Vulgar Army – Page 15 – Representation of the octopus in propaganda and political cartoons

Data Miner (Dinges, 2008) Amongst Michael Dinges “Dead Laptop Series” is this gem: “Data Miner“. The drawing is engraved plastic and acrylic paint on a dead apple laptop (hence the series name). The illustration is of an octopus with scrolls which says: “Of all the creatures in the ocean, beware those feeding on Brownian motion”, and […]

Octopus-Samurai and Farmer (Hokusai, ~1839) One of the earlier octopus political cartoons/caricature comes from Japan by Katsushika Hokusai. It depicts an octopus dressed as a samurai sitting on a pile of potatoes. It is in a pulling competition with a farmer over a mattock. The Pacific Asia Museum (2006) summarised the context in which this painting […]

La Pieuvre by R. Lewis (circa 1900) “Tous les ideals etant admis, si l’epouvante est un but, la pieuvre est un chef-d’oeuvre.” Victor-Hugo (Les Travailleurs de la Mer) Provenance of La Pieuvre I thought a few people might find this interesting. The following is process of trying to find the provenance for an postcard, ‘La Pieuvre’. […]

“l’Etat Monopole” (The State Monopoly) by G. Richards. Octopus is labelled Etat Collectiviste (State Collectivist) and is gathering to it tobacco, alcohol, transport.

Spanish postcard of El Pulpo Rey (King Octopus) by J. Llaverias. The postcard is written on and appears – so far as I can make out – dated to 1917 (though could also be 1977). When I first saw it I thought it was relatively contemporary i.e James Jean and ilk.

Valoroso Marinaio Uccidi il Monstro E libera l’Adriatico (Rico, ~1915) This postcard from circa 1915 by Rico shows a sailor preparing to spear an octopus with a trident. The octopus bears a black two-headed eagle with crown and red-white-gold shield on its head: the coat of arms for the Austrian Empire/Austro-Hungarian. The dreadnoughts in the background bear […]

A metaphor is used to link two seemingly disparate concepts together and implies a comparison between them. For example most illustrations where an organisation is equated with an octopus (i.e. United Fruit is an octopus). It implies those traits associated with an octopus are also those of the organisation: multi-limbed, interfering, alien and (possibly) malevolent. […]

Octopus as an anti-semitic symbol? In April 20071 there was a furore over the depiction of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg as an octopus on cover of America’s 1st Freedom: a National Rifle Association (NRA) magazine. The octopus was seen an antisemitic symbol, and as an attack on the mayors Jewish heritage. The NRA cartoon […]

An article from Seychelles Weekly (June 13th 2008) that takes the octopus metaphor and expands on it to describe the Seychelles People’s Progressive Front (SPPF). ‘Used as a metaphor to describe the current state of affairs that is ‘engulfing’ our small nation today. This octopus is a special one as it has outgrown itself and now has […]

Feb 13, 2010

Andhra Pradesh O.C.T.O.

The Andhra Pradesh cabinet (Southern India) have agreed to form OCTOPUS (Organisation to Counter Terrorist Operations). Octopus will ‘monitor websites, help train a proposed anti-terror force and analyse data and documents that could be of relevance in the battle against terror’ (The Telegraph, 2007). My experience is that authority groups (either government or industry) do not name themselves […]

Feb 13, 2010