Belfast: C-Zine at Catalyst

There is hours of reading, browsing and flicking to be had at Catalyst Arts under the watchful gaze of Margaret Thatcher flanked by swastikas. Is it the 80s all over again? Montages of political snippets by any means necessary are the order of the day in C-Zines , a show that assembles an eclectic range of low-tech, limited-edition publications commonly known as 'zines'. The Thatcher image comes from Polemic 1  one such publication from the 1980s. Leftists, punks, anarchists and gay activists feature, as do private agendas. The majority of the zines were generously loaned or donated for this exhibition from a variety of sources including Giro's Collective, individuals and zine makers.

C-Zine   installation shot; courtesy Catalyst Arts

The technology to produce a zine is characteristically simple - a typewriter, a photocopier and commitment will suffice, although many employ more sophisticated technologies. It is a 'hands on', analogue affair, with an 80s feel and physicality to these publications not found as easily even on anarchist or activist websites.There is a broadly left-wing editorial to many of the publications. Mark Pawson 2 comments that zines are frequently produced to counter a political climate where certain issues are ignored or glossed over by mainstream media. It is of note that the right do not use the zine format to anywhere near the same extent, suggesting that mainstream media may already cater sufficiently well for their needs!

Zines then constitute a form, or site of activism where, to be heard, platforms initially need to be created. Many of the zines here were produced in 1980s Belfast. The (alternative) Belfast Yellow Pages 3 is one such publication, produced by Just Books Collective. This directory is of its time, being both comprehensive and pragmatic, a historical document and streetwise directory to activist groups and organisations in Belfast. Here you can bone up on what your legal rights are if 'P checked' by the police or army. 4

Cover of Curious Thing , vol 7, no. 12, from C-Zine ; courtesy Catalyst Arts

Not all the publications are political with a capital 'p', but they are all marked by the quality of a document produced out of need and urgency. This is what gives this material its freshness. They become platforms for articulating the overtly political to the intimately personal, where content ranges from irreverently funny to gravely serious.

Collating these ephemeral ISSN-less 5  publications recontextualises them as part of an historical and contemporary political landscape. Those donated to or bought by Catalyst will be kept in their archive long after Thatcher gets painted out. They can be viewed by prior arrangement and are well worth a look if you happen to miss the show.

Aisling O'Beirn  is an artist based in Belfast.

¹ Polemic , no 3, Summer 1989 (Leicester, England 1989), image of Thatcher from back cover
² Mark Pawson, Mark Pawson talks about zines ', Catalyst Arts, 26 June 2004; Pawson is a zine maker, distributor and collector and has been active on the zine scene for fifteen years.
³ Your last rights , A Belfast directory: the other Yellow Pages , Belfast, Just Books Publications, 1982 / 83, pp. 2 & 3
⁴ A ' P check' is when the police or army stop and question individuals to ascertain their identity and their knowledge of recent 'terrorist actions'.
⁵ ISSN is an international standard machine-readable identification number given to periodicals to distinguish them, allowing them to be traced. Most zines do not carry an ISSN because of their low and sometimes irregular distribution.

C-Zine , Catalyst Arts, June -  August 2004

Article reproduced from CIRCA 109, Autumn 2004, p.86

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