Prints and principles

Montreal's Seripop open a new chapter in the
art of the rock poster

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

There's an admirable tradition of rock posters as artworks, from the mindblowing Fillmore flyers of the late '60s to the rock-art resurgence of Kozik, Coop and Art Chantry. The latest chapter, it seems, has found a major player in Seripop, the Montreal-based duo of Chloe Lum and Yannick Desranleau.

Already familiar faces in the local noise-rock scene (Da Bloody Gashes, Aids Wolf), the pair have, for two years now, focused on designing and silkscreening show posters as remarkable and original as any that came before them. Seripop don't trade in the sin, skin, custom cars and cartoon creeps ubiquitous in the '90s. Their work echoes far wider and more worthwhile antecedents - op art, pop art, Dada's disorientation and punk's ransom-note riffs, the chock-a-block simplicity of Saul Bass's movie posters and the psychedelic swirl of the '60s Haight-Ashbury scene. Their raw, handmade style fits harmoniously with their considered, even avant-garde aesthetics. And they'd sooner go hungry than hype a sucky client.

Unsucky clients abound, fortunately - noisy, notable bands both local and out-of-town, including Rocket From the Crypt, Broadcast, Erase Errata, the Rapture and the Unicorns. Moreover, Seripop have branched out to design for indie film fests, theatre, art shows and political causes, and are doing their own gallery shows from here to San Diego. The Mirror met with Lum and Desranleau at Casa del Popolo, site of their current Montreal exhibition.

Mirror: What I like about your work is, you challenge both the client and the audience. The client, you challenge to see their promo materials as integral to their art, not an afterthought, and to see the designer as an artist.

Chloe Lum: As a collaborator, rather than a hired set of hands. Yes, a poster is to advertise an event and tell you where it is, but it can also be a lot more, something that adds prestige to your event, something that enhances the reputation and image of the promoter, the venue and the band. It can be something that works hand in hand with the image that the band or promoter are already trying to cultivate. A lot of promoters have the idea that a big slab of poorly-kerned Impact Bold with a promo picture in the middle - I mean, that does the job, it tells people about the show. But when you have that same thing for Bob Mould and King Diamond, the person who isn't familiar with those artists isn't going to be able tell there's a stylistic difference between them. We try to do stuff that might take you a bit more time to look at.

M: That's right, you also challenge your audience - people in the street - to take the time to study and work with the poster.

CL: Often the level of challenge in the music and in the band's identity, and also what city the show is in, are taken into consideration. Obviously, certain audiences are up for more of a visual mindfuck than others. We don't think you need to talk down to your audience, that promotion or different aspects of underground culture need to be condescending, or aim for the lowest common denominator. You can do something that people might not get right away, that they take a few moments to look at. I think that, after a little over two years of doing this full time, it's working.

No so hot rods

M: As much as I appreciate the '90s guys, Kozik, Coop and so on, what bugged me was the wave of imitators that followed them, working with this really limited iconography. Big Daddy Roth hot rods, pin-up girls -

CL: Devils, dice, flames -

Yannick Desranleau: Distressed type and clip art, found images in general. These main guys came early and inspired a lot of people. But that will create copycats, no matter what. Thing is, in the southern U.S., that's an iconography that touches a lot of people. It might annoy a lot of people on the East Coast -

CL: But we even have people doing that kind of artwork here in Montreal, 15 years later! Hoping that they can get a piece of the pie. But the whole scene has moved on. People who do that stuff, they're like the cover bands of the poster art scene.

YD: What permitted that, like it or not, is that the poster is a folk art. It's people in their basements, doing it often as a hobby. They can keep doing it part time their whole lives and have a huge output, because it's so easy to get published. Any Joe can make it, somewhat.

M: Another thing I wanted to get into, noticing that you include progressive politics in the domain within which you want to work, is political posters.

CL: We've done posters for an anti-gentrification project in Chicago and for an anti-war poster show that started in L.A., so it's definitely an area we're interested in, and one we're doing a lot of research on now.

YD: It's interesting mostly because it brings a real sense to conceptualizing - you have an actual idea to work with, like a script or a mission. It's not easier, it's a challenge, but it's fun.

M: Do you think that posters are still an effective means of political communication?

YD: Yeah. People still walk in the streets.

CL: Until we're so wired up that we don't need to leave our houses at all, posters will be effective. It's the only democratic way of communicating.

Posters for the people

M: Well, there's ham radio and so on. But that's preaching to the converted. People won't tune in except to hear a certain message, the one they want to hear. But a poster on the street, they have no choice but to see it.

CL: You have anarchists and students seeing it, but also grandmothers and shop owners and businessmen, too.

YD: And if someone tears it down, you can always come back and glue up another one.

CL: But even that's becoming a problem, cities tearing down posters faster than they can be put up. What a waste of money! They're never going to get rid of people postering. Why are people advertising DIY grassroots stuff a threat? The biggest thing we get told is, it's an eyesore, it's litter, garbage. What about fucking billboards? At least this is something that supports local independent culture, something that's accessible to people. I can advertise my Portuguese soccer league, you your dog-grooming competition or food-bank benefit. It makes me really angry, the way that basic community communication is becoming more and more criminalized, while we can't escape corporate communication - billboards, radio, TV, it's coming under our doors in flyers. People are calling us to sell us stuff; you can't send an e-mail without getting an ad back. It's bullshit!

M: So what's a project you've worked on lately that you really enjoyed?

CL: Well, we just did a 16-poster tour series for two bands from Providence, Rhode Island - Chinese Stars and Daughters, bands we really respect and admire, and are friendly with. We decided to do a project where, over the next couple of years, we do many different tour series. We'll take a band who we think are doing something exciting musically, who have an interesting visual aesthetic, who we respect as people and get along with, and are an emerging band who could use the promotion.

YD: We spent a month solid on that project, and after we wanted to slit our wrists.

CL: Oh yeah, major burnout. Now, because we haven't seen these guys since the fall, it'll be pretty exciting to be with them. They're obviously a band we believe in if we spent a month doing these posters, didn't get paid for them, had to Fed-Ex them to the venues out of our own pocket. So they're something we endorse whole-heartedly. They're musicians coming from the same place as our art does.

The Art of Seripop exhibition is at Casa del Popolo until Friday, April 30. Chinese Stars, Aids Wolf, Whose the Ghost and Lesbians on Ecstasy at El Salon on Friday, April 23, 9pm, $10