Handmade Archival Box for 'The Juniper Tree' and 'It's Fun to be Alive in Colma!'

Following conservation standards, I handmade a custom book box to hold two of my own art zines: The Juniper Tree and IT’S FUN TO BE ALIVE IN COLMA. Both of these zines mix archival research and on-site photography of the history, culture, and geography of the San Francisco Bay Area to examine my teenage experiences going in and out of state custody and institutions.

This project synthesized a variety of conservation treatments I learned during my lab course, as well as new treatments which I received one-on-one instruction on from my professor, conservator Slava Polishchuk. These standard conservation efforts are paired with an equal importance on the box’s aesthetic/artistic potential to compliment the works it contains, as well as to emphasize and give due importance to the narratives of necropolitics within. I believe this project is an excellent demonstration of my approach of intervening on the legacies of oppression within traditional archival practices by incorporating both critical and artistic frameworks.