Crass Art and Other Pre Post-Modernist Monsters
Gee Vaucher
AK Press Distribution (1-873176-10-4), 1999Gee Vaucher was the creator of the visuals for CRASS, the original Punk collective/band that embraced pacifism, vegetarianism, and the true principles of anarchism. This oversized, glossy book is the first to collect Vaucher's art from throughout her entire career, including her graphics for CRASS and previously unpublished work. Much of
it--particularly the works for CRASS and Vaucher's own zine, International Anthem--is overtly political, although much of the pre- and post-CRASS work offers less obvious messages. Among the highlights:
• A gouache painting showing a nude woman, bent at the waist, about to take a hammer to a baby's head while a group of smiling schoolgirls and a weightlifter look on. Originally published in International Anthem 1 -
Education.
• The cover of CRASS' first record, Feeding of the 5000.
• A CRASS poster featuring a photo of a gnarled, burned hand caught in barbed wire above the words, "Your country needs YOU".
• A collage of a waiter elegantly serving a decimated dead man from a developing country to two rich, white couples having a lavish banquet.
• A collage/painting showing world leaders--including Thatcher, Reagan, Mao, Castro, and Brezhnev--smiling and dancing in a ruined landscape while at their feet lays the charred remains of a human being. This image was used as a poster for CRASS' single Nagasaki Nightmare.
• A collage of Margaret Thatcher holding a humongous penis-shaped turd. It was the inside poster for the CRASS single Sheep Farming in the Falklands.
• Collages featuring dead soldier for the unpublished fifth issue of International Anthem - War.
• Two photorealistic illustrations from the unpublished Pent-UP, an alternative porn magazine that was to present women's viewpoints.
• Illustrations for the early-1970s and 1985 versions of Acts of Love, a cycle of poems written by CRASS drummer/lyricist Penny Rimbaud.
• Painted photos of ancient statues.
•A series of pencil drawings/collages for an unpublished version of R.D.Laing's radical psychology book Knots.
• Pencil drawings of women and two children's book illustrations thatprove that Vaucher is also highly talented in the more orthodox forms of artistic expression.
The views expressed above represent the writer and not necessarily those of The Disinformation Company Ltd.