Monday 6 June 2011

Premier Pli & Birmingham Zine Festival






It has been a busy time in our household this week plus all of last week, which has seen us juggling time with the boys during the day and working till crazy hours at night and into the next day as hubby and I, in our different roles bring together elements for premier pli whilst deadlines quickly close in.

I have previously mentioned premier pli but not the fact that hubby is the project co-ordinator for it. He had the vision for premier pli many moons ago when we were in a band together, around the time that we sat down and dreamt up an idea for an independent record label that would bring together art, music and publishing in some way, now First Fold Records.

Hubby loves a project, infact he's lost without one. Did I mention before that when Zach, our first born was a couple of days old hubby started making fifty intricate artist bookworks that housed a cd of his music? So inbetween burbing baby and fetching me breast pads he was up to his elbows glueing, folding and making editions. I remember a couple of onlookers being a little narky about it and I had to explain that this was hubby's way of processing events, information, processing life. I mention this as context for the level of busyness that is always present in his and by default my life! Of course, it also happens to be one of the many things that I love about him and his energy and creativity inspire me endlessly .... but you know sometimes I just want to be lazy and watch trash! Stop making me feel guilty with all the 'doing' I shout inwardly and on occassion outwardly!!!!

Recently, after the boys have been put to bed and when I have been trying my hardest not to do anything at all (which realistically means housework in any case), I have somehow been assigned the job of proof reading artist/musician bio's, been asked to check levels on tracks and listen once more to mission statements, read statements aloud, double check for words in the thesaurus .... hubby remains at all times in what I am currently calling, 'a state of pli'. It's a good thing I've got some pages in this journal and that it's phenemominally exciting to be a part of because otherwise I really would be issueing him with a very large childcare bill plus charges for admin and pa services!!!

Anyway, that aside I want to share tasters of some of the work that will appear in premier pli. I am starting with my own five drawings that form the Susie Sue series that are finally complete plus work by hubby aka Mr. Stuart Tonge. Other gifted contributers include Alex Bermingham who is responsible for premier pli's graphic design and layout. He is exceptionally talented and has a great eye for detail. The first issue of premier pli is guest edited by John Hanson and Matt Saunders from the electronic band Magnetaphone, who also provided the theme that all of the artist's contributions were inspired by.

'I do not want art for a few anymore than education for a few, or freedom for a few'
William Morris


Matt Bower also known as 'Wizards Tell Lies' is an artist and musician contributing who applies the same dark yet beautiful touches to his visual art work as he does to his music and sound. Ben Sadler, one half of Juneau Projects who you may remember me mentioning here (he generously donated his childhood star wars collection to my boys!!) is also contributing exciting new work to the journal, including the self portrait pictured here. Gareth Courage is the resident visual artist for first fold records and another prolific and outstanding artist. He has an exhibition of his collage work showing at the We Are Birmingham venue that coincides with the Birmingham Zine Festival which will also showcase Premier Pli's first publication on Friday 8th July. So, if you're around come and see us down there! Just in case we're not enough pull for you folks, my latest girl crush is the fabulous Bunny Bissoux whose blog I discovered the other day and who since has been transporting me into a wonderful world of wrestling and south korean pop. Coincidentally she provided the artwork for the Birmingham Zine Festival Flyer and is an outrageous talent and I'm hoping to meet her there to gush at her!




















Art work by Katy Acquaye-Tonge




Art work by Stuart Tonge




Art work by Matt Bower





Art work by Matt Saunders




Art work by Ben Sadler





Art work by Gareth Courage

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