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GRAPHEME Zine Lab is an incubatory space at the up and coming Goodman Arts Centre where we are putting together a zine library, and encouraging Singaporeans (especially Singaporean youth), to take tactile creation into their own hands, no matter how small—it could be simply putting out a staple-bound zine—in the transience of today's technological age, where tweets, Facebook statuses, and blogposts endlessly sweep over themselves every second. A curious chasm lies inherent—on the one hand, we have many people scratching their head: what are zines? On the other, we saw such heartfelt enthusiasm for the event that we think we may have hit upon a little niche in Singapore that currently has no place to call home. The Zine Mosh, (15th – 22nd October) was an exhibition-cum-distribution experiment: 1 part tangible creativity, 2 parts freedom of self-expression. A heap of micro-publishing, a liberal sprinkling of the DIY ethos. We served up independent book/zine forms of all shapes, sizes & contents. All manners of unique, locally-created zines were on exhibition & for sale. Topics ranged from zentai, to transient places now demolished, and Haight-Ashbury free love. Styles skated between lo-fi cut-and-paste texts to full-coloured Partaking in our vision and contributing works were an assortment of comrades, ranging from FALSE independent fashion anarchists Le Messie & Amanda S, Biennale fine-artist Michael Lee, to illustrators Zxerokool and Sheryo, crafter Cookiecutter, photographers Philipp Aldrup and Alvelyn Alko, the drömkeepers of The Little Dröm Store, comic-book artist Troy Chin, as well as members of the public who shared their creations with us. More than a hundred people of differing backgrounds and age groups showed up for opening night, enjoying performance art-cum-music made by the multi-talented Bani Haykal, Shahila Baharom & co, the Zine Mosh exhibits—hanging on industrial nylon-woven nets no less—as well as making purchases both fresh off the nets as well as from Cher of Polarity Press, who brought socially-salient foreign zines to add to the mix. |
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Upon hearing news of Post-Museum’s eminent closure and dire straits, Grapheme Zine Lab curated and organised House of Incest, a week-long multi-disciplinary groupshow featuring a surreal, provocative art exhibition, in addition to other events such as academic talks, film screenings and an intimate poetry reading, as well as a gig-party night. |
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OPENING NIGHT was a rave; with around 300 people turning up, and the crowd spilling out on to Rowell Road. Musicians like Hanging Up The Moon and Acid Reef entertained the crowd in the Gallery, whilst Food03, the café attached to Post-Museum next door, was abuzz with activity. The waitresses at Food03 and a Post-Museum programmer indicated that the turn-out was unprecedented—they had never seen a crowd of such proportions descend upon Post-Museum. |
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HOUSE OF INCEST—for the art exhibition, Grapheme Zine Lab was able to leverage on its ties with artists, featuring prominent artists working in different fields with stylistically different works unified by the theme; such as illustrators KILAS, Kristal Melson and Eeshaun, fine art photographer/artist Genevieve Chua and Cultural Medallion recipient Lee Wen. We also invited lesser-known emerging young artists. |
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CARNAL STASH—for the literary reading, Grapheme Zine Lab featured leading local literary figures such as Alvin Pang and Ng Yi-Sheng, who shared intimate pieces dealing with the sensual and sexual with audience members amidst tealight candles and incense. |
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PHILIA PARTY—for the gig-party night, Grapheme Zine Lab was able to attract marquee names such as rock-band Lunarin, experimental musician Bani Haykal, internationally-noted The Analog Girl and DJ quartet 4imaginaryboys to play for Philia Party. Tickets were priced at $20 and we managed to raise approximately $1500 for the night, not including the steady stream of alcoholic beverage sales—Food03 ran out of beer for the night. |
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