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The Swap Meat

Read the four things that can happen when you send us something for swapping and learn how you can get involved. Selected items are featured here and the deadline for swapping has been extended through the summer. Yay! Keep 'em coming.

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David Derr Neon Sign Prints

ID SM0168-SM0169 (photo)
Arrived 5.29.07, AM (in person)
From David Derr, Chicago, IL
Description 3-color screenprint, 30" x 22"
More info email David
Swapped for TBD
Status at CP

Though we offered David Derr's Stars Motel Print for sale, his original entry was a 1999 print featuring the Sunny Snack Shop sign. We loved that print, but at the time he only had a couple left. So, David stopped by the office, showed us some other prints and we decided to offer "Stars" as a Swap Meat Exclusive. That sold out very quickly. Now David has created two new editions of 50 prints each, just for the Swap Meat. Both feature vibrant halftoned images of Chicago-area neon signs. The first is a new version of the 1999 Sunny Snack Shop print, the second is an all-new print featuring the Buy-Low Liquors sign. They're great individually, but even better together, though it's up to you whether liquor or breakfast comes first (and, if you're already a Derr connoisseur, where the motel fits in).

Swap Meat Exclusive: Available For Purchase
Limited-edition of only 50 (each design). 30" x 22" in three colors on Stonehenge 100% rag acid-free 90-lb paper with a deckled top and bottom, signed and numbered by the artist. If you order both (while supplies last), you'll get matching-numbered prints and save $25!
SOLD OUT

Brendan Dawes Cinema Redux Print

ID SM0248 (photo)
Arrived 5.5.07, PM, USPS Global Air
From Brendan Dawes, Manchester, UK
Description 16" x 20" Lamda Print
More info brendandawes.com
Swapped for TBD
Status at CP

Brendan Dawes' very special limited-edition based on our unending obsession with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Brendan explains, "A specially written piece of software takes a tiny snapshot of the film every second. Each row contains sixty of these frames, representing one minute of film time. This process continues for the whole movie resulting in an image that becomes greater than the sum of its parts, in effect creating a unique visual fingerprint of the film." Kubrick geeks must have this. Read Brendan's The Things Around Us for more on the motivation behind this work.

Swap Meat Exclusive: Available For Purchase
A one-time limited-edition of only 50. 16" x 20" Continous-Tone, High-Gloss, Lambda Photographic Emulsion "Cinema Redux" Print of 2001. Individually Proofed. Numbered, dated and signed by the artist on an accompanying sheet for mounting on the reverse after framing. Shipped flat. $300 each. SOLD OUT

Candykiller Screen Print

ID SM0219 (photo)
Arrived 7.06.07
From Brian Taylor, Dundee Scotland
Description 22" x 30" Screen Print
More info Candykiller
Swapped for TBD
Status at CP

Longtime readers will recognize our little oxidized friend, Rustboy. He's how we first got acquainted with Brian Taylor. While continuing to work on that one-man animated film, Brian began to develop Candykiller, a series of characters, illustrations, books and toys. We initially offered a small letterpress Candykillers print that sold out very quickly and now we have this big beautiful Smokin' screen print ready to go. Brian designed it in Scotland and we oversaw the screening process here in Chicago.

Swap Meat Exclusive: Available For Purchase
Limited-edition of only 150 prints, hand-screened exclusively for The Swap Meat. 4-colors on bright-white French Paper Company stock. The large, 22" x 30" prints are accompanied by a certificate, designed, numbered, dated and signed by the artist for mounting on the reverse after framing. Shipped in tubes, rolled with craft paper. $75 each. SOLD OUT

GEO+INFO postcard

ID SM0031 (photo)
Arrived 3.26.07, AM (USPS)
From Ben Schlitter, Hays, KS
Description Two sets of four postcards
More info GEO+INFO
Swapped for TBD
Status at CP

These cards may be the most educational swap meat that's come along, and among the best-designed and most-fun. Rather than photos or tourist info, each card contains questions about the sender's environment. The four cards are divided into four categories: Climate, Land/Water/Animals, Population/Lifestyle, and Industry/Resources. The user fills in the blanks and sends them away, as Ben says, "learning about their environment and sharing it with others." Neat!

“Anti-Landmark” Screen Print

ID SM0233 (photo)
Arrived 7.18.07
From Dan MacAdam, Chicago, IL
Description 23.5" x 17.5" screen print
More info Crosshair Screenprint
Swapped for TBD
Status at CP

Crosshair Silkscreen Printing and Design sits just down Lake Street from the CP office, and proprietor Dan MacAdam's recent work centers around the distinctive landscape of the industrial neighborhood we share. We instantly recognized this scene from our commute, proof that even the most unassuming brick warehouse can leave as strong an impression as Chicago's more famous buildings. Dan's craftsmanship is remarkable. Printing seven colors is rather difficult and tedious at best, but his attention to transparency and registration gives his prints a nearly photographic detail that is rather mindblowing, especially when seen close-up.

Swap Meat Exclusive: Available For Purchase
50 prints available from an edition of 100. 7-color silkscreen print on 23.5" x 17.5" 100# bright-white Cougar cover. Prints are signed and numbered by the artist, and shipped in tubes in a protective plastic sheath. $60 each. SOLD OUT

Evolutionist T-Shirt

ID SM0021 (photo)
Arrived 3.22.07, PM (USPS)
From Kate Lane, New York, NY
Description Green T-shirt, XL
More info ibelieveinscience.com
Swapped for TBD
Status at CP

Kate was alarmed by the rising tide of creationism and "intelligent design" in the United States lately, so she used a little "intelligent design" of her own and designed these t-shirts to give Darwin his props. We here at Coudal would never take a political stance, especially on a t-shirt, but we have to admit, the pinkos and atheists almost universally have better-designed stuff.

Obsessive Consumption Print Edition

ID SM0202 (photo)
Arrived 6.26.07, PM, FedEx
From Kate Bingaman-Burt, Starkville, MS
Description 6" x 9" Handmade Compendium
More info Obsessive Consumption
Swapped for TBD
Status at CP

We know Kate Bingaman-Burt better than we know a lot of people that we have actually met. We have seen most of the things Kate has purchased over the past few years and that can tell you a lot about a person. Kate's practice of drawing a picture of something she buys every day has been well documented, in the New York Times Magazine and lots of other places and we're proud to say we have an original drawing of Kate's September 2004 Chase credit card statement framed in our studio (she owed $7039.24 at that time). For this Swap Meat Exclusive Kate has a handcrafted a book of all her daily drawings between February 5th 2006 (gas at BP) and June 20th 2007 (a bingo card). Click the thumbnail above and here to see some additional details.

Swap Meat Exclusive: Available For Purchase
A one-time, limited-edition of only 75. Gocco-printed covers with xerography guts. Two Gocco prints. Hand-colored pencil with sewn inside enclosures. Numbered and signed by the artist. $68.19 each. SOLD OUT

“The Conquerer Worm” Letterpressed Print

ID SM0105 (photo)
Arrived 4.15.07, PM (delivery)
From Jason Santa Maria, Rob Weychert, Philly, PA
Description Hand Typeset and Struck Print, 10" x 24"
More info jasonsantamaria.com
Swapped for TBD
Status at CP

We had seen Jason's post and photos, documenting the process of making this print but that didn't really prepare us for the actual object. In many ways The Swap Meat is about things made by hand in an age full of things made by mouse. The texture of the blood-red and black letterforms, forced into the page by physical pressure is beautiful and fits Poe's fantastical poem perfectly. It's as if this was not printed on a vintage letterpress at all but instead was output from a time machine.

Swap Meat Exclusive: Available For Purchase
Limited-edition of only 20. Set By Hand with Vintage Metal Type and Printed via Letterpress on 100% Cotton Rives Off-White Paper, Water-Marked with a Deckled Bottom Edge 10" x 24" Signed and numbered by the artists. $65 each.

Little Somethings

ID SM0053 (photo)
Arrived 3.29.07 PM (USPS)
From Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Chicago, IL
Description handmade book
More info mommymommy.com
Swapped for TBD
Status on foosball table at CP

FOTA Amy Krouse Rosenthal has written several books, some for kids and some for adults. We (and our kids) love her work, so we were excited to get this hand-made volume of hand-colored photocopies, featuring typographic puns and wordplay -- a little bit Droodles, a little bit Sparkle and Spin. We're not sure if this is a mock-up of a new book in the works, or if it's for kids, or adults. Her brief note (on a paper towel, ha) gave it little context, but we dig the book and another Swapper will be lucky to get it.

Comic Book Store Poster

ID SM0263 (photo)
Arrived 6.20.07, PM, Hand-Delivered
From Nick Campbell, Chicago, IL
Description 28" x 18" Digital Poster Print
More info Greyscale Gorilla
Swapped for TBD
Status at CP

It's funny how thing work out sometimes. Nick Campbell (aka Greyscale Gorilla) entered one of our subscriber-only photo contests. In fact, he won it with this submission in answer to an asssignment to make a picture in which the foregound and the background had some sort of narrative connection. While we were looking through his portfolio we were stopped dead in our tracks by this beautiful shot of the racks at a local comic book store. So, when we sent Nick his big prize package we said, "Let's make a poster." Ours is going home with Jim for the wall in his boy Spencer's room. Where's yours going? Just for fun, here's Nick signing them all.

Swap Meat Exclusive: Available For Purchase
A one-time limited-edition of only 248 (we kept one for swapping and one for ourselves). 28" x 18" digitally printed on semi-matte poster stock. Signed and numbered by the artist. $20 each. SOLD OUT

Click Me Art Print by Marian Bantjes Sold Out

ID SM0262 (photo)
Arrived 6.20.07, PM, UPS
From Marian Bantjes, Vancouver, Canada
Description 20" x 20" Fine Art Print
More info bantjes.com
Swapped for TBD
Status at CP

You have to go way back to a medieval term to properly describe the craft of Marian Bantjes. If such a organization existed today, we might expect to find her as Master of the Guild of Illuminated Typographers. Created specifically for The Swap Meat, this piece places a thoroughly modern, digital message in a beautiful, hand-drawn, analog context. "Click me. Read me. Open me. Buy me. Love me." Indeed. In some ways it's the perfect Swap. To borrow a phrase from the NYT Magazine, it completes the "virtuous circle of artful swag."

Swap Meat Exclusive: Available For Purchase
A one-time, limited-edition of only sixty. 20" x 20" Giclee Fine Art Print on 100% acid free cotton archival paper. Individually Proofed. Numbered, signed and dated by the artist on an accompanying sheet for mounting on the reverse after framing. Shipped flat. $90 each. SOLD OUT.

"Culmination" canvas print

ID SM0236 (photo)
Arrived 7.27.07, AM (USPS)
From Lynne Taetzsch
Description 15x15" glicee print on stretched canvas
More info Art by Lynne Taetzsch
Swapped for TBD
Status at CP

Although we can and would talk your ear off about all things design if prompted, and we can stumble our way through a conversation about "art," we feel that with art, like wine, it doesn't really matter what you know, it's what you like that's important. And when Ithaca, New York based painter Lynne Tatzsch's "Culmination" came in, we all coveted it immediately. An abstract flood of bright yellows, oranges and reds, it can only be described as a round fruit run amok or a microscopic look at colorful blood cells zipping all over the place. See? We know those descriptions are lame and don't even begin to do Lynne's painting justice. But the important point is that we're trying our best to explain something we really love to the lucky swapper who will equally love hanging it on their wall, be they seasoned art appreciating sophisticates or average joes like us.

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What We're Up To

Check the Museum of Online Museums (MoOM) or our summer reading feature, Field-Tested Books. Or you can read a mostly unsuccessful attempt at explaining ourselves or just start on the Cover Page.

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