RRP x UCL EAST ENGAGEMENT
/Over February and March 2024 Rabbits Road Press in collaboration with UCL Urban Rooms supported 10 East London creatives to make original printed products that could amplify their practice, social enterprise, business or community group through a print residency.
We received wonderful applications from across Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest including UCL East’s Community Board and members of Rabbits Road Press, eager to use print to further their goals.
The 10 artists selected were:
Ayisha Batcha
Over four sessions of RRP’s ‘classroom-workshop’ curriculum the participating artists learned how to use a Risograph machine, tested and experimented with their ideas before creating a fantastic range of posters, zines, pamphlets and flyers. As a group they explored how different informal methods of sale could support a more sustainable practice or community fundraising goals.
For some it was a return to Riso, a chance to refresh and experiment a bit more deeply, and for others it was their first time learning the process or printing at all. What was significant was their interest and support of each other’s work in the space and the enthusiasm and willingness to persevere through the learning process to reach their final prints. The work produced marked a step in practice for many and an opportunity to design, duplicate and disseminate a message close to their hearts in a supportive environment.
The range of process and final prints can be found below! With thanks to UCL Urban Rooms and special thanks to Dr Leah Lovett for initiating this residency and Ishbel Tunnadine for their support throughout.
Aislinn Evans is a site-responsive artist documenting the interstitial places she calls home. Applying queer phenomenology to film, sound, print and writing she documents the background of British space and psyche. In her residency with Rabbit's Road, Aislinn has been developing posters from her ongoing project on the A13, documenting a 7-mile walk and challenging ideas about the use and power of the road
Aislinn made an A6 zine (blue & orange) summarising their ideas and research about the A13, spatial justice and queer phenomenology - ‘road as wormhole, road as heterosexuality, road as border, road as nation and an alternative route’. Additionally, an A3 double-sided poster (orange & black) featuring a grid of slides from Bring Me My Chariot of Fire! and on the reverse an original poem Death to the Road.
Arsalan Isa
Arsalan Isa is a writer and artist. In 2022, he founded the theory of Dissociative Realism, published by NERO Press, performed at Studio Voltaire, Asia Forum Venice Biennale. Recent pamphlets, zines and comics include: Who’s a Big Boy?, Fish Fry, bill daggs will you write me a mixtape, Shabaan: The Bard, The Haunting of Henry, GTA: Karachi Edition, Hey it’s Britney, Rearview Mirror, Confessions of a Danceaholic, and Desi Chicken.
Through ink drawings, Arsalan visualised the creation of self-image, and the blurred borders between what it means to be an agent and to have agency. The resulting print: a double sided 16 page Riso zine (black & red) titled ‘‘In the language of neither here nor there”.
Ayisha Batcha
Ayisha Batcha is a valued member of staff at Aston Mansfield community centre which provides support and training for local South Asian elders in Manor Park in relevant employment skills.
Ayisha was keen to create a flyer that could signpost some of the community centres key services. Testing and experimenting with different folds and layout options, she produced a double-sided folded leaflet (orange & green) to distribute locally.
https://www.aston-mansfield.org.uk/
DaeJean explores the emotional state of sonder. His multi-disciplinary creative journey explores painting, collaging, zine-making and film photography, all intertwined to tell a story of the beautiful mundane we live amongst and the people we share this lifetime with. A story of his complexly mundane life, with intent to reach others who also feel the emotion of sonder deeply. Some may call him an empath.
As part of a wider project, DaeJean was able to take his design to new lengths using the Risograph to print and then staple bind the pages for his upcoming zine ‘The Wander People- Vol 1. Wandering Thoughts’. He also printed 10 limited edition posters, 'F*ck Facists'.
Edwin Mingard is socially-engaged artist based in the UK, with a specialism in visual art making as part of a social practice. He has no formal arts education. His work An Intermission, made with young people experiencing homelessness in Stoke-on-Trent over a year, was acquired by the UK’s National Art Collection in 2023.
Edwin worked on a 3-colour A3 print designed with a group of young people in Tower Hamlets excluded from mainstream education, to be sold as an editioned poster for their next exhibition. With feedback from the group, one member came to oversee the printing of these beautiful prints in blue, yellow and black.
Maria is a self-described skinny legend, whose works play on othering within the framework of popular culture whilst currently in her flop era. Diva down!
Maria’s ‘unhinged zine’ is a ‘selection of some of the most absurd, outta pocket, boombasticly horrendous opening lines men have sent to me on the dating app Hinge’. Her two-colour orange and blue zine captures the pain and frustration of dating in a small hand-held flip book.
DAYTIMERS, a collective at the heart of the re-emerging Asian Underground, presents Mehfil, their event series spotlighting and celebrating South Asian visual arts, live performance, poetry, and spoken word.
DAYTIMERS member Shirin Naveed printed A3 posters which combined collage, drawings and poetry that were produced as part of the Mehfil Resonates workshops that took place at Rich Mix, around themes of grief, hope, solidarity and resistance. Risograph printing allowed them to combine multiple people's work and produce many printed pieces which they were able to exhibit as part of an exhibition at Rich Mix and sell as prints for the fundraising end of the programme event.
Raju Rage is proactive about using art, education and activism to forge creative survival. Born in Kenya, raised in London and living/working beyond, they explore the spaces and relationships between dis/connected bodies/beings, theory and practice, text and corporeality and aesthetics and the political substance. Their practice is expansive, often combining elements of print, sculpture, installation, text, audio-video, anti/performance, workshops, culinary arts + more They are a member of Collective Creativity arts collective and are a creative educator, and independent scholar with an interest in radical pedagogy. Raju has trained as a pastry chef and baker, worked in several corporate and community kitchens and been part of a baker’s collective.
Raju created a ‘Radical Remedies’ mini-zine and experimented with three-colour Riso printing (teal, black and gold) from an engraving for their collaborative project GROW NOT BUILD.
Rayya Khuri (b. 1998) is an Arab-American writer and painter. Khuri earned a BFA at Pratt Institute in Painting, and earned an MAFA at Central Saint Martins. She’s shown work at offprint (tate) & forma, and won painting awards from UNDP.
Raya worked on a three-colour zine about pebbles featuring her own writing in yellow, blue and pink and a poem and accompanying photo collage of/from Beirut.
Seung Sing Sou is a curator, creative programmer, and producer. Their practice aims to untangle diasporic feelings/stirrings, dismantle ideas around who does and should have access to art, and hold space for constellations of care, tenderness, and joy within artistic production. They are also a co-founding member of Green Lions - a climate organising group for East and South East Asian people to convene, organise, and agitate for more just climate futures, with an environmental practice rooted in anti-racist and decolonial perspectives, and how we can build solidarity with other racialised and marginalised communities.
Seung Sing designed and printed three different Palestine solidarity prints (2x A4 and 1x A3) to fundraise at a Palestine Solidarity and Climate Justice teach-in they organised with their climate collective, Green Lions.
Some of the feedback we’ve received!
“I was able to experience a fully mechanical printing process and play around with the printers. There were a few books on Riso in the library that I was also able to read to learn more about the history of Riso and cost effective printing methods”
“I've used Riso in two projects since the residency and feel confident to do so as a result of what we learned. The most wonderful part, though, was RRP facilitating me bringing one of the young people I'm working with to the press. Being able to show her the space and having a positive experience with family was a huge deal - she still talks about it”
“I really enjoyed having the freedom to explore my creativity with this residency, bringing a project I've had in my mind for a while to life. I gained [...] a down-to-earth community of creatives on the residency, and being able to manifest my creative work in new and exciting ways”
“Actually learnt about the possibility of producing work for sale and the dynamics of all of that. I never thought I could sell but now ya got a girl thinking !!!! Confidence to make again !!!!! Wanted to kms but the residency was very much needed to get me back into making”
“It was amazing being able to introduce new people via a program that we led to Riso and see their works actualised - it's such a great way of being able to create resources and spread information/ ideas and get creative, highly reccommend these workshops to anyone!”
“I’ve wanted to explore Risograph printing for a long time, but never had the confidence to take that first step. I felt really supported by everyone at RRP to experiment and play with the medium and explore its potentials for my personal practice. I’m excited to continue experimenting with Riso and further develop my skills!”
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