Artist Takeover – Chen Yifei
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24.05.2024
Limestone Books
The shop will remain open during the takeover, but will have a smaller selection of books on display.
ℹ️ Sign-up events on weekends
3 PM, May 25 → Pushing hands & woodblock print (workshop)
3 PM, June 1 → Chen Yifei x Zoénie: Social Participation and Self Publishing in China (talk)
3 PM, June 8 → Takeover publication (presentation)
ℹ️ Walk-in events on weekdays
3-6 PM, Tuesdays to Fridays (May 28-31 & June 4-7)
→ Chinese self-publication sharing
→ Reading groups
→ Woodcut workshops
Limestone Books is excited to present the first artist of our takeover programme this year — Chen Yifei. Yifei will takeover our store from May 24 to June 9, sharing his experience in self-publication and similar works of other Chinese-speaking artists.
Chen Yifei is an artist and curator from China, engaged in the practice and research of self-pubulication and self-organisation. He and Ou Feihong edit the handmade publication “Prickly Paper”, and produce them using woodblocks and home printers. They have held over a dozen workshops in various spaces of different cities, sharing methods of printmaking and publishing. They have a composite space “Cigao Union” in the city-side village of Guangzhou.
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A message from Chen Yifei:
Through DIY practices of self-publication and reading of David Graeber's articles, I have come to understand the idea of anarchism. I studied the history of 20th century anarchism with friends, realising resemblance in what happened more than a hundred years ago with what is happening today.
Since the end of the 19th century, anarchists around the world have been building networks across borders. In a world that has become increasingly fragmented since Covid-19, these internationalist practices of a century ago can undoubtedly inspire us to build networks of solidarity. For my takeover at Limestone, I hope to use clues from such inspirations to develop a semi-fictional work on the history of Asian anarchism.
In addition to this, I will offer local readers workshops on “printmaking" and “pushing hands”, which are both active anarchist practices in contemporary Southern China.