Polemic || Lugnut || Back

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We think of memes as a product of the Internet Age but memes have been with us since the invention of the printing press. Reproducible images designed to simplify complex ideas and spread a message. Fascists have always been good at memeing. Complex social problems are reduced to easy answers and propaganda tries to recruit followers. The images collected here do not represent a comprehensive history of fascism and its opponents. They attempt to gather a wide variety of images from many different times and places to serve as a starting point to study and understand hate movements and how to oppose them. The next fascism will not be identical to the last, but themes will echo. The next anti-fascism should not be identical to the last, but it should understand its predecessors, what worked, what didn't, and how to adapt.

By comparing and contrasting different themes and objectives directly, I have attempted to address the glib centrist position that both 'extremes' are as bad as each other. The notion that those that propose genocidal policies and those that oppose them are somehow equivalent shouldn't even need to be taken seriously, but here we are. The abecedaria are meant as a basic introduction to the subject matters of which many talented historians and researchers have written. My work can only serve as a signpost to theirs and I am indebted to them. The deck of cards is symbolic of the games of politicians, with the stakes being unthinkably high. This work is dedicated to all the victims of fascism living and dead. No Pasarán.

Lugnut used to be a punk. He used to listen to music all the time, write zines, hitchhike everywhere and be the only straight-edge kid at the crust show. Now he lives alone in the countryside, studies numbers and hasn't a clue what bands are good. A lot of things have changed but Nazis still suck. Lugnut has no formal art training or education. This is his first print exhibition.

Polemic is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs