THINK AGAIN
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THINK AGAIN is an artist-activist collaborative founded in 1997 by David John Attyah (b. Los Angeles and resides in Los Angeles) and S.A. Bachman (b. Columbus, Ohio and resides in Boston and Los Angeles.)
THINK AGAIN produces public art interventions that recruit artmaking in the service of political action. THINK AGAIN imagines a progressive politics that incorporates queer liberation, race equality, gender parity, immigrant rights and economic justice. They view cultural work as indispensable to affecting social change and engaging people in the political process.
THINK AGAIN expects something political from art and uses images to challenge indifference. Their projects have explored a unique range of issues: international labor and the treatment of immigrants, links between race activism and queer activism, gentrification and displacement, the logic of militarization, cultural backlash against feminism, the representation of queers in the media, alternative families, and sexual expression.
Many of THINK AGAIN’s projects privilege face-to-face interactions and often rely on taking to the streets and talking directly with people. They have distributed tens of thousands of postcards and posters free-of-charge and produced billboard and public projection campaigns in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. THINK AGAIN has collaborated with a range of nonprofit and grassroots organizations and maintains a network of allies who help distribute their work.
THINK AGAIN exhibitions include: Museu d´Art Contemporani de Barcelona, “Antagonismes,” Track16 Gallery, “The Anti-War Show: US Interventions From Korea to Iraq,” Exit Art, “Reactions,” Maryland Institute College of Art, “The Culture of Class: Issues of Class in North American Culture,” Loyola Marymount University Art Museum, “Not for Profit,” Arizona State University Art Museum, “Democracy in America,” 16:1 Gallery, “A Brief History of Outrage,” Museum of New Art, “New Season.” They have received awards from the LEF Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Tanne Foundation and The Funding Exchange/Outfund to name some. Their work has been widely published in books, magazines and journals (see selected bibliography.) A monograph on THINK AGAIN entitled A Brief History of Outrage was published in 2003.
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[edit] Selected Recent Projects:
Unless noted otherwise, projects can be viewed at the THINK AGAIN archive. www.agitart.org
The NAFTA Effect, 2006-2007
The NAFTA Effect is a series of public projections in Los Angeles addressing how “free trade” insidiously reshapes lives on both sides of the border. www.saltinthewound.org
Hola/Hello, 2002 and 2006
This postcard, installation and mobile billboard links the rape, sexualized violence, and murder of over three hundred unidentified women of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico to the structural effects of NAFTA and intergovernmental relations between the US and Mexico.
Protestgraphics, 2001-2004
One of the first websites to respond to the 9/11, U.S. military action in Iraq and Central Asia, violence against Arab and Muslim Americans, and to the Bush administrations “war on terrorism.” In addition to the online archive, 500 sets of posters were distributed free of charge to organizations and activists internationally. Major campaign: “Act Like It’s A Globe, Not An Empire.” www.protestgraphics.org
CIA.TV, Los Angeles, CA, 2001-2003
A mobile billboard and web debate inviting the public to think critically about the increasingly blurry lines between news and entertainment at a political moment when federal agencies want permission to withhold information from the public, seek expanded surveillance authority and increase their budgets. www.ciatv.net
Target Marketing Is Not A Social Movement, 2001-2002
A mobile billboard and postcard project addressing target marketing and “Gay Chic.”
Popping The Question, San Francisco and Boston, 2000
A caravan of mobile billboards circulated throughout the cities bringing the current debates about marriage and family to the San Francisco Court House and many other sites.
[edit] Selected books:
A Brief History of Outrage, THINK AGAIN (David John Attyah and S.A. Bachman), Distributed Art Publishers/D.A.P., 2003 The introduction can be read at www.agitart.org/press/OUTRAGEbookessay.pdf
Graphic Agitation 2, Liz McQuiston, Phaidon, London, 2004
Peace Signs: The Anti-War Movement Illustrated, James Mann, English, French, German edition; Edition Olms, and Posters Against A War, Spanish edition; Gustavo Gili, 2003/2004
We Shall Not Be Moved, Hass, Gilda and Strategic Actions For A Just Economy, 2004
Economic Apartheid In America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity, Collins, Chuck and Yeskel, Felice, The New Press, 2000
White Men Challenging Racism, Thompson, Cooper, Schaefer, Emmett, Ford, Henry, Duke University Press, 2003
[edit] Recent articles:
Los Angeles Times, “Drive-by Campaign to Project Points of View,” Mike Boehm, October 6, 2006
Social Text (#80 Technoscience,) Amy Villarejo, “Activist Technologies: THINK AGAIN,” Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2004
Interview with THINK AGAIN: Big, Red and Shiny, Issue #7, 2003
