2011
Get Down Get Dirty
Wai-Jee Ho, Amit Werber
Amit Werber and Wai-Jee Ho were awarded the fellowship for a series of experimental multi-format zines that responded to material in the collection. Published under the banner of Get Down, Get Dirty, each edition responded to a single object in the collection, either formally or conceptually.
Published zines were accessioned into the collection and distributed to art schools and design studios.
Published zines were accessioned into the collection and distributed to art schools and design studios.
Proposal
Issues
Issue 1 is a tête-bêche zine designed by both fellows. They split the issue in half, with Amit working on spreads about jazz musician, Charles Mingus, and Wai-Jee on spreads about the arctic fox, until they met at the midpoint. The black-and-red color palette and graphic language was inspired by a 1944 issue of Staff Magazine, designed by Alvin Lustig. Laser printed with silkscreened covers and printed in an edition of 100.
Issue 2 takes the gummy bear as it subject. Visually inspired by Karl Gerstner’s Capital magazine, this issue collects contributions including poems, essays, performances, and charts about the colorful, chewy, gelatin candy. Printed on a single, folded sheet of newsprint in two colors.
Issue 3 is a staple-bound zine containing Amit’s designed essay “Saint Clara: An Israeli Dystopian Youth Film,” originally written for a cinema studies class. Visually, the zine uses image treatments informed by Dutch Total Design’s brochures designed for Braco in 1994, and the psychedelic font Jonah, drawn from a 1969 Photo Lettering catalog. Printed in four-color risograph in an edition of 120.
Issue 4 is a letter-pressed modular format designed by Wei-Jee and containing Peter Cooper’s inaugural address to the newly opened Cooper Union. The unbound sheets of book-board are held together by a clip, and can be tiled together into a poster. Printed in an edition of 160.
