Written as a back-to-forth conversation, Come On Pretty narrates the dysregulation attributed to non-conformity in a binary world.
Gladys Lee and Kiki Marisa, two identities sitting at the fray of gender’s hem, dialogue inadvertent frustrations with this collaborative zine where both art styles meet to form a substantial page. The deft, visual indicators for “boy” and “girl” are left confronted for each reader: Is it a boy? Is it a girl? A knife? A heap of landmass?
Gladys Lee (b. 1998) finds comfort when things are a little grotesque. This melts into the imagery of much of their work; primarily illustrating cartoonish violence onto keychains, art prints, t-shirts, and book covers. In tangent, Gladys has exhibited their work at KL Art Book Fair 2023, #WanitaDisebalikBudaya for Digital Art Gallery, and Art Market at The Godown. Gladys is always trying to find the balance between the ugly and pretty— they intend to gnaw at its halfway point.
Kiki Marisa (b. 1999) is a multidisciplinary artist, dedicated to the onset of making a mess in every functional form of art there is. She holds a substantial length of theatre and film work, often involving experimental feats of presentation. In 2021, primarily marking her transition with gender, she devised a film project alongside Ho Lee Ching, Mia Sara Shauki, and Kasih Azhar titled ‘To All The Women…’ under KL Performing Art Centre’s Women’s Day program. Shauki shaved Marisa’s head wearing the Malaysian school uniform, and Marisa wrote a song for Kasih to sing. She has written work for Mashable Southeast Asia, and The Monash Gazette. This is her first zine.
3C Riso | 24pp | saddle stitch | 11.8cm x 17cm
First edition of 100, 2024