Claude Moller Presents Street Art Workers

On January 28th, 2008, Claude Moller came and gave a talk at Sydney, an event co-presented by Big Fag Press.

Claude is an artist from San Francisco, and he spoke about the
Street Art Workers (SAW) ) and their Land and Globalization poster campaign. His presentation involved a provocative discussion about how we might judge “quality” in poster aesthetics. We also debated the effectiveness of art as activism (and vice versa).

A founding member of SAW, Claude presented the DIY entrepreneurial strategies employed by the group, and showed slides documenting their large scale international poster project.

More about SAW:

Established in the U.S. in 2001, SAW is a global network of artists who use graphic art to support social change. SAW makes and distributes posters internationally to publicize the work of local grassroots activism. The group relies on street art to take back cities and towns from the businessmen, cops, and politicians who
define public space for their own benefit. Since 2001, SAW projects have talked about prisons, the mass media, and utopian ideas for the future.

SAW’s latest campaign, Land and Globalization, looks at how corporate globalization has affected our world, how it has impacted the land, and how people are fighting back. This series includes 25 posters representing artists from 10 different countries and over 20 different cities. These posters illustrate specific struggles in countries like Brazil and the United States, and they also tackle international issues around poverty and gentrification. Along with a strong critique of imperialism, the posters show how communities throughout the world are resisting corporate power for a more just and sustainable world.

Claude’s work has been featured in numerous magazines and books, including Stencil Pirates, The Interventionists and Peace Signs.