may _24
▲ highlights: Blob Shop Collective at a fair // new digital works on the web shop // looking at documentation as art
Hello there,
This last month I’ve been mainly working on commissioned projects, such as crafting some booklets for two of my favourite NGOs in Bulgaria and I am excited to see them in print (you’ll hear the news, too)! Also made some trips around Cyprus in between to show the island to some of my closest friends. Thus, not much going on in my research and art-making practice.
So, the selection of this month is having a postcard of one of the sweet mountain villages in Cyprus; some new artworks on my web shop; news about the Blob Shop Collective (we attended another fair in Amsterdam, yuhhuuuu!!!).
Scroll down to have a look. And don’t forget to get back to me when you have some time, would love to hear how are you doing!
cheers,
ål // ≧◉◡◉≦
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✏ <postcard from Lefkara/>
Lefkara is a historic village in Cyprus’ mountains, famous with its silver and lace crafts. This is a view from the village and this green scenery will be missed for the next couple of months when everything gets dry.
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⍟ <what’s new in the web shop/> I’ve added some original digital artworks on the webshop in case anyone is interested in collecting some animated GIFs and digital illustrations. Here are the new items:
_[memory map HA-17] is part of a larger grid and its title comes from its coordinates on the grid. It’s an animated GIF.
_[memory map FA-09] - another piece from the series. Both of them reflect on the way our memory distorts images in time if they’re not in front of our eyes all the time.
_[this is not a border] is a reflection on the division of Lefkosia in two. Nicosia (a.k.a. Lefkosia or Lefkoşa) is divided by the ‘green line’ forming two opposite sides located in the Greek-majority Republic of Cyprus (RoC) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) - a proto-state recognised only by Turkey and understood as an occupied zone by the Greek Cypriots. This line (that you shouldn’t refer to as a “border”) divides the city in two and if you want to go on the other side you need to pass by one of the checkpoints. When you enter the Turkish part (as people call it in short in their informal speech), your phone connects to a Turkish mobile operator. And the roaming says you are in Turkey.
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★ <Blob Shop Collective Catalogue/> is out now! Newly made for our participation at the BYOB fair in Amsterdam last Friday, the catalogue accommodates introductions to the publications made by us and that are available to purchase - at fairs, but also if you contact us! Keep an eye on our insta & website for next events.
The Blob Shop Collective gathers multi-disciplinary artists and designers based in Amsterdam and Rotterdam (NL) and operates internationally. Our activities find their roots in inter-dependent publishing practices and foster connections across diverse subjectivities, backgrounds, and disciplines.
Blob Shop Collective combines the notion of a shop — that acknowledges and reacts to economic necessities within the independent publishing field — with the self-organized structure of a collective that caters togetherness. It is a meeting point where transactions and exchanges of knowledges, skills and resources are circulating.
Our desire to investigate publishing through experiments with new and traditional media, collective methodologies and DIY tools manifests in online and offline publications, as well as intimate gatherings, workshops and public moments.
As a publishing project in the making, we seek agency to build sustainable and self-sufficient practices. Motivated by an open source mentality, we want to explore alternative ways of living and working together and with others.
// designed by Gersande Schellinx
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● <blast from the past: connect-less/>
During the last few months I am applying to funding opportunities for artists and some residencies (without any luck so far) and while reshaping my portfolio again and again, I came across some older projects that I put on my AlWiki. Was nice to revisit one of my favourite works during XPUB, the little board game I made for our loot box special issue back in 2022. It’s still available for you to download, print and play with someone <3
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★ <current read: “Documentation as art: expanded digital practices”/>
The latest read I am busy with is Annet Dekker and Gabriella Giannachi’s “Documentation as art” research. It presents documentation as an expanded practice that is radically changing the ways in which to look at, participate in, and generate art. What made me curious about this book is my passion in developing my own documentation space that I actually consider as an art project on its own - my AlWiki. Am I the only one who can see this as such? Or there is already a whole new world of similar practice that is also researched and developed? I just started it, will report my key findings ;-)
▶▶ you can have a look at the book abstract here
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