Erik Ruin is another great Midwestern printmaker — born in Michigan, currently living in Minneapolis, Erik is a stencilist & shadowpuppeteer. He publishes the fantastic Trouble in Mind zine, works on the Prison Poster Project, is currently co-editing (with Josh MacPhee) the forthcoming anthology Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority, and on a new puppetshow tentatively entitled SeamsLike.
Erik made a great four-color stencil for the show which demands freedom for Daniel McGowan, Jeff Luers, the SHAC 7, and Green Scare defendants Chelsea Gerlach and Darren Thurston. He explained his motivation:
my piece for the show is one of the more didactic things i’ve made in a while. i’ve been focusing on exploring the power of images liberated from slogans & words in general. i think its a real challenge to find a visual language that can evoke an emotional response that’s somehow liberatory – whether it’s summoning forth compassion, righteous anger, whatever… while still giving people something to think about, something that maybe takes a minute more to figure out… but all this can be pretty nebulous & hard to assess the impact of. which is why it’s nice to make utilitarian, informative graphics like this.
Eric’s piece is available for purchase online through our site: click here to get a closer look and more info.
i appoligize if this isent the right forum for this but
i am trying to get in contact with Eric Ruin. some of his art work is in the back ground (most likely his friends’ house) of a photograph i took that is part of a book of punk houses, to be published in september 2007, with hna books. i want to give him credit, and send him a copy.
please e-mail me if you can help me find him.
abbybanksisdead@hotmail.com
thank you, take care!