From Where I Speak: The Printing Room Issue 1

Marley Starskey Butler Birmingham based, raised by Wolverhampton, nurtured by Derby, born in Leeds. I make art, in particular; visual, audio, and written works. My work is about opposites, parallels, memory, love, loss, mortality, and the politics of belonging within self and in society. My concurrent practice as a Social Worker keeps me tied to the lives, stories and experiences of the most vulnerable and complex members of society, whilst being a jigsaw piece in ensuring children in care have the best futures possible.

Polly Brant I explore art as a common; a shared space intended for everyone and bringing art into the everyday, where it can be relatable and functional in real life. I am interested in building common spaces, connections and supporting art education. My ideas are realised through a selection of processes which have included text, posters, use of space, collaboration, and textiles. It’s an on-going process of connections that I want to continue to grow through meeting people, learning, and making.

Amelia Fox’s disciplines range from interactive installation pieces, sculpture to traditional painting. She explores new forms of media as she prefer not to restrict herself whilst organically letting herself delve into a variety material and series of topics. Her previous series of work explores a variety of genres from The Black Country dialect / accents, Eco-printing, mental health and self discovery. Her most recent work being a creation of a Black Country art and history magazine called ‘How am ya?’. Designed to shine a spotlight on the areas rich history and talented artists that are within the area.

Neoliberalizard is a graffiti artist, anarchist, panpsychist and psychonaut who hails from the Black Country. They use street-based art to spread joy, spark curiosity, and promote the peaceful decentralisation of power. This is achieved via the dissemination of whimsical characters, paste ups, and calligraphy, but more recently sculptures too. As their name suggests that want to raise awareness about neoliberalism i.e. a mutated form of capitalism that favours privatisation, deregulation, and austerity. Through a playful approach and magical mark making "Neo" wishes to alter people's state of consciousness from a place of fear to one of action and solidarity.

Rupinder Kaur Waraich Rupinder’s debut poetry book Rooh (2018) was published with Verve Poetry Press. Rupinder’s poetry has been published in various publications. Her one-woman show Imperfect, Perfect Woman debuted at Wolverhampton Literature festival in 2022. Rupinder has also been a BBC New Creative and developed audio piece ‘The Girls that Hide and Seek’. In 2022 she was part of Kali Theatre Discovery program (2021-2022), India-UK Creative Industries at 75 (2022) and Tara Theatre, Artists Make Space (2022). Rupinder has been awarded DYCP from Arts Council England (March 2023) to explore dance and movement.

Rachel Magdeburg is a visual artist and researcher based in Wolverhampton currently working in painting. Rachel has exhibited nationally and held residencies abroad and in the UK, mostly recently at Artcore, Derby. Rachel has presented her research on painting and the concept of the Anthropocene at numerous international conferences and has published in academic journals and book chapters.

Leah Hickey is an artist and writer primarily responding to love and loss. Drawing upon auto-fiction and Romantic verse as a foundation, Hickey's practice is underpinned by classical American cinematography, gender as performance and Christian theology surrounding death. The artist's work is conducive to profound emotion. Hickey currently produces 'Emotional Outbursts', a 'part-fact, part-fiction otherworld of love letters' which integrates free verse poetry and Early Modern English with contextual research. The artist recently published 'Grief (In Few Forms)', an anthology of art writing on sex and death, and has released a physical edition of 'Emotional Outbursts' in 2023.