Big Fag Press

Fag Mag #1 Callout

The following message comes through from Dave, one of the FagPress Mavens. Above is a photo of him with his amazing lo-fi 2 colour poster, which we printed up a few weeks back. The great thing about this poster was that we made the plates ourselves, from transparencies Dave got made up during a recent trip to Indonesia. Anyway, read on, you could participate in our first ever magazine project, and thus be part of BIG FAG history! But remember, to contribute, artwork deadline is Friday, the 3rd of August.

Dear FAGs and Friends,

We are compiling a project which requires the input of a bunch of you “artist” types.

Myself and H. Shimada are co-editing a collection of work to be included in a print run of a small booklet (much the same format as a classic comic book) to be printed on the FAGpress in August.

We are offering (22) places, each a page of it’s own, of the dimensions 170mm wide by 260mm high. There is also one double-page in the centre (available by request).

Your contribution can be writings, drawings, collage, photograph, an advirtisement, a blank page with a
sticker or panel you provide us with 100 of…

Please, use your imagination!

We want this to be FABULOUS!

There will be two catagories, with one being printed in black (monochrome) and the other in red and blue (duo-tone). Blue and Red produces an excellent “fake” full-colour, and together mimic black quite well: very handsome.

There are an equal number of Mono and Duo pages, but once One fills up, you’re submission is stuck in The Other. People who wish to have their work printed in
Duotone will need to consult with me unless they are able to do the separations themselves.

There is a tutorial for colour separation on the website

www.bigfagpress.org

Shortly there will be an FAQ, examples of work and a downloadable template. [ download template from:

http://lucazoid.com/documents/BIGFAG01_single_template.pdf

]

The cover will be a four-colour screenprint, with an introduction inside the front cover and credits, etc. inside the back cover. There also will be a sash around the book and a three-colour pull-out centrefold.

The places are strictly limited, and will be accepted in order of receipt, with prefrences going to those who’ve slogged under the FAG. Just so it is implicitly stated, decisions regarding the booklet will be made by the editors.

The cost of inclusion is $25. This will cover the cost of the plate and printing (hopefully!). We are going to do an edition on 100 and each “artist” will recieve 2 copies of the finished work. The rest will be sold to raise money for future endevours on the FAG. This could be for you!

BIG FAG #01 is (hopefully) the first of a series of similar works to be produced on the press, with the possibility of being designed and compiled by an individual artist, or small groups, or like this one again! So set your thinking-caps to STUN!

This is a test, in many respects, so you should be aware that it may not ALL come out as you (and we!) expect it to. You understanding in this regard is greatly appreciated.

Please post original artwork, or a compact disc of your shit to:

The Barn
11 Collins St
Beaconsfield
NSW 2015

Artwork Deadline is the Friday, the 3rd of August.

Looking forward to hear from youse.

David Harris
(toecutter@squatspace.com)

P.S. Please feel free to forward this to any interested parties, however, this is a Sydney based project so Jeff Koons and co. can go and get fucked.
(sorry, read that as “Did I forget anyone?”)

Maricor’s Drawings

Maricor, a designer who found us through our website, commissioned the Big Fag Press to print a beautiful drawing. It’s a very fine lined pen and ink drawing, and will be displayed in the glass case outside the Kinokuniya bookshop in Sydney city.

Maricor mentioned that previously she has experimented with giclee printing techniques, but they had not given her the level of fine detail she needed for reproducing her drawings. She was very satisfied with the result from the Big Fag Press.

another photo here.

punkz – a – printing

Our latest printing job: Punks against the Gold Mine. This one was done in a run of a couple of hundred, on fairly lightweight paper which was specially sourced recycled stock. the poster is a 2-sider, designed to be freely distributed and pasted up at will.

This photo is from the second run of these posters. Another pic of the printing in process here.

Petersham Print Job

June 2007: our latest job:

Lucazoid recently ran off a couple of hundred copies of this map, and a cover page for his Petersham blog print out for an exhibition at Artspace. You can see photos of the book in the exhibition here.

Sustainable Printing

BigFag Press was established with the help of Jens, a printer from a company called Technocolour, who advised us showed us the ropes. Jens also donated much of the equipment, inks and papers that have helped us get up and running at low cost. To date, we have used high quality papers which we haven’t had to buy. However, the day will come when these papers will run out, and we will be forced to make some serious choices about paper stock. Inspired by the Footprint Press in the UK, we’re looking into getting some environmentally friendly papers to print with.

In Australia, here are a few leads to follow:
http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/good_wood/envf_pap.htm
http://www.australianpaper.forests.org.au/docs/WHATYOUCANDO.htm
http://www.blackrainbow.com.au/
http://www.abc.net.au/landline/stories/s924420.htm

Please get in touch if you have any suggestions! We’re also currently using horridly toxic inks (which were also donated to us) and it’d be great to find out if we could get the machine functioning well with something better for our own occupational health and safety.

FagPress prints up Redfern Map

FagPress recently printed up a beautiful silver grey map for SquatSpace. It will be used in the exhibition If You See Something Say Something at Mori Gallery on 7 Feb 2006, and will no doubt have a long life beyond.

SquatSpace is inviting any interested parties to work over the top of the map with their own histories and routes through the contested Sydney suburb of Redfern. Read about the project here.

FagPress the Union Buster

Big Fag Press is a union-buster! Matt says the Printers’ Union refused to print this poster because of it’s offensive imagery. Apparently all Aussie hardcore porn is printed in China partly because of this stance by the printers’ union. How a printer in China prints porn, but doesnt look at it is a skill only the Chinese Government could demand.

(our second 2 colour job, and the 2rd poster we’ve done this month! Exciting times!)

FagPress and Breakdown Press in Cahoots!

Big Fag Press has printed up a poster for Melbourne’s Breakdown Press as part of their poster series for the G20 protests…

It’s our first 2 colour job, we had a lot of fun doing it, and we’re VERY pleased with the results. (You can download a little movie of the poster being printed here [mp3 2.8mb].)

FAG Press prints up Matt Tumbers Poster

This beautiful movie poster, designed and drawn by Hana Shimada, was successfully printed on the FAG press on Wednesday 2 August. Watch the little video below to see it in action!

Matt’s film is screening at Sydney, 302 Cleveland St, Surry Hills at 830pm, 4th August 2006. Click here to see the poster.

[ps: more fagpress videos here.]

Ruark Lewis Print from the FagPress

In late 2005, Ruark Lewis pulled a beautiful monochrome poster off the Fag Press. It was featured in a show at M.O.P.Projects, and the print is available for purchase in limited edition. Please get in touch if you’d like to buy one.

Bartholomew Rose draws Banalities for Babel, 2005 off-set print, b&w signed edition of 50, price $A125.00
[We'll upload a higher res image as soon as we can...]