Shared Fragments: the zine
Amy Leung
Shared Fragments: a collaborative zine
Shared Fragments Zine:
Collaged, communal and collective, this unfolding concertina zine is a collection of thoughts stemming from 2 questions: What do you think of Peckham? Using labels, words and illustration, Year 9s with their teacher, Clare Stanhope, documented their initial thoughts about Peckham. Responses focussed on safety, belonging and familiarity. It brought into questions of community and feeling part or slightly removed or completely adjunct from the place in which the school is situated down the road from. Many students live or pass through Peckham whilst others have little or no relationship with it and events such as Peckham Festival and places like Copeland Park are unfamiliar terrain. Thinking through the complexities of location and community in a short exercise of creating 'labels' for it, enabled a short, immediate response. These labels were suspended in an installation and photocopied to be cut up and collaged for the zine. Immediate thoughts given greater consideration by members of the public that might have similar or divergent thoughts of their own. Instead of focussing on one perception of place, the labels took on a collective voice, all speaking at the same time to express opinions and worries about Peckham. How does your body shift in different social spaces? Taking cue from Nadia's piece 'Repetition of Adjustment: Me and my hijab' and Amy's sculptural installtion 'Bats, Knots, Bodies' workshops with Year 10, 12 and 13 in Autumn 2021, focussed on the shifting relationship between our bodies and social spaces. The workshop began with a quick free writing exercise of what the title Shared Fragments: repetition through materials and bodies might mean to the students and their practices. Then generating ideas of a repetition associated with your body we considered how this action might change in public and private spaces. How does our identity become frangments in different spaces? Does your identity change to fit into different spaces and situations? Digging deeper into the complexities of identity through a simple, at time innocuous, action enabled us to focus in on the structures or systems that define us in public as compared to our private spaces. Conversations emerged around how bodies are held, contested, presented: how hair is styled, clothing worn, what emotions you might reveal, how you might speak, walk,and take up space. Simple actions were dissected and re-evaluated. Using ink, monoprinting and carbon copy paper, we illustrated and made visual these actions in monochrome prints. Students reflected and wrote short sentences on their pieces which were displayed alongside their original prints at Peckham Festival. As with the Year 9 labels, photocopies of the prints were made and in a HGAED workshop on the Saturday of Peckham Festival and consequently throughout the weekend, students and members of the public were welcome to collage and add their own responses to the unfolding zine. At times photocopies were cut up and reconfigured, participants focussing on the material surface printed quality of the ink. Often the imagery acted as a springboard for more conversation and thoughts. Throughout the weekend, layers of collective thought built up, the zine become a shared record of communities. References: Space Invaders by Nirmal Puwar Citizen by Claudia Rankine Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon |
'My Hair: at home I feel more free to leave my hair messy without brushing it out or making it look nice. But at school I feel like I have to make my hair look nice or I'll get judged.'
'There's a difference between our body language: when we are comfortable and when we aren't and how we express ourselves.' 'Journeys, routines, bad hijab days.' 'Men for a long time have never been expected to show emotions or weakness.' 'Body Change print: people sometimes change the way they look to fit in with the crowd but that should never be the case.' 'Hand print: togetherness and growth, no matter what skin colour you are, we are all a community.' 'Exploring the way I do things, my habits differ in public and private.' 'Our minds are screaming for a way to get out and ask for help. Its only escape is through its mouth which refuses to move and instead provides love and support for others.' 'A fragmented identity of respecting your elders means sometimes holding back on what you want to say.' 'I use my hands to express my emotions and I don't realise how often my body syncs with my mind to create these repetitions of movement.' |
'For many they like to seperate and keep an act when going out to feel a bit more a part of society, like keeping my accents at home.'
'Blood flow as it changes when you are around the general public such as blushing when you are nervous, I focussed on veins since they control the blood.' 'A Stream of Questions is about how I feel in public when struggling with social anxiety and feeling like everyone is watching resulting in an endless stream of questions.' 'HA: I wanted to show how we mask out own voices in public because we don't want attention. Even laughter might be masked in public, in private we feel more comfortable to express ourselves.' 'Minorities. Shyness. Hiding. Quiet. Inwardness. Awkward. Small.' 'In public I'm more cautious and mindful of everyone around me.' 'Shared parts of peoples lives and backgrounds. Many fragments can make a bigger things when brought together.' 'Different hairstyles for different situations.' 'Carbon copy prints of body parts that are appealing to the eye. A print of mum calling me, something I don't do in public because I don't like people hearing my conversations with my parents.' |
'I wanted to show how people alter their speech and tone to blend into society for acceptance.'
'A drawing and print of nature symbolising long life and a departure of all lives.' 'People's beathing changes if they're nervous and that change usually happens in public.' 'Everyday you may feel obligated to act or mask your feelings in a certain way, especially with public pressure. So I created a print with a happy facade facial expression vs what you may truly be feeling.' 'We use our eyes daily for watching and communicating especially when we wear masks.' 'My print is about the movement of walking. It helps me move and gives me the freedom to go anywhere what I would like to. Footprints are detailed and exact to each individual. It helps to prove our uniqueness.' 'My drawings are based on wearing the hijab. In public it makes me feel protected and proud. However it can feel congested and had hijab days are a thing! At home I do not wear a hijab so I feel more open and it is easier and quicker.' 'I showed my daily actions through symbols such as clouds for breathing, speech bubble for speaking and a phone for social media. These actions connect as all.' |