Soft Fiction Projects
Soft Fiction Projects is an artist-run initiative founded in 2018 by artists Alessia Cargnelli and Emily McFarland. Based between Belfast and Glasgow, Soft Fiction Projects is dedicated to exploring underrepresented voices, oppositional histories and geopolitical narratives. Their work is concerned with film and artist moving image culture, and spans a range of formats including printed publications, workshops and public screenings. In their recent project Making Space at Guest Projects, London, they collaborated with individuals who were part of a community of women squatting houses in the Hackney neighbourhood in the 1970’s, in order to explore a history of feminism, housing and urban change. The project investigated the importance of the squatting community as a means of enabling autonomous lives for women, taking control of their immediate surroundings while connected to wider feminist politics in the city. Other recent publications, workshops and projects include Urgencies, CCA Derry~Londonderry; SHOP, PS 2 Gallery; Destruction of Pleasure is a Radical Weapon (workshop series), Ulster University, Belfast, CCA Derry~Londonderry and Printing Plant Public Programme, Amsterdam.
Usually or Infrequently Indecent or Obscene is a collaborative zine made by Soft Fiction Projects with young people aged 16+ involved in shOUT! and CAPE Youth Projects, Galway. It has been produced as a limited edition print (a folded leporello), and in a digital edition for the TULCA website. An extract of the project is installed in the window of Galway City Library during the second week of the festival run.
View the zine as an interactive pdf here.
The zine was made through two DIY graphic design workshops, held remotely via Zoom in October 2020 after research and production materials were posted out to participants. Usually or Infrequently Indecent or Obscene explores feminist activism and historical censorship of sexual expression on the island of Ireland. The project draws on printed materials linked to the Censorship of Publications Act, 1929, in the Republic of Ireland and the subsequent 1946 and 1967 Acts. The project engages with a range of printed materials that were banned in the time period between 1967-1977, and explores the relevance and resonance of this history with young people today. A primary focus is on the prohibition of the distribution and sale of the iconic UK-based second wave feminist magazine Spare Rib and direct actions taken by members of Irishwomen United to counter this. Workshop participants: Ruby Ní Dhubhslaine, Sophia Doherty, Queef May, Ailbhe Moore, Molly Terrins.
Soft Fiction Projects is an artist-run publishing imprint based Belfast, founded in 2018 by artists Alessia Cargnelli and Emily McFarland. The printed project is dedicated to producing digital and printed matter which acts as a forum for presenting new collaborations, workshops, research and writing from invited artists and contributors.
shOUT! and CAPE Youth Projects both work with young people aged 10-25 based in Galway, to provide a safe space to develop and enhance personal, interpersonal, leadership skills; to promote well-being and to empower young people through friendship, inclusion and social justice. shOUT! aims to provide a place where young LGBT+ people can be themselves and socialise with peers in an open and accepting environment, thus empowering the youth in the West of Ireland, encouraging a similar attitude in society at large.
Special thanks to Deirdre Bermingham and Lisa Cannon, Youth Work Ireland Galway.