For me, blogging is a natural extension of being an artist, especially in today’s politically charged climate (( such as recently reported in the New York Times, ‘Blogs Take Lead in Reporting Polling Problems, With Supporting Evidence on YouTube‘ (may require registration to read) )): the desire to have a voice, to ‘publish’, in an era typified by a plethora of the text and image-visual overload.
Another mode of expression, another desire to have a voice, an older analog format becoming increasingly chic in the art world (could blogging someday be recognized as medium??? scary thought, idinit?) is the zine. Although zine-publishing is more of a recent (as in past 30 years) phenomenon, borne from the cheap and accessible photocopy market, it could easily be argued that older art movements and models at least pre-emanated the emergence of zine culture: Dada with their posters and works printed in editions; the Situationists with their pamphlets; Fluxus with their piles of printed matter. Today David Shrigley is well-known for his comical zine-like publications (and zines proper). In this weblog I’ve also previously mentioned Karen D’Amico’s Tangent zine and John Henry Blatter’s Daily Constitional art-journal/zine, among others.
These thoughts and more all streamed through my head when I stumbled upon two links online, wherefrom now I don’t even remember (pray what would I do without blogging, I wouldn’t have any method of recall!). Those links include an exhibition that only recently ended at No.12 Gallery, a quick-turnover gallery (3 exhibitions in November alone!) located near Freshness Burger in the Shibuyaka area of Tokyo — this exhibition titled ‘Zine Library’ at No.12 was presented in collaboration with Nieves Books, a publisher from Switzerland who specializes in artist zines. Keen!
To me, while I glance over at my photocopier near my bed, what I reckon is that what’s not important is the medium, but rather that you are publishing, that you are voicing your concerns, or ideas, or notions. It’s not always well-articulated or phrased according to plan, but that’s not what it’s about in the first place, either. Just get it out there! Make it known! and have fun!
Me blog you long time!
Update: (some links)
ZineWiki
Chicago Underground Library
Pavement Licker
grrrl zine network
Zine Libraries and Resources
Footnotes: