Manifest (zine)
Zine, Issue 4, Jen Payne, 20 pgs, Three Chairs Publishing, 3chairspublishing.com, $6
This fourth issue of Manifest (zine) is cricket-themed, though mostly in jest. “The sound of crickets may be used to humorously indicate a dead silence when a response… is expected,” states page one. The vibrant images that follow culminate on the back cover art: a woman screams into a vortex — leaves little room for silence to creep in.
Creator Jen Payne, known for mixed media collage and assembling “bits & pieces of whatnot,” melds her proclivities with (among other things) Leonard Cohen poetry, excerpts from George Selden’s The Cricket in Times Square, and a Mental Floss article on cricket curiosities. The result is essentially a portable contemporary art exhibit. Payne later detours into essay to discuss the courage needed to speak honestly about fear and loss through art. It doesn’t quite fit with the rest of her menagerie, though it does seem timely given the state the world is in.
It’s clear a lot of effort went into this little booklet. Payne’s focus on physical quality (paper, image, colour assembly) alone makes it worth the price of admission.