Sowfia

Tooting Zine Fair 2012

2012-02-17T11:49:00.000Z

Yes it's true there is a zine fair in Tooting! Here's a poster i did for it and here's some more information so you can tell your friends and aunties and cousins and your second cousins and your other distant relatives.

The Construction Gallery will be hosting the first Tooting Zine Fair from 12pm-6pm on 25th February 2012.

CONFIRMED STALLS / ARTISTS / COLLECTIVE EXHIBITORS 2012:

Alternative Press, Girls Get Busy, Walrus Zines, Shebang, Other Asias, Tom Cass, TINAG/Myrdle Court Press, Emma Falconer, Decadence Comics, Nichol Keene, Vampire Sushi, Red Robin Press, Just Design Collective, Nanae Kawahara, Monster Emporium Press, Microcosmic Orbit, Eyeball Comics, Cressida Knapp, Partisan Zines, Siberian Zines, Elliott Baggott, Jasmine Fung, Whirlygig distro, Melanie Maddison, Vapid Kitten, Susan Mortimer, Partisan Siberia.

Website: www.tootingzines.tumblr.com

Construction Gallery and Cafe
74 – 80 Upper Tooting Road
London SW17 7PB
Nearest Station: Tooting Bec Underground

Contact: tootingzines@gmail.com

satanic people

2012-02-04T22:22:00.011Z

Susie makes a sign to ward off satanic people...

Goldsmiths W.I. Zine

2011-11-13T12:29:00.001Z

A stitched up collage illustration for the first Goldsmiths W.I zine. The zine is full of weird and interesting things including a sushi recipe with banana and how to save the bees. www.goldsmithswi.blogspot.com

Smiths Illustrations

2011-11-13T12:25:00.001Z

Illustrations for Smiths Magazine, October/November issue.

2011-09-24T13:59:00.002+01:00

A leaflet I designed for my friend and her sister's exciting new drumming school.

The Museum of Everything: Exhibition #4

2011-09-17T00:22:00.001+01:00

I figured i ought to have more art supplies considering i'm always making things so i bought a pack of superior quality pastels the other day from the Cass sale, I've never actually been into Cass when there isn't a sale and i'm not sure whether that's just down to good timing or whether they're like those shops that are permanently having a closing down sale but are still open two years later. Anyway I've decided that this urge to branch out and employ new materials is most likely due to the fact that I've been invigilating at The Museum of Everything.

Exhibition #4 is the latest installation of visionary James Brett's project to unleash the talents of untrained or 'outsider' artists unto the world. Unlike the previous three exhibitions this newest one focusses particularly on the work of artists with developmental disabilities working in studios mainly across Europe and the US. While workshops and art therapy sessions are common in mental hospitals and care homes for physically disabled the art work produced from them are rarely taken seriously as art, and people who create them are rarely considered artists. The establishment of permanent studios for talented self taught artists with developmental disabilities has been a radical move towards nurturing the creativity of people whose talents would most likely otherwise lay dormant.

The studios provide equipment and some support from technicians but other than that the work created in them is completely original and often developed over time. While the artists probably have little concern for the history of art or critical approaches blah blah, some of the artworks I've seen there have been the most interesting, funny, imaginative and bizarre I've have seen in a long time, and maybe i'm saying that because i don't know much about art theory either but if this is the kind of work that is produced from an artistic naivety then that might not be such a bad thing!

Taking photos of the exhibition was punishable by £1000 fine...the perfect opportunity to try out my new pastels and do these drawings of two of the artworks. You can see the originals plus lots lots more over at The Museum of Everything which is on till late October. http://www.museumofeverything.com/

Finding Colour Exhibtion

2011-08-18T19:09:00.004+01:00

Some of my batik paintings are hanging in Sprout Gallery until Saturday 3 September along with this crazy origami board Sabba made. The gallery is a bit hidden and you may even have to go through the woods to get there. It’s in a residential area so for anyone intending to go, take a map. Sprout Arts, 74 Moyser Road, SW16 6SQ. www.sproutarts.com. Open 10.30-4

Social Notworking Consultations

2011-07-27T13:45:00.027+01:00

Ellen Linder kindly offered Walrus a cell at The Old Police Station as part of her New Cross Turn Left garden party on Sunday. We took the opportunity to host our first round of Social Network Syndrome consultations, offering members of the public free appointments in which they would be tested and potentially diagnosed with SNS.

We decided that the old cell would be the ideal place to host the consultations as it would emphasize the prison of the mind that some network users are finding themselves trapped in.

Each consultation was about 10-15 minuets long and involved several practical and written tests and finished with a short information video detailing the pioneering work of Dr. Gustav Von Schneider. The day ran surprisingly smoothly with our receptionist Anmeet's appointment sheet fully booked, so much so that there are even plans for a mini tour, so watch out for an SNS consultation session near you!

Social Notworking Investigation

2011-07-27T13:42:00.003+01:00

Women's Library Zine Fest

2011-06-25T23:00:00.003+01:00

Pics from the Zine Fest at the Women's Library today where there was a zine fair, exhibitions and a panel discussion, heard a particularly interesting talk by Humaira Saeed the founder of Race Revolt.

Alternative Press Fest 2011- Stall and Tings

2011-06-06T10:43:00.006+01:00

Sadly the first International Alternative Press Festival came to an unofficial* close yesterday. The zine fair, which was over the bank holiday weekend, was amazing and the biggest since APF records began, which isn't actually that long ago. Here's a picture Simone took which seems to adequately capture the excitement of the two days.

Despite the presence of so much cool work and many new zines, between doing workshops and telling people the life story of each zine on our stall, I didn't get much time to have a proper look around. I did however pick up a funny book by Sam Rees, who was a few stalls down, called Mouths. Its a simple concept but I think its really effective and well executed.

I tried to show it to other people but they just looked at me like I had mental problems or something. My dentistry mate Sana also picked up a 'brush your teeth' badge which should make a subtle addition to her clinical uniform.

And last but not least here's a little taste of my mad sewing skills. I made this headband in Rosie Martin's 'make a headband workshop' which I had no intention of attending but I'm glad I did because it was really cool and my sewing lady mum was really impressed with my headband. Thanks to all the APF organisers and helpers for all their hard work, hopefully next years festival will be even bigger and better!

*Officially there are still a few ongoing exhibitions happening at Orbital up until the 13th but the juicy bits are gone!

Holy Posters

2011-05-19T20:28:00.001+01:00

Make a Wish

Acrylic on canvas

I like the holy posters they have on the noticeboards outside the church, I think it would be cool to have more holy posters, maybe in the underground and on buses and billboards and even in people's windows. Yeah, I think its time to roll up those giant pouting babe posters. If the men miss them then they can just get a life or get a wife and also women can chill out and stop worrying about achieving maximum hotness all the time. Just need someone to sponsor holy posters...

Alternative Press Festival 2011

2011-05-03T22:07:00.001+01:00

The Alternative Press Fair is going international this year so its set to be bigger than ever! The fair will be part of the International Alternative Press Festival which runs from 27th May- 13th June and will include a programme of workshops, exhibitions and other happenings. Walrus will be at the zine fair on the 28th and 29th May in Conway Hall, Holborn. Above is a poster I did for it, www.alternativepress.org.uk for more details.

Walrus at the Zine Symposium 2011

2011-04-17T21:27:00.005+01:00

The Rag Factory was packed out with zinesters and supporters of the self publishing world today as the venue played host to the annual London Zine Symposium. It was really crowded for most of the day but after a few rounds of shuffling around we discovered some exciting new zines/zine makers. There were some cool zines made by the ladies at the Nest Gallery and also some fun books made by Girls who Draw, our table neighbour. Our most exciting find of the day were a bunch of publications from a group called Other Asias, they work with artists internationally to make radical zines/art/productions about Asian political and social issues, a current project of theirs is Redo Pakistan, their website describes what they do much better www.otherasias.webnode.com. Looking forward to the International Alternative Press Festival now!

Artistic Jihad Exhibition

2011-04-05T19:29:00.008+01:00

Yesterday was the launch of the Artistic Jihad exhibition in which the work of 20 young Muslim artists is being displayed. The exhibition is the result of a FOSIS art competition and includes paintings, photography and sculpture. Two of my painting were amongst the works selected, above is a picture of some people hanging out near them. The show is in a small gallery space in St. Martins School of Art and Design (near the SU) and is on until April 15th, after that I think the exhibition is going to a few other cities around England.

Artistic Jihad for more info

Egaku: Draw for Japan

2011-03-30T20:28:00.004+01:00

Peter Willis and friends have organised an arty event to help raise money for the Japan disaster. It's this Sunday 12am-8pm at Jaguar Shoes in Shoreditch.

EGAKU: a one day event to raise money for the Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. Onsale will be zines, prints, ceramics, original drawings, books and much more, from some of the most renowned illustrators and designers of today - Rob Ryan, Nobrow, Okido, Anorak Magazine, Jean Jullien, Laura Carlin, Frinton Press, Peepshow, Hato Press, Lazy Oaf, Winged Chariot and many many more.

EGAKU means "draw" and "imagine " in Japanese. We hope that we can support Japanese people EGAKU (imagine) a peaceful future by EGAKU (drawing). 100% of all money made will be donated to the relief effort, for more information and a full list of contributors please visit our website: www.egaku.org.uk

Shop Now Open!

2011-03-14T19:11:00.007Z

I opened a shop in the internet realm. If i had a shop in the real world I'd probably make it like a museum, and in a tunnel, and the shop would get gradually smaller towards the end so that only small people could fit and I'd train animals to maintain the shop. But for now I have this shop in the internet realm. It has a few excellent value zines, and I even redrew the 'Underachieving?' book and gave it a sugar paper cover, the other version had too many spelling mistakes, even by my standards, and towards the end the frogs started looking like piglets. You can purchase 'Underachieving?' and other zines/short stories from only 60p from

------------------------>here

London Zine Symposium!

2011-03-10T12:55:00.007Z

Walrus Zines will be heading East for the London Zine Symposium next month. It takes place at the Rag Factory on April the 17th and will probably be wicked. Accompanying us will be the large group of printed men shown above. Click below for more details of the event.

www.londonzinesymposium.org.uk/stalls

Houses on Hills

2011-03-10T12:09:00.012Z

The last two are prints with some drawings and cut outs from the Argos catalogue, and the first one is an etching with aquatint. I still can't believe they sell that lamp at Argos.

Acid and Feathers

2011-03-06T11:58:00.018Z

Printing is becoming increasingly hard work. I started making an old school etching on a metal plate last week and it's taking forever. There are about 3 chemicals involved, one being acid, a hot plate, a wooden holding and burning contraption which doesn't have a formal name, a degreasing formulae, wax, varnish, and last but not least a feather. The below print is what It's produced so far. Above is a multi coloured print of a previous dry point etching. I don't really know what I was going for when I smudged the ink on but it's turned out quite dreamy looking.

I feel like these printing techniques are really ingenious, I can understand why they were so revolutionary back in the day when there were no photocopiers. Having said that I now have a massive new appreciation for photocopiers and photocopying, they're totally taken for granted.

Brighton Stall and Walrus Zines

2011-02-21T19:43:00.006Z

We had fun fun fun down at Brighton zine fair yesterday. It was our first time down there and we met lots of nice people and shifted loads of zines. Here's a mysterious and hazy picture of our stall. Amongst some of our swaps were an origami kit, Playground Magazine, a mental health zine, a cross stitched badge, a small black lyric book by Sarah Clark, and a book of Great Anarchists by Peter Willis.

It was also our first zine fair outing as Walrus Zines, we thought we should have an official group name for our longstanding unofficial zine collective. We don't really have a good reason for naming it Walrus Zines except that i saw a picture of a walrus in a suit and thought it looked really cool, and the others were fine with it so that's the reason. There is a Walrus Zines blog on which we hope to do zine reviews and other interesting things and perhaps even make collective zines, but time will tell.

www.walruszines.blogspot.com

Brighton Zinefest

2011-02-09T21:21:00.003Z

Brighton Zinefest is coming up and we've got a small stall at the zine fair where we (me, Sabba, Amneet and friends) will be selling and swapping our handmade illustrated goods, www.brightonzinefest.co.uk for more details.

A Tree. A World. Some Men.

2011-02-02T22:01:00.022Z

A Tree
Drypoint Etching

A World

Drypoint Etching

Some Men

Linocut Print

I'm doing this wicked printing course with printmaker Simon Burder, so far we've made prints using collagraph, drypoint etching and linocut techiniques. Linocut is my favorite because it makes nice, bold prints.

Social Notworking- Dr. Von Schneider

2011-01-10T20:08:00.015Z

Dr. Von Schnieder's earlier pioneering studies on Bebo and other reunion websites have been the subject of fierce debate, winning him much acclaim in social science circles. In his newest study 'Social Notworking' Dr. Von Schneider ventures bravely into new territory taking a serious look, for the first time, into the root causes and effects of the emerging Social Network Syndrome (SNS). Availiable in Bookartbookshop and Orbital Comics from Monday 17th (iA).

Description : A6, black and white inside with a blue cover, 26 pages (yes that's right 26!) half writing half drawings, very scientific.

dinosaur looks

2010-12-17T10:28:00.007Z

Dino Looks
Acrylic on canvas

Despite the common belief that dinosaurs are comoflagy colours, i can inform you, after watching the dinosaur 3D film in the Science Museum, that the dinosaur looks in Jurassic Park are far from conclusive. Above is my guess. I read this following passage after making my guess, it bares a striking resemblance to my instinctual one...

'....but other paleontologists say the opposite is true — that dinosaurs' skin could have been shades of purple, orange, red, even yellow with pink and blue spots! Rich and varied colors, they argue, might have helped dinosaurs to recognize one another and attract mates.' (Adapted from Dinosaurs: The Very Latest Information and Hands-On Activities From the Museum of the Rockies, by Liza Charlesworth and Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer. A Scholastic Professional Book.)

knock knock

2010-12-14T16:27:00.011Z

Waves
Acrylic on canvas

humara pind= New Book!

2010-12-07T09:33:00.019Z

Here are some pages from a new book 'Humara Pind in Pakistan-Part 1'. It's a fictional book about the memories of an old man who grew up in a villiage in Pakistan. It's loosely based on some of the things my dad told me about his golden olden days but mainly its just made up. You can see the other pages by visiting Orbital Comics in Leicester Square, or Bookartbookshop in Old Street where they are now on sale.

rainy day

2010-11-17T16:40:00.008Z

Rainy Day
Acrylic on canvas

I was walking past this book shop and i became all of a sudden magnetized to this book called 'das house: hundertwasser'. I did some research and found a whole collection of this man's work. He was an artist and architect and he had some really interesting beliefs about nature and painting, he believed that 'painting is a religious occupation, that the actual impulse comes from without, from something else that we do not know'. He made some really magical posters too.
This above painting is somewhat inspired by his work, especially the raindrops.

regular and gigantic

2010-11-08T14:14:00.000Z

Here are two new books, they are very small, probably not suitable for the fat fingered. I'll probably stick them to florescent postcards so that they don't feel intimidated by bigger flashier books.

elastic revolution

2010-11-06T12:28:00.001Z

Elastic Revolution

Acrylic on Canvas

This is a small poster painting about the UK clothing size system. I believe the system encourages unhealthy obsessive behaviour in women and general unhappiness and anxiety. The poster explores the possibility of a new healthier system in which we abandon set sizes for elastic. I think it would have many positive effects such as, women no longer placing such great emphasis on out skinniying each other, less wastage because if you lose/gain weight you can just adjust the knot and also i think it has health advantages as looser clothes are better for circulation.

wooden trees

2010-10-27T11:46:00.000+01:00

Wooden Trees
Acrylic on canvas

Thanks to Dharine for helping me paint this one and for adding modest golden touches to it, which you probably can't see from the picture but they are definitely still there.

Alternative Press Fair

2010-10-08T17:46:00.000+01:00

Sabba and me have a stall at the zine fair next month. Here's a poster i did for it, alternativepress.org.uk for more details.

moon fan

2010-10-01T10:50:00.001+01:00

Moon Fan

Acrylic on canvas

2010-09-13T22:02:00.000+01:00

the cow king

2010-09-03T00:18:00.002+01:00

Barn (2010)
Acrylic, Microsoft Paint and Google

This is something that i did recently, you can see, through the use of digital elements, that i've now become up to date with modern times. The following is the only explanation that i could come up with for the composition, it sounds best when read very fast...

Once upon a time, in a realm unknown to most, there was a herd of cowboys. They had a cow King. This was because they had grown too immoral to rule over themselves and had thought it wiser to defer responsibility to this one especially fat cow who they had never managed to herd. The cow King was largely unbothered with the affairs of these lesser men and spent most of his time grazing. But as time passed and the cowboys became less and less civilized the cow King’s grazing land became gnarly. The cow King had had enough of this herd of lesser men and walked over to a fresh plot of land near an enchanted barn, here he rested and privately ate flowers.

the desert

2010-08-31T20:04:00.000+01:00

'There are many more beautiful landscapes in the world but none, i think, that can shape man's spirit in such sovereign a way. In its hardness and sparseness, the desert strips our desire to comprehend life of all subterfuges, of all the manifold delusions with which a more bountiful nature may entrap man's mind and cause him to project his own imageries into the world around him. The desert is bare and clean and knows no compromise. It sweeps out of the heart of man all the lovely fantasies that could be used as a masquerade for wishful thinking, and thus makes him free to surrender himself to an Absolute that has no image: the farthest of all that is far and yet the nearest of all that is near.'
p.144-145, M. Asad, The Road to Mecca.

the nervous valiant knight

2010-08-27T23:57:00.000+01:00

This came about when my brother didn't let me listen to his ipod on the train home from Edinburgh, he said 'draw a picture or a write something', so i did. I turned it into this animation several months later. It's a short story about a knight who has trouble adjusting to modernity. The original book is available at bookartbookshop.