90s feminist zine GirlFrenzy graphic designers reunite for new project

Feminist zine GirlFrenzy was founded in 1991 by graphic designer Erica Smith, forming in parallel with the Riot Grrrl movement and publishing articles, comic strips and other women-led content.

The zine has not been published since 1999, but Erica and artist Rachael House are set to reunite at this year’s Supernormal festival in Oxfordshire, where they will be collaborating with visitors to create a new issue of the magazine. The publication will be created in tandem with a collaborative, interactive art piece by Liz Wakefield and “subversive craft” from Deborah Ewing, with photographer Georgie House documenting the process.

Supernormal’s other art commissions include How We Communicate, a pink shed-based installation by artist Simon Blackmore. The piece was developed at Eastville Project Space in collaboration with local singers, and uses human voice to transmit digital information across the shed’s interiors using directional speakers, parabolic microphones and displays to mimic how computers send and receive information.

Another piece, The Neighbours are Bats, uses recordings made using a bat detector to imagine a “bat band” in which five common British bat species become five band members. Visitors are then encouraged to join the bat band in a bat costume and make their own synth sounds, imitating bat noises.