From February 11 - 14th for the duration of Melbourne's annual celebration of zine culture Festival of the Photocopier State Team WA will be exhibiting in the window space of festival hosts Sticky Institute. The festival culminates in a huge zine fair at Melbourne Town Hall on Sunday February 14th, which State Team WA will also be participating in.
The exhibition features the glorious West Australian souvenir linen tablecloth found on our last team tour to Sydney. Team Captain for this journey, Danni McGrath will be printing works by team members all relating to various WA icons found on the keepsake.
The team features:
Sally Bower
Rose Megirian
Melissa McGrath
Danni McGrath
Jessica Tan
Tristan Fidler
Mitchell Henderson-Miller
Carla Adams
WA/Wait Awhile
A jumble sale at a Quaker meeting hall in Surry Hills is perhaps one of the most unlikely places to find a vintage Western Australian souvenir linen tablecloth in mint condition, no less. But when I saw it, it felt so obvious. Of course it’s here! An expat, placed aside for now. To be recovered, cared for and returned home. I wore it as a cape for about an hour until I remembered Australian flag capes and snuck it into my bag.
I love it when my friends return home from Melbourne, Sydney, Berlin for The Perth Christmas. Our conversations are long, our yellow bins are filled with green Coopers empties, we actually go to that gig, we attend impromptu dog weddings. A few careful weeks, as in, full of care.
Mid January and a few more friends got accepted to RMIT, Melbourne Uni, CoFA or whatever it’s called now, they’re selling their beds and bikes on Facebook. I’m so excited for them! Look out East Coast! A few of us squeeze in a quick trip east before semester starts, whether or not we’re still studying. Spreading out again. On this trip I’m repping WA. Black, yellow, swans, only 50% irony. I want to bring a bit more of home with me this time. I want to share why I haven’t left yet, why I’ll be coming back if I do.
Then I’ll return home to Bunuru, the second summer. The hottest, driest part of the year. We’ll wait a while until the nights cool, until the mozzies hibernate. We’ll wait a while for the grant round results to be announced, to hear back from the galleries we applied to. We’ll keep on waiting and we’ll keep on going in this wide dry town.
Words by Danni McGrath.
