⚠ CW // self harm, suicide ⚠
This project explores the themes of self harm and suicide, which some may find distressing. Please take care of your mental health when engaging with it!
This project explores the themes of self harm and suicide, which some may find distressing. Please take care of your mental health when engaging with it!
What's That On Your Arm?
A short comic
A short comic
In the second half of September I was part of Women Power in Comics WOMCOM Artist in Residency program, in Hungary, at Lake Balaton and Budapest. Women Power in Comics #WOMCOM is a collaborative initiative that brings together partners from Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia with the goal of empowering female comic artists and addressing gender issues in the comics field.
I've made this zine during the residency, at Lake Balaton. It's about reflecting on a period in my teens and early twenties when I self-harmed. It felt risky, but right. My fear, and the biggest challenge of this project, was finding the tone, the framing and the structure, in which I could talk about self-harming without judgment or shame, but also without slipping into glamorizing what was, essentially, a survival mechanism.
Our two mentors, Eszter Szép and Márton Hegedűs, were invaluable in this process, and I can’t thank them enough! So were the many talks with fellow artists from the residency, the talks with my best friend from home, and with the amazing Miercuri Hangouts crew, all of whom contributed in some part in shaping this little zine.
Below is the zine.
⚠ CW // self harm, suicide ⚠
The physical object
The booklet is an 8 page folding zine, but unlike traditional zines, there is no cut in the middle - the pages don't follow in spreads, rather the folding technique allows for the booklet to open up the first spread right in the middle, like a door, revealing the continuous 4 page sequence with the outstretched arm on it. The other side is a full page, A3 poster. The title page has a cutout in the shape of a salamander on it.
See the printed out version below.
Case study
I knew form early on that I wanted a continuous image of an entire outstretched arm with a big chunk of the story mapped on it, that would be the hero image of my comic. I was thinking accordion format at first, then considered sculpting the arm out of papier-mâché, finally, the best solution fell into my lap as I was studying Veress Nikoletta's work, Much Needed Love, and found the perfect fold of a spread that opened like a door revealing another spread underneath - and I'd decided to use it. Thank you, Niki!
The ending and the poster went through many iterations: initially it had a more upbeat ending, but our mentor, Eszter, advised me against it, and I'm glad I chose a more reserved tone to end on.
The ending and the poster went through many iterations: initially it had a more upbeat ending, but our mentor, Eszter, advised me against it, and I'm glad I chose a more reserved tone to end on.
Process images below.
For the exhibition we came up with this cool semi-transparent covering that repeats the topographic patterns I'd used on some of the pages of the zine.
See images below, from the opening, courtesy of Photos by KNI Bakelit MAC.
Women Power in Comics #WOMCOM is a collaborative initiative that brings together partners from Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia with the goal of empowering female comic artists and addressing gender issues in the comics field.
Partners: Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Institution Student Cultural Centre of Novi Sad (SKCNS), Novi Sad, Serbia; Bakelit Multi Art Center, Budapest, Hungary; AKC Attack, Zagreb, Croatia; PostScriptum, Athens, Greece; Association for Comic Affirmation, Budva, Montenegro.
The project is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Commission.
Partners: Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Institution Student Cultural Centre of Novi Sad (SKCNS), Novi Sad, Serbia; Bakelit Multi Art Center, Budapest, Hungary; AKC Attack, Zagreb, Croatia; PostScriptum, Athens, Greece; Association for Comic Affirmation, Budva, Montenegro.
The project is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Commission.
Finally, some photos from the residency, courtesy of KNI Bakelit MAC.
