In a world of accessibility, erotica of every nature can be found with a keyword search on the internet. Sexual subcultures cannot be simplified and understood in categorical terms as there are endless multiplicities. It is also true that many of them may be yet unheard of. In the decade that we find ourselves in there is more acceptance of different ways of being in the world. More freedom to express and celebrate one’s sexuality, fetishes and inner desires openly. What does this say about us as a human race and what does it say about our innate desires that are explored in a variety of media from various publishing platforms, to academia to documentary work and erotica?
One such form of media dedicated to celebrating sexual diversity from around the world is Phile. In the pages of this erotic platform, you can expect to find drag icons, phallic sculptures and buttholes. This journal investigates sexual subcultures, communities and trends. Platforms such as Phile, act as a reflection on sexuality and the complex nature of human desire, thereby breaking down one-dimensional perspectives.
The founders of the project, Erin Reznick and Mike Feswick, express that it has enabled them to see the connections between larger socio-political, cultural and economic trends. What they find the most intriguing about Phile is unpacking the way in which people reveal their desires. They then attempt to understand the human sociology behind it.
What differentiates Phile in comparison to the vast amount of other disruptive sex platforms such as Working It (a platform where sex workers can discuss their industry openly), is that it invites contributors to write about their personal experiences. The founders of the journal believe that this method avoids sensationalist reporting and aids in creating more significant and authentic narratives.
“We don’t aim to shock people with the issues or fetishes that we publish. We simply want to present our readers with information on what exists in the world and encourage insight, exploration and acceptance,” Erin and Mike state in an interview with Husk magazine.
The provocative spread of their second issue features a photographic series on fetish fans in Michigan, sculptures of handmade prison sex toys called ‘fifis’, an essay that investigates the sexual history of cannibalism in the western world as well as modern art and interviews pertaining to sexuality, fetish and sexual subcultures. The diversity of their latest issue acts as a testament to the diverse nature of human sexuality. It might be conceded that some of these sexual practices are taboo, but in a time of omorashi and adult babies are people truly still shocked by sexual subcultures?
Phile operates between Toronto, NYC and Berlin (cities with rich sexual and queer histories). Mike and Erin research stories from all over the world to guarantee that all contributors are of varying ethnicities, genders and sexual identities, thereby preventing a domination of white western sexuality and experiences, and enabling a diversity of voices.
Phile then acts as an access point into explorations of sexual freedom for its readers. Mike and Erin’s aspirations for their project is that it will act as a tool for their audience to explore and celebrate their sexuality and sexual preferences in a fun and playful manner. Phile is also educational in that it shows its reader which sexual subcultures already exist. Creating a platform for this discourse and normalizing human desire is what makes Phile and other platforms of this nature important. Sexuality and sexual preference are there to be celebrated.
“I think it’s high time we start to address that dance, movement and embodied politics all form part of re-imagining and re-defining where, how and why bodies can occupy space.”
This quote is from an interview with co-founder of ANY BODY ZINE (ABZ), Nicola van Straaten. She, along with Kopano Maroga and Julia de Rosenwerth, started the online and print publication with the desire to bring more cultural and social attention to artistic work that is rooted in the body, “but also a desire to expand ideas around what kind of bodies are dancing bodies.” The intention is to emphasize that every body is a potential site for “creative self-actualization” and “open understandings of dance”.
Having met during their time at the then UCT School of Dance, Nicola proposed the idea of the publication to Kopano and Julia. Since then they have released 10 issues, all dealing with varied aspects of dance, choreography, movement, and bodies through written contributions and interviews with people from different aspects of their industry. Every issue has a central theme that offers guidance to contributors, and a direction for the curation of each issue. Kopnano explains that the themes are based on their interests at different moments, making each issue a reflection a way of thinking at a particular moment in time. Volume 2, comprised of four issues so far, is focused on verbs that relate to dance and movement – Marching, Falling, Jumping and Hanging. Nicola explains that they chose verbs because they were interested in the intersection between language and movement, action and motion.
Previous issues from Volume 1 have included conversations about semantics, emotions, body politics and taboo subjects, offering a wide variety of entry points for conversations. The issue titled “Space/Place” tackles the semantic and political differences invoked in the use of “space” versus “place”, and connects to the act of curation and place making. The issue, “Rhythm” looks at sound and music makers within their community, and includes features on the Phillipi Music Project, a computer engineered rhythm making program by Mohato Lekena and performer and musician Coila-Leah Enderstein who features a lot in their issues, and who Kopano describes as a “kind of ad hoc, fourth member of ABZ”. The issue, “Sex”, arose from an interest in interrogating perceptions of the naked body in performance, specifically how it is always read through sexual references even when the intention of a performance has nothing to do with this. Other issues have explored topics such as race, colour, subjectivity, objectivity, the personal and the political.
“There are so few opportunities for people to share their creative work that isn’t easily consumable or sellable, which I think is why folks are always really keen to contribute,” Kopano explains while reflecting on how they ask people in their community to contribute to the publication. The publication is also a platform to bolster the profile of practitioners who are a large part of the growth and development of dance and movement and related practices in Southern Africa. They have conducted interviews with dancer and choreographer Rudi Smit, strange and intellectual performance artist Gavin Krastin and filmmaker Jenna Bass just to mention a few.
Julia, Kopano and Nicola each contribute in different and important ways to the project. “Julia’s incredible choreographic eye for detail (and the fact that she basically taught herself web design) make her the boss of the website. Kopano’s amazing relational qualities and ability to hold spaces have resulted in him doing a lot of the liasioning with our contributors, stockists and general public, lately he’s also been directing the kind of ‘business’ development of the zine. And my passion for books and print mean I head up the layout and printing aspect of the work. We all edit together, make decisions together, essentially ‘lead’ the project together,” Nicola explains.
Connected to the online and print publication is the third wing of ABZ, the performative platforms. ANY BODY ZINE has collaborated with NEW DANCE LAB, to create the ANY BODY DANCE LAB – a 6 week dance and performance residency for Cape Town-based artists. Teaming up with Theatre Arts Admin Collective and the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, the residency comprises of a series of dance, composition, writing and performance workshops that culminate in a series of public performances by the 10 participants on the residency. The content from the writing workshops will be compiled to form a publication produced by ANY BODY ZINE. “We wanted to include a writing component to the ANY BODY DANCE LAB and thought that it would be very special if we curated a publication to contextualise and archive the project, but that also provides a platform for the residents to publish some of their work. As ANY BODY ZINE, we are also interested in the processes of content creation and saw this as a good opportunity to explore that question further,” Julia explains. What connects all three aspects of their work is the desire to make space for and to support independent artists.
Julia also informed me that after a fantastic Thundafund Campaign [Thundafund is a crowdfunding platform in South Africa], they were able to print their 2016 and 2017 content which will be available at the Book Lounge in Cape Town on Roeland street and Bibliophilia in Woodstock. ANY BODY ZINE will also be available for purchase at the Association for Visual Arts (35 Church street, Cape Town) during their Comics Focus zine and comics festival taking place from the 21st of June to the 19th of July.
Reflecting on their intentions for the publication, Nicola expressed that they hope it will allow people to think about their bodies differently and perhaps see dance as a more accessible medium. The publication presents itself as an archive of South African performance and movement practices, showcasing an image of the contemporary history of dance and beginning the documentation of SA’s dance lineage. The platform also offers validation for those already deeply involved in the industry and the possibility for opportunities for emerging artists.
Check out their website to find out more about their upcoming projects.
“In our current neoliberal context, dance really doesn’t get as much support as fine art or even film, because it isn’t necessarily a ‘sellable’ product. But that’s also why it’s such a powerful tool, because dance is an experience and has the potential to be internally transformative in that way.” – Nicola van Straaten
2016’s Vol 1 content (Photo by Nicola van Straaten)
Muted tones. Desaturated colours. The word kaas on caps and cricket hats. Washing lines carefully coated with white articles of clothing. A youthful face navigating different spaces within Mitchell’s Plein. We are introduced to the setting of a new fashion capsule editorial, zine style.
From the creators of ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ a new project is given form by Aa (Autodidacts & Associates). A headwear capsule created under the brand, kaas is digitally manifested as a zine that seeks to define a space where many narratives go untold “because not many people have a lens into it,” I am told by group member, Keenan Oliver.
Contrived by the apartheid government as a “model township” Mitchell’s Plein was constructed during the 1970s as housing for Coloured people who were forcibly removed as a result of the Group Areas Act. Today the area is largely associated with gangsterism and methamphetamine abuse, which is why the creators of the capsule felt strongly about telling untold narratives within this space.
“I was born and raised in Mitchell’s Plein, which forms a large part of the cape flats. The only time you hear/read about these spaces is on the news. Stories of violence, gangs and drugs but never of the people who live within all of that. All I want to do is tell a different story with the space/resources and access I have.”The capsule lookbook which acts as a photographic essay articulates the current narrative of growing up in Mitchell’s Plein where both Keenan and Thorne, his younger cousin, grew up in the same house. The lookbook then can be regarded as a nuanced expression of a childhood gone by and reflected in Keenan’s younger cousin. The documentation of a space within a specific time forever monumentalises it by means of the physical object – the photograph.
The unconventionality of the fashion zine format was chosen by the group due to the DIY nature and mentality that it carries. “This ties in with the thought behind streetwear itself, which is expressing your thoughts and ideas through the resources available to you.”The headwear capsule is inspired by a childhood growing up playing cricket in the surrounding streets and field, as well as the community that stems from that connection.
“…This is not so much about changing the narrative coming out of Mitchell’s Plein and more so about contributing to it by defining my own narrative.”
The zine had its launch on the 3rd of March in Observatory and was met with positive public review.
*Aa is a collaboration studio focused on democratizing knowledge & education in various fields of art and design. We aim to create art, product & spaces that endorse an open source mentality and encourage the trading of philosophies, ideas, and thought systems, for the greater good of civilization.
The word ‘zine’ is derived from the term fanzine, referring to a publication form that first started circulating in the 1930s. During the 1970s fanzines translated into a more developed type of publishing with the then popular punk fanzines and later the upsurge of queer and feminist driven zines in the late 1980s. This was the result of the fanzine form moving away from fan culture and clearing a space for zinesters who felt misrepresented by mainstream media to have their opinions expressed in print. Zines have been described as “non-commercial, nonprofessional, small-circulation magazines which their creators produce, publish, and distribute by themselves”. With developments in technology, zines have shown growth by incorporating more diverse content such as personal reflections, special interest, literary zines, and fanzines. The unifying elements of zines are their independent production, writing, and design, existing outside of the fringes of mainstream publishing. Zines explore topics that are frequently ignored and overlooked by mainstream media and play a pivotal role in representing the possibilities for counter-hegemonic transformation. Being independent of commercial contemplations and viability, zines address a smaller audience of like-minded individuals and can act as a safe outlet for self-expression (Bold 2017).
We are living in a time where there has been a large-scale resurgence of older forms of content creation and storing. This can be seen when looking at the popularity of film photography in recent times and the ‘coolness’ that is associated with vinyl, tape and the early ’00s aesthetic. We are currently living in the golden age of paper and there is an increasing interest by creative sugar babies to voice themselves through self-publishing. To find out more about this phenomenon I spoke to the creators of two new South-African zines, ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ and ‘This is What Makes Us Girls’.
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ is a zine created by Capetonian creatives Keenan Oliver, Mzonke Maloney and Dumi Mparutsa. This zine uses the act of waiting for someone to arrive, specifically Joshy Pascoe, as its basis. These zinesters are looking at defining image use as a colloquial language combining the images used with news headlines from the day that they were waiting for Joshy’s arrival. This combination of news headlines as image labels is intended to mimic the way that text is added to imagery in meme creation. They explain in our interview that this union is imposed as an emphasis on the disparity of news image reception in contrast with socially constructed images and how they are received.
The idea for the self-published piece was brought to life after Joshua Pascoe saw an image of Keenan on an insta story which led to Joshua’s instant engagement. Evidently liking what he saw, he jumped on the DM train and asked Keenan for an impromptu shoot in which he planned to finish the remainder of the frames left on his roll of film. The images that made it into the zine were captured while the act of waiting on Joshua took place. When asked why they believe the act of waiting for someone’s arrival was significant enough to base an entire zine on they tell me that their self-published content is aimed at challenging the entire concept of significance in relation to the fundamental elements of image creation.
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
“The democratization of image making as an industry and a practice, has rendered all images equally significant, specifically within the cultural/social space. Our deliberate use of suburban tedium and non-activity looks to further emphasize the fact that there is no longer an accurate barometer, used to gauge the importance or non-importance of an image.” This statement holds a considerable amount of weight as we are living in a time where there is content on nearly every subject imaginable. We are bombarded by content whenever we open our web browsers. From small pop up adds advertising weight loss products, to celebrity scandals, food recipes, people dyeing their hair with Nutella spread and artistic short films of girls smashing their faces into food (yes I’ve actually watched this). The list is never-ending. Curating your content is a rather new idea and the first time I stumbled upon it was in the book by Michael Bhaskar titled ‘Curation – The Power of Selection in a World of Excess’, published in 2016. This book is a rather useful guide to removing actual bullshit content from your cyberspace experience.
The team behind ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ explain that this zine was a way for them to express their views on the consumption of news imagery, and what people’s reactions are to them at present. “The rapid technological development of the various image generating mediums has prompted the reimagining of images, as more than just ‘artifacts of technology’ but rather as what Hans Belting has termed as being ‘the boundary between physical and mental existence’”. The inquiry addressed within this zine attempts to create a discernment between images within mental existence and images that move into a physical space within our current social context. “What becomes urgent and what remains trivial.”
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
“I could somehow watch the news and instantly disconnect from the images and their implications (these images would not transcend past mental existence), yet Joshy could watch an insta story and respond immediately, bringing the image to the fore of his physical existence.” This zine thus questions the relevance of news imagery and its significance in modern day society. This is done by almost saying that their social media interactions that led to a photo shoot and zine were more significant and impactful than news headlines were. They were more inclined to interact with a social post than they were to read the news of that particular day. And let’s be honest, I don’t engage with the news much, I can, however, tell you what my insta connections were doing this weekend in excruciating detail.
News headlines were used as a form of tagging in this zine which is explained by the team as follows, “In attempting to synthesize those two thoughts; we realized that whilst we were waiting, absorbed by our own daily tedium and taking pictures of mundane suburbia (which is significant to us), much more “significant” events were taking place around the country, and the reconciliation of these two events occurring simultaneously would create the significance of the moment.”
Utilizing screenshots from the DM thread between Joshua and Keenan, a timeline is visually built to create a context for the imagery that rests on the opposing pages. This timeline provides a temporal space in which the events were taking place and aided in establishing the overriding narrative of the zine. This zine is in my opinion, a storage space for a ‘live’ event taking place and is almost a self-published insta story/documentary piece of work addressing a complex question. All the content within the zine questions the idea of significance. The team tells me that these images are significant because of the mere fact that they exist.
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
Explaining the connections made between social media, the act of image creation, texting and newspapers the creators tell me, “Whether it is the form of a meme, post or photo sharing, social media has made photographing a part of colloquial dialect for our generation. News making (documentary photography) was the most impactful form of image production from the past couple generations, but no longer holds the same weight, due to the rate at which images are being produced. The news now exists in synthesis with this colloquial/new language. The news of the day includes personal images, memes and other forms of social imagery.”
This zine considers itself an anthropological study. It is explained as, “Regardless, the mass production of art means that all of art has dissolved into life or more accurately all of life has dissolved into art and therefore an inquiry into the use of medium must be considered anthropological.”
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
Following my discussion with the creators of ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ I spoke to the young interracial queer couple behind ‘This is What Makes Us Girls’ zine, Boni Mnisi, and Leal after the launch of their zine on the 30th October in Cape Town. Boni expresses that the zine came about rather unexpectedly, “I wasn’t even entirely sure how to create one when I decided to announce to my Instagram followers that I was going to do it. I wrote and shared a painfully mediocre poem on my Instagram story and quickly explained it away as a sample of writing from a bigger body of work that I was trying to put together. I got DMs from so many people who were interested in getting involved and kinda got trapped into doing what I said I was going to do.”
Cover image for ‘This is What Makes Us Girls’ zine by Gina Hendrickse
The zine’s name was inspired by Lana Del Rey’s 2012 single that shares the same title. Boni regrets this title and explains that at the time she did not consider the exclusion that is linked to the word ‘girl’. “While we do actively recognize that trans and non-binary people who identify with our message may not themselves identify as ‘girls’, the word should have no place in our work from now on. As an intersectional feminist zine, we have an obligation to protect our trans and non-binary family, which includes eliminating the violent language that we have ourselves mistakenly employed. We want to rebrand and come back with something more representative of the community we hope to create. As of 2018, this working title is dead.”
‘This is What Makes Us Girls’ is made up of mostly contributed content from South African creative womxn that is bound together by Leal’s illustrations. This zine which consists of an online and print version made use of social media to promote itself.
Photography by Alessia Dossantos
Speaking about the launch of the first issue Boni tells me that they were overwhelmed by the response they received. Only expecting roughly 50 people, about 250 – 300 attended the event. “We began with an exhibition of our Cape Town based contributors’ work and shortly after began our entirely womxn DJ line-up featuring the insane DJ-duo ‘No Diggity‘. It was an incredibly sweaty night of grinding and vogue-ing. People expressed their gratitude for having a predominately womxn space where they were able to be themselves and feel safe. So we had lots of titties! Lots of girl-on-girl action and not a voyeuristic penis in sight! It was unlike anything I’ve experienced at any party.” Looking at the response that this zine has received as well as the intention of creating a safe and inclusive space for all womxn it can be said that this zine gives a voice to an underrepresented community and a safe space for self-expression.
‘This is What Makes Us Girls’ features content created by Afrah Mayet, Jemma Rose, Alice de Beer, Lianne O’Donnell, Claire & Abi Meekel, Amu Mnisi, Keo Borjeszo, Sandra Wilken, Marcia Elizabeth, Kayo Fay, Jesmin, Sasha de la Rey, Phoenix Falconer +30 more. In order to get their vision going, Boni and Leal raised funds in the months leading up to the launch. “This project was made possible by our generous friends and family whom we are so grateful for.” The zine will be available in Johannesburg soon and a digital free version is in the works.
Photography by Gina Hendrickse
Zines are a powerful tool for self-expression and can relate to literally anything as there are no rules to making a zine and they do not need to be commercially viable. A zine can be an experimental exploration and can be about something that the creators feel are relevant which is the case with ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ or they can address concerns or grant a voice to a community of likeminded often underrepresented individuals as is the case with ‘This is What Makes Us Girls’. The act of zine making has been described as the “mass amateurisation of publishing” (Bold 2017). With the rise of digital folk culture over the decades, zines can be executed in a different way and do not necessarily have to be a physical print. Zines’ audiences are engaging differently today than they would have a number of years ago and zinesters are employing all the tools they have to voice themselves, such as social media. With the internet, there are more options for affordable cultural production with the ability of a global audience (Bold 2017). I believe that today, more so than ever it is easier to create a zine. Amateur creators have a space to explore a different type of cultural production with zines. So to zine or not? – yeah, if mainstream media won’t hear you out then please do zine! However, I do believe that there are many topics that were once considered experimental or non-commercial that have received attention from mainstream media in recent times. I like to think that people today are more connected, and aware of the narratives of some misrepresented and underrepresented communities which I attribute to internet culture. Zines do however still hold a place and creative sugar babies seem to love the heck out of them.
Co-founders of Sula Collective, Sophia Yuet and Kassandra Piñero joined forces after meeting online while working for another online publication. Both being art majors, photographers and writers, their creative endeavors were bound to conjoin. I interviewed Kassandra to find out more about Sula Collective.
Tell our readers about the name “Sula Collective”. How did the idea for Sula Collective come about?
I came up with the name while brainstorming ideas related to literary figures of color. I was a writing and literature major at the time so that was where my main source of inspiration for everything came from- me referring back to books. Toni Morrison is one of the greatest writers of our time so by searching for her I came across Sula and it was the perfect fit.
What has been the reaction to Sula by those who contribute to it and those who engage with it online?
People are extremely supportive! We haven’t really faced any backlash which we’re extremely grateful for. A lot of people are interested in contributing to both online and print issues, but the enthusiasm for print is a bit stronger which is understandable – there’s nothing like holding your work in your own two hands. But all around everyone is just happy to be receiving representation for once which is what we’re most proud of.
Tell our readers about some of the offline developments that have taken place since you started in 2015.
We’ve only hosted two events personally which were picnics in New York and London, but we’ve attended many zine and print fests since then. We have also hosted zine making workshops and the like. We’ll be getting more into offline engagement this year!
Photography by Ihab Amari
Tell our readers about why you feel creative mediums offer an opening to the sharing of hopes, frustrations and experiences for people of colour?
I’ve been writing since I was a little kid and at one point considered stopping because I had never read any books about Puerto Ricans, and that was the only life I knew. Once I got older and realized I was represented in literature and art I became a more confident person and no longer hesitated in calling myself an artist. So when Sophia and I created Sula that was something we wanted to give back to our communities. Kids and adults shouldn’t have to go to specialized sections to read about our own people. Whiteness should not be the default and we wanted to be a part of that representation. The internet today is the main source of information for young kids just beginning to find themselves, and Sula is a place where these kids can see others who are of the same ethnicity or nationality creating all kinds of work. That’s an extremely important thing for them to have as they are coming into themselves as fully grown human beings. All too often we come from homes where emotions aren’t shared openly as is common among people of colour, so to give people a place to vent and explore themselves as artists is an important thing. We want all types of art to be represented among us and not just the kind your middle school art teacher tells you is important. We are open to all mediums.
Tell our readers about the importance of people of colour establishing a relationship with the online on our own terms through platforms such as Sula Collective?
The relationships we have all formed through Sula are some of the closest friends we have ever made! I’ve met some of my best friends through this magazine and am surrounded by so many people who support my art and have helped me become a more confident person. We can’t stress the importance of community enough. Life is a lot easier when you have the reassurance that comes with a community who endlessly loves and supports you.
What is the vision you have for Sula?
Sophia and I hope Sula can become something much bigger than it is now. We’d love to expand to helping our communities in ways more tangible than we are now by hosting events and workshops and other things. We don’t want to give away too much just yet! We love being a magazine and we love being so focused in the arts, but we want to help be part of the movement and we’re brainstorming ways to do so.
What are you working on at the moment?
We just released our Spring issue and our next online issue will be out June 1st! We should have a two year anniversary issue out in September and maybe a special event to go along with it so keep your eyes peeled.
Photography by Pinky Ortiz
Photography by Amarachi Nwosu
Mathema is a new limited edition zine, produced by Vatic Studio in collaboration with artist Jake Michael Singer. The lush publication is a work of art in its own right, focusing on grid structures in Johannesburg. As Vatic Studios Nicole Van Heerden describes it, the project was inspired by ideas from Classical Philosophy- ‘Mathema is a concept I came across while… working on a series of photographic work around grid-like structures in the city, supportive or decorative. The word Mathema stuck with me because it was the structure of something upon which everything is built on’.
The zine is the second in a series- ‘Vatic Studio created Post Print zine as a platform to share and produce work simultaneously in-print and online at any time we had the urge to. The zine also operates as a catalogue for our imagery, so each image is numbered and available for purchase’. The first Ulterior City dealt with systems of infrastructure and surveillance. The zine was accompanied by an exclusive playlist curated by Givan Lotz on Soundcloud.
Expanding the focus on urban space, Mathema explores the role of architecture in society, and includes an exclusive paper sculpture for the reader to assemble. The Post Print series will continue as a regular platform to experiment with different printing techniques and formats.
Limited editions of Mathema are available at Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg.
Alphabet Zoo, the Johannesburg based collective founded by printmakers Minenkulu Ngoyi and Isaac Zavale is hosting zine making nights at the Bubblegum Club project space in Newtown.
Ngoyi and Zavale have extended an open invitation to cultural practitioners interested in collaborating on the development of a zine over a three “zine nights” residency in March. All the nights will take place on Wednesdays, the first being on the 16th, the second on the 23rd and the third on the 30th of the month. The zines produced during the residency will then be presented on the 7th of April 2016 at Bubblegum Club as part of the April edition of Newtown’s first Thursdays.
After discovering a lonely printing press in the Johannesburg Art Gallery Ngoyi and Zavale started meeting twice a week to use the press and create collaborative work under the name Alphabet Zoo. As a way to expand their printmaking practice and to apply it in a more accessible way the duo started zines focused on “street culture” in Johannesburg.
Alphabet Zoo’s zines are often produced in collaboration with artists, illustrators and publishers within the collectives network. Their desire now, to develop self-publishing practices and to grow zine culture in Johannesburg is what has inspired them to initiate zine nights, a project which they hope will take off in the city.
‘Disappoint Your Parents’ is a Cape Town based zine which launched its first ‘episode’ this February. As the title indicates, it deals with a range of the ways in which young South Africans can let their elders down, from ‘use of illicit substances, hanging with the wrong crowd or just not having much ambition’.
Although the presentation is flippant, the content offers serious insights into the generational tensions in South African society through a series of personal essays. ‘Young Muslim Girl in the Big Bad World’ explores the pressures patriarchy and religious conservatism exert on women. Another piece offers a biting dissection of white privilege in Michaelis art school- ‘It seems everyone is only concerned with being the coolest but no one cares for being the best. This is a luxury not afforded to us brown people within the creative sphere. Our parents don’t have the gallery hook-ups or internships lined up. This is pure hustle’.
These texts are interspersed with a wide range of drawings and repurposed images. The most successful piece in this issue is the bizarre ‘The Corner Stone Home of Wayward Boys’. Told through a series of posters, fictional alumni like Obama and Mike Tyson praise the institute before a disruptive final appearance by Charlie Sheen.
Zines are a great format for self-expression, which allow creators to bypass media gate-keepers. The self-publishing aspect of zines means that authors are afforded complete creative autonomy, which can sometimes result in beautiful works of uninhibited expression. Zines are also important for documenting political and counter-cultural movements. In particular, since the 1970s zines have been central to promoting punk, feminist and anarchist ideas throughout the world.
Even poorly produced zines can offer a raw snapshot of the cultural context against which it was produced. Fortunately, DYP 1 looks sharp and has swagger. South African university campuses have recently become hotbeds of social conflict, which has also taken on aspects of a generational clash. The government and media often present young people as dangerous and ignorant. Fortunately, zines like this offer witty and sophisticated alternative to this apocalyptic narrative.
Contrived by the apartheid government as a “model township” Mitchell’s Plein was constructed during the 1970s as housing for Coloured people who were forcibly removed as a result of the Group Areas Act. Today the area is largely associated with gangsterism and methamphetamine abuse, which is why the creators of the capsule felt strongly about telling untold narratives within this space.
The capsule lookbook which acts as a photographic essay articulates the current narrative of growing up in Mitchell’s Plein where both Keenan and Thorne, his younger cousin, grew up in the same house. The lookbook then can be regarded as a nuanced expression of a childhood gone by and reflected in Keenan’s younger cousin. The documentation of a space within a specific time forever monumentalises it by means of the physical object – the photograph.
The headwear capsule is inspired by a childhood growing up playing cricket in the surrounding streets and field, as well as the community that stems from that connection.
