Ripped & Torn: Punk at the Intersection

Ripped & Torn: Punk at the Intersection

Graphics from the Krivine Collection and Photographs by Martin Sorrondeguy. March 25, 2019 - April 17, 2019, RCAH LookOut Art Gallery, MSU

Cocurated with Kate Birdsall, with the assistance of Andrew Krivine and Martin Sorrondeguy. Installation by Steve Baibak, Sonata Davis and Nicole Damron. Dr. Estrella Torrez coordinated Martin Sorrondeguy’s residency at MSU.

The first wave of punk counterculture took shape in the mid-1970s in the UK and found its political voice in response to fiscally conservative heads of state Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Punk sought to cultivate rich local communities, while challenging the dominant culture and the status quo, sonically and visually. In the late 1980s and 1990s in the US, punk languages of rebellion were challenged and pushed in new directions by the US hardcore scene. Latinx and queer youth used their lyrics and visual productions to assert their presence and express anger about their exclusions within and beyond Punk. They also affirmed their linguistic roots and connection to family: Martin Sorrondeguy’s band Los Crudos sang all of its songs in Spanish, except for one, titled: “That’s Right, We’re That Spic Band.”

This exhibition tells an inclusive story of Punk through an intersectional lens, from 1976 to the present, through some of its artifacts. The exhibition takes its title from Scottish fanzine “Ripped & Torn” because, as the materials exhibited here suggest, Punk is not and has never been a monolith and has has never functioned as a singular coalition. We do not attempt to resolve or smooth over these conflicts, some of which are still live. As is perhaps inevitable in any subculture defined by rebellion and subversion of the dominant culture, as Punk evolved, it gave rise to subcultures within itself—including queercore, Riot Grrrl, and no-wave—that resisted punk’s own dominant tendencies and sought to make room within Punk for a more diverse set of bodies, experiences, and angers.