Monday 27 June 2011

shape & situate exhibition at the women's library

On Saturday I made the trip down to London to exhibit large posters from the first two issues of the zine, 'Shape & Situate: Posters of Inspirational European Women' at Zine Fest! at the Women's Library.

Here's a set of (dodgy) photos that I took of the exhibition. Thanks to all the artists who let me blow their work from the zine up to A3 and include it in the exhibition. So many people complimented the posters, the individual art works, and the project. I also got many offers for contributions to a third issue, so watch this space!
Huge thanks to Footprint for doing such a great job printing up the posters xox














One thing I learned from the experience is that buying pound-shop blue tack for an exhibition is a false economy! Oh, how it failed me! On the photos you will see that only half of the exhibition ended up being mounted on the blue background, and the upper tier of posters are not mounted at all -- I blame this entirely on the blue background not sticking to the wall with the cheap-shit blue tack, and after it fell on my head and the floor countless times I threw a wobbly and chucked the backing in the recycling bin in a huff!!
(Other things I learned from my trip down include the fact that I still get panic attacks on the London Underground, especially when they close entire Lines, like the line taking me to the Women's Library - stressfest! And, the fact that sitting around waiting for delayed coaches then sitting them on for entirely too long brings on my Sciatica like you wouldn't believe. Yowzer, I'm a physical wreck!!)

It was so great to see so many friends and friendly faces at Zine Fest! Congratulations to Red for organising such a great event and getting so many fantastic people in the same space.

Special love goes out from me to Rachael, Patrick, Ed, Colette, Humey, and Charlotte ♥

It was also ridiculously good to meet Erica Smith, A-K Pirata, Sofia Niazi and Kristin Aune.

As a result of Zine Fest! Shape & Situate issue #2 is now available to buy from the following distros:

*Marching Stars (http://www.marchingstars.co.uk/)

*Ricochet! Ricochet!

*Dead Trees & Dye (http://www.deadtreesanddye.com)

*Cherry Bomb (http://www.cherrybombcomics.co.nz/)

*Space Station 65 (http://www.spacestationsixtyfive.com/)

*Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/COTL) or search COTL or Shape & Situate on Etsy.

* [Soon] Ms Valerie Park Distro (USA) (http://msvalerieparkdistro.com)



[If you'd like to stock or carry the zine on your distro/in your shop drop me a line!]

charlotte on zine fest

My lovely friend Charlotte has posted about the Shape & Situate exhibition that took place on Saturday at The Women's Library, London as part of Zine Fest! 2011 on her blog, in amongst details of lots of other awesome things that happened on the day. Read all about it here: http://charlotterichardsonandrews.blogspot.com/2011/06/womens-library-zine-fest-25062011.html

Tuesday 21 June 2011

reposted at the feminist poster project

Huge thanks to Nina for reposting about 'Shape & Situate: Posters of Inspirational European Women' zine #2 over at The Feminist Poster Project blog this week

The Feminist Poster Project blog [feministposterproject.wordpress.com] archives and shares feminist posters, postcards and stickers, and there's been plenty of updates recently of materials in various languages fit for reproducing on a wall near you soon!

the reading raum

A photo here:
flickr.com/photos/coldsnapbindery/5771610322/in/set-72157626831769788
of Shape & Situate zine at the opening night of The Reading Raum in Berlin, Germany.

The Reading Raum is a Wunderkabinet hosted exhibition inside Etsy's Berlin Labs.
Split into 'for sale' and 'read only' sections, the exhibition collects together zines, tiny publishers, and paper ephemera.

Looks like a really rad space full of so many ace people's work; I had fun spotting Kristyna Baczynski, Sarah McNeil, and Sara Guindon's work in amongst everything in the photos from the opening night (May 27th) :)

Congratulations to the organiser of the event, Leah Buckareff for putting together such a great collection.

More info here: thewunderkabinet.wordpress.com

Wednesday 15 June 2011

zine fest! 2011 -- the latest

Red is doing a great job of organising and lining up this set of delights for Zine Fest! 2011. The current lowdown looks like this:

/////////

Zines are hand-made magazines made for love not money. Requiring few resources to self-publish - just a pen, a piece of paper, access to a photocopier - zines are made on the fringes of journalism, art systems, activist scenes, and bedroom cultures. Basically, they rock.
We're super happy to confirm the 4th Zine Fest! to be happening at The Women's Library, London.
The Women's Library has a growing zine collection, covering the 1970s to now, which was first donated by the Ladyfest London 2001 collective.

The Zine Fest! event in June aims to showcase feminist, queer and women's media projects, hold workshops and discussion spaces, bring together loads of zine makers and stalls, and make connections between different generations of feminist publishing.

The event is free and open to everyone. We hope to see you there!

ZINE FEST 2011

Saturday 25th June 2011, 12pm-4pm, Free

The Women's Library, 25 Old Castle Street, London


(View event on facebook here)


Programme (deets tbc, but here’s a sneak preview so far!):


Workshops & Discussions

12-1.30pm. Comic-Making (Seminar room, ground floor): Hear some tips and tricks about how to make comic strips from Jay Bernard and Rachael House before we all get down and busy and make a page for a collective comic zine. (Dont worry if you cant draw. It don’t matter! There will also be plenty of magazines and stuff to use if you wanna try a collage/drawing mash up page).

1-2pm. Survivor Zines (Friends Room, ground floor): Sarah Tea-Rex will lead this discussion session about surviving sexual violence and creating zine cultures to speak out and support. A trained support person will also be on hand.

1-2.30pm. Stenciling (Activities Room, ground floor): Marti and Alice will show you how to make stencils to use in zines and street art.

2.30-4pm. Feminist Media & Memory Panel (seminar room, ground floor): A look at feminist self-publishing over the past few decades and a chance to learn more about grassroots feminist media history. Speakers include Humaira Saeed from Race Revolt (a contemporary zine on race politics by feminists and queers), Ilona and Rebecca Oliver from Shocking Pink (magazine made by young women in the 80s and 90s), and Sue O’Sullivan from Sheba Press (feminist publishing collective in the 80s who prioritized writing by women of colour and lesbians). Presentations followed by a Q&A session. Chaired by Sita Balani.




Tours

Zine Tours (1.30-2pm and 2-2.30pm. Meet in the Foyer): Catherine and Indy from TWL will do some tours of the library and show you more of the gems and history of the Zine Collection there.



Art Exhibitions (Cafe space, first floor)

Shape & Situate Exhibition: To celebrate the launch of the second issue of Shape & Situate, Melanie Maddison will be exhibiting a collection of DIY feminist history posters of inspirational women from this awesome zine.

More Crackers Please: A beautiful collage and visual archive of feminist/queer/DIY cultural activism in the UK over the past ten years. Made by Bill Savage as part of a backdrop for a Le Tigre karaoke booth, a super cute video of which you can check out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0yumFIbq7U&feature=player_embedded

Feminist Disco Project:With a nod to Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, Rachael House is inviting people to come and draw a feminist on a paper plate. Past plates will also be on display.

Cross-Stitch Drop-In: Whether you’re a complete beginner or an old hand, kid or adult, come join Lisa Sleeps in some cross-stitching action. Have a bash at stitching animal masks from the Sleeps in Oysters pattern book, or have a go at designing your own.

Interactive Monster Cafe: Squid + International Nobody are serving up deli-style mask-making in the Exhibition hall. Choose a theme or make up your own and select from an assortment of ingredients (cut-outs, markers, glue, wool, glitter.. ) + see what happens! Also, monster-drawing, third-eyes, irresistible cookies and check out their feminist & monster zines.



Stalls (Mezzanine Space, first floor)

Marching Stars ~ Princesa Pirata ~ Other Asias ~ Walrus Zines ~ Fat Quarter ~ Richochet! Richochet! ~ Cherry Bomb Comics ~ Pamflet ~ Storm in a Tea Cup ~ will xyz ~ Vampire Sushi ~ Angry Violist ~ Volume Magazine ~ Scale Trees ~ Jen Claptrap ~ Sarah Tea-Rex ~ Emma Jane Falconer ~ Shebang Magazine ~ Editions of You ~ Alpha Betty ~ Chloe Cook ~ Nest Gallery ~ Girls Get Busy ~ Girls Who Draw ~

(+ more TBC)



Contact: Red Chidgey, chidgeyr@lsbu.ac.uk (http://feministmemory.wordpress.com/)


Documentation of past ZineFests!: http://www.myspace.com/zinefest/blog#!/zinefest/photos

Getting to the Women's Library: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary/about/location.cfm

Accessibility info: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary/about/access.cfm

Monday 6 June 2011

shape & situate: posters of inspirational european women issue 2

Shape & Situate: Posters of Inspirational European Women zine issue #2 just came back from the printers looking great and it's all ready to make it's debut at Zine Fest! 2011 on June 25th at The Women's Library, London.



Thank you so much to all the contributors for their brilliant posters: Erica Smith, Rachael House, Melanie Maddison, Michelle Mendonca, Anna Knowles, Verity Hall, Kathryn Taylor, Nina Nijsten, Peter Willis, Emily Aoibheann, Ed Webb-Ingall, Cara Corden, Patrick Staff, R Clout, Kathleen Teadrinker, Marylou Anderson, Flo Brooks, Charlotte Cooper, Cendrine Rovini, Gladys Badhands, James Clayton, and John Davison.



Shape & Situate is a zine of posters made by artists and DIY creative folk within Europe, each poster highlighting the (often hidden) history and lives of radical inspirational women and collectives from Europe, as a way of connecting us with the past, the present, and to help us to make sure that there will be a future which contains such creative and pioneering female action and activity. The zine aims to activate feminist cultural memory, to inspire in the present and to visually bring women’s social and political history to life.



After Zine Fest! I'll work on getting the zine available for purchase (online, and via distros), and I'll post links on here once I know what they are.


[N.B: I also collected the large Shape & Situate posters today that will be exhibited as part of Zine Fest! -- I'll be posting a sneak peak of those soon as I'm thrilled at how they turned out :) -- See the Zine Fest! link above for details on all the exhibitions which will feature at the event.]

the internet's not all bad

Having my arm twisted into googling myself didn't turn out to be all doom and gloom (see past 2 posts)...

I also found a lovely set on Flickr by 'Mondoagogo' which includes some lovely images that I'd not seen before from the female comics zine exhibition that I put together for Zine Fest at the Women's Library in 2009 -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/mondoagogo/sets/72157613047219261/with/3398348661 (it's kind of spooky/co-incidental timing to be finding this and being reminded of the exhibition, since I'll be collecting from my printers tomorrow the posters which will feature in the exhibition that I'm putting on at the 2011 Zine Fest at The Women's Library on June 25th)

I also stumbled across two really lovely images of a copy of 'Colouring Outside The Lines' zine issue 5, photographed on the desk of Caitlin Shearer who I interviewed for that issue in 2009...
www.flickr.com/photos/caitlinghoster/3731268474 and http://www.flickr.com/photos/caitlinghoster/3731266406/in/photostream -- I love seeing it nustled on her desk in amongst all her fantastic creativity :)

Sunday 5 June 2011

this is getting depressing now...

Following the post I just wrote below about somebody selling my free work at a profit to themselves, I did some more internet digging (which was a mistake), and have just found more depressing news...
An interview I did with Katy Horan (for Pikaland website in 2010) was re-posted on somebody else's website, (a 'professional' website, called 'Sight Unseen' which comes complete with Vodka advertisements no less, hence they're making money off their site) which is totally not cool; it's not like it would have been difficult to ask permission to use the interview...
Grumble grumble...

making money off my ass

Ewww, I don't really like what I just found... a copy of a *free* zine that I made back in 2004 being sold second hand on Amazon for £5. The very idea makes me queasy...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Not-Waiting-Doin-yrself-Constructions/dp/B001FVQL92/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307313379&sr=8-1

updated details about zine fest! 2011

(Blurb by Red Chidgey, organiser of Zine Fest! 2011)...

Zines are hand-made magazines made for love not money. Requiring few resources to self-publish - just a pen, a piece of paper, access to a photocopier - zines are made on the fringes of journalism, art systems, activist scenes, and bedroom cultures. Basically, they rock.

We're super happy to confirm the 4th Zine Fest! to be happening at The Women's Library, London.
The Women's Library has a growing zine collection, covering the 1970s to now, which was first donated by the Ladyfest London 2001 collective.

The Zine Fest! event in June aims to showcase feminist, queer and women's media projects, hold workshops and discussion spaces, bring together loads of zine makers and stalls, and make connections between different generations of feminist publishing.

The event is free and open to everyone. We hope to see you there!

ZINE FEST 2011

Saturday 25th June 2011, 12pm-4pm, Free

The Women's Library, 25 Old Castle Street, London


Programme (deets tbc, but here’s a sneak preview so far!):


Workshops & Discussions

Comic-Making 101: Hear some tips and tricks about how to make comic strips from Jay Bernard and Rachael House before we all get down and busy and make a page for a collective comic zine. (Dont worry if you cant draw. It don’t matter! There will also be plenty of magazines and stuff to use if you wanna try a collage/drawing mash up page).

Survivor Zines: Sarah Tea-Rex will lead this discussion session about surviving sexual violence and creating zine cultures to speak out and support, more details to come.

Stenciling: Marti and Alice will show you how to make stencils to use in zines and street art.

Feminist Media History Panel: A look at feminist self-publishing over the past few decades. Speakers include Humaira Saeed from Race Revolt (a contemporary zine on race politics by feminists and queers), Ilona from Shocking Pink (magazine made by young women in the 80s and 90s) and more tbc. Chaired by Sita Balani.


Tours

Zine Tours: Catherine and Indy from TWL will do some tours of the library and show you more of the gems and history of the Zine Collection there.


Art Exhibitions

Shape & Situate Exhibition: To celebrate the launch of the second issue of Shape & Situate, Melanie Maddison will be exhibiting a collection of DIY feminist history posters of inspirational women from this awesome zine.

More Crackers Please: A beautiful collage and visual archive of feminist/queer/DIY cultural activism in the UK over the past ten years. Made by Bill Savage as part of a backdrop for a Le Tigre karaoke booth, a super cute video of which you can check out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0yumFIbq7U&feature=player_embedded

Feminist Disco Project:With a nod to Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, Rachael House is inviting people to come and draw a feminist on a paper plate. Past plates will also be on display.


Stalls:

Marching Stars ~ Princesa Pirata ~ Other Asias ~ Walrus Zines ~ Fat Quarter ~ Richochet! Richochet! ~ Cherry Bomb Comics ~ Pamflet ~ Storm in a Tea Cup ~ will xyz ~ Vampire Sushi ~ Angry Violist ~ Volume Magazine ~ Scale Trees ~ Jen Claptrap ~ Sarah Tea-Rex ~ Emma Jane Falconer
(+ more TBC)


Contact: Red Chidgey, chidgeyr@lsbu.ac.uk (http://feministmemory.wordpress.com/)


Documentation of past ZineFests!: http://www.myspace.com/zinefest/blog#!/zinefest/photos

Getting to the Women's Library: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary/about/location.cfm

Accessibility info: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary/about/access.cfm


wishing i was still on holiday

laura skilbeck

Laura Skilbeck has drawn a wonderful response to the interview I did with Summer Pierre for Pikaland as part of her daily diary drawings.

You can see it here: http://lauraskilbeck-picturediaries.blogspot.com/2011/05/27th-may-2011-by-lauraskilbeck-on.html