STAPLES AND INK
Some reflections on the small press boom in the art world

New York artist Susan Bee defends the political and subversive potential that develops when art and pleasure unite. Which is why imagination, poetry, humour, subjectivity, textures, colours, lines, and matter play an essential role in her work, both in her collages and paintings and her artist’s books. As an art student in the late sixties, she first came in contact with feminist activism and other social movements such as black power, gay rights, and protests against the Vietnam War. In 1986, she embarked on the project M/E/A/N/I/N/G, a self-managed art magazine that she co-edited with fellow artist Mira Schor for thirty years. In this podcast, Susan also shares the particularities of being a woman and an artist who has passed the age threshold of 65 in New York’s artistic ecosystem today.

We dig up some unreleased fragments of our conversation with New York artist and editor Susan Bee that we were unable to include the first time around.

Hamja Ahsan is a British artist, writer, curator and fanzine enthusiast. He is known for his raw critique of dominant culture and power structures, particularly in the context of cultural representation and identity. In this podcast, we talk Hamja Ahsan about the language of Shy Radicals, about neurodiversity and Islamophobia, and about the fictional utopian shy people’s Republic of Aspergistan. But also about fried chicken. Yes, mostly about fried chicken, really.

In this podcast, we talk to Chilean writer, editor and academic Macarena García about her working methods with children in schools and other shared educational spaces. We talk about challenging picture-books, about fascination and overflow as tools for collective transformation, and about what happens to bodies when they are together. We also explore the workings of censorship and how children’s literature approaches subjects such as death, sex, racism, dictatorship, feminism, gender identity and the climate crisis.   

Teal Triggs talks about the historical background of zines and their key role in generating communities outside of the mainstream. She discusses in particular the Riot Grrrl movement and the language and visual universe that opened up as a result of the cross between music, DIY, activisim, femininity, and feminism in the self-publishing world.

In FONS ÀUDIO #49, Peter Downsbrough takes his works from the MACBA Collection as a springboard to talk about a relationship with photography spanning almost half a century, and about how it fits into the jigsaw puzzle of techniques and disciplines that make up his artistic vocabulary. We talk about space, cities, invisible lines, and the critical attitude that runs subtly through his practice.

Maite Muñoz, Head of MACBA Archive, talks about how the material in the Archive is organised, strategies for dissemination, and how it all contributes to redefining the boundaries between art and document.