Collaborative Zine Project: Visual Representations of Feminist Truths

Presenter Information

Nicole Soley, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow
Britta Sturm, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU 201

Start Date

11-4-2017 1:05 PM

End Date

11-4-2017 2:05 PM

Student's Major

Art

Student's College

Arts and Humanities

Mentor's Name

Ellen Schofield

Mentor's Department

Art

Mentor's College

Arts and Humanities

Second Mentor's Name

Woodlin Latocki

Second Mentor's Department

Art

Second Mentor's College

Arts and Humanities

Description

The artistic interpretations created throughout this project carry the weight of feminist concerns and personal narratives, curated into a series of zines and collaborative art objects. Zines - indie, inexpensive, mass-printed paper booklets - are weapons of democratic information exchange. They are occasionally inflammatory, visually and verbally expressing the ‘explosions of our time’ along with the current political climate. We identified collaborators that existed outside of the art community and themes to explore. We collected written poetry, photographs, drawn and found imagery, stickers, papers, and verse. We researched the risograph printing process and prominent contemporary zine-makers. To work within our allocated budget, we designed the zine collection combining risograph and xerox printing processes. The project’s themes are communicated utilizing hand-drawn and appropriated imagery, illuminating causes and unique points-of-view. The overlapping of colors and images, both hand-drawn and digital, in the printing processes create rich, visual narratives. The compiling of personal imagery from several individuals results in zines that speak to feminist voices and shed light on societal issues. Viewers of zines are encouraged to consider relationships between art and accessibility, materials, process, and community. The creation of zines through risograph and xerox processes results in a media that falls in between the realm of formal art objects and that of disposable media, expressing specific yet universal ideas. The resulting zines are representative of feminist thought from diverse women’s perspectives, and the spread of thought seeks to empower others through their shared story- telling abilities.