Zine Suits (Community Care Playclothes Series)

Vinyl, zippers, buckles, zines, art supplies, April-May 2021

These pieces are included in my installation, “Community Care Closet.”

Community care is a practice that requires intentionality; we must “put it on” every day, just like we do clothes. With these pieces of clothing, made of clear vinyl, I comment on the necessity of transparency and accessibility in all community care practices, and create a community space for both the creation and consumption of knowledge and art. These suits, one holding a zine library and the other holding zine-creation materials, are meant to draw community in and provide the resources needed to share ideas directly with the community.

Zine Library Overalls:

Designed as a nod to the working class, these overalls hold a library of zines that is meant to uplift the knowledge that comes from our communities, instead of relying on the pretentious, inaccessible knowledge that is upheld as superior by capitalism’s elites. Depending on where they are worn or displayed, different zines relevant to the community they are situated in will flow in and out of them.

Zine Creation Suit:

In order to encourage the active creation of knowledge, this suit provides viewers with the materials needed to make their own zine to add to the zine library overalls. My goal with this piece is to validate that each of us has important knowledge worth sharing with our communities.