Big Fag Press

looking around

Well well, there is a lot of big names, big galleries and big projects around here.

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!

A practical way to sell prints

update!
We arrived in Basel and realised we didnt organize ourselves for packaging the prints we’d like to sell and subsidise our Swiss venture with.

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 at Art Basel

[The Boss at the Art Fair, day one...]

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 by Kylie and Nat

[Isaac modelling the Big Fag Press print by Nat Thomas and Kylie Wilkinson]

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:
Continue reading…

Printing with Tom

Hi all, a quick update to showcase the printing of yet another poster, this time by the hand of Tom Nicholson, artist and writer, currently based in Melbourne.

Click on the image to enlarge
cheerio

[ps - more Tom Nicholson images - printing process here.]

Big Fag Press Fundraising Crane Print

Hot off the Press (and just in time for Christmas), we’ve done a gorgeous new Big Fag Press print in 2 glorious colours.

The print shows the press being moved by crane – to commemorate the move to our new-improved home in Woolloomooloo (the big move will happen in early 2010).

It’s a limited edition of only 75, numbered and specially embossed with the Big Fag logo… and were offering exclusively to our 75 most valuable Big Fag friends!

The print is about 56 x 76cm on acid free cotton rag paper with a really nice decal edge.

The print sales will be a fundraiser to pay for the crane to move it to Woolloomooloo! (All very self referential, we know).

How much?
Donate your weight or more (in kilograms)!

IF you take this “once in a lifetime” offer you will receive a BONUS super-glossy gold embossed certificate signed by us Big Fag folks, commemorating your purchase as one heckuva historic donation towards the cost of moving our 4 tonne monster to its new home!

You can see the bonus certificates here (not yet cut):

So! Are you into it? Jump in quick before they run out!

[update - first edition now sold out! Thanks everyone! Head over to the Big Fag Press Crane Print page to find out if a new edition is available...]

- – ps – -
a few bonus images for you

Our new BIG FAG embossing.

Our beautiful acid-free rag paper.

Big Fag Press prints MAPPING SYDNEY

We had an exciting week at BFP as we printed up some wonderful maps for an exhibition at UTS. The show is called Mapping Sydney. We printed maps by Jane Shadbolt, Kate Sweetapple, and Naomi Stead+Katrina Schlunke+Trina Day – all on nice archival paper – and we were delighted with the results.

Here’s some more info on the show.

The above video (thanks Jessie!) shows Lucas and Kate printing Jane’s amazing experiential map of the inner-west. It’s a two colour job with built areas (and green parks) completely chock-filled with text (18000 words on one sheet of paper!) and roads blank.

Here’s another shot of Jane’s map:

Kate’s map is a wonderful poetic (and odd) geo-locating of all the folks in Sydney who have bird-related surnames. She got her info from the white pages. Here’s an image of her map:

More photos here of this print run… More to come: images of Naomi+Katrina+Trina’s work…

ps – here’s an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about the project…

Melbourne Museum of Printing

[photo thanks to Lauren from She Sees Red. More photos here.]

A month or so ago I visited the Melbourne Museum of Printing. This terrific letterpress emporium is a “working museum” – a really interesting concept – a kind of techno-heritage project, where it is essential to keep the machines rolling in order to understand them properly. A non-functioning printing press is much less educational than one where you can make up your own poster!

Warren from the Narrows took me down there. He helped me make a great die-cast letter block (not sure of correct terminology) of the Big Fag Press (see the photo below).

Now, the museum is in danger of going belly up. Due to its generous practice of saving old machines, the 5 warehouses of great stuff now cost more money in rent than can be afforded. So a gang of young print enthusiasts, including Warren, got together to try and save the museum itself. They had a fundraising day last Sunday, where 22 artists (including me) were invited to make a print on the letterpress machines. These were limited-editioned and sold to make some rent-cash.

You can see some of the prints over here. Contact the MMOP via that website if you’d like to buy one. Hopefully some detailed photos will go up soon so you know what you’re splashing out on!

cheers
Lucas from BFP

ps – check out the MMOP’s old website – I think it is a stunning analogous “site” – not dissimilar to the warehouses full of old machines. Treasures to be found, if you are willing to rummage!

New Edition HOT PINK Big Fag Press Brochure Poster now available!

[Update, June 2010: this poster/brochure is now sold out. We will advise when a new edition is printed].

For all you online-buying fanatics out there, you can now order BIG FAG merch right here! After our first edition of bright green/black/silver Big Fag Press Brochure-Posters sold out in a trice, we did a second edition of 120 (individually numbered) in hot pink/black/silver.

Click here to see the “poster” side of the print, featuring the amazing silver and black image of the press itself, mounted by our mascot, Sydney’s biggest fag, Faggot Rooster…

…and the photo above shows the “brochure” side complete with all the details of the press, its history, how to get involved, and the tech specs if you’d like to prepare an image for the machine… Click here to see each page of the brochure in detail.

Get ‘em while they’re hot, folks! You can order them in “natty folded brochure style” in a flat pack envelope, or “pristine rolled poster style” in a tube…

Only AUD$30.00 plus postage to wherever you are in the world.

email us: info@bigfagpress.org to order one. Tell us where you are in the world, whether you want rolled or folded, and we will tell you how much to pay us…

…here are deposit details:

Encompass Credit Union
acc name: Fag Press
acc # 82888
bsb: 802184

[This brochure/poster was produced thanks to a NAVA Marketing Grant]…

Throw Shapes features us!!

Throw Shapes, an online culture zine, has featured the Big Fag Press in its latest issue. You can read the article-cum-interview with Lucas and Kernow here. Please take any glorified or potentially silly statements we make with a grain of salt, woncha??

It also features news on the exciting new addition to the family, the Fagette, the BFP’s little sister.