ISSUE #10: GROWTH by STYLO

I S S U E

T E N

STYLO is an online magazine based in Australia. All issues are contributor-based and loosely revolve around different themes. Contributions in any shape or form are always welcome.

For more information: stylocontributions@gmail.com facebook.com/stylozine stylomagazine.tumblr.com No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission. EDITED BY ANDIE PHILLIPS

I s s u e Te n

Foreword FOUR YEARS, OVER eighty contributors, several time zones, and now ten issues. This is the tenth issue of STYLO, something I could not be more proud of.

The solution was to take it online. This was not what I had originally envisioned, but perhaps the best blessing in disguise this meant no loss of quality or colour, and accessibility from any device, all over the world.

A little bit of humble history: STYLO began as an idea in 2013 for a homemade, printed zine to hand out at my friends’ gigs, as a showcase of young, local (and still largely unheard of) Perth musicians and artists. Following an online call-out for contributors, I collected several A5 contributions by hand, and some emailed scans, from different people around the world. The goal was to photocopy the content, print, assemble, and distribute the handmade zine, but upon discovery, I realised that with a complete lack of resources this was much harder than anticipated.

The technological revolution gains momentum with each new day that passes and every update and upgrade, and in our current digital landscape, print is an almost archaic (albeit respected) tradition. While digital print is certainly the way of the future, I still dream of the day I will hold an issue of STYLO in my hands (I am aware of how mushy that sounds). In the meantime, I urge anyone interested in contributing to go for it, this is what keeps STYLO alive, through the accessibility of exhibiting your work in a collaborative and supportive domain. A huge shout out to all contributors, past and present, for making each issue possible, your work will always inspire me to keep going. Special thanks to Mum for coming up with the name “STYLO”, and to Ben Riethmuller for being the first person to bring InDesign into my life. See you in the eleventh issue. - ANDIE PHILLIPS

Collage by Andie Phillips

Cover Art by Amy Grasso

IN THIS ISSUE: PLAYLIST p.4-5

CONTRIBUTORS p.6-7

DIGI-COLLAGE p.8-15

PHOTOGRAPHY p.16-23 // WORDS p.24-25 // PHOTOGRAPHY p.26-35 // POETRY p.36-41 // WORDS

p.42-45

Growth

WORDS

p.46-51

PHOTOGRAPHY

p.52-67

POETRY

p.68-69

Playlist

// BY ANDIE PHILLI

stylomagazine.tumblr.com/playlist

JLIVE // Them That’s Not

NxWORRIES // Livvin

JEFF PARKER // Executive Life

A TRIBE CALLED QUEST // Steve Biko

LEN LEISE // Stars for Jorge

LOUIS XAVIER // Steps

ST GERMAIN // Sittin’ Here

MOMBASA // Tathagata

GINGER JOHNSON // Watusi

I s s u e Te n

IPS // BY ANDIE PHILLIPS // BY ANDIE PHILLIPS // BY ANDIE PHILLIPS // BY ANDIE

Growth

Collage by Andie Phillips

ontributor

Photo by Sarah Brooke

I s s u e Te n

SARAH BROOKE // Perth part-time artist, part-time disappearing act

ROHAN GOLESTANI // Barcelona studies Architecture in Perth

AMY GRASSO // Perth photographer, fashion designer, globe-trotter

KARL HALLIDAY // Perth Belfast-born art graduate

TOMAS JAMES // Melbourne avid wine and cigar enthusiast

TESS KELLY // Argentina teaches English and loves to travel

ANDIE PHILLIPS // Perth favourite film is Kids (1995)

BEN RIETHMULLER // London studied Graphic Design and works in a bar

DECLAN WATKINS-SAXON // Perth lover of writing and music

Thank you to all contributors for their submissions. If you would like to feature in the next issue, visit: stylomagazine.tumblr.com/contribute

Growth

SARAH LORRIMAR // Perth has a postgraduate degree in Sexology

Dig

I s s u e Te n

gi-Collage 9 Images from personal Europe travels (2015) and scanned National Geographic magazines.

Growth

// BY ROHAN GOLESTANI // BY ROHAN GOLESTANI // BY

I s s u e Te n

Growth

Art by Rohan Golestani

I s s u e Te n

Growth

I s s u e Te n

Art by Rohan Golestani

Growth

I s s u e Te n

// BY AMY GRASSO // BY AMY GRASSO // BY 17

drift

Growth

I s s u e Te n

19 Photos by Amy Grasso

Growth

I s s u e Te n

Growth

22 Photos by Amy Grasso

I s s u e Te n

Growth

Mirrored Images // BY K

a meditation on memory

DURING THE LAST week of November past, I attended a job interview for a recipient role at the Perth Centre for Photography (PCP). To invest my time in Perthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lone dedicated institution to the still image, I thought, would enable me to pursue my interest in both the craft and logic of photography (an interest that largely transpired out of my sheer inability to understand it). After a period of silence, it became clear my application was unsuccessful. This was a minor misfortune in what would become an aggregation of personal tragedies, each seemingly worse than the last, that would leave me spiritually and psychologically capsized. By time the holidays arrived, I found myself in an existential state of total self-reassessment. I s s u e Te n

ARL HALLIDAY // BY KARL HALLIDAY // BY KARL HALLIDAY // BY KARL HALLIDAY //

On Christmas Eve, I travelled to spend time with my parents, and in a novel break from ritual, they suggest we watch previously unseen camcorder footage recorded from events punctuated throughout my childhood. At once, I was affected and perplexed by the images. Not only could I remember the instances, the events, the faces, the environments; I could lucidly recall how I perceived them in my youth. Through this curious passage of my parent’s sentimental surveillance, I could return to my primitive state and situate myself in my universe, as I knew it as an infant.

“I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I’ve lost.” |

Growth

Except, it wasn’t. This isn’t the universe I knew, though it certainly resembled it. My perspective had been inverted. This was my concave universe, my uncanny universe, my universe from the outside, my universe warped through the cool mechanical lens of an absent voyeur. As I uncomfortably indulged in the God-like vantage point of the camera’s eye, I bared witness to the ways in which my comprehension of the world was being formatively sculpted as a child. And once this was realised, I understood these memories differently. They became mediated. I felt as though my memory had been overwritten, revised, corrected. The sensation this evoked, to my revelation and marvel, was like that of mourning.

With the ubiquity of digital smart phone cameras, it has become like a collective physiological reflex to capture images of experiences that strike us as a means of them concrete. When images pose as memorials, they facilitate an absurd anxiety towards amnesia, as if to not distill an experience in photographic form is to dispossess it, to forgo it, as if the moment becomes ‘lost’ to the evanescent plane of memory. Despite being inherently politicised, photography has become rendered as a substitute for memory, for the real, and like Lacan’s mirror, for the self. The ideology of the photo album operates on the basis of this substitution, in which a series of photographs, like texts, articulate a certain history, in effect enframing our recollection of it. For this reason, I cast suspicion towards what images are capable of. After all, this is how images come to inform how we narrativise our lives, construct our identities, tailor our projections, pervert our pasts. The trauma of watching these transmissions of my childhood is located in this latent collision between the inconsistencies of my memory of experiences and how I’ve come to place them within the logical tapestry of my life. Of this, I am reminded of American photographer Nan Goldin, who tenderly articulates it better than I ever could;

The Pool

// BY TOMAS JAMES // BY TOMAS JAMES // BY TOMAS JAMES // BY TOMAS JAM

I s s u e Te n

MES //

Growth

I s s u e Te n

Growth

I s s u e Te n

Growth

I s s u e Te n

Growth

Photos by Tomas James

I s s u e Te n

Growth

Patagonia 36

// BY TESS K

I s s u e Te n

KELLY // BY TESS KELLY // BY TESS KELLY // BY TESS KELLY // BY TESS KELLY // BY

Growth

Mountain air Breathe in Sun on face, hitting all the right spots

Warming our bodies

Photos by Tess Kelly

I s s u e Te n

Hiking Moving “Hola ¿qué tal?” “Si, bien” Uphill struggle, panting of breath Down hill slipping, silent concentration

Growth

elly

ss K

y Te

tos b

Pho

I s s u e Te n 40

Tree on tree on tree Crunchy steps Turn a corner, glacier Clouds move, more mountains Rivers running, clean water

Fresh minds Wind, birds, leaves, laughter

Tired, Sore feet Happy Grateful Alive

Growth

Fresh water

What’s Sex G T

WE’RE ALL AWARE of how our body physically changes as we grow older… the uninvited smattering of pus balls that have landed perfectly between our eyebrows… sprouts of hair in newly discovered places… unwelcome liquids spurting out into the night... But how much thought goes into the other aspects of our sexuality? The new feelings, new perceptions and new emotions towards ourselves and others in our life. How do these change as we grow and how do they change us? I s s u e Te n

Got To Do With It?

BY SARAH LORRIMAR // BY SARAH LORRIMAR // BY SARAH LORRIM

society and culture has shaped our sexual attitudes and behaviours.

Sexuality is part of our personality. It’s as important to our health as going for runs and eating green vegetables. More than the physical act of sex, it’s our capacity to have sexual feelings, how we express ourselves and our interest and attraction to others. Everyone has had a different experience of sexuality because they’ve been raised with a different set of values and beliefs around it. For some, hearing the words anal sex makes their sphincters tremble in fear, whilst others will jump at the opportunity to talk about the latest LED anal beads. It all comes down to how

We constantly question who we are as we grow older but these thoughts tend to focus on things other than sexuality, ignoring its importance as a fundamental aspect of ourselves. Society is involved in our growth by teaching us how we should act, how to be an accomplished person, how to make money, how to have shiny hair and smooth armpits...but what about how to be in a respectful relationship? Or to understand sexual diversity? Where is the input to help people discover their sexual selves? Schools aren’t educating us – all I remember from sex-ed was two cartoon cats humping each other. Not quite the platform to discover things like self-expression and intimacy… >>>

Growth

Collage by Andie Phillips

From the day we’re born, we start to understand the norms surrounding sexuality from those around us, like our friends and family. Our attachment to others as children sets up the foundation for how we feel about intimacy now. Learning to walk, we learn about our bodies and how we feel about them. We develop characteristics that have important influence over how we are as sexual adults and if this emotional growth is healthy, it will lead to healthy sexual development. Meaning we can do important things like articulate our values, have positive body image, make informed decisions about sex and see the perspectives of others later in life.

ings of sexuality nd ta rs de un ly ne lo d scussed an le to see the vuln “We’re left to make undi op pe w lo al t n’ do at th of reality warped representations

Growing up and discovering my sexuality, these were some important things that I learnt: • A one night stand earns guys a high-five, but girls will be called a slut, • Talking about period blood and discharge can make a fourteenyear-old boy vomit up a Yo-Go, • Supré boob tubes are tight but they do not hold stuffed tissues in very well,

• And if you miss some pubes (even with your special pink Schick Intuition Razor), you’ll get severe anxiety anticipating a boy screaming about fingering a Wookie. I was made to feel shame and embarrassment over any flaws or mistakes I made whilst awkwardly figuring out my sexuality. It’s a response that is so socially accepted, we don’t even notice its being taught to us as the norm. It had a profound impact on my sexuality and I didn’t think twice about it! I s s u e Te n

and media y from things like porn your sexual self.” g in er ov sc di of de si e nerabl

It’s important that as we grow, we have a good understanding of the feelings and physical changes our body goes through and that we can talk openly about it with understanding friends and family. But how many people do you know who can actually do that?

For me, studying and working in the field was a turning point. I was pushed to challenge my attitudes and beliefs and explore how they had shaped my sexuality. One day at uni, we had to go home and explore our bodies with a mirror… and for a lot of people it was the first time they’d seen their whole body. There were confronting times, like watching an elderly couple loudly go down on each other. Or when my dominatrix classmate described the technicalities of threading hooks into men dressed as babies. But it was these things which helped me gain a better understanding of my sexuality. It was an opportunity for me to think in depth about how these situations made me feel and why I felt that way. Understanding the diversity of others’ sexualities made me so much more comfortable |

Growth

For our own wellbeing, it’s important that we have a healthy concept of sexuality and aren’t afraid of sexual issues. The values and attitudes we hold close are achieved through conscious thought and the ones surrounding sexuality should be no different. As we grow, we need to think consciously about how our sexuality is developing – what’s contributed to our sexuality and how it has influenced the person we’ve grown into. How this is done is up to each individual but I think the most crucial thing is being provided quality education and opportunities to talk about sexual issues. Social attitudes and sexuality education is slowly improving but where it stands now still leaves many people unable to do simple things like marry or have a say in their reproductive rights. People should be able to explore and understand their changing minds and bodies without fear of embarrassment or guilt. The more people talk about sexuality and think of it as a part of who they are – the less fear and stigma will exist around it. And hopefully then we can pave the way for open and healthy discussion of sexuality. Exploring sexuality is an intensely personal journey and this is just my experience and opinion of it. I hope this little article incites some reflection about where sexuality fits into your life. S

Collage by Andie Phillips

We’re left to make undiscussed and lonely understandings of sexuality from things like porn and media – warped representations of reality that don’t allow people to see the vulnerable side of discovering your sexual self. These days there is increasing exposure to sexualised material and with nobody to discuss it with, people are learning to get frustrated when sex doesn’t go perfectly or if they discover their partner doesn’t have a bleached bum-hole.

with my own and it was because I could explore and share my experiences in a safe and knowledgeable environment.

The Other Sid

// BY A

Collage by Andie Phillips

I s s u e Te n

de Of Reality

ANDIE PHILLIPS // BY ANDIE PHILLIPS // BY ANDIE PHILLIPS // BY ANDIE PHILLIPS

BACK IN 1971, Gil Scott-Heron wrote about the times of social unrest and change in his song The Revolution Will Not Be Televised:

At the turn of the decade, mass demonstrations were exploding across the US and the world in response to oppressive political regimes that continued to tyrannise the majority of the population. In 1971, Heron was a student and had written countless poems as a witness of widespread student uprisings and national riots, where young people were beginning to use their voices to stand up for their rights. When reporters began filming these demonstrations, he recounts his friends saying, ‘People should get out there

Forty-six years later and another revolution is taking place, and this time it is in the palms of our hands. The immediacy and “live” nature of contemporary media constantly exposes us to news, day-in, dayout. The 24-hour news cycle means there is no longer just one allocated half-hour time slot for the evening headlines. News content infiltrates into the feeds of social networks, which is alarmingly one of the main sources of news for young people (six in ten millennials get their political news on Facebook)1. Since mainstream media is inherently ‘social’, anyone with a Facebook or Twitter account can have their say, and public dissent often takes shape through comments, tweets, statuses, shares, likes, dislikes, and memes.

1 Pew Research Center: http://www.journalism.org/2015/06/01/facebook-top-source-for-political-news-among-millennials/

Growth

“You will not be able to stay home, brother, You will not be able to plug in, turn on and drop out, You will not be able to lose yourself on skag, And skip out for beer during commercials, Because the revolution will not be televised.”

and do something; the revolution won’t be televised.” Upon writing this line down, Heron started noticing the stark contrasts between the power of television advertising and the brief snippets of broadcasted demonstrations that were lost amongst the commercials.

“If you go through Facebook and Twitter, you can see how people believe they are protagonists of the media they are creating.” Author Nadia Urbinati says. We consume just as much media as we create. Many people reaffirm their own political beliefs online by subconsciously cultivating news feeds that narrowly appeal to them. While participating in online political discourse may appear as a new age of activism to some, the subjective nature of the content runs the risk of developing into tunnel vision and confirmation bias.

“ The most shareable, clickable and likeable content on [Facebook] aligns strongly with its readership’s pre-existing biases, assumptions and political affiliation.” Scott Bixby, writer for The Guardian, explains. Recent examples of confirmation bias come from the 2016 US presidential election. While this bias existed on both sides of the political spectrum, devoted Clinton supporters were often so caught up in curating a progressive, inclusive national representation of the campaign that they also completely ruled out a major part of the population: Trump’s “forgotten people of America”, or mostly-rural “white trash”. These people also happen to be the poorest and most disenfranchised people in the country, and subsequently succeeded in voting in Trump.

I s s u e Te n

While the result of the election was a shock to many, it reinforced the fact that the idealistic reality portrayed online by Clinton advocates was in fact not a true representation of the situation at all. “For millennials who have never known an election without Facebook, the political landscape of the social media network has massive implications for the contest between Clinton and Trump,” Bixby says.

Our contemporary media landscape also means that the ‘private’ and ‘public’ domains are beginning to overlap, and becoming harder to separate. Public forums have shifted partly online, and as a result, mass demonstrations and protests now begin to take place within these online spaces. Nadia Urbinati explains that when there is no longer a separation between the public and the intimate, something more disturbing can take place. “It’s as if we can truly only be the person we are, in all domains we occupy, in our imagination or fantasy which is no longer there in our reality.” Urbinati says. Collage by Andie Phillips

Growth

“Unlike Twitter - or real life - where interaction with those who disagree with you on political matters is an inevitability, Facebook users can block, mute and unfriend any outlet or person that will not further bolster their current worldview.”

ay m e s r cou s i d l a e, litic o m p o s e onlin m to s i n i v i t g c f a atin o p i e c i g t a r pa ew “ While pear as a n ap

the su

“Because perhaps when we go on the street or interact with other people, we are not even capable of exchanging words because we are only used to typing and to schematising our thoughts though our phones.” This is a relatively dystopian consideration, but not too hard to imagine in the near future. However, there are also empowering aspects to mainstream media and the accessibility of news content. Through the use of social media, citizens may no longer have to be passive consumers of political propaganda, and are able to actively participate in and challenge discourse, publish opinions and share experiences. The siege in Aleppo at the end of 2016 is a recent example of this, where citizens trapped in the wartorn city were using social media networks as a platform to upload videos of themselves speaking directly to the audience about their current situations. Many of them vocalised their fear and distress in poignant messages that outlined the “genocide” unfolding. This could be considered a modern display of counter-revolution, using any means and tools available in our digital age to broadcast the truth in live-time, in comparison to news reports that are often diluted against a stream of clickbait, I s s u e Te n

lopi e v e d k of s i r e s th n u r ias” t b n e n t o n i e co rmat h i f t n f o o c ure nd t a a n n o e i iv is ubject to tunnel v in

advertising and general spam. Ironically, this could also be seen as a contemporary spin to Gil Scott-Heron’s social message in The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

Perhaps the most important element to remember in this current era, is the difference between what is real and what is not. Keeping up-to-date with a wide variety of different news sources from all ends of the spectrum is absolutely vital to maintaining a balanced perspective. It sounds ridiculous, but learning to differentiate between opinion, advertising and real news content is also a highly valuable advantage today, particularly in a world where clickbait exists. In our “posttruth” society of live updates, streams and news, Heron still says it best: “ The revolution will not go better with Coke, The revolution will not fight the germs that cause bad breath, The revolution WILL put you in the driver’s seat, The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised, WILL not be televised, WILL NOT BE TELEVISED, The revolution will be no re-run brothers, The revolution will be live.” |

Growth

I s s u e Te n

// BY BEN RIETHMULLER // BY BEN RIETHMULLER // BY BEN RIETHMULLER // BY BEN RIETHMULLER 53

Growth

I s s u e Te n Amsterdam, 2016

55 Hamburg, 2016

Growth

I s s u e Te n

Growth

Amsterdam, 2016

Berlin, 2016

I s s u e Te n

59 Amsterdam, 2016

Growth

I s s u e Te n

Growth

Rotterdam, 2016

62 Berlin, 2016

I s s u e Te n

Growth Rotterdam, 2016

Berlin, 2016

64 Berlin, 2016

I s s u e Te n

Growth

I s s u e Te n

67 Amsterdam, 2016

Growth

Photo by Andie Phillips

Kru Ar

BY DECLAN WATKINS-SAXON // BY DECLAN WATKINS-SAXON // BY DECLAN WATKIN

THE DAY WE took the train to Krumme Lanke I wanted to understand and I did understand But in many ways, the things you said were esoteric After I lost my wallet on the bus home and I drowned in self-pity And the use of the term drowning is clichĂŠ But a necessary, recurring motif I understand what you said now because of the Arthur Russell binges I understand what you said now because of the cigarettes and the booze and the long nights I understand what you said now because of the ego and the selfishness

I s s u e Te n

umme Lanke, rthur Russell And All The Rest Of It S-SAXON // BY DECLAN

So to use another recurring clichĂŠ Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll go back to Eliot And back to those year 12 literature classes where the world was so big and so small

And sign off on appropriately weak and lame terms: Shantih shantih shantih

Growth

Contribution

Photo by Sarah Brooke

I s s u e Te n

Since its beginnings in 2013, STYLO has put out ten issues, each with a different theme, growing larger in size with contributors from all over the world, and always with diversity of content.

ns welcome 71 The theme for ISSUE ELEVEN is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;perspectiveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

Contributors are encouraged to interpret the theme in any way, shape, or form.

Anyone welcome.

To get involved, please visit: stylomagazine.tumblr.com/contribute or email: stylocontributions@gmail.com |

Growth

S facebook.com/stylozine instagram.com/stylomagazine