Zine Making Workshop

in collaboration with Kurachee

September 21, 2019

conducted by Wajeeha Abbasi

Sophia Balagamwala

The first collaboration between Vasl and Kurachee was a zine-making workshop that took place on 21st September 2019, at the Vasl Apartment. The workshop instructed by renowned Illustrator anddesigner, Wajeeha Abbasi. The workshop focused on zine making- a self created, published andcirculated publication that has an extensive history in South Asia, and has recently resurfaced withcreative practitioners. The one-day workshop that was priced at a subsidized cost of 1000 rupees perparticipant, drew in a range of participants not limited to just artists, the youngest participant being18 and the eldest being 82.

Abbasi began the workshop by sharing her practice, and examples different kinds of zines, as well azine she recently made herself. She then took the participants through exercises of coming up withideas and possibilities for their zines, and each participant created at least one small zine within thesession. Each completed zine was then reproduced through in-house photocopier, and presented tothe rest of the participants. The session ended with Naila Mahmood, (Vasl board member),presenting on the history of zines in South and South east Asia, and the traditions and fucntions of zines in Punjab. A number of the zines created in this workshop were taken with Vasl to Focal Point,the Book Fair by the Sharjah Art Foundation.

About Wajeeha:

Wajeeha Abbasi is an Internationally featured illustrator based in Karachi. Abbasi has won a LadybirdBooks Publications award and has had her work featured in London Design Festival, Digital Arts, ElleItalia, Make Nice, Made in Arts London and The Floating Magazine. She has worked on projects for NASA, V&A Museum, Coca-Cola EU, UN Women, YLabs, Herald, ND2C, Khaadi and Red Bull amongstothers. She currently works at the British Council as a Communications Manager.

About Kurachee:

Kurachee has curated and hosted free animation screenings, workshops and is currently working on two upcoming exhibition projects as well as a talks series. Our workshops and programs are funded by the limited addition products, prints and publications created in collaboration with the local artists that we work with. Kurachees projects and programming and curated by visual artist Sophia Balagamwala.