Before the internet, before the spicy comments sections on Instagram and Twitter or the outré subcultures on TikTok, like-minded strangers connected through zines.
The curators of “Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines” at the Brooklyn Museum, the art historians Branden Joseph and Drew Sawyer, define them as low-budget, limited-circulation publications (short for “magazine” or “fanzine”) that are not political pamphlets or countercultural newspapers.
The show’s territory starts in 1969, coinciding with the widening availability of photocopy machines, and runs to the present.
The selection of zines, posters, films, videos, paintings, garments and other curios is pretty great, and you see many repeat visitors (like myself) wandering the galleries.
There is an enormous amount of material to take in.
Persons:
Branden Joseph, Drew Sawyer
Organizations:
Twitter, Brooklyn Museum