Art

Pisswife Zine

Interview by Hannah Pezzack
Images by Saïda Ragas

Women’s Day awards us an opportunity to celebrate femme talent and shine a light on important creative endeavours made by folk committed to gender equality. We’re really excited about the beautiful work created by Pisswife – an Amsterdam based art collective and zine publication promoting survival tactics for feminists of every race, gender and sexual orientation.

Reclaiming the Dutch insult ‘zeikwijf’, the girlgang craft a subversive commentary on political issues through art, music, poetry and events. To mark International Women’s Day 2019 Pisswife have teamed up with Melkweg Expo to present UIT JE CLIT, a titillating event which promises to diversify the dancefloor. Together with performers FATA BOOM, Pink Occulus and Rachel Green DJ, Pisswife will launch their highly awaited second zine. Ahead of the festivities, we had a look into their printing press.

What is a zine?

Spearheaded by a DIY philosophy and access to a photocopier, zine making is a longstanding feminist tradition: you are free to write, draw or create whatever you are thinking and feeling. You can be as radical as you want. You can be as soft as you want. You can be very critical or very lighthearted, it’s up to you. The process of creating art, of making something, is a great way of healing and coping with oppression or frustrations. In July 2017, Pisswife members took a trip to the Feminist Library in Peckham, London. We were completely amazed and inspired by their archive. Although Amsterdam has a long-standing history of activism, we weren’t aware of any feminist zines in the city – it was a gap that needed to be filled!

How does music relate to your work?

Whilst we think we all have somewhat different tastes in music, there are a number of artists who are really resonate with what we do, and who feature at our events and meetings: Junglepussy, Mykki Blanco, Princess Nokia and IAMDDB.