ArtsBunker: Gig Posters
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Ever since cell phones began shipping from the factories in the bowels of the orient in which they’re made with cameras embedded in their fascias, concerts have been plagued by a sea of distracted/distracting fans their phones high overhead in an attempt to wring some token of future nostalgia from performances. Generally speaking, people only manage to score shaky, blown-out sounding footage to clog the results of Youtube searches with and blurry photos of artists that could just as easily be pawned off as clouds of ectoplasm floating on a stage. While cell phone etiquette at concerts is its own can of worms to unpack, the fact that we can even have a conversation about it stands as testament to what slaves we are to our sentimentality as music fans — something concert merchandise was invented to both soothe and exploit — and there is absolutely no greater piece of concert merch than the gig poster!
The gig poster has been an institution for almost as long as there have been performances to promote and — beyond their factor of nostalgic novelty — they serve as the ultimate meeting place for the visual arts and the performing arts, and as such, deserve their own due!
In what will be ArtsBunker’s kickoff event, Iron Forge Press and ArtServe are pleased to present I Was There!, South Florida’s first official show featuring the gig poster works of the area’s premier artists. The event will showcase pieces from more than a decade of work and will include works on display (for pleasure and purchase) by a litany of area favorites! PureHoney caught up with local punk-rock legend and gig poster kingpin and event organizer, Chuck Loose, for his take on both the event and the visual idiom that is the gig poster!
PureHoney: How did you get into printing and designing gig posters?
Chuck Loose: I first got into doing gig posters in high school: DIY, photocopied fanzines and flyers for my friend’s punk rock bands and skateboarding stuff. After I moved to Florida, I built a home-made screen press out of an old card table and starting printing in my apartment, forever ruining the carpet in that room
PH: I feel as though, at least in South Florida, the gig poster is far from a dying art, despite the fact that itís a nostalgic one.
CL: Totally! There’s been a huge resurgence in it! For a couple reasons, I think: There’s this whole return to craftsmanship across the board, and bands ain’t selling CDs like they used to, so they need to sell other stuff and you still can’t download a real gig poster… yet! Even more mainstream artists are getting turned on to it. It’s funny for Florida to have such a strong gig poster scene too, because this place is culturally about 5-7 years behind every other state in the union!
PH: Do you have a favorite artist that’s going to be represented at the show?
CL: Myself haha! I love all these fuckers, but I do have a special affinity for Omar Angulo — mostly because we’ve been doing art projects together since we were teenagers.
Saturday, June 27 at ArtsBunker!
See and purchase limited edition pieces from:
Omar Angulo Art
Dave Berns / Hot Damn Arts
Brian Butler / The Upper Hand Art
Chuck Loose / Iron Forge Press
Nathaniel Deas / Bourbon Sunday
Adam Sheetz Art
A FREE fun night with MUSIC | FOOD | CRAFT BEERS | COLLECTIBLE ROCK ART
~ Von Bader
