Artist Spotlight 2015: The Forgotton Zine Archive

Today's artist spotlight is more of a spotlight on the works of various original zinesters, the Forgotten Zine Archive.

The Forgotten Zine Archive was started 11 years ago (eleven)!! I love its history.  It was created by Irish zinester, Ciarán Walsh, when himself and 3 friends recognised that the needs of certain members of maginalised groups were not being catered to, and out of a desire to support the independent publishing scene in Dublin, they formed their own archive, and ran it out of a warehouse space using their own personal collections. Made up of around 1200 zines, it was initially opened for a few hours every Sunday, but when the warehouse closed in 2005, the archive moved to Seomra Spraoi, and has moved with Seomra to various locations around the city. The zine archive’s primary role has been as a curated memory institution within which Irish zines could be both preserved, and made available to the public. It has survived by picking up donations and existing in various states of care and neglect, and  its contents now stand at around 2000 items – including many non-English and internationally published items.

Shortly after finding a new home in Seomra, the collection was brought to Italy as part of Sarah Pierce's Monk's Garden Project at that year’s Venice Biennale and then on to a follow-up show at Cork’s Glucksman Gallery in 2006. Later that year the archive was involved in a number of small-scale exhibitions at Docklands City Cycle and in Pride Dublin. Ciarán Walsh and Anto Dillon of Loserdom organised an exhibition called "Zine Show – A celebration of Zines and Do-It-Yourself publishing in the form of an exhibition of zines/zine art (both Irish and international)." The exhibition was a collection of covers from the Forgotten Zine Archive, which were displayed along the wall of a Dublin bookstore, and attendees were given freesheets and handouts to take home. That exhibition could almost be viewed as a precursor to Independents Day, as it featured a range of activities from people involved in the local zine/underground scene, which included readings by local zinesters and acoustic music. 

There was a great buzz about the zine archive at the time, but a combination of exhibition funding drying up and those involved with the archive moving away meant that it quickly fell on hard times later the next year. It essentially went into cold storage.

Three years ago a group of librarians took it out of storage, classified and catalogued it. We quickly formed an alliance with another group set up in Dublin - the Dublin Zine Collective (formerly Eddie Pie Hands Printing) and have been trying to foster the independent publishing scene through various activities, such as workshops, meet-ups and an exhibition in the Centre for Creative Practices, at the Dublin Zine Fair last year.

The Forgotten Zine Archive is the only independent, dedicated zine archive in the country. Zines are items of ephemera, they are not created with long-term storage in mind. The fact that the archive has survived for 11 years is remarkable.  It survives on donations. Ultimately we would like to be a repository for physical zines made in Ireland. So if anyone has any zines they would like to donate, either get in touch with Tom Maher or me, or drop down to Independents Day, where will will have a stall selling zines, and the archive will be on display for people to browse through.

The zine archive is more than just a collection of zines. It is an archive of print and DIY culture in Ireland, dating back to the 1970's. A lot of what is written about in zines is not being covered else where. By making and distributing zines, the zine community is creating its own historical records, and that is why it's important to archive zines, least this history would be forgotten.

Today the Forgotten Zine Archive exists as a space to empower the disenfranchised, and as a platform for lending their voices extra weight. While individually the content within zines speaks for itself, when these forgotten zines are brought together, it amplifies their voices all the more.That's the role of any memory institution worth it's salt, and that role is a vital one.

God save the zine!!

(You can read more about the work of the forgotten zine archive in various blog posts, academic journal articles or on our twitter of Facebook pages. Sound!)

Artist Spotlight 2015: One More Robot

One More Robot is an independent, pop culture print magazine, published quarterly in Dublin. The brainchild of Dean Van Nguyen, it covers a whole variety of topics, including music, film, art, literature, the Internet, media, technology, books, (inhale) politics, sexuality, gender, beauty, current affairs, living in Dublin, and anything else that takes his fancy. 

One More Robot has always had a DIY spirit running through it. It was started 5 years ago when Dean was working as a freelance journalist. Looking for a means to showcase his editing skills, and to "help pass the time during those first few barren months", he decided to publish his own magazine. 

What I like most about One More Robot is how much more in depth its articles are than most magazines. In this twitter era that we live in, the content (to me anyway) in lot of papers or magazines just seems to be getting continuously smaller.  Its almost as if we only trust people to read things if they are given in short, sharp blurbs. One More Robot purposefully has longer features, allowing the writer a chance to display his skills, and offering us punters something a bit more comprehensive to get stuck into.

It's also great how the magazine supports other independent Irish artists. It regularly has features on unsigned  Irish bands, or books or media. Content wise its as good as anything on the shelves at the moment.

If you can't make Independents Day and would like to check out the magazine, you can pick  it up in 
independent stores in Dublin that stock One More Robot: The RAGE, The Winding Stair, All City and White Lady Art. Also, you can buy it online via onemorerobot.storenvy.com


 

Artist Spotlight 2015: Suzy City

Leigh Arthur is one very talented individual.  An animator, illustrator, musician, she seems to excel at all.

As Suzy City, Leigh produces DIY screen printed comics, zines, flipbooks, pin badges and t-shirts. I guess her most recognisable work is her classic charachter Suzy, who picks her nose, burns down  youth clubs and legs it from the cops. The Suzy t-shirts are deadly

Leigh's work has featured in publications like Rabble and One More Robot Magazine. She has also made video's for bands such as the #1's and September Girls. Her mini-comic Strongman Jones is one of my favourite zines. I don't know what it is about it, but I just love how happy Strongman Jones looks twisting his body inside out. It's amazing!

An active supporter and promoter of independent publishing, you will find Leigh at events like the Dublin Zine Fair and the Christmas market in Smithfield. She is one of the organisers of this years Independents Day, she even designed both posters for it. How incredible are these!! If the event is half as good as these posters it will be some day!

Leigh's also a member of the garage rock band 'Sissy', who released their debut ep last year. It's savage and they were named as one of 'The Thin Air's' 15 for ’15 (15 acts to look out for in 2015).


In summation, Leigh Arthur is a legend. You should buy all her stuff!!

Artist Spotlight 2015 : Splitting Borders

Gareth Gowran and Sadhbh Lawlor are two über talented zinesters. The duo produce Splitting Borders, a web zine which is also a physical comic. Their work is exceptionally good. They produce beautiful, handmade DIY comics, prints and textile pieces, with a subtle dark humor.

Created in 2013, Gareth and Sadhbh describe Splitting Borders mantra as "Live it (awkwardly). Muse over it. Write about it. Draw it. Post it on your web-comic. Print your web-comic. Bring it to the fair".  Hopefully the 'live it awkwardly' part is just fiction for my currrent favourite of  theirs 'The perpetrating husband and his melancholic wife".

Gareth has done character design work for publishing companies, along with illustrating for Atomic Diner and BeActive Media. Sadhbh is a self confessed art "machine fueled by fine art and craft techniques" and has been making commissioned work for the last ten years.

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I love their alphabet zine I got at last years Dublin Zine Fair. It came with a beautiful envelope of the image from the front cover of a man swimming through words, and is elegant and lovely and good for your vocabulary. 'C is for Cryptozoology' gets me every time!

If you haven't seen their blog yet, check it out. It's brilliant, and regularly updated. They seem to be consistently prolifically good. Drop down to Independents day in the Co-op on March 22nd and see for yourself!

Artist Spotlight 2015: Twoheadeddog Art

Independents Day on March 22nd will showcase various forms of independent artists. There will be comic writers, zinesters, musicians playing throughout the day, independent film screenings and one artist who likes to make art from lumps of scrap found on a railroad - Twoheadeddog Art.

Aside from making these incredible pieces, Twoheadeddog art also makes record designs,book cover designs, amazing pictures and I really love this piece:

From reinvigorating discarded materials to drawings of snarling wolves, I think you can really sense a punk influence throughout. Twoheadeddog's work is original and striking and I can't wait to see what they display at Independents Day.

Artist Spotlight 2015: Loserdom

For today's zine of the day I have the absolute pleasure of talking about one of the seminal zines in Irish history, the exemplary, Loserdom.

There are zines made in Ireland, and then there is Loserdom,  a D.I.Y. punk, political zine, made by the Loser Brothers - Anto and Eugene Dillon. 

Loserdom was first released in 1996 as a free sheet, and was given out at gigs and in record stores.  Around issue four it took it's classic format of featuring a cover, articles, interviews, reviews, and comics by Eugene. It was always closely aligned to the punk, DIY gig scene, and has remained that way to this day (issue 23). Albeit, featuring more on cycling now than was evident in the first few issues.

Both brothers have also released class solo zines. Eugene in the form of 'And they are saying', 'Open shirts and raised collars', and 'I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back from you'(to name but a few)  which we have a copy of in the Forgotten Zine Archive.

I really like Anto's 'Promise me skies' zine. It features stories of Anto traveling around Spain, living in Scotland and putting on gigs. It's really well written, very accessible. When you read it you think I could do that, and this is the case with Loserdom too. I think that is a testament to it's brilliance, and I wonder how many people have been inspired to make their own zines after reading it over the past 20 years.

If you haven't read Anto's thesis on the History of Irish zines, I really recommend doing so. As someone who also did a thesis on zines, it is essential reading, and is a brilliant record of a culture little known, or misrepresented in main stream publications. 

These men have done a lot for the zine/independent DIY community in Ireland. Even this very event 'Independents Day' was set up by Anto (along with Barry Lennon). I'm delighted that the Loser brothers have a table at this years event. 

Loserdom's almost 20 years old now, here's hoping we see another 20 more of it!

Artist Spotlight 2015 : Bands playing the Afterparty - Wild Rocket, Cruising and Woven Skull

To coincide with the announcement of the bands playing the afterparty at Independents Day, and Leigh Arthur's incredible poster for it, today's artist spotlight will feature the bands playing the after-show, and what a line up it is.

Following the day of various events in the Co-op for Independents Day 2015, we reckoned everyone will be having such a great time that no one will want to leave. So, we're having an afterparty next door in the BYOB space of Tenterhooks from 7pm. Suggested donation is €5, though you won't be turned for lack of funds. To me this line up is definitely worth a fiver in.

I've heard terms such as space metal, psych rock, grunge or stoner rock used to describe our first act - Wild Rocket. They certainly have that dirge'y base sound and repetitive grooves in spades.
2014 was a busy year for them, as it saw them release their debut album "Geomagnetic Hallucinations", along with playing gigs with luminaries such as the enigmatic former Can frontman  Damo Suzuki, and seminal Dublin Krautrockers Twin Kranes. I think they're absolutely savage. They really remind me of the band Loop, and seeing these in a venue like Tenterhooks is not to be missed. 

 

Cruising are a punk band featuring members with funny names who are also members of other bands. I love how dirty and distorted this sounds, it's almost like a punkier Delta 5, or a female fronted Joy Division. This will be rockin!

And finally, music made in the haunted woods under the sacrificial moon in the wilds of Ireland, the incomparable Woven Skull. Other than seeing these play inside a ring fort, on a full moon on an outdoor session, a dark, intimate venue like Tenterhooks will be perfect.

Three savage acts to wrap up a savage weekend.

My advice for Independents Day is to come early, bring cans and take the Monday off work the day after!

Not to be missed.

The link to the Facebook event is: https://www.facebook.com/events/1543304439279922/