Category Archives: Zines

99/40

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99mm green cover

The last time I reviewed the 99mm zine I was surprised to find that the publication had been in production for twenty years! So it’s good to know that it’s still going strong as Ian Vanek has recently released, what he believes to be, the best 99mm yet! This time the zine’s contents aren’t published in the standard zine scheme of black & white but a cool jazzy green with a stitched spine. Apparently this is in commemoration of its 40th edition which harks back to the zine’s origins as a blue DIY magazine. Continue reading →

Adam Void Interview

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Adam Void

Nirvana Rules is the latest of offering from among the many excellent zines Adam Void has produced. The title gives a clue to the content within which focuses on the ‘Nirvana Rules’ tag he first noticed on the streets of Baltimore. The graffiti is unconventional, both in its form and style, yet being well-executed and repeated often this clearly isn’t just a series of spontaneous tributes left by random Nirvana fans. In the introduction to the zine Adam Void points out that it’s not unusual to see a popular band’s name on a wall. Fans of various groups eg; KIϟϟ, Iron Maiden, or Slayer seem to enjoy slapping a bit of emulsion on brick or writing on a toilet door. However the Nirvana Rules tag appears to be unique in that it has a dual function as one person’s tag. Presented over the pages of the zine in black and white the tag is shown to have a clear aesthetic being placed on a variety of surfaces and mediums.

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Urinals, Public Space & Murals

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Trains, Travels & Murals

This month marks a hundred years since the artist Marcel Duchamp submitted his now famous artwork, Fountain, to an international exhibition in New York. Influenced by Dadaism his submission was simply a urinal he’d bought in a local shop. Duchamp’s surrealist questioning of institutional definitions of art has had a defining impact on modern art. Now, rather then creating something, a contemporary artist will add the label ‘art’ (and therefore implicit meaning) to anything they choose. Duchamp’s legacy has left a large portion of the public completely baffled when they enter a contemporary art gallery. Alongside its increasing commodification and institutionalisation this pretentiousness has also crept into urban art. This is what leads Pietro Rivasi, writing at the start of Trains, Travels & Murals, to declare that “we are living in the dark, medieval times of urban art.”

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Graffiti Marginalia

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Bern: International Playground is a quirky new zine from Switzerland. One way to describe it is as an almost scientific catalogue showing samples of graffiti found in a particular environment. The photographic survey presented in this format is the result of more than a decade of research into vandalism occurring on Bern’s S-Bahn trains. From the start, the empty frontcover subtly evokes the concept within as the zine concentrates on the often overlooked margins.

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A Subcultural Travel Guide

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This is something I’m quite excited to see – a magazine that combines graff and footy! There are occasional bits of football graffiti to be found in various magazines and I’ve seen a couple of special street-art editions of ultras magazines too. However, while I was hoping for an in-depth look at football graffiti, Strfzg doesn’t quite do this. Rather than documenting football related graff, the zine is more like the personal travelogue of an FC Augsburg supporter. As they don’t play too much international football the magazine also highlights various other clubs in the countries that the author has passed through. The introduction describes Strfzg as a fanzine and travel book with some graffiti chucked in.

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From Bristol to Prague and Beyond

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'Nothin but Tags', Unnamed, and Guide Zines

I have lately got a few zines which I thought I’d review together in one go. ‘Nothing but Tags’, Guide, and another magazine that has no title. In some ways the three are quite similar. They’re fairly low key, contain no descriptive text or introductions, are similar in size and format, and hover around the same price range. However all three also have a different and specific focus to each other.

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Introducing the Iconosphere

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This article is a bit off topic as it’s not really about graffiti and it’s not a review of a graffiti publication either. It’s actually a football fanzine called Stand. The publication is usually an interesting read, which isn’t dominated by all things premier league, and is about as close to an ‘ultras’ stance as you can find in the UK.

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