New Order, Certain General + Karen Finley poster
New York City, USA: Club "1018", 1986
14.9 x 10.8 cm.
Edition size unknown
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Barbara Kruger | The Perfect Kiss
Barbara Kruger
The Perfect Kiss video promotional poster
New York City, USA: Factory Records US, 1985
24.5"x24.5"
Edition size unknown
Jonathan Demme directed the video for New Order's song "The Perfect Kiss", a year after directing the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense (which is still generally considered to be one of the greatest concert films ever) and a few years prior to his Oscar winning films Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia.
The video is a straight ahead live performance, set in the band's rehearsal space. According to Factory Records owner Tony Wilson, Demme was looking forward to filming Stephen Morris behind the drums, and was dismayed to find that the drums in the song were all programmed.
Michael Shamberg, head of Factory US, commissioned Barbara Kruger (then still new to her signature collage style, with Futura Bold Oblique text) to create a poster advertising the music video.
Now scarce, the poster sells for between two and three thousand dollars.
ACBA: Lawrence Weiner for Thick Pigeon
[Lawrence Weiner] Thick Pigeon
Too Crazy Cowboys
Manchester, UK: Factory Records, 1984
12" vinyl LP
Edition size unknown
The 1984 debut from the New York Art Rock duo of Miranda Stanton and Carter Burwell.
Burwell would later find success as a soundtrack composer, scoring three films by Todd Haynes, three for Spike Jonze, almost every movie by the Coen Brothers, and every film by Martin McDonagh. He received Oscar nominations for his scores to Haynes' Carol and McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Miranda Stanton played bass in a band with Kim Gordon called CKM, which was formed in order to participate in a festival organized by Dan Graham. It was their first and final performance, but Stanton introduced Gordon to Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, who and they soon after formed Sonic Youth together. (Moore also appears on the Thick Pigeon song "Pope", which is available on the 2003 reissue of Too Crazy Cowboys).
Stanton's other Factory Records connections include the single "Wheels Over Indian Trails" (produced by Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert from New Order), a cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart", and guest vocals on recordings by the Durutti Column.
She also had an acting career, appearing in three films by Jonathan Demme: Something Wild, Married to the Mob, and Silence of the Lambs. She played the lead role in the small art-house film Souvenir, directed by Michael H. Shamberg of Factory Records US.
Shamberg invited Lawrence Weiner to design the album cover, which features a die-cut jacket.
In a 2003 review for Pitchfork, William Bowers gave the record a 2.1 out of 10, noting "don't buy this Thick Pigeon reissue unless you love post-Warhol sub-glam absurdist-meets-infantile eighties-underground New York-ness, or atrocious-Tony-Wilson hair-era Factory."
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Lawrence Weiner | New Order Substance Poster
Lawrence Weiner
New Order Substance Poster
Golden Valley, USA: Nice Man Merchandising, 1987.
73 x 58 cm.
Edition size unknown
Commissioned by Factory Records and produced by Nice Man Merchandising (a company who established their viability in 1979 when Prince licensed them to create his T-shirt, button, and poster business), this poster was designed by Lawrence Weiner to promote the New Order compilation album Substance.
Available from Specific Object, here, for $2500 US.
John Baldessari
New Order poster
New York City, USA: Factory Records US, 1987
76.2 × 61 cm.
Edition size unknown
A screenprint on offset lithograph promoting two of the band's five performances in California in 1987. The image is by John Baldessari and the type by Kim Spurlock.
Valued at approximately $2000 US.
Monday, November 2, 2020
Lawrence Weiner | New Order poster
Lawrence Weiner
New Order poster
Manchester, UK: Factory Records, 1989
76.2 × 50.8 cm.
Edition size unknown
An offset color lithograph poster advertising the band's fifth and final album for Factory Records (who declared bankruptcy a few years later). The poster stands in stark contrast with the album cover, with it's day-glow colour graphic by resident Factory Records designer Peter Saville.
Against an estimate bid of between three and five hundred dollars, a copy of this poster recently sold through Wright Auction houses for $2,860 US.
Sunday, November 1, 2020
Lawrence Weiner | New Order poster
Lawrence Weiner
New Order poster
Manchester, UK: Factory Records, 1983
76.2 × 50.8 cm.
Edition size unknown
An offset lithograph poster designed by Lawrence Weiner to advertise the band New Order's 7 July 1983 performance at the Paradise Garage.
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