Sarah Evenson
Minneapolis, MN
www.sarah-evenson.com
IG: @saltysweetsarah

Two Zines About Crying
2023-2024
Digital printing
Each zine measures 2.5×3.75 when closed

Artist Statement

I am a gay, transgender book and print media artist. My work celebrates the tenderness of human connection by documenting the everyday moments and realities that are left out of the official record. Each zine I create is an invitation to enjoy what anarchaqueers call Now Time—the tender, undeniable, and above all deeply communal space of the present moment, which is the perpetual part of life that we all share and experience together.

My diptych Two Zines About Crying was made in response to a period of great personal grief that encompassed the end of a romantic partnership, the loss of family due to my identity as a gay person, the continued pain of coming to terms with myself as transgender in a hostile political climate, and the death of a friend. The way my grief rested on top of the communal fallout from the pandemic led me to understand that the difficult personal feelings I had were also something that connected me deeply to others. I felt that if I flensed the details of my losses from the grief itself and made a work simply about the reality of that feeling and what it looked like in my every day life I would perhaps be able to create something that would not only resonate with other grieving people but also lend the hope that comes from knowing one is not alone.

For this project, as with all my projects, I made a concerted effort both to make the work financially accessible and to distribute the work across the country through inclusion in local libraries and public collections. This is both because the goal of these pieces was to create a sense of connection around an experience which often feels isolating and because I understand that the power of the book comes directly from its circulation within the world we inhabit rather than from rarity. My practice of creating and distributing zines honors the tradition of the book as a democratic form, one which is able to reach readers across economic and distance-based barriers. Relying on contemporary methods such as digital printing and photocopying allows me to create books that fulfill this historical purpose. The result is a multifaceted practice that furthers the book as a living, vibrant, and relevant form rather than a series of crafts to be preserved without change.