This edition of A Magazine Reader took place during the Summer Academy of Hordaland Kunstsenter in Norway and is created in close collaboration with Hordaland Kunstsenter and Pamflett. This issue revolves around the various elements that are being used by the fashion media, in this case the Vogue UK August 2020, to create fashion. Through analyzing, selecting, collecting, cutting, marking, categorizing, assembling and collaging, we become aware of the many elements that are used to construct fashion. Like in issue three we explore how every possible element; perfume, facial creams, rosemary water, travel suggestions, gadgets, books etcetera, is used to create stories and myths of a future reality. These 'stories' are composed of so much more than garments alone, and in such a way that the joints and seams are smoothed out, turning these stories into a reality, a truth. During this workshop we disconnect the elements, break the joints, cut the seams, unravel body parts and disconnect garments from bodies, from backgrounds, objects, animals and gadgets, with the aim to create space to critically explore the construct of fashion.
A Magazine Reader is an ongoing research trajectory and series of zines initiated by Femke de Vries and Hanka van der Voet. It revolves around the analysis of a mainstream and high-end fashion magazine and its translation into an alternative new zine to provide insight into the cultural power and forms of value production that is at the core of fashion media. In it, the reader becomes an active actor in the construct of fashion. Re-reading the magazine by dissecting it, analysing the words, images, materiality, the items shown on the pages and the strategies of the specific magazine changes the way we read fashion.
In the workshop one specific magazine is selected. This magazine is thoroughly read, dissected and critically analysed on elements such as models, topicality, advertisements, material, brands, distribution, imagery, items, narrative, monetary value, colours, words and order of pages. By not starting from the perspective of the fashion system as a whole, but from the simple act of reading a fashion magazine, the reader gains an active role. Having the material in hands, seeing the images, how brands are being represented on the pages, reading the words and tracing the page numbers, but also feeling the paper, the weight and being able to smell the magazine creates an awareness of the magazine as a material object. Something that embodies and communicates the process of value production in fashion. A material representation of fashion’s ephemerality, dream worlds and fantasies.
The readers in the workshop use the material of the original ‘source magazine’ to create a new zine that provides insight into the cultural power and forms of value production that is at the core of fashion media. The existing material is elaborated on by connecting with other material (theories, visuals, artistic explorations). As such, A Magazine Reader focuses on the reader as an active participant – someone with agency rather than a passive consumer – in the process of creating fashion. Reading becomes making.
Type: softcover
Dimensions: 210 mm x 155 mm portrait
Pages: 162
Art Direction: Femke de Vries and Hanka van der Voet
Authors: Kristina Melbø Valvik, Erika Brandl, Ida Falck Øien, Ana Henriques Brotas, Anne Cecilie Caroline Brunborg Lie, Henrik Koppen, Bastian Düvet Haukefær, Mathijs van Geest, Randi Grov Berger, Ayatgali Tuleubek, Femke de Vries, Hanka van der Voet
Graphic design: Zuzana Kostelanská
Release date: August 2020
Binding: elastic band
Edition: 200
Color: green – riso printed
Printer: Pamflett
Language: English
Text editing: Femke de Vries and Hanka van der Voet
Production: Hordaland Kunstsenter in collaboration with Warehouse. The Summer Academy, of which the workshop was part, is generously supported by The Nordic Artists’ Center Dale, Art Council Norway and Bergen Kommune
Production by: Robin Everett and Rhiannon Inman Simpson for Hordaland Kunstsenter
