Queer Zine Making

EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART DEGREE SHOW 2022

QUEER ZINE MAKING WORKSHOP

The workshop was inspired by one I had attended earlier that year, run by G*NDERSHIT, where materials were free to use and we were encouraged to be creative and get to know each other. I also wanted to encourage attendees of the degree show to touch my work, to manipulate, tear, break and rip my book and tent-space. Attendees were given a package of random materials, including several photographs from my book that was being exhibited: Inbody. They could also use outside materials strewn across the room. They were given the prompts: queer intimacy and touch, but could create their zine with any theme in mind. Shawn Nayar's work, which was being exhibited in the same room, was incredibly influential in many zines, as brightly coloured photographs featuring his asshole framed the grand Edinburgh castle view from the windows in the space.

For this workshop, I partnered with G*NDERSHIT, an Edinburgh-based organisation who aim to support queer people and trans issues in Scotland. They provided this amazing "How to Make a Zine" zine, used during their own queer zine-making workshops held in student spaces on the University of Edinburgh's campuses. They also sold prints and stickers at the workshop, and facilitated conversations with attendees surrounding the prompts of the day: queer intimacy and touch. Click the button below to download the pdf if you'd like a copy of the zine.

Download pdf

A fantastic zine created by a photography student who attended the workshop. She used many of the photographs and materials within her package, stickers from artists also exhibiting in the room: Jamie Spillett, Shawn Nayar and Olivia Brown, and business cards from artists exhibiting in the wider degree show: Jessica Austin and Rachel Glen. It played with the idea of a zine within a zine, and matched the themes I put forward as prompts for the workshop: queer intimacy and touch.

This zine played with the ideas of secrecy and unfolding sexuality. They used my photographs from the Edinburgh Medics LGBTQ+ Society drag night, Revolt: a club night organised by art and design students held in rebellion at Summerhall, and one of Shawn Nayar's butthole cutout portraits. On the back cover, she used a Scotrail ticket receipt to represent her "ticket to happiness", presumably through freedom of queer expression often seen in Scottish nightlife.

This zine focused on the "touch" element of the prompt, the artist scrawling the word across the pages, often alongside small cutout and coloured-in hands - taken from drag queens Trixie and Katya's colouring book. The middle page is a change of pace, the double spread featuring my photograph of a club night crowd from the balcony. Two women kiss while a well-dressed rabbit navigates the crowd. On the back cover, the hands seem to follow each other down across the bisexual flag.

This zine played with the ideas of secrecy and unfolding sexuality. They used my photographs from the Edinburgh Medics LGBTQ+ Society drag night, Revolt: a club night organised by art and design students held in rebellion at Summerhall, and one of Shawn Nayar's butthole cutout portraits. On the back cover, she used a Scotrail ticket receipt to represent her "ticket to happiness", presumably through freedom of queer expression often seen in Scottish nightlife.

This is one of my favourites, created by a middle-aged art lover from Leeds. It features some of my favourite photos I've ever taken, and collaborates with them through interesting cutting and collaging techniques. The first double spread is magical, creating a new face from my nose and mouth and the eyes of a drunken club-goer from Spring 2021. The rainbow frames the face in pieces, while others enjoy the club around it, making out and navigating a crowd. The second double spread flirts with Shawn Nayar's work, cutting out parts of his face in bold sharp lines rather than the flowing cuts he incorporates into his pieces. A hand scrawled note on the back page tells us something about the artist, with a phrase he repeated often while attending the workshop: "Everything is on in Edinburgh."