News: "Where is my vote?" poster exhibition in New York
received from Andrea Rauch

Poster by Andrea Rauch

Where Is My Vote? Posters for the Green Movement in Iran August 30 - September 25, 2010 Reception: Thursday, September 16, 6-8pm School of Visual Arts, New York NY (USA) Exhibition Statement School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents "Where Is My Vote? Posters for the Green Movement in Iran," an exhibition of 150 political posters by graphic artists world wide created in support of the protests in Iran that followed the 2009 presidential election. The exhibition is the first public viewing of these posters in printed form and was organized by designers Anita Kunz and Woody Pirtle along with Francis Di Tommaso, director of the Visual Arts Gallery, and Steven Heller, author, design historian and co-chair of the MFA Design Department at SVA. "Where Is My Vote?" highlights the unique role that socially responsible designers can play in rallying support for free speech, and the power of design to inspire political activism. The exhibition features posters by some of the most celebrated graphic artists working today, including R. O. Blechman, Cathie Bleck, Seymour Chwast, Ivan Chermayeff, Milton Glaser, Robert Grossman, Anita Kunz, Yossi Lemel, Jennifer Morla, István Orosz, Woody Pirtle, Andrea Rauch, Ralph Steadman, Gary Taxali, James Victore and Massimo Vignelli, among others. Following the elections in Iran in the summer of 2009, an Iranian photographer who goes by the name of Green Bird urged graphic artists from all over the world to create posters in support the Green Movement in Iran. One of the artists he approached, Italian designer Andrea Rauch, volunteered to host all of the posters on the web site SocialDesignZine, the blog of the Association of Italian Graphic Designers, where Rauch serves as editor. Over 200 posters have been collected on the site and can be viewed here. "SocialDesignZine, which has an English language version, was visited by very many Iranians," commented Rauch, "Friends in Iran told us that many of our posters were 'self-printed' and used at the demonstrations. At the end of September 2009, when the number of posters submitted numbered more than 100, SocialDesignZine was blocked in Iran." In the fall of 2009, Green Bird asked Kunz if she knew of a venue that would be interested in exhibiting the posters collected on SocialDesignZine. Kunz then brought the works to the attention of SVA and soon the planning for "Where Is My Vote?" began.