The footage has now been edited together into a story and is up online for viewing – you can see Lucas, Diego, and several other people involved in the exhibition talk about their work, and there’s a few seconds of the press in there too!

DAB LAB research gallery invites you to celebrate Dr Kate Sweetapple’s exhibition opening:

Mr Salmon and Mrs Sparrow

An exposition comprising three brand new prints designed for, and lithographically stamped on the Big Fag Press, shewing a trio of cartographic representations of the fine metropolis of Sydney: the city as shaped by those inhabitants who are named by fish; those named by birds; and those whose names are celestially inspired, as printed by Dr Sweetapple herself in creative collaboration with the young gentlemen of the Big Fag Press, lately of Woolloomooloo.

Gala exhibition opening: Tuesday August 3, 6-8pm

for more info:
Debbie Pryor
Gallery Manager
DABLab
Level 4 courtyard, UTS
Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
702 Harris Street, Ultimo
ph 95148016

Some photos of the prints in production, thanks to Firstdraft:

We’ll be doing a reprint of Kate Sweetapple’s “Map of Avian Surnames” for her upcoming show “Mr Salmon and Mrs Sparrow” at the DAB Lab gallery at UTS.

See Firstdraft’s Depot site for more information, or just have a read of the flyer below.

See you Saturday!

Hot off the press is this new print, made as a commemorative collectable to accompany the launch of the latest Artlink Magazine, themed on “The Underground”.

I had the privelege of guest-editing the magazine, and I was overwhelmed by all the stuff I COULD HAVE included, but was not able to. (You can read more about the contents of the magazine here).

So I decided to make a drawing documenting this failure to squeeze everything in.

Above the line you have (roughly) the contents of the magazine. Below the line you have all the things (well, not ALL) which didn’t make it in. Note the “etc” at the bottom right… It kind of comes out like an iceberg, but I also like to think of it as a radish (“the humble daikon”).

The print was produced as a run of 100, signed and numbered.

We used “dutch etching” paper, which printed really nicely, and the idea was to make it look a bit like the marker ink was bleeding into the fibres of the paper.

The print is now available online for only 70 Aussie dollars! Click here to visit our online store.

Get in quick as our editions often sell out fast.

-cheers, Lucas

Over the last two weeks we ran a workshop with 3rd and 4th year UTS Visual Communication students, introducing them to the offset printing process and giving them some hands-on experience with our press. The project grew out of a workshop UK designer Jonathan Barnbrook held with the students at UTS when he was in town earlier this year for the opening of this year’s Biennale of Sydney. The subject was co-ordinated by Kate Sweetapple, a UTS lecturer who is no stranger to the press.

As a group, they produced a two-colour, eight-panel publication, which folded out to a 1020 × 700mm poster. Each student also printed a smaller individual poster in black or silver – these were printed four to a plate. There are tentative plans for a launch or exhibition later in the year – watch this space for details.

A few photos from our two printing days – for the rest, see this Flickr set.

We manage to take turns to be able to see the rest of this art-economy kermesse, Mick going to listen to a talk by Paul McCarthy, introducing himself as the guy who graffitied his work, but i’ll let him brag about that on his own blog.

I myself slowly working my way around, a little at a the time, in digestible doses, through out the enormity of the fair.

I’d like to feature down here one of the works I pulled out from the crowd, by Lara Almarcegui, Spanish artist who I met last year, and with whom I shared a joint exhibition in Torino.

This work might be of great interest to another fellow BigFagger, Lucas, but will let him brag about that in his own blog too.

As far as our (BigFag) art then we keep talking to amazing people. Mentionable are the rest of the exhibitors of OffPress (see list previous post) and other print enthusiats, like this guy who approached by saying that he just had to sell off his own FAG the other day, because his small scale printing venture could not afford anymore the real eastate it occupied, he was very glad to know we keep our machine going, and he said lots of great things about the press he owned and the mechanical mastery behind it. So good, so passionate about a machine that unfortunately just became industry-redundant..

More to come

Tchuss!

So Mick went off to Die Post to get some solutions, practical ones!

So far not much to say about the ‘biggest Art Fair in the world’, we just went through the A list invitation-only opening yesterday, with a few people stopping by between a drinking networking section and another to be puzzled by our rather loud shirts “BIG FAG”, which incidentally turned up to be our best viral marketing strategy yet!

Anyway, the second day is starting, media preview day, so back behind the desk!

More to come, more images on this flickr.
Tschüss

Big Fag Press is off to Switzerland for the Basel Art Fair.
Yes, it’s (strange but) true!

Today, our Big Fags (Diego and Mickie) arrived in Europe. Tonight they will slick their hair back and press the flesh at the world’s fanciest zine fair.

We’ve brought some terrific prints with us to show and sell, and we’ll be looking to meet and some excellent artists and talk about the prospect of printing even more lithographic editions!

The opportunity to exhibit in Basel came about earlier this year at a meeting we had with Lionel Bovier, a Swiss art book publishing maven.

Lionel was so impressed by the absurd story of our adaptive re-use of our 4 tonne machine that he invited us to participate in a special exhibition entitled “OFF PRESS” at the Basel Art Fair.

Our meeting with Lionel Bovier was organised by Artspace, Sydney. In turn, Artspace was kind enough to sponsor our visit to Switzerland by covering an airfare and freight.

Here’s some more info about OFF PRESS:

The first Off Press presentation focuses on publishers and structures that literally or conceptually re-appropriate their means of production, i.e. acquiring small press facilities or devices, developing programs using new and old technological possibilities and defining a new zeitgeist in contemporary publishing. These presses are often small, artist or designer-run, and marked by a new take on the DIY aesthetics.

(From Art Basel‘s website)

The participants in the OFF PRESS exhibition include:

• Bedford Press & AA Bookshop, London
• Big Fag Press, Sydney
• Lubok Verlag, Leipzig
• Nieves, Zürich
• onestar press, Paris
• Rollo Press, Zürich
• True True True, Amsterdam
• Werkplaats Typografie, Arnhem

Incidentally, the Big Fag Press itself is originally Swiss, a fact celebrated in this print.

We’re hoping while he’s in that most neutral of nations, our man Mickie will get the chance to visit the FAG HQ in Lausanne (near Geneva), where our precious monster was born all those years ago…

Dynamic Lifting was a project developed by Nat Thomas and Kylie Wilkinson during a Marrickville Council Artist Residency in January 2010. During the project, Big Fag Press worked with Nat and Kylie to develop a print which embodied their processes of interaction with members of the local community – they gathered dozens of handwritten gardening tips, and incorporated them into this wonderful 2 colour design. The print was given away as a thank you to those who helped out on their project. We also produced a limited edition, signed and numbered by the artists, on gorgeous acid free paper.

Here’s some more info about the whole project, sent through from Nat and Kylie:

ABOUT THE PROJECT
The starting point for this research was a desire to see how people are creating ways to grow their own food in the urban centres of Sydney (around Marrickville) and to visit gardens where people are attempting to grow food collectively.

The context for this work is the growing awareness of the unsustainable and unethical commercial food industry practices around issues to do with transport, use of fertilizers and waste.

There is a growing interest for people to regain some level of control over how they live and what they eat, and also to combat the rising costs of buying fresh food.

We enjoyed talking about how to grow food. Old knowledge, such as the ways people who grew up on farms learnt from their parents in the 1930s – 50s (in Australia and various countries across Europe and Asia) right through to the more contemporary approaches, informed by ideas such as permaculture principles to food production. Also the inventive rig-ups and schemes developed to make growing food possible despite very limited space.

WHAT WE DID
At the beginning of January, we organised an article in several local newspapers to encourage people to contact us to show us their gardens.

We also contacted several gardening collectives operating in the area and discussed how they approach planting, space and access, core philosophies around gardening practices and who gets to eat the produce.

For much of the time, we also walked the streets and knocked on people’s doors, peeked over fences and held impromptu interviews with people whose gardens showed some sign of effort towards producing food.

We visited permaculture educators and architectural and legal innovators engaging with their own communities to inspire change and encourage action on a grass roots level.

We developed several works during this time, and held a closing event to display the work and host the people we had met during the project, on January 26th (Australia Day) at the residency apartment of the Petersham Town Hall. This event was attended by about fifty local people, was extremely upbeat and provided an opportunity for people to meet folks with different backgrounds who were also interested in urban food production.

MAKING A PRINT ON THE BIG FAG PRESS

A limited edition poster was printed on the famous Sydney BIG FAG proof press in collaboration with the Big Fag Collective. The poster is a compilation of many of the fantastic gardening tips collected during the meetings with gardeners.

Printed on a very large scale, the poster also shows an image of an urban block from the rear. A fig tree bursts through a fence and behind the tree in a back lane sits an empty and abandoned shopping trolley and old tank like car.

Posters were given to people the artists met and worked with during the residency. A pile was also delivered to Council to be distributed to local schools through its environment and sustainability programs.

OUR BIG BANNER
A large pre-loved Australian Flag, purchased at Reverse Garbage was collaged into a banner. Images to do with compost, growth and renewal combined with the confusion of advertising. The banner was a sort of call to arms or perhaps an invitation to reconsider place in terms of basic issues to do with survival and food production.

THE SLIDESHOW
We also produced a slideshow of 180 images of the many gardens and people that they met with during this time. This series of images also documents the process of looking and walking around Marrickville, a place initially unknown to the artists. It also documents the success and limitations of groups trying to grow food collectively, how large lawns and the tiny flourishing front yards exist in tandem. The slideshow is not so much a survey of perfect permaculture gardens but a series of snapshots representing many different levels of engagement with the dirt close to home and the potential of growing things to eat. The slideshow also documents the poster printing process and sewing the banner.

…AND A VIDEO TOO…
During January Nat and Kylie witnessed the many dance events that take place in the Petersham Town Hall. Daily the space is used for different groups in the community to meet and dance. Nat and Kylie developed a short video that documents several couples moving through the space sometimes with elegance and at other times with less ease trying to negotiate dancing partners or the complexity of traditional dance routines. A meditation on mortality and fragility.