Support the Born Again Labor Museum
Donation protected
Dear friends, neighbors, and comrades,
Thanks to your support we were able to open the Born Again Labor Museum (BALM) in March. Since then we have welcomed dozens of visitors and hosted organizing events with socialists, anarchists, feminists, labor organizers and others. We have started collaborations with the Carbondale Tool Library (which is now housed in the BALM space). We are working on expanding our radical reading library, creating new work, and establishing a radical protest sign library for our wider community. We will continue to use the BALM space to help local working-class and radical activists organize. And we are planning for a late summer/early Fall exhibition featuring socialist and working-class artists from across the US and India. We continue to rely on the support of our comrades and our community to keep operating. We encourage you to donate to our GoFundMe (either again, or for the first time), and ask that you consider becoming a monthly supporter via the BALM Patreon . Below we have added some new images of recent BALM events and links to press coverage of the BALM project. Again, thanks for your support.
Comradely,
Tish and Adam Turl
YDSA comrades making BLM and student debt protest signs at BALM in late February 2022.
Comrades working on abortion and reproductive rights protest signs at BALM in May 2022.
Comrades working on abortion and reproductive rights protest signs at BALM in May 2022.
Comrades working on abortion and reproductive rights protest signs at BALM in May 2022.
BALM grand opening in March 2022.
BALM grand opening in March 2022.
Professor Najjar Abdul-Musawwir at the BALM grand opening in March 2022.
Nick Shillingford from the Minneapolis-based Socialist News and Views podcast visiting BALM in April 2022.
Image from BALM's Big Muddy Monster Atlas Project (2022)
Image from the BALM Communist Manifesto Distribution Project (2021)
Photo by Richard Reilly of the evolving BALM installation (detail, 2022)
Detail of the BALM installation (April 2022).
BALM stickers that are distributed for free at the space (2022).
Detail of the evolving BALM installation (May 2022).
BALM on the cover of The Southern Illinoisan.
News and media coverage of BALM and related projects:
Adam Turl recently discussed the legacy of Mark Fisher with the art critic and curator Mike Watson (2022)
Adam, Tish and other members of BALM's sister project, Locust Review, interviewed for the Cooper Point Journal (2022).
Socialist News and Views interviewed Tish and Adam after host Nick Shillingford visited BALM on Easter (2022).
Illinois Public Media interviewed Tish and Adam in February (2022).
BALMCommunist Manifesto Distribution Project in the Southern Illinoisan (early 2022).
Mikayla Holder from The Southern Illinoisan on BALM's sister project Locust Review (2022).
Kallie Cox from The Southern Illinoisan on the Born Again Labor Museum in Carbondale (December 27, 2021)
PAST UPDATES
Dear friends, neighbors, and comrades,
Again, thanks in large part to your support, we have a space, and are making plans to open to visitors -- pandemic permitting -- the first weekend in February 2020. But we are still fixing things and installing work and materials needed to make it a vibrant artistic and community space, so we continue to need help to make all that happen. Please share this fundraiser and donate if you can. You can find more information about our project at our website: https://www.bornagainlabor.com/ . There are two ways to help us out. Donate to our Go Fund Me: https://gofund.me/460f61c2 . Or sign up for our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balm_project .
In solidarity,
Adam and Tish Turl
UPDATES
Dear friends, neighbors, and comrades,
Thanks in part to your support we have secured a site for the Born Again Labor Museum (BALM) in Carbondale. We are already installing work. But, in order to open we need some more help to get the space ready; brining electrical outlets up to code, printing out signage, and so on. So we are appealing to ya’ll again — to donate if you can, and to spread the word. BALM is/will be an evolving visual and conceptual art installation as well as a community space; dedicated to working-class history and the dream-life of workers. You can find more information about our project at our website: https://www.bornagainlabor.com/ . There are two ways to help us out. Donate to our Go Fund Me: https://gofund.me/460f61c2 . Or sign up for our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balm_project .
In Solidarity,
Tish Turl + Adam Turl
"We need your help to find a space for the Born Again Labor Museum!"
Dear friends and comrades,
BALM needs your help to redeem the lost generations of labor.
We started BALM as an “irrealist” visual and conceptual art project in 2018; inspired by Walter Benjamin’s application of the theological concept of apokatastasis -- the redemption of all lost souls -- to the Marxist conception of history. Benjamin argued that the revolutionary generation redeemed all previous generations of the exploited and oppressed.
BALM is “irrealist” because we reject the false “rationalism” of capitalism and “capitalist realism” -- the prevalent idea that nothing can be imagined that doesn’t fit into the logic of capitalist profiteering.
We were further inspired by the intersection of working-class revolution and Cosmism; the esoteric philosophy of the 19th century Moscow librarian Nikolai Fedorov. Fedorov argued humanity should be united in a “Common Task” of abolishing death and resurrecting past generations. This demanded a collaboration between art -- the recording of human performance -- and science. During the revolutionary fervor of the early 20th century, these ideas intersected with the Soviet avant-garde, and dissident layers of Bolsheviks and anarchists.
We conceive of BALM as representing a “differentiated totality” -- an evolving mosaic or mural of visual and conceptual gestures. The working-class has a unified interest against capitalism but it cannot be reduced to that. Each group of workers, each individual worker, are unique. This is why BALM also founded, along with other artists and writers, Locust Review in 2019 -- to help foster an even greater differentiated totality -- to build a wider platform for irrealist working-class art.
AS THE pandemic seems to be waning -- at least for now in the United States -- we are hoping to finally open BALM to the public as a sited museum, as a space for both practical and impractical solidarity.
The sited BALM installation will provide impractical solidarity by providing an open space for reflection; as visitors will be able to view and interact with irrealist BALM artifacts. BALM will provide practical solidarity by creating, among other things, a Common Task Agit-Prop Library containing protest material (banners, protest signs, etc.) -- both practical and irrealist -- for comrades in the area.
In addition to the above we hope to create a library of radical books for use by our visitors. We have several thousand books we have accumulated over the years that we want to share.
We are also hoping to site BALM in a large enough space that we can begin to exhibit the work of other working-class irrealist artists.
Among the situated artifacts we have created or collected in the past three years are The Wounded Tool Library, a series of what we call Cyber-Brechtian paintings/collages, assemblages that act as monuments to both real and irrealist moments in working-class history, puppets that will eventually be used in public performances, socialist “bible-tracts,” and more.
Each one of these projects is meant to exist in relation to the others in an actual space.
But, with the pandemic, we have not been able to share this work “”in real life” since October 2019. We were forced to cancel our participation in two exhibitions in 2020 -- both inside and outside of the official art world. We are eager -- almost impatient -- to share this work.
IN 2020 we relocated to southern Illinois and Adam Turl’s hometown of Carbondale with the goal of opening BALM as a sited art space outside the circuit of art-world led gentrification; to create an intentionally “outsider” space, to make an evolving installation that would exist for the working-class of southern Illinois in particular.
Economic had times means there are many spaces available -- abandoned storefronts, etc. -- to situate BALM without contributing to gentrification. But, as working-class people whose incomes took a hit during the pandemic, we need help to make this happen. Renting an appropriate space in Carbondale will cost about $5000 a year.
There are two ways you can help us. You can support our Go Fund Me fundraiser. Or you can sign up for our Patreon page and support us on a monthly basis. The latter option will provide you with additional benefits. This includes -- for all contributing $10 a month or more -- receiving regular copies of Locust Review and other material from BALM. We hope to achieve our fundraising goal of $5000 by September 2021 so that we can open BALM to the public in the autumn.
This is a large project for us; but it is a modest project in the overall effort to create a working-class imaginary in opposition to capitalist realism. We cannot rely on funding from a financialized and corrupt art world. So we are reaching out to you, our friends, comrades, and working-class siblings.
In Solidarity,
Tish + Adam Turl for the Born Again Labor Museum
Thanks to your support we were able to open the Born Again Labor Museum (BALM) in March. Since then we have welcomed dozens of visitors and hosted organizing events with socialists, anarchists, feminists, labor organizers and others. We have started collaborations with the Carbondale Tool Library (which is now housed in the BALM space). We are working on expanding our radical reading library, creating new work, and establishing a radical protest sign library for our wider community. We will continue to use the BALM space to help local working-class and radical activists organize. And we are planning for a late summer/early Fall exhibition featuring socialist and working-class artists from across the US and India. We continue to rely on the support of our comrades and our community to keep operating. We encourage you to donate to our GoFundMe (either again, or for the first time), and ask that you consider becoming a monthly supporter via the BALM Patreon . Below we have added some new images of recent BALM events and links to press coverage of the BALM project. Again, thanks for your support.
Comradely,
Tish and Adam Turl
YDSA comrades making BLM and student debt protest signs at BALM in late February 2022.
Comrades working on abortion and reproductive rights protest signs at BALM in May 2022.
Comrades working on abortion and reproductive rights protest signs at BALM in May 2022.
Comrades working on abortion and reproductive rights protest signs at BALM in May 2022.
BALM grand opening in March 2022.
BALM grand opening in March 2022.
Professor Najjar Abdul-Musawwir at the BALM grand opening in March 2022.
Nick Shillingford from the Minneapolis-based Socialist News and Views podcast visiting BALM in April 2022.
Image from BALM's Big Muddy Monster Atlas Project (2022)
Image from the BALM Communist Manifesto Distribution Project (2021)
Photo by Richard Reilly of the evolving BALM installation (detail, 2022)
Detail of the BALM installation (April 2022).
BALM stickers that are distributed for free at the space (2022).
Detail of the evolving BALM installation (May 2022).
BALM on the cover of The Southern Illinoisan.
News and media coverage of BALM and related projects:
Adam Turl recently discussed the legacy of Mark Fisher with the art critic and curator Mike Watson (2022)
Adam, Tish and other members of BALM's sister project, Locust Review, interviewed for the Cooper Point Journal (2022).
Socialist News and Views interviewed Tish and Adam after host Nick Shillingford visited BALM on Easter (2022).
Illinois Public Media interviewed Tish and Adam in February (2022).
BALMCommunist Manifesto Distribution Project in the Southern Illinoisan (early 2022).
Mikayla Holder from The Southern Illinoisan on BALM's sister project Locust Review (2022).
Kallie Cox from The Southern Illinoisan on the Born Again Labor Museum in Carbondale (December 27, 2021)
PAST UPDATES
Dear friends, neighbors, and comrades,
Again, thanks in large part to your support, we have a space, and are making plans to open to visitors -- pandemic permitting -- the first weekend in February 2020. But we are still fixing things and installing work and materials needed to make it a vibrant artistic and community space, so we continue to need help to make all that happen. Please share this fundraiser and donate if you can. You can find more information about our project at our website: https://www.bornagainlabor.com/ . There are two ways to help us out. Donate to our Go Fund Me: https://gofund.me/460f61c2 . Or sign up for our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balm_project .
In solidarity,
Adam and Tish Turl
UPDATES
Dear friends, neighbors, and comrades,
Thanks in part to your support we have secured a site for the Born Again Labor Museum (BALM) in Carbondale. We are already installing work. But, in order to open we need some more help to get the space ready; brining electrical outlets up to code, printing out signage, and so on. So we are appealing to ya’ll again — to donate if you can, and to spread the word. BALM is/will be an evolving visual and conceptual art installation as well as a community space; dedicated to working-class history and the dream-life of workers. You can find more information about our project at our website: https://www.bornagainlabor.com/ . There are two ways to help us out. Donate to our Go Fund Me: https://gofund.me/460f61c2 . Or sign up for our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/balm_project .
In Solidarity,
Tish Turl + Adam Turl
"We need your help to find a space for the Born Again Labor Museum!"
Dear friends and comrades,
BALM needs your help to redeem the lost generations of labor.
We started BALM as an “irrealist” visual and conceptual art project in 2018; inspired by Walter Benjamin’s application of the theological concept of apokatastasis -- the redemption of all lost souls -- to the Marxist conception of history. Benjamin argued that the revolutionary generation redeemed all previous generations of the exploited and oppressed.
BALM is “irrealist” because we reject the false “rationalism” of capitalism and “capitalist realism” -- the prevalent idea that nothing can be imagined that doesn’t fit into the logic of capitalist profiteering.
We were further inspired by the intersection of working-class revolution and Cosmism; the esoteric philosophy of the 19th century Moscow librarian Nikolai Fedorov. Fedorov argued humanity should be united in a “Common Task” of abolishing death and resurrecting past generations. This demanded a collaboration between art -- the recording of human performance -- and science. During the revolutionary fervor of the early 20th century, these ideas intersected with the Soviet avant-garde, and dissident layers of Bolsheviks and anarchists.
We conceive of BALM as representing a “differentiated totality” -- an evolving mosaic or mural of visual and conceptual gestures. The working-class has a unified interest against capitalism but it cannot be reduced to that. Each group of workers, each individual worker, are unique. This is why BALM also founded, along with other artists and writers, Locust Review in 2019 -- to help foster an even greater differentiated totality -- to build a wider platform for irrealist working-class art.
AS THE pandemic seems to be waning -- at least for now in the United States -- we are hoping to finally open BALM to the public as a sited museum, as a space for both practical and impractical solidarity.
The sited BALM installation will provide impractical solidarity by providing an open space for reflection; as visitors will be able to view and interact with irrealist BALM artifacts. BALM will provide practical solidarity by creating, among other things, a Common Task Agit-Prop Library containing protest material (banners, protest signs, etc.) -- both practical and irrealist -- for comrades in the area.
In addition to the above we hope to create a library of radical books for use by our visitors. We have several thousand books we have accumulated over the years that we want to share.
We are also hoping to site BALM in a large enough space that we can begin to exhibit the work of other working-class irrealist artists.
Among the situated artifacts we have created or collected in the past three years are The Wounded Tool Library, a series of what we call Cyber-Brechtian paintings/collages, assemblages that act as monuments to both real and irrealist moments in working-class history, puppets that will eventually be used in public performances, socialist “bible-tracts,” and more.
Each one of these projects is meant to exist in relation to the others in an actual space.
But, with the pandemic, we have not been able to share this work “”in real life” since October 2019. We were forced to cancel our participation in two exhibitions in 2020 -- both inside and outside of the official art world. We are eager -- almost impatient -- to share this work.
IN 2020 we relocated to southern Illinois and Adam Turl’s hometown of Carbondale with the goal of opening BALM as a sited art space outside the circuit of art-world led gentrification; to create an intentionally “outsider” space, to make an evolving installation that would exist for the working-class of southern Illinois in particular.
Economic had times means there are many spaces available -- abandoned storefronts, etc. -- to situate BALM without contributing to gentrification. But, as working-class people whose incomes took a hit during the pandemic, we need help to make this happen. Renting an appropriate space in Carbondale will cost about $5000 a year.
There are two ways you can help us. You can support our Go Fund Me fundraiser. Or you can sign up for our Patreon page and support us on a monthly basis. The latter option will provide you with additional benefits. This includes -- for all contributing $10 a month or more -- receiving regular copies of Locust Review and other material from BALM. We hope to achieve our fundraising goal of $5000 by September 2021 so that we can open BALM to the public in the autumn.
This is a large project for us; but it is a modest project in the overall effort to create a working-class imaginary in opposition to capitalist realism. We cannot rely on funding from a financialized and corrupt art world. So we are reaching out to you, our friends, comrades, and working-class siblings.
In Solidarity,
Tish + Adam Turl for the Born Again Labor Museum
Co-organizers (2)
Adam Turl
Organizer
Carbondale, IL
Tish Markley
Co-organizer