The FEM Publication
Our publication, based on women’s work and feminine forms of art & craft, explores the concept of femininity in the modern age. Traditional gender roles don’t seem relevant in a society of flexible gender, so we wanted to compile a collection of artistic expressions that venture beyond the boundaries of these roles and envision a world where they don't exist.
Art directors: Justine Clyde & Roxanne Schoon
The following work was entered into the 2019 Loerie Awards in the student category for publication design, and was awarded a Gold Loerie.
We are three women in our early twenties based in Durban, South Africa. We wanted to make something that means something to people – something that conveys our passion for craft, for art and for female voices. We realised that the scope which femininity is given in mass-produced publications is narrow because we saw how it failed to represent so many of the feminine influences in our lives. And if that’s only from our limited perspectives, we can only imagine how many more feminine figures that we have not encountered are being failed, too.
We wanted to create a platform that would take readers on a physical journey by encouraging them to confront new crafts, textures and mediums, while also creating a platform that could be sustained into the future and carry the voices and perspectives of many curators.
This, our first ever issue, contains pieces created solely by the three of us, but future issues will be handed over to new artists to interpret the themes however they please. In this way we hope to extend the definition of what it means to be feminine, as this concept continues to be explored through many different eyes.
In this publication you will find artworks expressed through an unlimited number of mediums, categorised into five chapters or themes. Some of the work you may resonate with and some of it you may not, but we hope that every reader can take something from this publication with them and allow it to create change, spark conversation and inspire them to venture beyond the socially constructed borders of what it means to be a woman and what it means to be feminine.
We made this because we love you, and because we all deserve more than these borders allow us.
