Zine Age Riot!
Text: Tristan Ceddia
This Saturday sees Byron Bay’s first zine fair Zine Age Riot. Organised by Craig Rochfort of online store Tee Luxe the fair features some of Australia and the worlds most exciting zine makers including Joseph Allen Shea, Stefan Marx and Martin Bell.
Zine Age Riot Saturday, 8 August 2009 11am – 4pm
Sea Cell, 4/1 Acacia St, Byron Bay Arts & Industry Estate
I caught up with Craig via email and asked him a few questions about the fair…
Tristan Ceddia: What is Zine Age Riot all about? How did it start and who is involved?
Craig Rochfort: Zine Age Riot is a zine exhibition being held in Byron Bay on August 8 2009. My friends over at Sea Cell have put on some great art shows in the past, so I asked them to consider hosting a show that focused on zines. Cos they are good guys the agreed to the idea straight away.
We approached artists that we knew (and or liked) to create a zine for the show. Some of the artists are known for their zine work and others are known for working in other mediums. The non-zine artists were really excited to produce new work in the zine format. Some of the artists are pretty well known on the international stage, while others are local hard core zine makers who fly under the radar most of the time.
We have around 30 artists who have created zines for the show, including, Stefan Marx, Craig Atkinson, Jody Barton, Joseph Allen Shea, Jeff Canham, Alex Kopps, Ryan Heywood, Martin Bell, Amber B — the list goes on… its a really great and diverse group.
TC: Whats happening right now in the zine scene in Byron Bay?
CR: Like most places the zine scene in Byron exists largely unnoticed. Some zines make it into the broader community, but on the whole they are created, swapped and circulated (happily) via their own networks. To be honest, I deal mainly with artists outside Byron, but during the lead up to the exhibition I have come across a serious group of local artists, writers, photographers who are totally into the whole zine thing.
Also being so close to the Gold Coast/Brisbane area I see a really strong and vibrant zine culture. In fact I’m i reckon there is real growth in the classic, low cost, self published zine as well as the sometimes the more polished artist zine. People seem to really respond to a tangible, 3 dimensional item (printed on paper!) as opposed to the masses of digital images we digest everyday. Don’t get me wrong, the internet is totally on the money when it comes to circulating ideas, connecting zine communities, etc but it’s still pretty nice to actually hold a small run, hand made book.
TC: What importance do zines hold?
CR: Zines are diverse, exist in many forms. They are created by many different groups of people. Zine subgroups include people who are interested in comics, music, writing/poetry as well as visual art. The common thread is their small run, low cost, left of center nature.
Personally, my interest is in zines are produced by or document the work of visual artists. These zines are often (but not always) an extension of the artists practice rather the focus of their work. This means that zine can often be a highly creative outlet for some people. Artists often tell me they can freely experiment and develop new ideas when creating zines, that may lead to a substantial body of work in their normal chosen medium.
Aside from being a creative outlet for some artists, I also believe that the zine is a nicely democratic method of distributing artwork. Because zines are generally low cost, the work becomes accessible to larger audiences.
Why do I think it is important? From my point of view, the more people that can be exposed to the visual arts the better…
Hey, hope to see you guys at Zine Age Riot!
