February 2000
As all readers are well
aware, the Turtle has always been keen on propaganda, a much-maligned
form of artistic expression. In an era where the incessant bombardment
of images from commercial advertising threaten to colonise our imaginations,
the existence of high-quality leftist propaganda is extraordinarily
important. And in the vanguard of fine and militant leftist propagandists
today are the artists at Think Again, who have their marvellous
website with its marvellous URL at www.agitart.org. Think Again
started in Boston and is now based in San Francisco -- two of the
Turtle's favourite American cities -- and the organisation dedicates
itself to "striking back at mainstream ideas that perpetuate
injustice". The collective doesn't have a great deal of money,
but its artists -- both of them -- overflow with talent and imagination,
and they have a healthy dose of the anger which gives their work its
bite.
There's not going to be
a lot of prose in this month's salute: we'll let the images speak
for themselves. To further Think Again's goal of distributing
their work at no cost as widely as possible, we've posted eight of
their pieces below, and you may also have come across Think Again's
"Queer Youth Manifesto" elsewhere on the site, in the Library of the Turtle. The pictures
may take a while to download, but they're well worth the wait. Much
more is available at their website, of course, including better-quality
downloadable images that are ready for immediate colour laser-printing,
and some stirring words.
This month, the Turtle
salutes the artists at Think Again!
