What does it mean for zines, which were produced and distributed in protected spaces, to be preserved by institutions? How have producers of underground subcultures become DIY archivists themselves? What does it mean to revisit punk today?
Join us for a creative workshop exploring punk zines, DIY publishing, and archival practice, led by Charmaine Wah of Shoes Off and held in conjunction with Chris Zhongtian Yuan’s solo exhibition ‘Two Improvisations’ at esea contemporary.
Building on Yuan’s fascination with punk, subculture, and anti-establishment forms of creativity, curator and researcher Charmaine Wah will introduce archival zines drawn from online and physical collections of punk, hardcore, and independent zines from the UK and Singapore (1980s-early 2000s). Through pages of xeroxed photos, clipped texts, and glossy fan interviews, participants will collectively explore the resonances between British and Singaporean punk histories. Central to the workshop is a focus on feminist zines, examining the active roles that women and queer punks played in sustaining DIY culture at the margins.
In the second half of the workshop, participants will create their own zines in response to the archives, with assistance from artist and maker Arty Nicharee. Echoing Yuan’s interest in improvisation, marginal communities, and handmade forms of resistance, the workshop invites participants to consider DIY culture not only as an aesthetic, but also as a social and political practice. Participants will intuitively piece together a handmade zine to trade, share, or read in secret.
The archival materials presented as part of the workshop are courtesy of the Her Noise Archive (London, UK), hardcore band Radigals (Singapore), the Singaporean Punk Archive (created by Ginette Chittick), and the original makers of the zines.
This event is open to anyone with an interest in punk, archives, publishing, or zine-making.
The session will run for approximately two hours. The event is free but advance booking is essential.
Charmaine Wah (b. Singapore) is a curator, researcher and producer. Her practice focuses on mediating conversations about heritage, subcultures, archival practices, and the sonic. She is a curator of Shoes Off, a collective and network platforming Southeast Asian artistic practices. She often turns to cultural theory and decolonial methodologies, aiming to bridge academia with the exhibition space. To advance her work in the co-creation of creative programmes with local charities, she is a recipient of the Royal College of Art Community Engagement Seed Fund (2026). She has completed curatorial projects within the UK and internationally, including Peckham Levels, outhouse gallery, Joseph Wales Studios and the 60th October Salon. Charmaine has an MA in Curating and Collections (Distinction) from Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London.
Arty Nicharee is a visual artist, maker, and creative facilitator originally from Bangkok and now based in London. She holds an MA in Visual Communication from the Royal College of Art. Her practice is a gentle inquiry into the narratives embedded in materials, focusing on themes of memory, femininity, queerness, and diasporic displacement. She has exhibited her work across London and Bangkok, including County Hall Pottery, Tache Gallery, and Outhouse Gallery.
Arty primarily works in visual practice, dialogue-based workshops and ceramics. Her work is shaped by questions of cultural transmission, how meaning moves through objects, and what is lost or transformed when that movement crosses contexts. Her recent work focuses on East and Southeast Asian material culture and the particular tension of objects whose significance is bound to ritual and place.
She is the creative director of Shoes Off, a Southeast Asian art collective and network. She guides the creative direction, conceptualises the programming, and facilitates the events and collaborations.
Shoes Off is a developing network and collective founded in London, UK, in 2025. Based across the UK and Southeast Asia, Shoes Off adopts a grassroots approach, fostering an environment of shared curiosity and collaboration through experimental exhibitions, public programmes, workshops and digital spaces. We aim to redefine diversity and seek to create conversations regarding barriers that create hierarchies and misrepresentations in the contemporary art world. Shoes Off has produced exhibitions, film screenings, workshops and interactive lectures with a variety of partner organisations including SOAS (UK), the Southeast and East Asian Centre (SEEAC; UK), the House of Annetta (UK) and Cebu Making Space (PH).
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