Safdar Ahmed

Newly Published Perspective Picture: One Hundred Ghost Stories in a Haunted House (Shinpan uki-e bakemono yashiki hyaku monogatari no zu)

「新版浮絵化物屋鋪（＝舗）百物語の図」 Japanese Edo period about 1790 Artist Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849), Publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudô) (Japanese)

MFA Boston

If We All Spat At Once They’d Drown is the new anthology of comics about class curated by Sam Wallman, and a follow-up of sorts to the amazing Fluid Prejudice. It will be over 200 pages long and feature over 60 artists.  It’s available here to pre-order along with ace rewards from Darren Cullen, Tommi Parrish, Beth Sometimes, Caroline Anderson, Rudy Loewe, Claude Mckay, Ingo Giezendanner, Emma D, Mary Leunig and more.

Exhibitor: The Refugee Art Project

Refugee Art Project was conceived amongst a collective of academics and artists united by a concern for the plight of asylum seeker and refugees who come to Australia and who are then locked up indefinitely in Australian detention centres. We conduct regular art workshops with people in the Villawood detention centre and with refugees in the community, from which we hold art exhibitions and have produced a number of zine publications.

Our organization seeks to facilitate the art and self-expression of asylum seekers and refugees, which is then presented to the Australian public through our exhibitions and publications, in order to challenge and educate the wider community. We are a grassroots initiative that harnesses the power of artistic and cultural productions in the struggle for refugee rights and social justice. From late 2010, more than 500 artworks created by Refugee Art Project participants have been exhibited to the Australian public.

Our contributors are a diverse mixture of people, including men, women and children, who come from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Iran, Syria, the Kurdish regions of the Middle East and Burma. Whilst the work showcases a diverse range of styles, mediums and approaches, our exhibitions are unified by the common themes of trauma, exile, hope, and endurance that have marked the lives of refugees. We are a not for profit organisation and one hundred percent of sales on selected artworks goes to the asylum seekers and refugees concerned. Often it is sent back to support the families that asylum seekers were forced to leave behind.

Refugee Art Project are a longstanding presence in the Sydney zine scene and will be among the many stallholders at Other Worlds this Saturday, 21 May at Marrickville Town Hall.

Many Americans know the famed British writer, Alan Moore, as the writer of Watchmen and V for Vendetta but what really thrust him into the spotlight in the U.S. was his Saga of the Swamp Thing. When I picked up book one of this saga, I was thinking about monstrosity and its connection to the abject. Monsters as metaphors have been utilized by queers, people of color, differently abled, and trans bodies for quite some time. We can look to examples of the Hydra, a many headed serpentine, that fought against Hercules as a metaphor for a united dispossessed peoples, the Hydra, fighting against an imperial ruler, Hercules. Check out the book, The Many-Headed Hydra by Peter Linebaugh for more on that. Or perhaps, we can look at Susan’s Stryker’s use of the Monster in her performance/speech My Words to Victor Frankenstein above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage, where she says, “As we rise up from the operating tables of our rebirth, we transsexuals are something more, and something other than the creatures our makers intended us to be.” To me, this is the what The Saga of the Swamp Thing is all about.

In book one, Swamp Thing struggles with its new form. What once was Alec Holland is now Swamp Thing and Swamp Thing is unwelcome in the world because it is “monstrous.” Book one is all about Swamp Thing’s struggle with its own humanity. If Swamp Thing isn’t designated as human, can it even have humanity? Can it have purpose in the world? Where does it fit? etc. etc. This book really hit home for me personally. Society is a cruel beast that tells certain people they are lesser than. It says because of their race, their gender, their sexuality, their body and/or certain body parts, certain people are monsters, freaks, and not worthy.

Spoiler Alert: Swamp Thing finds empowerment in this change from Alec Holland to its current state of swampy monster. There is power in what Swamp Thing is currently, in the state of its body and its relationship to the earth, in what it believes and who it is. Swamp Thing is a straight up badass and begins to love itself and fight all those fools trying to keep it down.

So own your monstrosity and use it to power your struggle! Everyone is welcome in this world. We’re here, we’re monsters, and we’ll karate chop you in the fucking throat if you try and fuck with us.

LEBEN ODER THEATRE ? EIN SINGENSPIEL Charlotte Salomon created this masterpiece of autobio comics and art before and in the midst of world war two reflecting on her daily life, family relationships and art that evolved as she went into hiding, as a refugee. She was killed in the holocaust before she could see her artwork published and exhibited internationally.

Read the full book here online: http://www.jhm.nl/collection/specials/charlotte-salomon

Sticky will be at Other Worlds Zine Fair at Marrickville Town Hall, Sydney on Saturday May 21st. 

They are currently fundraising to cover the cost of the event, which has doubled in size since last year. Have a look at the great selection of rewards here. 

Here’s a link to a Pozible for this year’s fair.  Please donate if you can and help cover essential costs like hall hire! There are some great rewards, including a poster pack, tote bag and original art.

There are a lot of well-meaning liberals who advocate for increasing the refugee quota by talking about how much they would contribute to the economy, or drawing attention to how many of them are doctors or engineers. It shouldn’t matter. Everyone deserves asylum and safety regardless of their class, occupation or labour value to capitalism.

for the otherworlds zine fair fundraiser tabloid