Tyler Starr ~ North Carolina

By Tyler Starr
North Carolina: Wobble Press, 2022. Edition of 20 + 3 AP.

9" x 11.5" x 1.25"; 72 pages. Pigment prints on Moab Entrada Rag Bright 190 gm coated with Moab Desert Spray. Archival painting of page edges. Custom hardcover case binding with rounded spine, foil stamping on front, back, spine, and interior. Custom clamshell with tunnel component and foil stamping on front, back and spine. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Tyler Starr: “’Flags, Placards, and Illicit Climbers of the Capitol Insurrection (January 6, 2021)’ is a 72-page artist’s book based on hours of January 6th footage scoured for images of rioters scaling walls to flank security on the Capitol Grounds. Context is provided with a thorough survey of the flags and placards carried by participants shedding light on their affiliations, motivations, and ideologies, including those aligned with far-right extremist movements and individuals with conspiratorial views of the election. Examples extracted from the flood of imagery offer sociological insights into the violent insurgency including sign-making aesthetics, physical gestures, and fashion preferences.

“The book design is influenced by brochures found at historical sites, presenting accessible nuggets of complex information distilled from primary documentation, inviting viewers to discover and investigate for themselves. A critical contribution to this project comes from the open-source intelligence community, who organized extensive amounts of January 6th footage on websites to assist the FBI with crowdsourcing the identification of perpetrators for prosecution. This project acknowledges the importance of archival work and the power of open-source intelligence to uncover facts.”

www.history.com/this-day-in-history: “On the afternoon of January 6, 2021, a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters descend on the U.S. Capitol, attempting to interfere with the certification of electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election. The rioters assaulted the Capitol police force and ransacked the complex, destroying property and sending members of Congress and their staff into hiding in offices and bunkers. A protester who was shot by police died in the chaos and more than 100 members of law enforcement were injured. …For several hours, rioters looted and ransacked congressional offices, including the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; invaded the senate chamber; and posed for pictures.”

Artist’s Books Unshelved / Bookending 45: “In this episode … we look at artist books that respond to events surrounding the tumultuous 2016 and 2020 elections.”
$2,000 (To ship after January 1, 2025)

Bank Tellers of America versus The Aryan Republican Army (1992-1996)
By Tyler Starr
North Carolina: Wobble Press, 2021. Edition of 15 + 2 AP.

8.75" x 10.25" x 1.25"; 72 pages. Pigment prints on Moab Entrada Rag Bright 190 gm . Custom hardcover case binding with hinged foldout front and back covers using inlaid magnets. Custom slipcase with inlaid label. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Tyler Starr: "'The Aryan Republican Army (ARA) committed 22 armed bank robberies in the Midwest from November 11,1992 to December 19, 1995. The objectives of its leaders, Richard Lee Guthrie and Peter Kevin Langan, were to raise funds for the white supremacist movement and overthrow the U.S. government. The ARA was part of the broader movement of white supremacist terrorism that weaves its presence through American history to the present. Since 2019, the Department of Homeland Security and FBI began to officially acknowledge that white supremacists are the top domestic terrorism threat.

"By transforming text from FBI documents into images, this book displays the connections between white supremacist ideology, access to armaments, and violent intent. Visualizations of the case against the ARA are accurately based on items accumulated by the FBI as evidence. Bank tellers terrorized by the ARA were instrumental in breaking the case. It was ultimately the bank tellers that identified the gunmen and testified against them in court resulting in successful convictions and destruction of the organization.'"
$1,400

By Tyler Starr
Davidson, North Carolina: Wobble Press, 2017.
Edition of 15 + 2 AP, 1 Handling Copy.

12.5” x 23” x 1” closed, 19 panels, extends out to 230”. Accordion book, hard cover with doublures, foil stamped cover. Extends from back pastedown. Pigment print on Canson Edition Rag 310gm. Bound into cloth-covered boards. Laid in clamshell box. Signed and dated by the artist.

Tyler Starr: "This work reconstructs a KKK motorcade that the FBI linked to the murder of the civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo on March 25, 1965. The car that carried Liuzzo’s killers participated in a 93-car motorcade organized by the United Clans of America, Inc. that traveled through Montgomery on March 21 as a counter-demonstration against the Selma March. Auto classifieds were used to find photographs corresponding to each specific description (year, make, model and color) of the KKK affiliated vehicles identified in FBI documents. A panoramic retracing of the parade route was created using Google Map based on the KKK’s parade permit that is also included in the book.

"Another aspect of the case of Viola Liuzzo explored in the piece was the attempted sale of the vehicle that Viola Liuzzo was killed in as a 'Business Opportunity' to draw crowds. Microfiche was used to find the classified advertisement which was collaged into the work.

"This project was completed with support from a Puffin Foundation Grant."

Tom Patterson, Winston-Salem Journal, "Vintage violence": "This long horizontal digital print visually reconstructs a Ku Klux Klan motorcade linked to the murder, four days later, of Viola Liuzzo, a … civil-rights worker while she was inside her 1963 Oldsmobile. The resultant FBI investigation determined that her killer or killers were traveling in a car that had been in the motorcade. …

"The small images of cards – all manufactured between 1948 and 1965 – are set off against a neutral ground in two long rows above an array of buildings Starr … photographed along the parade route through downtown Montgomery.

"Also incorporated into the piece are a couple of collaged texts. One of these is an FBI summary of the investigation into Liuzzo's murder, including the names of all four suspects, none of whom were ever convicted. Even more shocking is the other text, a classified advertisement published in a Montgomery newspaper following the murder and investigation. In the ad, the car in which Liuzzo was murdered is offered for sale with 'bullet holes and everything still intact,' rendering it 'ideal to bring in a crowd.'"

Artist’s Books Unshelved: Issues of Racial Justice and Atrocities
$3,000 (Last 3 + APs)

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Clutch: Tales of the Future
By Tyler Starr
North Carolina: Wobble Press, 2024. Edition of 1000. 2024

12” x 9” closed (12”x18” opened); 24 pages. Saddle stitch stapled binding.

Wobble Press: “This artist’s book presents a visual narrative surveying two of the artist’s formative exposures to mortality: a parable involving a deadly muscle car in Connecticut and an encounter with a frozen biped in an Ohio Mall. The project was inspired by Starr reaching the age at which his sister passed away from cancer. Grounded in the premise of palliative care, this work reflects on how facing mortality can help deepen appreciation of life’s transience.

“Starr approaches this subject with subtle humor and dramatic visuals created with spray paint, ink, and layered gampi paper—an approach developed during his years researching woodblock printing in Japan. This volume is the first in a series on mortality emanating from Starr’s previous works that visualize FBI cases to create informative and immersive studies on white nationalist violence. Here, based on his humble experiences, he examines how individuals face the end of life, offering a theatrical reflection on this fundamental aspect of being human.”
$15

"implementatlist" Papers
By Tyler Starr
Charlotte / Tokyo: Wobble Press, 2018. Unstated.

20 pages with 2 foldouts; 7” x 5”, foldouts extend to 15”. Offset printed. Pamphlet structure. Saddle stitch binding with staples. Includes reference page of sources. Signed by the artist.

Tyler Starr: "This artist's book incorporates a comparative survey of mid-century modernist architecture of Tokyo and North Carolina while considering the differences that come from specificities of place and culture. These matters are further considered through a parallel studies of woodlice and lighting fixtures of Japan and North Carolina that reveal universal forces at work such as adaptation and evolution."
$5

Auto Record: Green Kill
By Tyler Starr
North Carolina: Wobble Press, 2013. Edition of 800.

20 pages, 10 panels; 5” x 8.5”, extends out to 50". Double sided accordion. Offset printed on 80# Offset Text paper. Signed by the artist.

Tyler Starr: "'Auto Record' is an earnest attempt to digest thousands of pages of unclassified documents created by the FBI in relation to the controversial incident in North Carolina on November 3rd, 1979, commonly known as the Greensboro Massacre. The accordion book format is used to visualize two processions of vehicles involved in the incident (one side of the booklet is the KKK and associates caravan, while the other depicts vehicles connected to the Communist Workers Party). Information provided includes weapons retrieved from the incident, a schematic of the bullet holes in the Channel 12 news car, and FBI summaries of the 5 individuals killed on that day. Information and imagery is all accurately based on or directly collaged from primary documents."

Wikipedia, 11/19/2020: " The Greensboro massacre is the term for an event which took place on November 3, 1979, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Four members of the Communists Workers Party(CWP) and a protester were killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party(ANP) during a 'Death to the Klan' march, organized by the CWP. The event had been preceded by inflammatory rhetoric from both sides. The CWP had originally come to Greensboro to support workers' rights activism among mostly black textile industry workers in the area. The march was a part of that larger effort. The Greensboro city police department had an informant within the KKK and ANP group who notified them that the Klan was prepared for armed violence.

"As the two opposing groups came in contact, at the onset of the march, both sides exchanged gunfire. The CWP and supporters had one or more handguns, while members of the KKK and the ANP were shown in a video taking rifles from their cars. In addition to the five deaths, ten demonstrators and a Klansman were wounded."
$1

Rollo Wants
By Tyler Starr
Tokyo / Iowa City / New Haven: Wobble Press, 2011.

16 pages; 5.75” x 8.25". Offset printed. Pamphlet. Saddle stitch stapled binding. Signed by the artist.

Tyler Starr: "'Tyler Starr's experience of living in Tokyo colors 'Rollo Wants'. After the Tohoku Earthquake, events in the city revealed areas of opposition between embattled local issues and centralized authority.

"This artist's booklet was developed as part of Starr's installation 'Burning Wants' at the Haas Family Library at Yale based on the library's archives and free associations that came from the process of exploring the library both digitally and in person. The artist's booklet is especially inspired by the Rollo Peters' collection of stage designs on hotel stationery at the Haas Family Library. Key parts of the imagery come from Peters' performance in 'The Age of Innocence' as Newland Archer, a character that yearns to run off to Japan with his illicit love.

"Additional imagery comes from: the Yanaka Five-Storied Pagoda Double-Suicide Arson Case that occurred in the Tokyo neighborhood where Starr lived, the red-light districts outside of U.S. military bases in Japan, and Yale's Paul Rudolph Hall where a mysterious fire occurred in 1969 during protests for social justice.

"'Rollo Wants' reflects the train of associations and rapid discoveries made possible by digital dissemination of library materials. The booklet is a collaboration with the quirks of search engine results, the librarians' choices of uploaded images, and the artist's agendas."
$5

Attempted Fix: Dams, Bases and the Resulting Wobbles
By Tyler Starr
Tokyo: Wobble Press, 2010. Edition of 300.

16 pages; 5” x 8.25". Offset printed. Pamphlet. Saddle stitch stapled binding. Bilingual text - Japanese and English. Signed by the artist.

Tyler Starr: "'Attempted Fix: Dams, Bases and the Resulting Wobbles in Japan' explores cross-relationships between the anti-dam and anti-U.S. military base protest movements. Factual data and historical references amassed during seven years of research in Japan are imbued with poetic associations and offered as points of departure for the reader. Unintended consequences and contradictory intentions that commonly appear in politics, protest movements, construction projects and everyday desires are explored as essential to the attempts to 'fix' perceived wrongs in the world."
$5