Steven | Sharing Personal Archives
I was so so lucky to sit down with my friend Steven and listen to them share about some of the publications they’ve put into the world in the past year.
We are going to start with the decision to write a book, and how that sparked a few other pursuits:
I published my book. And then around the same tome I put out a zine anthology bc I made a bunch over the summer. Poems and such. And most recently, I did a collaborative zine, with my ex.
Pretty cool, right? I asked Steven how they got into art in the first place. Like many of us— Steven’s journey has been non-linear— which I feel is truly important to note. One thing can lead to another + we never know where we are going. You may just end up publishing a book!
When I was a kid I would make up games – no one ever wanted to play because I made up the rules and I would change them
In school I would write stories. I think I wanted to be a novelist or game designer by trade. I did some slam poetry in highschool + learned visual methods.
Zines provide a great space to archive the exploration in these various methods (and if you’ve seen Steven’s instagram—you know that their visual methods of photography are really cool)
So Steven has been making art for their whole life, and again, like many of us, alot of it hasn’t seen the light of day. This leads to the book:
I thought it would be interesting to give something to people. It was just gunna be finding old pics and writing and scanning them and making an archive, for myself. As I started collecting themes started developing.
I asked about those themes, Steven says they’re probably subjective: If you had given someone else the same art objects—they wouldn’t have seen the same themes.
Next I was curious about this process of collecting pieces of oneself and deciding to make it public.
At first Steven says it became a huge project.
Once I committed to it--- I have a multiple hundred row spreadsheets going. A lot of crazy details—just for me. Its all for me ultimately, I just want it to give it to my friends.
The reactions to sharing a project such as this also intrigued me.
I was told by one friend that the book is aggressively personal, which I think was a compliment. This book reveals more about myself then being my friend does, an intimate glimpse into someone’s life. People have reached out, which is nice.
That last part has really stuck with me: sharing such intimate art and letting people who know and care for you into parts you may have never shown to them is a mountain to climb, but I think it also points to the good that can come out of deciding to share yourself through art— a release, a confirmation.
Since the book Steven has been working on some zines. The first is Fist Full of Fiffties, which is four zines. Each one is six pieces. No plan was established when writing this, just the instruction to themself write a poem a day when home.
The next zine is a material culture study of a key chain. Steven calls these “little research zines”.
Steven also decided to take zines to academia.
For my last AAA I did my zine instead of a poster. Some “old boys” who hated it.
Despite some old school academics not understanding the zines, new methods of sharing research are increasingly important to fields such as anthropology— and using this medium to do so speaks to the breadth of space that art can take up.
Materially speaking, zines are accessible. Which makes them a draw to creatives and (potentially) academics alike. There are many ways to approach making zines. Steven share their process:
I use Microsoft word and Printer paper. And some people make theirs so beautiful and it takes hours. I can make tons in an hour---which I think is super cool. I aim for accessibility
With the book, Steven says it just started happening. So, are there any other creative publications in the works? With a glimmer in their eye:
I am working on another project, which I can’t tell you.
All images are curtesy of Steven and are theirs. You can find these and more in their published zines.
