Zines and self-portraits at Alice Billing House…
How did you get here? What does a day in your life look like? How would you introduce yourself to someone from the future?
That was where we started with illustration workshops to make mini zines and self-portraits that will go into the Alice Billing House time capsule, to be opened in 80 years’ time.
Alice Billing House is itself a time capsule. Now a cultural and creative hub, it has clues to its original life as accommodation for the West Ham Fire Brigade. It is named after a pioneering sanitary inspector whose job title was Inspector of Nuisances.
80 years ago, it was 1945. We chatted about how different a bike would have been; the tramway that would have been there; how long housework would have taken; how Newham would have looked; and the jobs that might not exist in 80 years’ time.
In the zine workshop, we explored how to use a format to help tell a story, how to make two kinds of zine from A4 sheets of paper and as we drew, we shared knowledge of zines’ history.
Our postcard-sized self-portraits had a folded frame that could take a caption. We discussed what a self-portrait is or could be and chose from an array of mirrors and materials to work with.
I love that in a workshop, everyone produces something different. For some, it’s time out; for others, it’s time to experiment and discover. Whether people walk in from creative practice or from other worlds, they bring themselves to the stories they tell and the things they make.
I wonder what people will make of us 80 years from now?
Portrait workshop photography © Monika Szolle Branding
Zine workshop and finished portraits pictures by Lydia Thornley
