Flea Market Punk ’91 by Degan Cheek
2023 Augusta Poster Show · Degan Cheek
From the Artist
I was born a Flea Market Punk. Second hand, dirt-covered, deep fried, repurposed, redressed, and resold. While I grew up in Aiken, SC, I spent every Saturday and Sunday of my childhood at my parents’ booth at the South Augusta Flea Market. My mother airbrushed t-shirts and my dad sold everything from baby turtles to pogs and slammers (remember those?). The 90s flea market scene was bustling, diverse, and weird. I learned about patience, people, and the art of the sale. I made friends with the other flea market regulars, sold thousands of Girl Scout cookies, attended Sunday school in the front office, and I could always count on Mr. Freddy to pay me $1 to sweep his store. Tarp-covered tables as far as the eye could see had everything: homemade red velvet cake, bootleg CDs, lounge chairs shaped like high heels, child pageant dresses, beanie babies at the height of demand, ethically questionable leather goods, Avon products that had been sitting in the sun for years, used Army boots, fake flowers, trashy romance novels, the biggest pair of pants you’ve ever seen, and a screaming, mounted baboon head that the man refused to sell. The main building at the flea market burned down in 2007 and many good people lost their businesses along with it. Even though they eventually rebuilt and reopened, the place that shaped my childhood is gone. To this day, I still see those aisles of junk in my dreams. This poster is is probably the closest thing I’ve ever made to a self-portrait. If you ever dared to go shopping out there in the Augusta heat, I think you’ll find something in this work that’s vaguely familiar. You will find original designs alongside a recreation of the original “T-Shirts” sign that hung in our store, pictures of my dad’s sideshow attractions that he traveled with in the 70s and 80s, collage pieces from vintage magazines, and even recent photos I took while trespassing at the flea market. This poster is dedicated to my late father, Davis Cheek. The original Flea Market Punk.
From the archive founded and curated by Jason Craig. Artwork © Degan Cheek.
