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Red Saunders a.k.a MC RedMan has been a figure on the British Left since the 1960s. Beginning his political/cultural life in CAST and as part of the great anti Vietnamwarmovement .He is a photographer by profession(The Cartoon ArchetypicalSlogan Theatre) the leading ?agit prop? theatre group in the 60s and early 70s..In 1976, in response to the racist outpourings of David Bowie and Eric Clapton, he initiated Rock against Racism (RAR) which grew into a mass youth campaign against the National Front.He was centrally involved in the running of RAR and Temporary Hoarding (RAR's fanzine) for 5 years, and an organiser of the now legendary Carnivals against the Nazis, working with all the major Punk and Reggae bands.
He worked with the Miners' Artist Support group PIT dragon through the Miners Strike1984-5...

He worked on the Sunday Times magazine until the Murdoch empire seized the Times Newspapers. Red was one of those who continued to picket at Wapping throughout the following eighteen months. He lost his main work. However through the 70s and 80s he continued to get commissions and began to produce and direct films. He continued to parallel his commercial work with projects that were directly political.
In 1990, he converted an 1860s church hall into his working studio, Four Walls. A year later the building was burnt down in an arson attack.

He lost all his work: his archives, negatives, video tapes, films, his complete record. It was four years until he started photography again.
In recent years has been active in the cultural side of the Stop the War coalition, and has been integral to the ?Wall of Sound? on the national demonstrations, and organising Die ins' with local Hackney Stop the war.
( Jane Shallice ex CAST & STW national officer )

Begun in 2008 , Red Saunders is now best known for unearthing key moments in social history and re-imagining them in performance art epics. His photographic subjects, depicted on large-scale canvases, range from Wat Tyler and the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 to the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. Check out the Hidden project.


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