Punks, goths, mods, beatniks, club kids, and hippies: a shortlist of an endless supply of social factions that make up the fabled “underground.” In the grander societal context, they are known as subcultures: communities formed and concretized upon values that defy those held by the mainstream, who express themselves in fashion, music, and art that are unlike dominant cultural exports.
Looking back at the twentieth century, endless artistic movements, musical genres, lifestyles, and hobbies can be considered subcultures, as can certain political movements, but they weren’t always self-aware. Most often, subcultures were just groups of like-minded people gathering around a shared interest. Sometimes, their gathering led to important political transformations, other times to beloved music and art; some subcultures disappeared with their members, and others live on to this day.
At Swann, the Subculture Sale is a means to celebrate the revolutionary, beautiful, exciting, and curious exports of these movements. The Subculture Sale covers a range of material terrain, highlighting facets of subcultural inner workings across decades and ideologies:
Vintage Posters
Posters were engaging, large-scale ways to get one’s message out to the public view, and subcultural groups often created them to promote their ideas, events, or artworks. Gary Yanker argues that political posters confronted “man more directly than any of the other media,” and writes about the democratic purpose of the poster when other dominant forms of ideological dissemination – television and radio – were primarily controlled by wealthier political groups.
The below William Weege protest posters exemplify the role of posters in promoting political messages. Three versions picture scantily clad women to draw attention to their message, while one quotes a Bible verse to draw sympathy to the conditions being protested. The posters are graphic, one- or two-color prints that were likely easy to produce in extensive quantities for large-scale distribution.
Ephemera & Archives
The archive of an organization or artist is an excellent way to peek under the hood and understand how they operated and what they were thinking in real time. Archives often contain photographs, correspondence, studies, and other ephemera that viewers wouldn’t otherwise have access to. They can tell us the story of an artist’s practice, the development of a project, or what life looked like within a specific group.
Often, archives contain ephemera: items that were not created to have a lifespan beyond their original purpose for creation. Though seemingly insignificant, ephemera can help us develop a more well-rounded understanding of the minutiae that make important cultural moments possible, like letters between important figures or drafts of major artistic works. That ephemera should not really have survived at all, which makes collecting it all that much more exciting.
Swann has offered a number of important archives, but the collection of materials related to Joan Jett Blakk’s 1992 satirical presidential campaign perhaps best represents the esoteric nature of subcultural movements. The archive features preliminary poster designs, correspondence between Blakk and poet Eileen Myles, and a number of promotional materials related to the campaign.
Photographs
Photographers have long held an interest in documenting the activities of subcultures. Often in closed-off spaces, their concerts, happenings, parties, and meetings are an elusive and intriguing subject. Photographers capture a more human side of subcultures, one that looks at its participants in their spaces of comfort.
Peter Hujar is a prime example of the importance of photographers in documenting subculture. Known for his black-and-white portraits depicting notables within New York’s underground art and performance scene, Hujar’s perspective is an intimate and evocative view into a world of subversive gender identity and avant-garde art.
Fine Art
A number of fine artists used their perspectives as societally oppressed or underrepresented people to inform their artistic practice, creating work that spoke to the ideas and values they could not otherwise express. Fine art allowed these artists to have control over their messaging, whether they chose to distort their ideas into sublimation, or create images that visually beautify a discernable message.
Hugh Steers’ work frequently depicted representations of his struggle with AIDS; indoor scenes of confinement, often with subjects whose faces were disguised behind paper bags or by downturned heads. His friend and former teacher, Julie Heffernan, writes that the characters in his paintings became figures of comfort and companionship to him, and that painting itself provided him comfort as his health declined.
Periodicals & Publications
Subcultural groups often used magazines and newsletters to communicate ideas and happenings, share art, and build community on a larger scale. Often, these were handmade and cheaply printed, as few groups had the resources to create polished publications. The “zine” revolution allowed groups to use a photocopier to cheaply and efficiently mass produce and distribute their ideas around the world. Zines were often highly specialized and represent the highly niche interests of various groups.
Music
Many subcultures were formed, expressed, or defined through music. In genres like reggae and punk, the music was the message, projecting sentiments of peace and love or outrage and revolution. In some genres, like goth, the subculture was defined more by the social scene and aesthetic atmosphere brought about by the music than its lyricism. Goth music is dark and brooding, and listeners of the genre were often identifiable by their similarly somber, antique-inspired clothing and heavily contrasted makeup. Though many music genres that were rooted in subculture dwindled, some broke through to the mainstream.
Now the most widely listened to genre worldwide, hip hop began as a reaction to worsening social and economic conditions in early-1970s New York City. Faced with an increasingly bleak reality and few economic opportunities, young people in the Bronx turned to the streets for community and entertainment. Brick walls became backdrops for graffiti art, and sheets of cardboard became dance floors. The outings were soundtracked by DJs and MCs. Hip-hop happenings were held across the city, providing a place for disillusioned youth to channel their emotions into art and find community with their peers.
The funny thing about subcultures is that we can often relate to their principles more than we may imagine or wish to think. There is a commonality in the desire to build “a nation based on love and respect…” (Yippie Manifesto, 1968), to exemplify the values of “authenticity and creativity” (Walt Cassidy, Club Kid), or perhaps even, if only for a moment, to embody Andy Warhol’s whimsy as he asks the stoic Joan Didion: Why can’t it just be magic all the time?
Subcultures often straddled two opposing ideas: that the safest place for those who wish to live outside acceptability is within the armored gates of their own community, and that the idea of a changed world, one where their ideas or means of self-expression weren’t deemed “radical” — where the “sub” could be dropped — was possible. Subcultures thrived in this dichotomy; a purpose for artistic creation, and an intimate space where it was celebrated. For many denizens, the world only needed to be as big as a sticky do-it-yourself music venue or a decrepit Bowery loft to be worth being in.
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