Images flicker past by the hundreds. Songs arrive without records. Magazines live behind links, photographs disappear into camera rolls, and practically anything worth saying or not can be posted, liked, shared and forgotten before lunch. Against that backdrop, making something physical and putting it into someone’s hands can feel almost radical.
That stubbornly tactile spirit guides South Florida’s Small Press Fair (SPF), a gathering devoted to artists, printmakers, zinesters, illustrators, bookmakers and assorted creative types with ink on their hands. “We started SPF because we realized that there were so many talented individuals creating in South Florida that hadn’t had a chance to meet each other yet,” SPF founder Ingrid Schindall tells us. “We thought, if we sit these people next to each other, what new collaborations could be possible?”
More than a marketplace, the fair’s tenth edition will offer a snapshot of a creative ecosystem that often operates outside South Florida’s more visible art machinery. Here, the scale is intentionally human: artists can meet the people picking up their work; visitors can discover something that might never make its way through an algorithm; and a few sheets of paper, some ink and a good idea can start a conversation.
“One of my strangest beliefs is that when you get people with similar interests in the same room, magic happens,” Schindall says. “Talking to exhibitors and visitors often reveals strong themes around wanting to unplug, enjoying holding things in your hands, and learning new things without having to ask the tech overlords.”
This is a region of cultures, languages and aesthetics colliding, and DIY publishing provides an unusually democratic container for all of it. As people look for their place “in this strange tropical paradise,” Schindall says, “SPF has proven to be a great community for long-time residents, newcomers and visitors alike to connect and come together.”
Digital culture can deliver practically anything instantly, but immediacy isn’t intimacy. There is still pleasure in discovering an object you didn’t know existed, talking to the person who made it and walking away carrying a little piece of their world.
Small Press Fair runs noon-6pm Saturday, November 14 at the Broward County Main Library in Fort Lauderdale. smallpressfair.org ~ Abel Folgar
