Ruining

Process, notes, sketches, rambles, reblogs, etc... from artist/human Erik Ruin. finshed work here- http://erikruin.tumblr.com/

[ruin-ing]

Papercuts for a forthcoming performance project with vocalist Ember Schrag and pedal steel player Susan Alcorn, touring this fall. Inspired by Pashtun landays written by contemporary Afghani women. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/magazine/why-afghan-women-risk-death-to-write-poetry.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[melodysmuse]

Iraq War veteran Tomas Young was left paralyzed in a 2004 attack in Iraq. Released from medical care three months later, Young returned home to become an active member in Iraq Veterans Against the War. He recently announced that he will stop his medicine and nourishment, which comes in the form of liquid through a feeding tube — a decision which will hasten his death. Joining us from his home in Kansas City, Young reads from his letter, “A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran.” Young says to Bush and Cheney: “You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans — my fellow veterans — whose future you stole.” Click here to watch part 1 of the interview. Please share this The Last Letter

A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran

To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.

I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness. 

[justseedsartists]

Erik Ruin and his work @ Uprisings exhibition, Milwaukee

[erikruin]

that’s me!

[ruin-ing]

sorting projection materials prior to today's rehearsal with Assembly Of Light Choir & Sakiko Mori... https://www.facebook.com/events/528577590514027/?fref=ts

[erikruin]

hey all! it finally feels like spring here in New England which is a glorious and profound relief to us all, even if it makes it hard to stay inside and get work done. luckily i get to venture out into the world a bunch this spring… april 26th-28th- i’ll be on a mini-tour with the...

[printeresting-blog]

Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative will be seriously in the house in Milwaukee. Their exhibition, Uprisings: Images of Labor will be on view (appropriately) at UWM’s Union Gallery and, by our count, about 19 justseeders will be doing presentations of one kind or another. Let’s get political!

[pghgraffiti]

[ruin-ing]

many years ago... amazed this is still around!

[ruin-ing]

Pre-order a Disaster!

PLEASE SHARE! I'm embarking on an ambitious new project and am trying to raise funds for materials, travel and other expenses. Rather than ask for donations to cover costs, I'd like to do this by offering the chance to pre-order what would ordinarily be rather expensive items at heavily discounted prices.

about the prints: For a while now, I've been working on a series of prints (and eventually a puppet-show) inspired by Rebecca Solnit's book A Paradise Built in Hell. according to the publisher, “A Paradise Built in Hell is an investigation of the moments of altruism, resourcefulness, and generosity that arise amid disaster’s grief and disruption and considers their implications for everyday life.” It's a great book. I recently completed the first image for this series, about the Halifax Explosion of 1917, a ship accident that resulted in the largest man-made explosion prior to the atomic bomb, killing over 2,000 people and injuring approximately 9,000 in the surrounding area. The original "drawing" for this print you'll find above. You can read about some of my thinking while making this image here. These prints attempt to function as a complex narrative that both acknowledges the devastation of the events while finding beauty in the cooperative support structures that arise in response to them.  

I'm making at least two images for the series/show, the second concerning the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. There will possibly be a third. these will be silk-screened onto acid-free mulberry paper as an edition of no larger than 40.

These principal images are massive -- 3 by 5.5 feet -- and thus expensive to produce. In order to raise funds to produce the series, make it into a show, and tour it, I am reaching out to you all to help support this project.   about the show:

  One Touch Of Nature Makes the Whole World Kin is a table-top toy theater show by Erik Ruin and Maryann Colella (Bread & Puppet) concerning disasters and the organic mutual aid efforts/networks which arise in their wake. amongst other examples, we focus on the Halifax ship explosion of 1917, the largest man-made explosion before the invention of the atom bomb. The show incorporates sprawling silk-screened graphics come to life, toy instruments, tape-deck sound effects and text from Rebecca Solnit's book.

  We plan to tour the east coast this June, with a featured stop at the 10th Annual Toy Theater Festival at St. Ann's Warehouse in NYC on June 19th & 20th and performances in Providence, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC and Pittsburgh. Tour dates TBA.

  how you can help:

Basically, I'm asking folks to contribute now for prints later, in exchange for a discount. these prints will not be available at these prices after the pre-order period. limited to 20 respondents per category, first come first serve. OPTION 1 ($75): a screen-print of the related Climate Chaos image, created for 350.org, signed, on heavyweight Mr. French paper, 26x40"

OPTION 2 ($150):

either of the two principal images (Halifax or San Francisco) hand-printed, signed and editioned, 36x66", on acid-free mulberry paper.

  OPTION 3 ($250): both main prints   OPTION 4 ($300): all three prints, plus free admission to a performance of your choice.

  All funds will go toward the production of these prints and the resulting tour.   If you can't afford to pre-order a print, you can help by spreading the word! Either forwarding this email to anyone you think might be interested or sharing this facebook image.   Preorder payments are due by MAY 1ST at the latest. Prints will be posted by JULY 1ST.  

Thanks for reading, and feel free to contact me with any questions/thoughts. Best, Erik [email protected]

[ruin-ing]

what is your m.o.?

i am not entirely sure how to answer this question, as the term m.o. makes me feel rather nefarious, and i don't know if i have a singular "mode of operation" but generally i make prints. often lately i make silkscreens based on "scratch-boards"- where i paint w/ ink on an acetate and then scratch into that w/ a knife, then shoot that on a screen and print it. does that answer yr question?

[ruin-ing]

Some Recent Thoughts About Representation, Responsibility & History

I believe in the power of art to represent people other than your self. In fact, I believe representing others has an immense potential to extend empathy, to rally support, & to deepen understanding in ways that make us all better human beings. It also has the potential to be one of the most problematic functions of art, can in fact lengthen the distance it is attempting to breach- the pitfalls of stereotypes, misinformation, presumption, etc. are all constantly looming.

I feel like this something to be especially vigilant in regard to, when, like me, you come from a historically privileged position (e.g. are a straight white male).

I’m in the process of making a series of prints (eventually also a toy theater performance) about various disasters, based roughly on the book A Paradise Built In Hell by Rebecca Solnit. According to the publisher, “A Paradise Built in Hell is an investigation of the moments of altruism, resourcefulness, and generosity that arise amid disaster's grief and disruption and considers their implications for everyday life.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about the “burden” of representation in depicting those historical events. The first print concerns the Halifax Explosion of 1917, a ship accident that resulted in the largest man-made explosion prior to the atomic bomb, killing over 2,000 people and injuring approximately 9,000 in the surrounding area. I’ve been staring at historical photographs, reading first-person accounts, even watching over & over again some actual film footage from the immediate aftermath.

Despite all this research, my intention is not to create a historically faithful representation of the event. Rather, I want to create a collage- almost a quilt- of details/gestures/moments that tell a larger story- about the disaster itself but also about the immediate rush of folks to rescue & support each other in the face of it all.

There’s a treacherous balance inherent in my task that I feel requires a complex image- depicting the spectacular beauty of the column of fire & smoke that filled the sky alongside the sorrow & horror at so many dead, the fantastic nature of human beings born aloft by the shockwave juxtaposed with the hardness of their landings. I’ve spent a lot of time placing all these details into an imaginary landscape, trying to create a schema that works as a narrative and a compelling image. This is in no way a realistic depiction of the layout of Halifax.

Getting some details “right” feel more crucial than others. I only spent fifteen minutes considering the plethora of amateur websites outlining the make and relative position of every ship in the harbor that day before deciding I had no interest in accuracy there. However, I spent hours digging up references & asking around, (and am still not necessarily done) to determine what a Mi’kmaq indigenous woman  who appears in the corner of the image, might be wearing on that day. As one friend noted, “for me, the difference between considering the accuracy of halifax (city) representation vs. indigenous representation is that indigenous people were for so long mostly represented by non-indigenous people in fkd up colonial ways, and the ship explosion of 'halifax' has been represented by provincial or city archives or whatever… Carefulness about this is such a good thing, and representations of native people should be very considered.”

In some ways, I feel comfortable with giving myself some license because Halifax looks so different now than it did in 1917.  It gets so much trickier when dealing with more recent history.

For instance, I’ve been deliberating a lot about whether or not to include a more modern example in this series (so far on deck is also the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906). Hurricane Katrina seems like the most obvious choice to depict for a variety of reasons. Events surrounding Katrina seem to encapsulate Solnit’s thesis quite handily- there are so many examples of inspiring mutual aid in the face of adversity and so many instances of the authorities working to squelch that and retain old divisions. Aesthetically, flood imagery is something I feel very drawn to, and have worked with frequently. It feels especially potent as it taps into apocalyptic myths/legends the world over.*

But I worry that the responsibility of representing such an event may be too much for me. The potential for inadvertent “othering” feels very high. I lived in New Orleans  briefly in 2001(?) and it struck me as the most racially-charged US city I have ever visited (and I grew up in the Metro Detroit area, which has a particularly pernicious racist legacy).  The places and incidents I would depict are lived memory for most folks. I am concerned about how I, as  a white person from the North, might get things wrong. The obvious solution for this is consultation, developing a way to tell the story in conjunction with the folks who lived it. However, to do this in a meaningful way- beyond tokenism- feels outside of the resources (time and money for travel)  I currently have access to. Sometimes, I wonder if I’m over-thinking this, but having seen many of my colleagues in the arts facing harsh criticism over the years for their choices in representation, I think I’m right to be wary. I don’t say this in any way to be dismissive of their critics, who in many cases I agree with, only to point to the dangers of representing those whose experience is outside of your own.

I don’t know, I feel like I’m wrestling with a lot of questions and I wonder if others are asking themselves the same things, and what ways of working through these issues that others have employed. These are some things I am thinking about these days. I would love to hear others’ thoughts. I would love to have conversations about this. I hope these rambling thoughts are just the beginning  of something larger.

What is the responsibility of artists to the subjects they represent?  How does that responsibility shift over distances of time, gender, race, sexuality? What about when depicting someone or something opposed to your beliefs? Where is the boundary between stylization and caricature in figurative work?  When is “poetic license” appropriate? What is the place for subjectivity in the making of art about social issues?

  * A funny/ironic confusion of terms keeps happening for me- as I am , in this work, in some sense, attempting to dispel certain myths- about “human nature” as inherently predatory and competitive- I also in general in my work attempt to tap into  the language of myth, to work with imagery that feels more broadly resonant.

[ruin-ing]

Working on a large-scale print (eventually puppet-show) about the Halifax Explosion of 1917, part of a series based on Rebecca Solnit's excellent book A Paradise Built In Hell. I'll write more about all the issues and images this is stirring for me, but for now I'll let these studies, sketches and notes speak for themselves.

[milkbonedampxerox]

this is an experiment - is there anyone out there on the internet that would be interested in buying originals from me?

i’m cleaning up my space and getting ready to move and uncovering a lot of stuff, plus trying hard to make a bunch of money in the next month to make moving to a better zone a reality. i have originals of both of the above images. the first one was originally printed by me as a new years poster to friends in Providence in the wake of a doomy mass eviction of diy showspaces, and was then later printed by Bochay Drum in a collection of broadsides put out as part of the STREETOPIA show in San Francisco last year. the second is the original from my print in Erik Ruin’s Witches and Mad Prophets portfolio. if you’re interested, send me a message or an email: [email protected] with your best offer.

** I pretty much entirely work in the cheap reproductive realm and thus i have no idea how to go about doing this or if its something anyone who is interacting with the stuff i make would even want! feedback is way appreciated!

[ruin-ing]

hey- katrina's original art from Witches & Mad Prophets is up for sale! Plus another rad drawing! highly recommend getting one if you got the dough!

[ruin-ing]

i was in love with this ink stain on my hand until i had to do dishes and it washed away...

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Quick & dirty poster for my friend Elliot's show here in Providence on Tuesday. More info on that here- https://www.facebook.com/events/321254354645194/

Silkscreened with hand-painting.

[ruin-ing]

practice drawing from newspaper photos- Egyptian women waiting to vote, New York Times.

[ruin-ing]

looking backwards & forwards at the same time (winter '12 update)

hey all- 2012 is coming to a close, and i've been looking back over the last year's accomplishments and looking forward to some pretty big next steps. if you can stick with me through to the end, there's a few notions for how you can help if so inclined. so this year has been a real topsy-turvy one for me in a lot of ways, but nonetheless, there's a number of big projects that i completed this year that i'm exceedingly proud of, and i'm excited to explore the new possibilities that each of these has opened up for me & my work in the coming year. almost all of them are some kind of collaboration, so i want to extend a big thank you to all who have worked on things w/ me this year, supported my work in any way (pledged to kickstarter, did me a favor, bought work, attended a show, etc.) or expressed appreciation for the things i do. i seriously could not do anything without you. Looking Back at 2012- 1. Paths Toward Utopia- it is a lot of work to make a book like this! kind of a graphic novel, kind of a series of illustrated poems, my collaborator Cindy Milstein and i like to call them "picture poems" on the theme of everyday anarchism- those moments & practices found in the midst of uprisings, takeovers, trips to the library or sitting in the park that point toward a more just and cooperative world. PM Press put this out this fall, after a year or two of hard thinking/drawing/cutting/

layout- get it here. big ups to my old pal Josh MacPhee for doing the layout and writing the insightful foreword. get it here or here. 2. Witches & Mad Prophets- this project was a total dream come true from start to finish. managing to pull together 12 of my favorite artists from a variety of art-worlds that are not always overlapping, getting them to make beautiful (not one dud!) art on the topic of one of my recent obsessions (religious heresy), running an incredibly successful kickstarter campaign, and having a remarkably successful opening/release party overflowing w/ good people and featuring so many inspiring performances, including getting to perform with my favorite local choir and noise act at the same time, and introducing some Philly friends to a large Pvd crowd for their first show. so much to take from this- from learning to use an offset press, how firm of a hand to take in leading such a project to the power of putting so many different artists & audiences in conversation with each other- that i will be using in formulating future projects. there are only a few of these left, $40 each, write me direct if you want one. 3. Video for Ember Schrag's Sutherland- first time making a music video! so glad Ember asked me to do this, as film/video work is something i've always wanted to try my hand at, and this gave me the chance to enlist the talented Natalja Kent as a collaborator to film & edit several takes of a live projection performances at Machines With Magnets studio. we tried to make it as dream-like and haunting as the song itself. you can watch it here. 4. Drowning On Dry Land- an experiment in putting more of my personal/experimental drawing work out into the world, and pairing it with a thematically- appropriate music soundtrack full of unreleased music by Work/Death, Big Blood, Ama (Matthew Himes of Shep & Me, Lighten Up Sounds label, etc.), Katt Hernandez, Virusse (aka Mindy Stock of the What Cheer? Brigade), A Stick and A Stone, Blue Shift, John the Baptist (Kellzo of SGNLS), & Night Mode (Reba Mitchell & Chrissy Wolpert of Whore Paint & Assembly of Light). pick it up here. 5. Descent Into the Maelstrom- perhaps the most detailed papercut i have ever made, conflating all the miseries of the world into an epic swirling mass, this was a full-time therapy/exorcism project for me for a week. i made two distinct prints from this- a very limited layered transparent "abstract" one you can get from me direct, and also a more straightforward two-color rendition you can pick up via Justseeds. 6. improvised projection performances-  this is pretty much one of my all-time favorite things to do- taking piles of decaying papercuts, painted acetates and rubylith from silkscreen projects, scrolls & scenes from decommissioned shadow-puppet shows, bending and breaking them into little bits of light live in concert (push & pull) with the music- so satisfying/liberatory/deeply moving on a personal level, and some other folks seem to enjoy it as well. this year, i've been lucky enough towork with some of my all-time favorite musicians in various mostly improvising ensembles, including Sakiko Mori (of Daily Life), Scott Reber (aka Work/Death), Jackie Beckey (of BruteHeart), Jonathan Kaiser (ex-Dark Dark Dark), and Night Mode. look for a lot more of this stuff in the near future. always up to play shows in the East Coast area... 7. Climate of Change residency- i was really flattered to be invited to participate in this focused residency at the beautiful Blue Mountain Center, sponsored by 350.org. spending time in the breathtaking Adirondacks, engaging with a whole host of talented doers/makers/thinkers around the topic of climate change, really made me feel re-charged, re-committed, re-engaged to making this kind of movement-based work. you can see the graphic i made here. 350 had a bunch of offset posters of it made that should be circulating in the new year... 8. upping the web ante- i finally buckled down & made myself a portfolio website which tumblr has made very easy. i also have started erratically keeping up a blog full of process pics, drawings, thoughts i hope to focus more on. i sometimes think i don't know how to work tumblr right, or am too old or something, but follow these if you like to do that kind of thing. in general, 2012 was full of challenges, surprises, big big dreams, and learning new ways of working/moving through the world. i attempted to challenge & complicate both my own & others' conception of my identity as a "political artist" and redefine my relationship to many of the institutions/groups/etc. i have worked with. to find a new balance. i like to think i'm getting somewhere with this, which is sure to be a lifelong, pursuit. in 2013, i hope to continue this quest, and incorporate pretty much everything i have ever learned into a direction i haven't pursued in a while- EPIC THEATER. stay posted for some grand plans to be actualized next winter. for now, if anyone has the time to help me figure out the  infrastructural concerns for putting together/organizing/funding a massive happening involving scores of movers/speakers/musicians, please get in touch! also forthcoming- -a toy theater show about disasters -some massive prints on the same theme -new publications, including the long-delayed Marche Ou Creve, my collaborative scratchboard book w/ Charlotte De Sedouy, with soundtrack by Dan Schleifer (What Cheer? Brigade) -album art for the new releases by Ryan Harvey and A Stick and A Stone (fund this amazing album!). -a bunch more it's too soon to say anything about also, putting together some tour/travel plans for this spring/summer. get in touch if you'd be interested in hosting a performance or talk!   as always, i'm available for a variety of commissions at sliding-scale rates. that kind of stuff is my bread and butter, or would be if i could eat bread. feel free to write back for any reason, it's always nice to hear from you. hope you are all doing well out there. best, erik

[ruin-ing]

untitled drawing, several revisions.