Limited Edition Occupy T-shirts Now On Sale!

Occupy T-shirts. Red, Green, Black, Violet on White. S/M/L/XL 100% heavy weight cotton

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The Occupy t-shirts are now in and dare I say, they are positively smashing:) 

Playing a small joke on the concept of occupying intellectual property, the shirts are made of heavy weight 100% cotton and available in S/M/L and XL. (Sorry XXL-ers but Mayor Bloomberg thinks you should drink fewer sugary sodas.)

All on white, the pastel colours vary from PMS Super Warm Red to Moss Green, Soft Violet and of course, your garden variety Bauhaus Black for the hipsters on the block.

To order please me email with sizes and quantities. $30 each + shipping and handling. I'll return mail to confirm final price and payment (PayPal) details.

Quantities are limited so order quickly. Upon request I will be happy to sign and date each shirt.

Up Against It: Turning Lemonade into Lemons:)

Paul Cabezas and David Everitt-Carlson, Munch Gallery, 21 July - 'Up Against It' - Photo: Populist

As many of you are aware, all the art requested of me for the Up Against It Show by Munch Gallery curator Billy Miller was lost to mysterious circumstances the week before the show, so at submission deadline time, I had nothing to deliver as promised to the event. What to do? I was essentially out of an exhibition before I ever got in. But in the spirit of struggle as described by Billy and feeling truly up against it, I spent a day or two grousing and then set about coming up with a replacement piece for the exhibition. Quite the job considering the then limited timeframe and the need to relinquish any space that had been reserved for my installation at the show. What to do again.

A thumbnail idea

And the new rules were as such: Come up with an idea that would remain true to the original spirit of over-articulated protest signs and do it with no space available on the gallery floor or walls. Hmmm. The pencil drawing on the left was sent to Billy along with an explanation that 'performance art' had always been part of the concept - I would simply make as many signs as possible to fit on a jacket and wear the art, taking up the exact same amount of space as I would as a participant at the opening. Problem solved. Billy throught it was a good idea as well and we agreed that after the show the jacket could be placed on a hangar and hung from the ceiling with fishing line. Problem solved. Now all I needed to do was make the art. Enough art to have it work both as clothing and as signage meant to communicate.

Full mental jacket

The finished jacket ended up being a thrift store Jos. A. Bank's with all signs relating to the original Occupy Wall Street call for financial transparency and justice. The coat itself contained 22 signs including one on the inside breast pocket with the inscription "Wanna Buy A House?" (Please place tongue firmly in cheek.) Reactions from attendees were certainly mixed, in one way because people were not accustomed to dealing with walking art, and another in that they were surprised and pleased to see humour used in the context of protest. So with all logistical problems solved the only question now to be asked would be, "But is it art?" Up Against It runs through 11 August.

Some things were just not meant to happen

1 October, 2012 Occupy Wall Street, Zuccotti Park, NYC

In two separate instances this week all of the art that was to be exhibited on the 21st at Munch Gallery has been lost or stolen. I had entrusted the box to the care of a friend who had left it with his apartment building front office, folded and wrapped. In breaking the news to me of its loss he had sent a text to my phone asking for an early morning meeting at Union Square. Upon my arrival his first words to me were, "So how do you feel about the bad news?" "What bad news?", I asked. "The news that your box was thrown out by my building staff", he responded.

I took a minute and went to sit down on the granite steps to the park. Rushing through my head were all the possible ramifications of this event - without the box, does any of the work at all make sense in a gallery setting? How was it that I could save this piece from the riot police during the Zuccotti Park raid in November of last year, only to lose it to sheer negligence in a Gramercy Park apartment building? Why wasn't the package marked? Why didn't building staff know of its importance? WTF? I was furious with the friend and dumbfounded by his total lack of responsibility in the matter.

Answers to too many questions would lay pending the next day events. A piece of history was gone. And too many other opportunities with it.

The next day I spent the better part of the day on the computer doing general office work and trying to make a plan B for the gallery show. It wouldn't matter.

I had left my mobile studio with the Occupiers at Union Square, a place where it had been safe and watched over since our arrival in March of this year. Apparently, a rain had fallen in the early evening and Occupiers had packed up and moved their tables to dry shelter. My mobile studio, containing the remainder of the artwork was left behind and not to be found when I returned to the park. It remains lost along with the original box and may be decorating a city landfill somewhere. Nicely I hope.

This week also another friend reminded me of the myth of Sisyphus, the mythological Greek character who was doomed to pushing a boulder uphill only to see it roll back down again, over and over and over again. "The struggle itself ... Is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus as happy", wrote Albert Camus. These past 10 months with Occupy and 4 different boxes, all lost to one end or another, compares to the myth of Sisyphus. Maybe it's time to think truly out of my box and find a more productive way to spend my time.

'I Think Outside My Box' @ Munch Gallery, NYC, 21 July, 2012

Panels from Box II, October 2001, Occupy Wall Street, Zuccotti Park, NYC - David Everitt-Carlson As I have been threatening for the last few months, many of the signs and images you have seen related to my painting at Occupy Wall Street will be featured in a gallery exhibition entitled, "Up Against It" at the Munch Gallery on Broome St. in New York City. Opening reception is on 21 July and the show will run until August 11. Please stop by opening night to meet or at another time during the run to peruse at your leisure.  I am pleased to see the work being given a spotlight it was not intended for and happy to see it communicating across boundaries that were not so well defined at its inception. From top left: Luke Butler, Mark Shetabi. From bottom left: Scott Hug, Carl Ferrero, Mary Nicholson ------------------------------ MUNCH GALLERY ------------------------------

Up Against It  The Art of Struggle July 21 - August 11, 2012 Opening Reception: Saturday, July 21 from 6-8 pm New York, NY, July 9, 2012 – Munch Gallery is pleased to present ‘Up Against it’, a group exhibition curated by Billy Miller.  The current global financial and political crises have prompted a groundswell of protest worldwide. From Tahir Square in Egypt to Zuccotti Park in NYC; throughout the U.S., Europe and elsewhere; the people have spoken and told their 'leaders' that they demand change. That change has been slow or not at all; and most of those responsible for these crises have yet to be held accountable. In an attempt to understand the upheavals and social movements of the past, we often look to art as a compass to show us the temperament of the society that produced those conflicts. Sculpture, painting, photography, dance, cinema, literature and performance have all been utilized to reflect the zeitgeist of each era. And from Goya to Gйrricault, Hogarth, Grosz, Rivera, Picasso, Wojnarowicz, et al, artists have felt the call to bear witness to the issues of their times. Brought together here for a limited time only, ‘Up Against it’ presents an artistic response to the issues of OUR times; interpreted individually and collectively by an assembly of artists of varying backgrounds, politics, and points of view. Featuring: D-L Alvarez, Anonymous, Jonathan Berger, Michael Bilsborough, Matt Borruso, Kathe Burkhart, Luke Butler, David Everitt-Carlson, Brendan Carroll, Mavado Charon, Sam Dargan, Pia Dehne, Daniel Derwelis, Eric Doeringer,  Peter Eide, Carl Ferrero, Gregory Green, Teenie Harris, Cliff Hengst, Christian Holstad, Scott Hug, Dennis Kane, Brenda Ann Kenneally, David King, Lisa Kirk, Noah Lyon, Michael Magnan, Yeni Mao, Darrin Martin, Rachel Mason, Jan-Holger Mauss, Salvor (Ross Menuez), John Monteith, Glynnis McDaris, Mary Nicholson, Mark Ohe, Gwenaлl Rattke, Nick Rule, Tara Sinn, Superm (Brian Kenny Slava Mogutin), Paul Taylor, Margaret Tedesco, Scott Treleaven, Jan Wandrag 'Up Against It' images