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Agency : Make your Mark is a participatory zine-making project taking place in the gallery throughout the summer at Arnolfini, conceived and facilitated by artist Rachael House.

“A zine (/ˈziːn/ zeen; an abbreviation of fanzine) is most commonly a small circulation self-published, lo-fi work of original and/or appropriated texts and images usually reproduced via photocopier.”

By their nature, zines are vehemently independent and driven by the very people who make them. Zines do not require expertise or experience just a desire to communicate and to express things you are passionate about.

Agency : Make your Mark zine-making workshop takes place within Gallery One throughout the summer. No previous experience necessary, this is a drop-in activity for all ages and abilities – come along, join-in and DIY.

Agency : Make your Mark is the theme of the zine that will be created at Arnolfini over the summer.  Agency talks about how we survive, and pass on ideas of how to make things better, for ourselves, other people and the planet. In tiny ways – or thinking on a BIG scale. “It’s important to remember that we have some agency in the world, and that our actions have consequences”.

In 2016, in times just as difficult as the late 1970’s when people first started making zines – zines are still a way for us to connect with each other, to have a voice. We don’t have to be ‘experts’, zines are for all of us, we all have something to say and a need to be heard. , we can use zines to reach out to others, to campaign, to find our people, locally, nationally and internationally.

Join Rachael for an artist session.

Rachael House is an artist lucky and unlucky enough to come of age in the punk era. She carries with her from that time a belief in DIY; if you want something to happen you can make it happen. From dyeing your hair, forming a band, customising your clothes to making a zine.

Rachael makes events, objects, performances, comic strips and zines. In the 1990s Rachael was part of the thriving queerzine scene, with her autobiographical comic Red Hanky Panky. She continues to make zines and comic strips as part of and alongside her fine art practice. Her recent projects and exhibitions include Focus on Feminism and Gender, New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge, There Is An Alternative! Critical Comics and Cartoons, University of Kent, Comix Creatrix- 100 women making comics at House of Illustration, London, Queer Feminist Disco at Bent Fest, Powerlunches, London, Feminism and zines- changing the world with comic strips, part of Future Perfect: The Changing Face of Girls’ Comics, LJMU Special Collections and Archives, Liverpool and Challenge Heteronormativity at the V&A, London.

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