This is a Museum, 2023

Excerpt featured in Lunchbox Magazine Fall 2023

28 p., 6” x 4.3”, staple bound, ink jet printed

This project was heavily inspired by 90s Riot Grrrl zine culture, which facilitated community between non-male identities. I was inspired by how the zine became a tangible manifestation of safe vulnerability. I photographed my non-male identifying friends in their homes to visualize this feeling of safety and community, choosing to layer the images over themselves to enhance their blurriness and warmth, creating a sense of unspecific feelings of comfort. Many Bikini Kill zines of the 90s began with a list of rules for their readers, such as ‘Selectively ignore all oppressive laws,’ and ‘Recognize vulnerability and empathy as strengths.’ I wrote my own list of rules that I associate with my friendships, conjoining our playfulness with notions of community-building. 

The title “This Is A Museum” comes from the notion of people as art. I am inserting that I view my friends and the love between them as a form of art, thus a collection of photos of them is a museum. The zine ends with an inclusion of a Guerrilla Girls print that states “the advantages of being a woman artist.” The Guerilla Girls functioned similarly to Riot Grrrl zine culture by expressing feminist rhetoric with imagery, humor, and a “punk” attitude. Ending the zine with a nod to them acknowledges the outspread of this media across the 20th century.