DC Zinefest 2019 Haul
DC Zinefest 2019 was held at Art Enables in NE Washington, DC. I live in Alexandria, VA so it was a bit of a trek. I biked and metro'd. It was about 100°F and humid as hell. Ate breakfast at Whole Foods, but originally wanted to eat at Table Talk. It was too crowded by the time I arrived and Whole Foods is across the street so I decided to eat breakfast there instead. Their unpasteurized orange juice tastes really good.
The gallery was really crowded when I arrived, and I was extremely sweaty because I was biking in the heat. The tables were organized in a rectangle. Each artist had either 1/3 or 1/2 of the table. Some artists had just zines, others had posters, stickers, and pins.
The two pastel looking zines on the left are by Lindsay Bottos. Lindsay takes a lot of cool pictures and writes poetry. The photographs in Linday's zines are very human to me; they are not particularly pretty or special and this seems to be the goal. They feel like actual memories. Some are blurry, some are of friends, and a major focus of their work is on human skin. Lindsay's poetry stokes the same kind of anxieties I have, and there are a few works that recognize online interactions as significant.
https://lindsaybottos.com/
The red one in the middle is by Margot Terc. The cover stood out to me, and I was impressed with the quality of the print. It has an ISBN number so I guess it's an actual book?? I liked the typography and photographs, so I added it to my haul. Margot is also a visual artist and has cool videos on her website.
https://www.margot-terc.com/
The three on the right are by artist Carlton Nivens. I asked him how much each one was and he said he would take whatever I gave him. Carlton's 3 zines are composed of what seem to be doodles and poetry. The poetry has spelling errors which is very cool. Carlton's drawings and writing is very abstract and I immediately vibed with it.
Carlton's Instagram: @tommyrope
The tiny pamphlet on the bottom is from a rep of the Tech Worker's Coalition. It has a lot of good information. Since tech is booming in the modern economy, companies need to place value not only on programmers and data scientists, but also graphic designers, warehouse workers, cafeteria staff, and everyone else who play a role in keeping the tech machine running. It encourages unionization of service staff like cafeteria workers and janitors on major tech campuses. It also says the duty of a programmer is to join forces with the union and make technology better for everyone. "How disruptive could Uber programmers get if they defected from venture capitalists and teamed up with the 1.5 million drivers worldwide to create a cooperative app owned by workers?" Disrupt!
Twitter: @TechWorkersCo
I also bought this cool mushroom poster. The artist's website is www.phostetler.com
