POPaganda: The Art & Subversion of Ron English

Pedro Carvajal

Pedro Carvajal

Pedro Carvajal

Documentary
Short Film

More About POPaganda: The Art & Subversion of Ron English

Ron English first gained fame in 1982 by surreptitiously reworking billboards to critique American society, risking arrest in the process. His career has had a wide trajectory, incorporating neo-surrealist paintings, staged photographs, street art, and music and he has become one of the most famed culture jammers in the world. Culture jamming or subvertising is the practice of altering advertising images to challenge and criticize corporations and media.

Carvajal was first drawn to the culture-jamming network as a filmmaker, documenting the works of Ron English and ArtFux, a culture-jamming network that was active from 1989-1992. Inspired by the movement, Pedro moved from observer to participant and began defacing tobacco and alcohol ads in New York City to protest the industries’ attempts to allure young people.

Carvajal made POPaganda to bring Ron English’s anti-consumerist critiques to audiences all around the country. He hopes the films will broaden the culture-jamming network. To this day, English has created over 1,000 illicit billboards and signs and he is recognized as one of the leaders of the subvertising movement. Pedro continues to document the work of Ron and other culture-jammers.

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FILMMAKER BIOS

Pedro Carvajal, Producer/Director

Pedro Carvajal has made documentaries on East Village squatters, the Yanomami, and AIDS. In the gripping documentary Special K Pedro chronicled Karen Sofield’s struggle with AIDS for a period of 3 years. His videos Citizen Art and Subvertising focus on culture-jamming in public spaces, particularly billboard liberation, in which an outdoor ad is altered to critique the original company or product, or deliver a public service message. Citizen Art focuses on the antics of the billboard liberation collectives Artfux and Cicada with whom Pedro collaborated in Jersey City and New York. This documentary was showcased on Thirteen/WNET Reel New York, and introduced by Laurie Anderson. Subvertising includes additional grassroots footage as well as commentary by sociologists and media critics. Pedro’s latest documentary POPaganda: The Art & Subversion of Ron English was an official selection of the 25th IFP Market. Carvajal is currently in pre-production for three documentaries and a feature narrative version of POPaganda. He is collaborating with international fine artist Duda Penteado on a documentary that involves traveling with inner city children from a Jersey City ghetto to Florence, Italy. This experience will capture on digital video how the lives of children can be transformed by simply exposing them to arts and the world. In December of 2005, Carvajal and Penteado will have the opportunity to show a video installation at the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte in Florence, Italy.