Milkweed Zine is a Toronto sex-positive feminist erotica magazine that features international writers, artists, and photographers. Milkweed Zine experiments with form and content, borrowing from both zine and conventional editorial design. The fluidity of form has given their contributors a wide window for experimentation. Their latest issue (#3), released in March 2017, kicks off with a curious cover illustration: a familiar domestic kitchen space disrupted by night-robe and gas-mask clad partners hovering over packets of Viagra, all rendered in subdued tones of blue, pink, yellow, and green.
S.K. Hughes, Editor-in-Chief of Milkweed Zine, describes issue III as “an exploration of the erotic gaze in the new media age. It is designed to provoke reflection and reconsideration of the boundaries between privacy and visibility, between a desire for exposure and the will to maintain agency. Adopting the forms of poetry and personal narrative and the aesthetic of selfies and online porn, our contributors present work that lies at the nexus of social media, the self, and sex.”
The magazine aims to draw readers into a conversation about the evolution of the gaze. How does social media influence the way we look, watch, see, and engage? Who controls the direction of the gaze? What is at risk when our lives are increasingly exposed? What is enjoyable and pleasurable about such exposure? Where do we draw the lines (and do we need to?) when it comes to our selves and our bodies on social media?
Milkweed Zine will be featured at the Toronto Art Book Fair (TOABF) June 15th – 18th 2017, Artscape Youngplace. TOABF is “dedicated to increasing the visibility, dissemination, appreciation, and understanding of the artists’ book and its contemporary manifestations within the visual arts field in Toronto and Abroad.”
For more on Milkweed Zine, check out their official site here: https://www.milkweedzine.com/
More on the Toronto Art Book Fair here: https://www.torontoartbookfair.com/
