Week 4 – Artists OTW – Tom Sachs & Johanna Fateman

I will begin with Tom Sachs, based on the first few photos that I can see about Tom, he is a very contemporary artist. After looking into his work and younger life I found that Tom Sachs's zines are created based off of work or movies that he has made. One that I found to be very interesting was the zine titled, "Satan Ceramics." This is essentially Sachs's zine about how art and artists are "mystics" who embrace the irrational or wacky. His art within the zine is cryptic and I found myself pondering what each photo or sculpture was trying to show and bring attention to. Zines fit in with his work because if he creates a collection he will also create a zine to go with it. I think overall Sachs is trying to show the uniqueness and freedom to create art as you feel it. With ceramics, if you do not want to use the wheel to create a pot, who is going to stop you. Moving to Johanna Fateman, she definitely embodies the punk side of zines. Born in Berkeley, California in the 70's, Johanna created a punk zine in which she would distribute during punk shows to women. "Snarla" was the first zine she created and it aimed bring light to the feminist movement. Fateman was apart of the band Le Tigre that would play shows and entertain the underground feminist punk movement at the time. I think Sachs and Fateman differ because Fateman seemed to have a political and women's rights idea in mind, her zines did not show her artwork that she had created. Instead they showed the issue with society and aimed to create an understanding of how women should be treated. Sachs created art and the zine was a way to explain and tell the story of his artwork. At the moment I will say I think it is too different from what I am doing now in my life to be relevant. I understand them and what they are trying to do however personally I have never been able to portray my feelings and beliefs of art, politics, and daily life through a small magazine.

Below you can see Tom Sachs as well as a piece from his Satan Ceramics Collection. Also Johanna Fateman is pictured below as well as her Snarla zine, this issue is titled, "Snarla in Love"