Juicy
Zine, Ariel Bader-Shamai, 10 pgs, arielbadershamai.ca
Ariel Bader-Shamai’s zine Juicy is a visually compelling selection of illustrations and prose fragments that lack a discernible through-line. It collects some charming all-colour collages from magazine clippings and original, marker-based illustrations.
These images flow into one another to create generative juxtapositions. Take the cover image, for example: two hands cupped over a raspberry bush and filled with ripe harvested fruit, while just below swims a thick pod of seals, their heads bobbing out of the ocean.
Assemblages like this make up most of the zine. They are interspersed with personal writings and anecdotes dropped in with no or little context — thoughts like, “something I’ve learned from cis men is that if you don’t say too much, or give them too much, they’ll think you are ‘mysterious.'” Perhaps that cloak of mocking mystique is being intentionally and more generically wielded in Juicy, with its non sequitur arrangement of sharp illustrations.
Nevertheless, these are cool fragments from a clearly deep-hearted artist. It’ll be interesting to see what they do next. (Joshua Barton)