Work from local Arizona artists hang in the gallery space of the Hive. All different medias were present along with some of the makers of the work. (Photo by Katie Dunphy)In central Phoenix, gallery space meets vintage resale clothing, a coffee shop, and on Saturday, a local zine's season debut in an open air courtyard. Supporters of Pages Per Content converged with Coronado neighborhood artists to watch clips of documentaries and semblances of live performances.
As a zine rooted in the sharing of ideas, Pages Per Content editor Moses Fidal was quick to join the community of designers, entrepreneurs and grassroots artists who work out of the art gallery.
"I guess I see myself as one of the people who is willing to take a chance with people who haven't been shown before," Fidal said.
A neighborhood favorite, The Hive often hosts live artists during openings. The building is adorned with work from local muralists Thomas "Breeze" Marcus, while the backyard resembles the workspace of a mad botanist. A fully equipped bike shop in a shipping container rests alongside 50 potted cacti, a snow cone machine and an upturned tree.
"I just like how it's kind of a mixed base," Fidal said. "They do multiple things here."
A crowd of 30 people began to linger in the building's open courtyard Saturday evening. A woman made her way to a classroom-sized chalkboard and began to draw a detailed mini-mural with large sweeping motions.
"I want the idea of making a magazine to be represented as art, you know, like it's a form of media," Fidal said.
As he stamped the first page of several zines, Fidal said, "To have that represented in an artistic space is good."
Jessica Dzielinski sat alongside Fidal constructing the zine by hand. She became involved with Pages Per Content less than a month ago.
"I like that it's just people taking initiative about something," Dzielinski said.
In its fifteenth issue, Pages Per Content remains a zine focused on the sharing of ideas rather than content. Like many zines, the first page spews a conceptual dissertation about its stance in a world of "politically charged nonsense repeating the same vapid opinions and ideas," where most publications are "in general intellectually numbing and disgraceful to the human race."
But Pages Per Content is different. At the Hive, a young man approaches the small circular stage to strum an acoustic guitar and sing sad songs. He quips the same sarcastic joke between each song about how upbeat his music is.
Yeah, it's different.
Reach the reporter at aovnicek@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @aovnicek
