewed interest in public
affairs.

"Since 9/11, with the Iraqi war and all that's happening, twenty- and
thirtysomethings are paying attention to current affairs in a different
way," she says.

Some issues are constant. In 1969, Dan Reisinger conveyed a message about
Jewish emigration from the former Soviet Union by using the hammer and
sickle as the "G" in "Let My People Go." More than 20 years later, he drew a
poster warning of a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. A recent
poster by Turkish designer Bulent Erkmen for an Israeli client sought to
address the sharing of power in Jerusalem. The word "equal" is presented as
a page from a dictionary. All attempts at definition have been struck
through with a red line.

Chaz Maviyane-Davies produced gripping posters relating the United Nations
Articles on Human Rights to an African audience. For Article 4, a figure
wears free-flowing dreadlocks made of chains above the words, "No one should
be subjected to slavery or servitude."

Malaysian designer Theresa Tsang created three posters that protest the
abuse of women. What appears to be the imprint of a lipstick kiss is an
amalgam of photos of knuckles, glass shards and men beating women.

Design can transform even grim topics. In Serbia, the Thea Line cosmetics
company commissioned an antiwar poster using its product. The designer, Igor
Avzner, turned lipstick tubes into a cartridge belt, which is worn by a
fashion model. The message reads, "Make Up, Not War."



On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 9:30 AM, yasir ~يا سر <yasir.media at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 4:45 AM, Rahul Asthana <rahul_capri at yahoo.com
> >wrote:
>
> > There are/were jihadi donation boxes in all the major cities of Pakistan.
>
> Those, along with wall chalkings for 'jihadi camp training' were cleaned up
> by Musharraf in around 2002. so anything since then is underground and not
> tolerated.
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