Entering its final few days, don’t miss out on CHOMP at CoCA, an exhibition of the paste-ups of Earwig magazine curated by Ōtautahi-based graphic designer Claudia Long.
Earwig began in 1967 as the student publication led by Jonathan Milne at Palmerston North Teacher’s College, before re-emerging in 1969 as an independent counterculture magazine when Milne relocated to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and began working with co-editor Heather Knowles.
From 1969 to 1973, Earwig produced eight issues, notable for psychedelic graphics, independent journalism and reader submitted poetry, all with an eye, as Professor Linda-Jean Kenix explains, “to serve as an antidote to the indoctrination of mass media and mass society.” (Linda-Jean Kenix, Resistance narratives in radical, alternative media: A historical examination of Earwig, Ecquid Novi, 31(1), 2010, pp.89-113).
CHOMP’s collection of original Earwig artwork, drawn from the Heather Knowles Collection from the University of Canterbury’s MacMillan Brown Library, serves as both a timely reminder of the need for dissenting and subversive media, and a fascinating insight into analogue design processes, where the presence of the human hand is clear – an aspect often missing from our digital age. From the tactile page mock-ups, layered, collaged and annotated, to the large colour prints of striking covers, reframed as large posters that revel in illuminating small, imperfect details, CHOMP is a lively and engaging exploration of Earwig’s “graphiti of the revolution” – something we may need more than we realise…
As part of the exhibition’s closing weekend, on Saturday, 29th March, 1pm – 2pm, curator Claudia Long will host an artist talk, discussing the history of CHOMP and the importance of counterculture magazines during the pre-digital era and beyond.
CHOMP: The Paste-ups of Earwig Magazine runs until Sunday, March 29 at CoCA – Centre of Contemporary Art, 66 Gloucester Street.
