PLUTO MAGAZINE ISSUE 02 - SEPTEMBER 2015 TORONTO, ON, CANADA.
MANIFESTO
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INTERVIEW I: MICHELE
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LESSONS FROM PLUTO
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INTERVIEW II: ROWAN
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EXPRESSIONS
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INTERVIEW III: MIKE
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PLUTO is so much more than a
platform for young artists. We’re a united front in an industry ruled by experts. When we come face to face with the hostilities of the post-graduation world we have no choice but to stand up together. We’re making room for newbies because nobody else seems to budge. What we’ve created here is a communal feeling of accomplishment, because nothing encourages excitement more. PLUTO is our outpost. It’s our home in this far corner of space; a space for exchange and exposure. It’s our creative community of new bodies, and we’re innovating how young people can break away and get their work out there. There’s no strings attached, and that goes without saying. We may all be new to this, but we’re not bogged down by the hindrance of experience.
IF experience is stagnation then it’s stagnation of the worst kind. It represents a defeated falling back, instead of a drive to push forward. Cast away is the ambition and gumption of a new wave in favour of the dependable, look-atme-ma, easy way outs. Spawned from this lazy blast is a generation of one trick ponies desperately scouting for the solution that worked last time. Though the packaging changed with each iteration, they’ve fed us the same military ration meal of rules and regulations since we came pulled from soupy afterbirth. THIS isn’t us. We’re new. We didn’t come from the old world. We were birthed inside the network. We wake up in Toronto, but we live in Tokyo, London, Philly, and anywhere else where we can connect with another soul online. This is how we’ll innovate. We exist as a networked mass of young artists, and we’ll try anything new. We will never be scared to make mistakes in the process. THIS is the only way to progress.
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michele
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DESCRIBE YOUR SUMMER WARDROBE AS CONCISELY AS POSSIBLE.
Anything that goes with a short skirt, hoops and chunky platforms, or that says Cher Horowitz. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE NEIGHBOURHOOD TO HANG OUT IN?
Downtown Westside—Trinity Bellwoods to Ossington—is my whole world up until now. Independent coffee shops in the early mornin. Lil nook galleries and shops, parks and vegan yums for the mid day. And at night it is such a babe it will break your heart.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR COLOUR PALETTE?
My palette is pale beiges, pinks and peaches. I want my palette to say “shhhhh”.
IS LESS REALLY MORE?
Yes. But with glitter?
DO YOU LIVE BY A MOTTO OR A QUOTE?
I’ve always wanted to get one of those.
ANY THOUGHTS ON CURATED THRIFT SHOPS?
The best part of thrifting is the hunt.
WHAT’S A GOOD PATIO LUNCH SPOT?
WHAT KIND OF CREATIVE WORK DO YOU DO?
Bellwoods Brewery on Ossington has twinkly lights, picnics tables and what Sophia believes to be very good cheese.
My creative work varies in medium, painting, installation currently I am very into film photography again. But I always try to show what I believe to my unique perspective, as a halfy feminist from a privileged upbringing in North York Toronto in her 20s.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE SUMMER ACTIVITIES IN TORONTO?
Very little planned activities and very many good friends. Also wine day drunk while painting largescale paintings with your mom in the backyard.
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Streetcars and Volition: LESSONS FROM PLUTO IN December of 2014, New
Horizons stirs from hibernation after a patient eight-year voyage. Awakened a year before passing by the three billion mile target, the space probe prepared for the first sightings of Pluto from a distance closer than the world has ever seen. There is something about Pluto that has allowed it to become Earth’s favourite dwarf planet. Sitting on the edge of the solar system and Kuiper Belt. Pluto technically isn’t anything special or unique; hundreds of other dwarf planets just like it exist within the belt. PERHAPS it is the history and personification of the former-planet that entices the viewer. Deep space is a common playground for the contemplative and philosophical. Pluto is no different and can wear the many existentialist inquiries of human existence and vocation like a glove.
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written by victoria willis bonilla
THE story with Pluto right now is for the first time, we have upclose and personal photos and data on what was for so long was an ambiguous blur far beyond pristine vision. We knew it was far out there in our own cosmic neighbourhood but any other information regarding it was a shot in the dark. So far out at the edge of our solar system it must be like standing on a precipice looking out at the interstellar ahead, still seemingly unreachable yet closer than ever before. STEPPING into the allegorical aspects of Pluto, a fundamental truth is found. Only so much can be understood from afar, like trying to differentiate the hazy streetcar daub from the other indistinguishable vehicle blots
five blocks down. For years after its discovery the identity of Pluto fluctuated, first believed to be a larger planet like its neighbours, but was ultimately categorized as a dwarf planet. However, as of this year Pluto’s stats have once again shifted and lengthened. You can stand there squinting your eyes as long as you want, assuming the details of what you are looking at; yet nothing will become sharper until that faithful step towards the uncertain horizon, or until that streetcar draws closer. THE hazy and mysterious nature of the incomprehensible objective simultaneously appears alluring as a daydream and petrifying as an action. Making the decision to remain in the same place unwilling to act on aspirational musings or to take the uncertain step into alien territory can often keep you at an impasse. YOU wonder if you should just wait for the streetcar or just start walking and strut your spicy legs down half the city. You pace in small circles unable to stand quietly at the bus stop or cross the street because either would make it official. Finally the streetcar comes and you wonder if it would have just been faster walking.
rowan
IT worked for Pluto, but it’s always easier to be certain under a retrospective lens.
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WHAT IS A DISTINCTLY SUMMER SONG FOR YOU?
ANY THOUGHTS ON CURATED THRIFT SHOPS?
It changes year to year and the songs that I later think of as “summer songs” are usually just the ones I listened to a lot in memorable moments during the previous summer. But if I really had to pick I’d say that Kids by Sleigh Bells is summery as hell.
Too much $$$, but it might be potentially fun to own. In the age of the internet I’d be way more likely to set up some sort of online store if I ever had that urge though. DO YOU TEND TO SET TRENDS OR SIMPLY FOLLOW THEM?
We’re all young enough, we’re all setting them. HOW DO YOU DOCUMENT LIFE?
I have a crazy strong instinct for documentation. I take a lot (a LOT) of pictures on my phone and usually have a roll of film in the works for anything I want captured in better quality. The pictures are helpful as reference for art or drawings I make later, and also to remember things by. That covers the visual. I also write a lot of notes (usually in my phone, which serves more as a multi media diary than anything else) and I’ve kept physical diaries and journals since I learnedto write. I use social media too but not very much. I find that when I need to consider an audience I end up censoring myself in ways that feel inescapable & detrimental. I consider each of my social media accounts to also serve as a journal of sorts, and I look forward to being able to look back through all of it someday.
DESCRIBE YOUR WARDROBE AS CONCISELY AS POSSIBLE.
Repetitive & functional.
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SAVING UP here’s to a year of saving. i’ve learned to collect myself into right angles and parallel lines; i trip on heels and can’t even shake my own hand. wasn’t i drunk when i asked you about your favourite kind of light? holiday halos hung above you. spring evenings. dark rooms. i found my sea legs as i leaned into you, slipping up - slurring truths against your cheek. my dress catches on knock-kneed mistakes and where bruised interiors seek me out, i think of the ceiling above your bed. everything is soft in the corner where we sleep.
by sarah ng
tamed by the force field of reality, sealing the perplexed enigma within, and a microcosm supernaturally, an infinite galazy that begins. the masterful balancing act between reactant, product and catalyst too, a triumphant war, yet one that is unseenwhich illuminates an unstable hue. but through this uncertainty i truly shine, through the hazy illusions of my dreams; a personality that is always mineplay-of-colour that’s never what it seems. opal, a soul in a body-my own. i am blessed with a forgiving birthstone.
by talin atikian
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polish mike
DISJOINT clean, sharp – shorn off upon a gentle arc. did you feel its loss as quickly as it came – your brain exhorting the air to exhale sideways, making space for strong limbs? i can’t see you anymore – that which moved in tandem with the rest of me, stretching upward and never grazing the ceiling. what has been, will always be, and i feel you as the phantom limb that beckons the body back to me; it trails the curb as i walk through the city looking for you.
by sarah ng 17
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ARE YOU A FAN OF ANY COOL INDEPENDENTLY RUN SHOPS?
No Fun Press, Yo Sick, Explorer’s Press, Nighted, and Applesauce Industries are all favourites. ANY THOUGHTS ON CURATED THRIFT SHOPS?
HOW DO YOU DOCUMENT LIFE?
Now that you mention it, I don’t think I actually document my personal life. I think I only document things that go on around me. That’s kind of grim.
Uggghhhhh I’m so torn because they always have the flyest things but they mark everything up 7000% and ya boy is trying to stay fresh on a budget so I got no love for them. I like the hunt at regular thrift stores more anyway.
DO YOU LIVE BY A MOTTO OR A QUOTE?
“Courage makes history.” I keep that close to heart. Love that quote so much I got it engraved on my ring.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT A CITY THAT SPEAKS TO YOU?
The anonymity and sense of infinite potential.
WHAT IS A DISTINCTLY SUMMER SONG FOR YOU?
WHAT KIND OF CREATIVE WORK DO YOU DO?
Harold’s by Freddie Gibbs. To be fair, the entire Piñata album has some serious west coast summer vibes to it.
I’m mostly all about photography and videography but I love dabbling in a little bit of everything. I’ve been working more on publishing and writing lately, I’ll do some illustration work every now and then. Learning never stops.
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CONTRIBUTORS:
VICTORIA WILLIS BONILLA PAGES:9-11 IG: @MERLOTDADDY MIKE JANIK PAGES:18-20 MIKETAKES.PHOTOS INFO@MIKETAKES.PHOTOS ROWAN LYNCH PAGES:12-15 IG: @ROWANLY ROWANHLYNCH@GMAIL.COM SARAH NG PAGES:16-17 IG: @SAIRALING DOODLE-NG.TUMBLR.COM/ JUSTIN PLATNAR PAGES:3,5 JUSTINNEUE.TUMBLR.COM/ JPLATNAR@GMAIL.COM
EDITOR:
KRISTINA TROFIMOVA IG: @KRISTINATOFU PLUTOZINE@GMAIL.COM
TO CONTRIBUTE SHOOT AN EMAIL TO PLUTOZINE@GMAIL.COM
TALIN ATIKIAN PAGES:16 IG: @PONPONTAYTAYTAY TALINATIKIAN@GMAIL.COM
don’t be chai.
MICHELE ARISMANDEZ PAGES:6-8 IG: @SO_BEIGE