Paper scissors rock: 25 years of northwest punk poster design

2002

An exhibition that explores a quarter century of punk-related poster art from the Pacific Northwest.

Synopsis:
During the late-1970s, punk rock reverberated up and down the I-5 corridor as raw, young bands hot-wired an underground touring circuit. These groups, dirt-poor and starved for attention, developed an unschooled yet ferocious style of self-promotion based around low-tech, Xeroxed posters stapled onto telephone poles. The crude and immediate street-factor of punk posters later evolved, drawing inspiration from cheesy horror movies, hot-rod culture, and comics, establishing a look for the international Grunge phenomenon. Paper Scissors ROCK: 25 Years of Northwest Punk Poster Design details the entire story of this graphical form – from its origins in tiny, beer-soaked dives through to the cultural main stage.

Scope: exhibition curation