By Abby Neal for Boston Compass (#133)
March 1, 2021
Zines were made for times like these. For almost a year, creatives have mourned the cancellation of many events that brought together misfits and counterculture communities. The folks that normally converge through open studios, gigs, parades, and zine festivals pivoted to build community across distance. Lots of communities bridged their distance by creating zines and correspondence art, and by adopting low-fi methods like mailing photocopied drawings.
Artists, music lovers, and punks, took a renewed interest in the accessible, resourceful, and low-fi qualities of zines. People also became increasingly disenchanted by social media and its relation to mental health and mass media. New generations were ushered into the punk tradition of DIY publishing. These people used the zine as a tool for healing and connectivity.
Thus, I am curating an exhibition called We Zine in collaboration with Fort Point Open Studio to bring all of us together. As a zine artist, I really felt the loss of Brain Market, Boston Book Arts, and New Zineland being canceled. This show will include youth artists becoming radicalized by this moment, old school zinesters, and everything in between.
“We Zine” will feature zine artists in Fort Point Artist Community’s Atlantic Wharf Gallery near the Boston Children’s Museum and a parallel online exhibition run by FPAC. The show will run from May 25th to July 23rd. Artists can submit art by March 25th via https://tinyurl.com/wezinerfplink. I will accept a wide range of submissions related to zines and community building.
—Abby Neale
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