SELF-MADE: ZINES AND ARTIST BOOKS

Pictured above and below: the reading room section of SELF-MADE: ZINES AND ARTIST BOOKS at the State Library Victoria. Among the zines on display is the Moth Woman Press publication, Moth Woman Vigilantes (2011).

The exhibition, which runs until 12 November, will travel to a number of regional and interstate galleries in 2018 and 2019. 

Curated by Monica Syrette and developed in partnership with Sticky Institute, SELF-MADE  displays rarely seen material from the Library’s extensive collection of artist books and zines, the largest in Australia.

National Moth Week - A commemorative mini-zine

To mark the occasion of this year's National Moth Week, which runs from 18-26 July, we have produced a set of eight stamps, which we are currently incorporating into a new mini-zine. Like other recent MWP zines, it is made with iPad apps (see also previous post). In this instance, I've employed the apps Square Ready, Pic Collage, Face On Stamps and Strip Designer in combination with selected works from my own Moth Masks series of paintings and drawings. The stamp sets can be viewed on my Art Blog, along with some revelatory information about the Moth Women themselves.

Individual pages of the zine are previewed below:

Books, zines and iPad apps

Lately I've been experimenting with potential book forms using iPad apps (see also previous Blog Post). I'm finding that presenting pre-existing work in a different context not only gives it new life, but can also provide the basis for new ideas and narratives. 

By combining my own imagery with the iPad Face on Coins app, I recently produced a set of Moth Woman Vigilantes Coins of the Realm. The announcement of an Australian Federal Election in September has provided the perfect backdrop against which to launch them.

With a forthcoming Moth Woman Press project in mind (further details TBA) the designs were further developed in the Etchings app. The title on the top image was added in the Pictures with Words app.

From top:

Mothstralian twenty cent coin

Mothstralian one dollar coin

Mothstralian fifty cent coin

Moth Woman Vigilantes Commemorative Coin.

Moth Woman Press extends warm thanks to James Bucanek for the name Mothstralia and to Deborah McMillion Nering for invaluable app advice.

To view a complete set of the newly minted MWV coins and to learn more about them, visit Deborah Klein's Art Blog HERE.

Moth Woman Vigilantes at Maria Costa DRAWN

Last weekend I received an email from Miranda Costa, author of the Blog Miranda Costa DRAWN, requesting permission to reproduce some images of the Moth Woman Vigilantes to accompany an article she has written about Hand Held Gallery. Miranda’s post also features an exquisite paper sculpture by Hand Held artist Sheridan Jones.

In April 2013 the Moth Woman Vigilantes will fly solo in their first exhibition at Hand Held Gallery. Works for the show, including further MWV zines, are very much in embryonic stages of development, so Miranda’s words of encouragement are particularly meaningful at this early stage. To visit the post, click HERE. To explore Miranda’s excellent Blog and her fine artwork, click HERE.

The Moth Woman Vigilantes

Written and illustrated by Deborah Klein. Laser printed, saddle stitched. Edition of 80, 21.5 x 15.5 cm; signed and numbered: $12.00

The Story of the Moth Masks was one of the first fairy tales I wrote. It morphed out of a series of small paintings and linocuts I was making at the time and was eventually incorporated into There was once… The collected fairy tales (2009). 

The Moth Woman Vigilantes are much more subversive: a group of anonymous women with apparent super powers who (for reasons that are at this point unclear) have decided to take the law into their own hands. Are they on the side of Good or Evil? This is entirely in the eyes of the beholder. They are distantly related to the characters in the fairy tale - in fact, their aliases (The Virgin Tiger, etc.) are based on the common names of moths. But the Vigilantes are also direct descendents of film noir femme fatales, comic book super heroes and super villains (not that I’ve ever been a huge comic book reader) and the old B-movies and serials I love so much, particularly the French silent film serial Fantomas (1913-14). (Incidentally, the anti-hero Fantomas was also admired by members of the Surrealist movement, including Rene Magritte.) There’s probably a little bit of Joss Whedon’s Buffy in them too, although the morally ambiguous Vigilantes appear to be more reminiscent of her nemesis Faith.

The Moth Woman Vigilantes zine has already spawned the mini-zine Moth Woman Vigilantes: a Menace to Society (see blog post directly below) so it’s fairly certain we haven’t seen the last of them.

Moth Woman Vigilantes: A Menace to Society (mini-zine)

Written and illustrated by Deborah Klein. Laser printed concertina zine unfolding into A4 sized Wanted Poster. 10.5 x 7.5 cm (closed), edition of 80 signed and numbered: $2.00.