Night owls, this is for you. Late nights with the lights down low are the perfect place to meet your new mates and see some fresh lit.
Five Melbourne zinesters have been hard at work putting together brand new zines that have been translated into Japanese for distribution in Tokyo. Hear readings of their new works and come along for a boogie with Japanese pop rock to boot.
Presented in partnership with Sticky Institute
With Rachel Ang, Gemma Flack, Bianca Martin, Ashley Ronning and Luke You
Gemma Flack is an artist, zinemaker, musician and hand poked tattoo artist originally from the UK.
They make work about cute and angry femmes; exploring themes of identity, vulnerability, gender, mental health, queerness, self-discovery, and coming to terms with the concept of existing as a human.
Their zine titles include ‘Sad Girls From The Internet’, ‘It Doesn’t Have To Be Perfect, It Just Has To Exist’, ‘Bad Brain Club’ and ‘No More Tears’ – reflecting inspirations from zine culture, punk & DIY aesthetics, body positivity, intersectional politics, girls taking selfies in their bedrooms, girls making music, girls making art, girls taking over the world.
Bianca Martin is a musician, writer, and zine maker living in Melbourne, Australia. She plays drums in the punk band Piss Factory and makes a free, weekly zine called ‘Rut Zine’ which chronicles the mundane experiences of being in a stuck in a rut. She is currently completing her Masters in English Literature, focusing on feminist confessional writing.
Luke You makes a free, weekly, anonymous, paper zine zine called “YOU”. An issue of the zine has appeared every week since November 2001 with close to 900 individual issues in circulation. The zine is distributed every week by Sticky Institute, Small Zine Volcano, Take Care Zine Distro and Pioneers Press as well as in Sydney, Brisbane, Newcastle, Wagga Wagga, Glasgow (UK), San Francisco (USA), Chicago (USA) and Toronto (Canada). The zine usually takes the form of an anonymous hand-written letter sealed with staples in a paper bag.
Ashley Ronning is an illustrator based in Brunswick, Melbourne. Her creative endeavours began when she was four, and cut her own hair to complete a picture of a pony. After studying graphic design, Ashley found her way into freelance design, set dressing and prop making, and now spends her time in her Brunswick studio illustrating and risograph printing. Ashley also runs a risograph publishing and printing project called Helio Press. When her pen and ink cartridges are down, she’s playing pinball, going to gigs, or having a tinnie in the sun.
Rachel Ang is a comics artist from Melbourne, Australia. Her work has been published by The Lifted Brow, Cordite Poetry Review, Going Down Swinging, Scum and The Stella Prize. She is a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellow for 2018. She is a co-editor of Comic Sans, a new anthology of excellent Australian comics. She makes this with her friend Leah Jing McIntosh. She is the Art Director of Pencilled In, a new magazine devoted to publishing and championing the work of Asian-Australian writers and artists.