PUNK
'TIL YOU
PUKE!
by Will Munro

September 15th - November 18th, 2006

Opening: Friday September 15th, 2006 7:00PM 'Til You Puke!


Will Munro at the decks


The other deejay


Sarah & Alynne Lavigne


Chris Curreri, Kevin Hegge & Luis Jacob


Scott Treleaven & friends


Daryl Vocat with the punk red hair


Andrew Patterson & Tanya Mars yuk it up






Art Metropole's Krista Buecking & Lindsay Cope


Andrew Patterson & a friend


Michelle, Kelly & Jin


Meichen's friend makes a funny face


Director Ann Dean and Kian strike a pose


Andrew Harwood & a friend


Laura Wickett & Steve Wicks


Dave and his girl


Miles Collyer!


Paul P. & Will Munro


Conceived and curated by music and art world artist/activist Will Munro, Art Metropole is pleased to present PUNK 'TIL YOU PUKE!, an exhibition of '70's punk ephemera selected from recently uncovered production/research material collected by General Idea to produce their "Punk 'Til You Puke!" issue of FILE Megazine (vol. 3, no. 4, fall 1977).*

In the early '70's artists were struggling to have their voices reach larger audiences. Andy Warhol had demonstrated how rock and roll was a viable context, but it was the destructive, chaotic, anti-social theatre of the ridiculous that punk was that gave the new generation - those with plenty of attitude and ideas, who might not have known how to play an instrument - the license to create. The artistic avant-garde's strategic interest in mail-art, zines, correspondence, and postal networking became a viral strategy that punks co-opted to disseminate their message, a process that has infected the cultural landscape eternally.

The "Punk 'Til You Puke!" issue of FILE, explored the art scene/music scene merger. General Idea's editorial states:

In Toronto and New York they fiddled with performance and fled to punk. Art/Rrock 'n' Rroll crossover was the original theme of this issue: Throbbing Gristle at the ICA; the Poles at the McLaughlin Gallery; the Dishes and the Talking Heads at A Space; the New York Dolls at the Mercer Arts Center; Talking Heads at the Kitchen; CEAC and the Crash & Burn. Now every concert is an event. Alan Suicide is a musician, or is he? Michaele Berman is an artist, or is she? Robin Lee Crutchfield is an ----------, or is he? Patty Smith is a poet, or is she? The sentimentalism of late sixties early seventies essentially surrealistic aesthetic has been replaced by a certain pragmatic anarchy which is now the theme of this issue:

It's cheap … it's easy … go do it!

PUNK 'TIL YOU PUKE! captures a moment in history when artists were disentangling themselves from the dominant music industry. Produced in this process was a plethora of independent publications, record labels, promotional materials, and live performance venues. This exhibition contains incredible evidence of this counter cultural explosion including the notorious zines Sniffing Glue, Bondage, Slash, Crash and Burn Newsletter, Punk, Search and Destroy. Also included are gig posters from San Francisco, Toronto, London and New York as well as hand written press packages from bands like The Curse, Crime, The Screamers, The Viletones, Throbbing Gristle, The B Girls, The Brats, and Talking Heads, to name a few.

In addition to the archive material, there are relevant books and multiples available for sale, as well as limited re-issues of some of the photo-copied zines displayed in the exhibition.

About the Artist/Curator

Will Munro is a Toronto based artist, promoter and activist. He is a Life Member and Board Member at Art Metropole and active on the Board of AGYU. Current projects include organizing Vazaleen, Toronto's longest running live queer rock event and organizing West Side Stitches, a sewing collective. Past projects of mention include collaborating with fashion designer Jeremy Laing on polysexual performance installation Virginia Puff-Paint. Upcoming is a publication from the AGYU, as well as a performance during Nuit Blanche on September 30th.

Art Metropole thanks the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, as well as private donors for their support.