Activating Newham

The Institute of Race Relations and Create London supported by Rabbits Road Press are supporting a diverse group of young people to develop an ambitious new oral history project that will take the history and legacy of anti-racist organising in the 1980s as a starting point from which to explore different communities’ experiences of racism in Newham then and now.

Over the next 6 months, a newly-established young people’s group will meet weekly at Old Manor Park Library, and develop a programme of public talks, events, screenings and oral history training sessions that begin to situate their own insights and experiences of racism and activism in the context of this history. The project will culminate in an exhibition curated by the young people at Old Manor Park Library in November 2019.

Etta Voorsanger-Brill (Rabbits Road Press) and Kay Stephens (Daikon) are leading workshops at Rabbits Road Press every fortnight with a group of young people (16-30), if you would like to be added to the group please contact Scott Burrell, scott@createlondon.org, with the subject ‘Activating Newham’.

Programme

Monday 19 August Activating Newham: Anti-racism and Anti-fascism

Join us for an exploration of the history and impact of anti-fascist organizing in Newham with British political activist and long-serving editor of anti-fascist Searchlight magazine Dr Gerry Gable chaired by Anya Edmond-Pettitt, Researcher on the European Race Programme at the Institute of Race Relations. 

If you are between 16-30 years old and would like to get involved please RSVP as there are limited spaces available.

This event is part of a series which will be held every Monday from the 8th of July at Old Manor Park Library (835 Romford Rd, Manor Park, London E12 5JY) from 18:15 - 20:00

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2480880898853158/

Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/activating-newham-anti-racism-anti-facist-organising-tickets-68165927123

Tuesday 27 August Activating Newham: Reinventing Education

Join us for a talk exploring the significance of education community activism in Newham with educator and one of the founders of the Newham Monitoring Project Ilona Aronovsky, chaired by Cillius Victor.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/477090169775022/

Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/activating-newham-reinventing-education-tickets-68169192891

Monday 2 September: Memorialising Alternative Histories (workshop)

Create alternative blue plaques to commemorate historical or personal events surrounding the ideas of anti racist organising & alternative education in this workshop led by Etta Voorsanger-Brill and Kay Stephens. The workshop will include showing participants how to wheat paste using a board which will be displayed at Rabbits Road Press.

RSVP: leyla@createlondon.org with ‘Activating Newham: participant’ in the subject.

This project is supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Photos by Kay Stephen

Typography Summer School - Diary

This year, RRP teamed up with Fraser Muggeridge and Create London to offer a creative Newham resident a free place at Typography Summer School. The place went to Baldeesh Bahra, this is how she got on.

Typography Summer School 2019

I am a college student, I am currently studying art and design, I enjoy graphic design and when I came across this opportunity to attend Typography Summer School I decided to apply and I got the place. I would recommend the Typography Summer School to students who have come out of university as well as students interested in graphic design. 

The course week consisted of talks from graphic designers, group workshops and independent work. The teachers were great and made you feel at home, being the youngest was scary but I also learnt a lot about graphic design as a career and it was nice getting advice from people who are older. 

My experience was good and I would highly recommend this for students who are interested in typography. By going to this course I found out that every Wednesday there is Open Access at the Library at Rabbits Road where you can use the printing  machines to create interesting effects, this is such a great thing to do and having it so close to me is amazing. 

Made Up School: Print and Matter

This July we ran a summer school program loosely inspired by Corita Kent and See Red Women’s Workshop and supported by Create London. Here is a post by member Sadie St. Hilaire, documenting the week.

Day One

We started of the week making a collaborative poster inspired by Corita Kents’ “POWER UP” print. This was a fun intro into risograph printing, and getting to know each other. We worked in pairs on a part of a letter and wrote about our ideal art school. It was so nice to see our work come together to make a whole.

We then had Rabiah Mali take us out on a foraging trip to teach us about identifying different herbs and plants in the environment around us. Back at the press, armed with our new found knowledge and cuttings from different plants, we made our own plant diaries. Documenting our experiences with the different herbs, and their properties Rabiah taught us about.

Day Two

It was the middle of a heat wave so we had a warm up cool down exercise, Parachute Talks. Not only were we able to collectively fan eachother with the motion of the parachute, but we got to know eachtoher better by asking questions and swapping places. It was a lovely and playful way to start proceedings that had us giggling and feeling loose.

I personally want adults to have permission and space to play more.

During our parachute chats, Rosalie had mentioned the importance of talking about money, so it was great for Sofia to take us through High Hopes/Low Budgets. We made a booklet to help us think about the steps to making a project into reality.

Day Three

We made collaborative life sized portraits of our selves! It was so much fun working so freely on such a large scale. Drawing around each other, we than painted lifelike depictions of ourselves. Lots of giggling ensued.

We then had a very transparent discussion about art practise lead by Rosalie. We talked frankly about money, working with institutions, planning workshops and different art practises. It was the kind of discussion many in the group said they never had in art school and wished that they had. It was refreshing to hear people talk very candidly about their experiences and I learnt a lot through it.

Things kicked up a notch after that as things got political. The FCK GOVT FCK BORIS event was on the same day, so we stepped into action making riso posters to take to the protest. Members said that the time constraint helped them make creative decisions, while others found it a bit stressful.

Day four

The hottest day of the year!
We began with painting plant pots, using some rudimentary printing, finger painting! The plants looked happy in their new homes and it was a nice way to create without being too precious.

Members made artist profiles on a creative of our choice. These turned into beautiful posters. We presented our work and artist to each other. There was a variety of different artists being presented. There was an interesting approach shared “Here are the things I enjoy about Tom Sachs, and here are the things I hate.” Balance and critical engagement in action!

Day Five

Last day!

Sahjan Kooner made us a lovely lunch to end of the week. On their ‘Power Up Now’ poster at the beginning of the week, they said that communal cooking and eating should happen more in arts learning. Delicious to see this in action. We ate from hand made bowls which some of the RRP team had made in preparation for the summer school at Modern Clay.

The White Pube came in to talk to us about how to get an exhibition. So much to take in and learn!

To end off a hot, but soulfully refreshing week, Etta and I held a feedback session to hear what people had thought about their time at Rabbits Road, what they had expected, and what they will take with them.

Some key quotes

“It was nice to be taken serisouly as an adult and allowed to particiapate in the activites as we wanted.”

“I came here in a way to invest in myself.”

“It was so nice talking to other people as I was working. To see what other people were up to and learn from that.”

“I feel like I belong here.”

“Being able to play and have the space to do so was benefical.”

My take aways - Play more, talk and learn with other people, invest in yourself, set your self time to create.

Thank you to everyone who participated with us, you made the week what it was. I wish all art schools, could be more like this experience.

Typography Summer School: RRP Announces Free Place

With the support of Fraser Muggeridge and Create London, we are delighted to offer 1 free place to a Newham resident to attend Typography Summer School (full price £425). Basic studio materials and lunch will be provided. We will consider all applications but the school is best suited to those with a keen interest in graphic design and some educational or work experience in the field. The winner will be expected to write one blog post reflecting on their experience and progress. To apply for the free place please COMPLETE THIS FORM (deadline 1st June).

Dates: 15-19 July 2019

Venue: Rabbits Road Press, Old Manor Park Library, London E12 5JY.

To apply for a paid place (£425) please refer to the main Typography Summer School website and follow instructions for applicants http://typographysummerschool.org.

———

Typography Summer School is a meeting place for graduates of graphic design, wanting to bridge the gap between student and professional and learn more about typography. The school brings together leading practitioners and participants to study, exchange ideas, and investigate the discipline.

As well as running a range of projects within typography, the school acts as a think tank encouraging research and dialogue. This environment provides a forum in which to discuss what typography is, its relevance in design history and the part it plays in today’s society. The school investigates the role of typographic design across ranging mediums, from books to film credits and posters to websites.

The school was founded by Fraser Muggeridge in 2010 and is independent from any college or educational organisation.

PROGRAMME

• Daily talks from each visiting practitioner.

• Individual and group assignments.

• Seminars, tutorials and informal discussions.

• An evening of film screenings.

• Advice on different career paths within typography.

TEACHING

Fraser Muggeridge is joined by a visiting practitioner each day, from specialised areas of typographic design practice and educators at distinguished design schools. The 2019 tutors and speakers in London are A Practice For Everyday Life, Catherine Dixon, Europa, Frith Kerr, Fraser Muggeridge, OK-RM and David Pearson. Bringing together a range of varied tutors will offer each participant a unique experience to learn from and apply to their future work.

For more information visit- http://typographysummerschool.org

Indonesia at London Art Book Fair 2019 - Ways of Reading

Last month we had did a collaboration with Further Reading, a multi-format publishing platform based in Jakarta, Indonesia. This year at The London Book Fair, Indonesia was chosen as the Market Focus and to honour that Further Reading along with collaborator Dua Studio created a multi platform exhibition titled Ways of Reading. The exhibition explored reading as a three dimensional space and questioned whether reading had to be a solitary act.

To preface the exhibition, the group staged interventions during the week of the book fair around London. In iconic locations they posed in huge metallic structural garments. These interventions were then photographed and made into a publication which we printed here at Rabbits Road.

The turnover of the printing was pretty fast, with each intervention executed hours before they were printed. Each day myself and Januar (who lead the project), took on a different intervention and a different specific colour. We explored how these photographs could be translated for Risograph. Sometimes the printing sessions ran very smoothly, for example the medium blue was a joy to print. However, at other times we spent hours editing the photos so that they would look legible with florescent orange. This process was not dissimilar to how the interventions were carried out, some being more successful than others.

On the final day the group from Indonesia came to the studio and assembled the publication. In the end there were two hundred copies and an introductory brochure. Each page was a single colour but they all came together to make a brilliant and engaging publication. These were then shown at Protein Studios the following Saturday. The event included talks centring around discussions about forms of reading from Dua Studio, Further Reading, Bundschuh Architekten and many more.

It was a joy to work with Further Reading and Dua Studio and wish them all the best! Here at Rabbits Road Press, we love collaborating and printing with international artists and if you have any ideas don’t hesitate to contact us!

RADMIN - A review by Etta Voorsanger-Brill

I arrived in Bristol looking forward to attending RADMIN, an experimental conference about administration. I was hoping for tips and tricks on how to approach funding forms, time sheets and invoicing. Upon arrival, I realised it wasn’t going to be quite as clear cut as that.

The first event was a welcome dinner, hosted at Ashton Court; a 16th century repurposed castle 10 minutes outside of Bristol city centre. We were welcomed with drinks and encouraged to mingle, I was relieved to find that almost everyone attending did so alone. As we were eating a wonderful meal hosted by The Viriconium Palace, it was announced to us that there was £780 in the ladies bathroom. To this we could do what we wanted, be that taking the money, adding to it or dancing around it in a ritualistic manner. This became a contentious issue throughout the one hundred people that were gathered there. “Did you take the money?”, “Would you take the money”, were questions that permeated the whole weekend.

I went in to see the money (and use the bathroom) and I cannot lie, I was tempted to take some money. I didn’t think I had enough cash to get a taxi back to my hotel. I was left alone in the bathroom, bar someone else in a stall, and I reached in to take a £10 note. When I picked it up the money rustled and I was mortified to think someone else would know I took it, so I instantly put it back. Later, someone else confessed to me that they did take some money — but only because when they went in there, lots of other people were taking it. By the end of the night there was only £40 left. What that means, I’m not sure, but I know that it was something to talk about once the ever interesting topic of admin became tiresome.

The concept of RADMIN was still being explored the next day. The first speaker, Tim Malnick, declared “we’re all here but we’re not sure what it’s about”, after he made us explore our biggest admin fears though physical movement. Was this a festival for creatives, about admin, or a festival for administrators, about creativity? RADMIN fell in the grey area between these two ideas, and didn’t clearly define itself therefore attracting both parties.

The first workshop I chose was Redrawing Economy with Keep it Complex. Other options were, Radical Organisational Portraiture or Vegetal Organisations, where you observed plants for twenty minutes. In Redrawing Economy (run by the long time collaborator to Rabbits Road Press, Rosalie Schweiker), we explored visualising concepts though drawing. Rosalie invited Fozia Ismail to talk about her experiences founding Arawelo Eats, an East African Supper Club hosted in Bristol and Guy Lochhead who founded Bristol Cooperative Gym. While they spoke the group drew continually and tried to visualise their words. After we looked at everyone’s drawings and discussed them, people had very different reactions. This workshop contained so many transferable skills, by visualising non-visual concepts, it makes them more understandable. It was a wonderful ice breaker to what was going to be a pretty intense day.

The afternoon workshop I signed up for was run by Incidental Unit. The idea behind Incidental Unit was to place artists within institutions and let them react to the space using The Open Brief; a brief devoid of any guidelines. This workshop was all about critical thinking and really challenged us to listen. It was becoming no clearer who RADMIN was for, and I was half way though the day. The workshop was not admin focussed but concerned admin at its core. How can an artists go anywhere without a trail of admin invariably following them.

The final speaker of the day, FoAm, invoked a meditative response to admin by comparing it to magic and sorcery. We were lulled into a sleep state by the speaker likening funding to divination and forms to scrying. This final performance encompassed the themes of the day: admin puns and slight confusion. However it was still no clearer what RADMIN was…

Throughout the weekend, the idea of admin was approached with a tongue-and-cheek air. Something we all had to do wether we took pleasure in it or not. Admin is generally seen as invisible work which is assigned to the marginalised in society. This was reflected in the mostly female attendees. However, RADMIN did not consider diversity at any point. There were no people of colour on the speakers list and the audience was predominantly white. This lack of consideration shows that the feminism being displayed was not visibly intersectional and the organisers of the festival didn’t recognise this as a problem. If we are championing the invisible work, we need to also champion all of the people who do that work, not just the select few.

In the evening, the Office Party which was to follow, was held at cooperative cinema The Cube. An event for us all to blow off some steam and gossip about the events of the day, like a normal office party. Just to prove how non-hierarchical their organisation was — even the guests had to check the toilets! Upon arriving, I was whisked swiftly to the bathrooms to flush the toilets and check there was enough tissue paper. There was also a series of performances, including a woman answering all of her emails on stage and another artist doing a perpetual sound check. Ending the evening was a sing along performance which had a hilariously unintentional introduction, where they apologised for what was about to happen. Very apt.

The final day contained a trade show, an ironically disorganised raffle and an audience participated therapy session, where an artist lamented in not being able to sell their work. I think at this point, it no longer mattered what RADMIN was, there was no clear answer. Was it productive? Not particularly. But, it was a very memorable experience.

Hoda Katebi (Chicago): Starting a Fashion Production Co-operative

OOMK is delighted to welcome Hoda Katebi to the UK! Hoda is a Chicago-based political fashion writer, (JooJoo Azad), author (Tehran Streetstyle) & community organiser. She'll be stopping off at Rabbits Road Press as part of her tour where she will be in conversation with journalist and filmmaker Arwa Aburawa.  

Hoda will share the process of building Blue Tin Production, a fashion production co-op she has set up which is staffed and managed by immigrant and refugee women in Chicago. The cooperative is designed to creatively address the fashion industry’s heavy reliance on sweatshops and violent labour conditions in addition to the need for immigrants and refugee women to find well-paid, women-centered, non-patronizing work.

Blue Tin Production seeks to provide highly-skilled refugee and low-income immigrant women full-time work in Chicago, producing clothing for designers and brands nationally, while simultaneously meeting mental and physical health, legal, social service, child care, transportation, language, and other needs of its members. In doing so, Blue Tin Production will act as an alternative to sweatshop-based fashion production within the United States, disrupting chains of violence within the industry.

Hoda is a self-described angry daughter of Muslim-Iranian immigrants. She is the voice behind JooJoo Azad, the political fashion online publication hailed from BBC to VOGUE to the New York Times, and author of Tehran Streetstyle, the first-ever in-print documentation and celebration of illegal fashion in Iran. Offline, Hoda is part of campaigns to end surveillance programs and police militarization. Most recently, Hoda has launched #BecauseWeveRead, an Instagram-based international book club with meet-ups in 30+ cities around the world, working to uplift and celebrate stories of those whose voices are systemically silenced.

Arwa is a journalist & documentary producer who specialises in health & environmental issues. As a producer on the multi award-winning environmental show ‘earthrise’, Arwa has developed films on topics ranging from conservation, green architecture, renewable energy to food waste. Previous film credits include an exploration of sustainable development in South Africa, agro-ecology in Burkina Faso, solar projects in India and community-led conservation in Afghanistan.

Join OOMK at Rabbits Road Press and discover how creative models of organising can create lasting community impact!

BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hoda-katebi-chicago-starting-a-fashion-production-co-opertive-tickets-55608244757

Watch a video of  Blue Tin Production here. Read more in this Vogue article:

Winners: 'Neighbourhood' Artist Commissions 2019

neighbourhood

NOUN

1. A district or community within a town or city.

1.1 The area surrounding a particular place, person, or object.

1.2 [mass noun] Neighbourly feeling or conduct

We are delighted to announce the winners of the ‘Neighbourhood’ Artist Commissions 2019 who will producing Riso-publications with Rabbits Road Press.

 WINNERS

Tej Adeleye will be investigating the possibilities of creating an archive-zine on behalf of the George Padmore Institute as an outcome of workshops with community groups and activist campaigners in Ladbroke Grove interested in organising their archives in services of the local community, particularly to keep people informed of long-standing activism in the area. The zine will build on the work of campaigners to tell the story of local struggle in the area, centred around Grenfell tower, using social media posts and annotations to build a story that can be shared in the local area and for local activist groups.

Katie Peck is using the commission to produce an illustrated zine depicting her memories of growing up in Dagenham and the communities that can be found in the area.  The A5 zine will include contributions and interviews from local residents that breakdown stereotypes people have of Dagenham and will be produced in her chosen colours of pink, blue, orange and yellow.

Abondance Matanda will be using the commission to create 'Once Upon A Grind', named after Ms Banks' first mixtape, which builds on previous work and documents her experience of being without permanent housing this year and how she has held it down since, through her relationship to her faith and music. Relating to different elements of the mixtape and the boroughs Abondance has lived in, this zine will be her “London coming of age story”.

Zahra Halepota will publish a visual journey through her former neighbourhood in Melilla, Spain, a Spanish enclave in North Africa bordering Morocco to the south and west and exposed to the Mediterranean Sea on the other side. Its geography makes it one of the centres of the current global refugee crises, including refugees arriving from neighbouring Morocco.  The booklet will be hand-bound using saddle stitch.  

RUNNERS UP

Maria Mahfooz

Will be using the Risograph to create an “ASMR Roleplay of Manor Park”, disguising herself in different positions in local neighbourhood shops by taking on the role of workers and business owners on her high street. Her performance-to- publication will be documented through photography, photoshop manipulations and hand-drawn illustrations.

Luke Brown runs a monthly food project, FOSCafe, at Red Door Studios, offering a place in East Ham where people can eat and source good, seasonal produce that is grown as locally as possible. He plans to publish a map to guide people to food produced in the area and signpost products, local business and small scale suppliers to offer alternatives. The map will be able to be amended and changed by the user to accommodate new additions and discoveries

Walking Tour and Meal with Aqui Thami

Join Rabbits Road Press resident artist Aqui Thami and the DIY Rabbits on a walking tour of Manor Park. Explore art and food in the area with us and join in our reflections on food as an archive of communities.

After the walk we will be sharing a hearty biriyani meal prepared by local residents. 

Please meet at Rabbits Road Press at 13.00 for hot chai. The walk will begin promptly at 13.30 to approximately 14.30 followed by biriyani.

This is one of the events to mark the end of Aquis residency with Rabbits Road Press and the Victoria and Albert Museum. For any questions about the event please email - laura@createlondon.org

A second walk is happening January 5th at the same time. To book onto this walk please visit eventbrite

DIY Rabbits

VARI Resident Artist Announced

We're very excited to be welcoming Aqui Thami from Bombay Underground to Rabbits Road Press for a three month residency! As this year's V&A Research Institute Offsite Resident, Aqui will be working closely with as we support her to develop work Rabbits Road Press,  programme some workshops/things for the public and (if she wants!) collaborate on something new with OOMK. Aqui is a Mumbai-based artist, activist and academic. Her multidisciplinary practice is inspired by the culture of DIY, which has brought her to collaborate with young girls, women and children. She is a founding member of Dharavi Art Room and is also a member of Bombay Underground, an artist collective that organised the first Zine Fest held in Mumbai, bringing together a large volume of self-published books and zines for the public for the first time ever in India. Her residency will take place between 15 October 2018 and 15 January 2019.

Thami’s residency is in collaboration with the V&A Research Institute (VARI) and takes place between 15 October 2018 and 15 January 2019. Aqui will be staying at The White House, Create’s residency and community space on the Becontree Estate. This is the second collaboration with the V&A, following the successful residency with Wouter Osterholt at The White House in 2017-18.

“During my residency, I am interested in exploring the V&A’s rich political posters collection with a special focus on handmade posters for public walls and city spaces, works that existed on the edge of the normative definition of art.”

Open Call: Artist Commissions 2018

neighbourhood

NOUN

1. A district or community within a town or city.

1.1 The area surrounding a particular place, person, or object.

1.2 [mass noun] Neighbourly feeling or conduct

The Brief

Rabbits Road Press is seeking proposals for 6 Risograph printed publications that respond to the theme Neighbourhood to be printed at Rabbits Road Press. There are 4 awards of £200 and 2 runner-up prizes of £100 for the most original responses to the theme and format. All prizes will include free printing credit. To get a better idea of what you can produce, take a look at the winners of the Neighbourhood 2017 commissions!

Key Dates

Deadline for proposal: 22nd October 2018

Commissions announced:  1st November 2018

Guidelines

• All proposals must be received by 22nd October 2018 through this short application form.

• There is no  specified format for the publications, they might be small pocket sized books or larger newspaper formats. The publications – self published artists’ books, chapbooks, zines, pamphlets – may combine text, image, graphics, drawings, creative, fictional or critical works, and use a variety of materials.

• All publications must be printed at Rabbits Road Press during Open Access hours and allocated printing slots for winners. You will receive free printing credit to complete your project.

• Each artist will be responsible for the content, design and print of their publication.

• You may print as many copies of your publication as you like but a minimum of 6 copies are to be donated by each commissioned artist to Rabbits Road Press to be housed in selected Newham libraries and archives. You may wish to produce more copies to be distributed or sold.

• Selected artists will have access to Rabbits Road Press equipment and materials (for the purpose of their project). Technicians will be on hand to help!

If you have any questions about the applications please contact us at rabbitsroadpress@gmail.com!

ARTIST DIARY: Summer Riso Residency

Illustrator and teacher Sadie St Hilaire took part in RRP's Summer Riso Residency 6-10 Aug and shares her photo diary below.

This summer I took part in a week long summer Risograph residency at Rabbits Road Press alongside fifteen other participants. We all had varied experience and practices, but came together to use the Riso facilities at Rabbits Road Press to complete our personal projects; during the week we saw some beautiful zines, prints and experiments being created.

 Day 1
Some participants had never used a Risograph machine before and used the residency week to experiment with how to incorporate the process into their existing artistic practice. Others who were more familiar with the medium used the time to try new techniques or complete a project.

Induction Prints

Day 2

“I’m excited to spend the week working and completing one project.”

— Alison

Working on contrast and aligment

Day 3
There have been so many exciting experiments happening at the press. Some participants have tried scanning physical objects like drinks cans and plants, experimenting with printing on different materials and trying out new mediums like collage and graphite.

Experiments in progress!

“It’s been nice to find out about something really local to me! There’s been a really nice atmosphere. I’ve been learning how the different colours and tones interact with each other. ”

— Amy

Above: Testing layering methods -From coloured pencil drawing, to SEPARATING layers on the light-box, to the final riso print.  This print was inspired by a scene noticed on the way to Rabbits Road PRESS.

Day 4

“I’ve enjoyed the atmosphere and feeling productive, it’s been nice to be around other people working creatively.”

— Maya

Day 5

Happy faces

Day 6
On our last day, some of the group got together to have a crit, to talk about how the week went and how our printed media turned out. It was nice to hear how each participant had approached the week and what their intentions were. Each person had a unique approach which could be seen in the end products (or product in progress!) One nearly universal thought that was voiced, was that they wished they came with more prepared images, so they could get to printing straight away!   

“This week has been very well run, thank you. There’s been a good amount of people and I’ve enjoyed working in a friendly environment.”

— Zoe

Thank you so much to everyone who joined us during the residency. Your creativity, energy and passion was infectious, and made for a productive week.  The work produced was so varied and exciting! 

V&A Artist Residency at Rabbits Road Press

Deadline: 20 July 2018

In a very exciting development, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Create are seeking nominations and applications for a three-month international residency based at our project space, Rabbits Road Press.

Applications are welcome from contemporary artists and designers who are interested in drawing on the V&A’s collections to work within the vibrant community setting of the Rabbits Road Institute (currently home to Rabbits Road Press). This residency is open to applicants of any nationality based outside of the United Kingdom that meet the criteria of the residency brief (downloadable below). Nominators and applicants will be asked to submit a joint residency application. 

Deadline: 20 July 2018

Apply:
https://www.vam.ac.uk/…/new-open-call-vari-offsite-internat…

Curriculum: RRP Public Programme Launched

Curriculum is LIVE! Check out the Rabbits Road Press Public Programme now, and book a place on one of the talks or workshops now. https://www.rabbitsroadpress.com/new-events

Curriculum is a regular series of artist led lectures and workshops at rabbits road press, focused on visual arts, publishing and print. Sessions alternate between public talks and intimate workshops to create an overarching programme which functions to develop creative practice and critical engagement outside of formal art schools. 

Talk: How To Get An Exhibition with The White Pube
Wednesday, May 23
7:30 PM 8:30 PM
Join The White Pube as they introduce their practice of art criticism, and also talk candidly about how the art world operates behind closed doors; covering how to get an exhibition, how to navigate the art world online and offline, how to get paid for things, and finally how to protect yourself and your art when you’re in and amongst it all. Register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talk-how-to-get-an-exhibitio…

Workshop: How to self publish a book with Publication Studio London. A demo...
Sunday, June 24
1:00 PM 2:30 PM
This workshop will act as an introduction to getting started in self-publishing from production to distribution, including practical tips on printing and binding processes and facilities, useful resources, fundraising and ways to connect with audiences. 
Register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/workshop-how-to-self-publish…

Talk: Will there be Hipsters in Heaven? #NeoDiaspora with Abbas Zahedi
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
7:30 PM 8:30 PM
‘The roadmap towards a framework of neo-diaspora is an effort to process and de-historicise experiences of digestion, death and displacement.’ Join Abbas for a lecture performance about his practice, followed with time for questions and discussion. 
Register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talk-will-there-be-hipsters-…

Talk: Un-edited Voices with Plantain Papers
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
7:30 PM 8:30 PM
Plantain Papers is an independent bi-annual journal and ode to plantain fryers, eaters and appreciators all over the world. Edited by Lemara Lindsay-Prince, Tamika Abaka-Wood and Tahirah Edwards-Byfield
Join Lemara sharing the skill of insight and active listneing in the process of editing.
Register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/talk-un-edited-voices-with-p…

Workshop: Daily rituals, gentle reminders and longing for belonging with Saffa Khan
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
1:00 PM 4:00 PM
Saffa Khan is an illustrator and print maker exploring the themes of home, identity, race, culture and mental health. Join her for a mini journal making session on the theme of self-care.
Register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/workshop-daily-rituals-gentl…

Summer Riso Residency
Mon, Aug 6, 2018 2:00 PM Fri, Aug 10, 2018 7:00 PM
Due to popular demand, Rabbits Road Press will be open for one week during the summer holidays. We’ll be running a special Summer Riso Residency week aimed at people who would like to complete a self-directed project at the press or to use the facilities to experiment and dedicate time to developing their practice. 
Cost: £50, book https://secure.squarespace.com/checkout….

Supported by Arts Council England and Create

RRP x Design Museum

Last weekend we ran a newspaper making workshop responding to Hope to Nope Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18, an exhibition at the Design Museum. We discussed how news and information are communicated to us through different media, the context in which we receive messages and the techniques that have been employed. After a probing discussion about the factors that affect whether we believe the information we are receiving is reliable and trustworthy, we set ourselves the task or creating a newspaper of the future by taking control of information and subverting existing articles and images and turing them into new stories. We spent the second day at Rabbits Road Press, everyone was given a Risograph printing induction and then we set about printing, folding and assembling The Newestpaper. Throughout the day we made 60 copies in total (!), most of which were distributed amongst the group. A copy will be on display in the reading room at the Design Museum within the next few days but we also kept a bunch to distribute at Rabbits Road Press, you can grab a free copy during Open Access on the May 12th Open Day, while stocks last!  

RRP Work at Risotto Room Show

23 March -13th May at The Lighthouse, Glasgow

We visited Glasgow last weekend for Glasgow Zine Fair so naturally we had to visit Risotto Studio’s fabulous Riso Room. The very delicious show featured risograph printed work from across the globe showing off the versatility of the medium and a broad breadth of approaches used by different artists and designers. We were very excited to spot some work that had been made at Rabbits Road Press (Destroy your Dissertation by CSM students and Intifada Milk by Arwa Aburawa and Sofia Niazi) featured in the exhibition. Both books will be on sale soon in the new RRP Shop. Risotto Room is on till mid-May, well worth a visit!

RRP SHOP!

New RRP Shop: Buy and Sell Work
Launch 12th May (online and IRL)

To coincide with the Open Day, we’re opening a shop! As part of our plan to make Rabbits Road Press a sustainable local arts space, we’ll be opening a shop packed with zines, posters and art prints, all produced at the press. The shop will launch online and IRL in the press on the Open Day, we've already started buying work and will continue to do this every week during Open Access. 

How it works: We're buying work from artists (max 5 copies) 'firm sale' at 50% of the retail price so you get paid even if the work doesn't sell and we take the risk. We have set prices for A4 and A3 prints but happy to negotiate for zines and other things. All of the profit will go back into the project and help create a more sustainable way of covering running costs of the free weekly public Open Access sessions. First up, we're hoping to raise enough money to buy a YELLOW drum, so RRP users will benefit from having a larger variety of colours to print from. If you’re interested in selling through the shop please get in contact or pop in during Open Access!

Rabbits Road Press Open Day

On Saturday 12th May, join us for a day of risograph printing fun and art chat as we launch the Rabbits Road Press Spring/Summer 2018 Public Programme! Come along to see what happens at Rabbits Road Press, celebrate the work that has been produced and find out how you can get involved through Open Access, free artist led workshops and talks. FB event here.  RSVP here- https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rabbits-road-press-open-day-tickets-45373708985

Programme

2-5pm Drop-in risograph printing workshop with Sahra Hersi and Rosalie Schweiker

6pm Show and Tell: Projects produced at Rabbits Road Press.

7pm Curriculum: Presentation of RRP public programme.

Pick up the RRP Spring/Summer programme, look at an exhibition of selected work produced at RRP and check out the new RRP shop which will be open for business!

Refreshments provided

Old Manor Park Library, 835 Romford Rd, London E12 5JY

Supported by Arts Council England, Create London and Newham Council.  

Spotlight: Rosalie Schweiker

Rabbits Road Press regular, Rosalie Schweiker, is a conceptual artist who uses social exchanges such as conversations, economic transactions and jokes to find new functions for art in society. Her playful humour makes knowable the unwritten rules by which social systems operate. Since Rosalie's focus is on the communicative effects of art, most of her work leaves hardly any material trace.  Rosalie's work is mostly self-funded and realised in collaborations which are often based on long-term friendships that defy common notions of individualistic authorship. As a result, each year she has hand-made a publication documenting the projects she has worked on.

What is “work” and where did the idea for the publication series begin?

Every year I make a publication documenting and archiving the work I’ve done - a “what did I do this year” book. I started the process at university when I was studying art. I found the course really difficult because I was very interested in people and processes and not so much in output, and so produced a publication to document the invisibilised parts of the experience every academic year. It would include all the work that goes around the ‘work’; emails proposals, the ideas I shelved - the things that are not often visible. After university I just continued with it because life got messy and difficult and it was a good way of acknowledging what I had or hadn’t achieved. I now have 10 different publications, so that’s 10 years of self-archiving.

How do your produce the publication?

I wait until around December to get started and try and get it out by January, but it has taken anywhere up to 3 months to complete because I’m working on it in the evenings or the odd times I get by myself. I don’t really know how to use Photoshop (its my New Years resolution to learn how to use it) so my process involves printing out lots of images, sitting down with scissors and glue and blending things together with handwritten pieces. At the end I find someone with a photocopier and make as many copies as I like.

The differences in the copies year to year are also reflective of the different resources I’ve had access to. The first one was black and white photocopied but this year’s “work” has elements of Risograph printed material scattered throughout as I was producing work at Rabbits Road Press. 

What challenges do you face along the way?

The most difficult thing is deciding what goes in and what stays out. I do a lot of work in collaboration so I have to check in with people about including things. It’s also excruciating to look through all your work, and it becomes a bit of an evaluation process. The year after I left college I made one that was only one copy, because it felt too personal and like my life was falling apart. This year, 2018, I feel like my work has made such a huge jump and I want more people to see it. So I'm going to put some money into producing the workbook and make lots of copies and maybe even pay a designer to help me do it. 

Why is it important to you to document “work”?

I had this weird tutor at college who said if you’re a woman you should keep a good archive because they’ll only discover you when you’re dead. So part of the process is taking care of yourself as an artist and how I reproduce what I do, instead of delegating this to a gallery, an archivist or so on.I also give copies to people who have been a part of my work that year and it’s interesting to see how their responses reinvigorate things. 

Rabbits Road Press: Funding Success

We're delighted to announce that Rabbits Road Press has secured funding to run a very exciting programme of events over the next 12 months! Open Access will continue every Wednesday during term-time and a full programme of artist led workshops, talks and commissions will be announced at a Rabbits Road Press Open Day on Saturday 12th May. 

We'd like to thank Create London, Arts Council England and Newham Council for their continued support. We're working hard this year to develop Rabbits Road Press into a sustainable local arts space and are busy making a shop so that we can finally start selling some of the amazing work made at RRP. We are also working to increase printing/finishing options for our members and will announce any new additions at the RRP Open Day on May 12th. We look forward to collaborating with many more artists, groups and institutions in the coming year and hope to see you at Rabbits Road Press soon!

Follow @rabbitsroadpress on instagram for a regular dose of risograph magic.