Rubbish: the "family-run" FAMzine that will thrill you

Rubbish arrives where we could not find a precise definition for "the art of independent publishing". 
He invented a different and very little used concept in this world and perfectly gives the sense of an object whose genesis and method of realization are a very substantial part of its value.

Rubbish comes from Singapore and is a FAMzine, or “family zine”, the result of the Lim family artistic collective made up of Claire, Renn, Aira and Pann: father, mother and two children. In 2011 when Renn was 12 and Aira 11, the parents decided that their form of artistic expression would be their family, and so they became a well-known Asian art collective, Holycrap, which expresses itself in various forms and receives recognition in Worldwide.

Rubbish is the editorial work of this family, published once a year since 2011. It has an ambitious as well as incredibly attractive goal: to tell pieces of life from their intimate and personal story, crossing each one with a specific theme.

The magazine is produced in 300 numbered copies, it does not travel in the classic distribution channels, but to have it you need to contact the Lims directly. And so we did in order to make this sweet publishing work available to you.
The thing that literally drove us crazy about this product is its craftsmanship: in addition to the genesis of the contents and the graphic and editorial design, each piece is assembled by hand by the authors, in their home.

The theme of the last issue, available on Frab's HERE, is the design and, more specifically, that of the chairs. The title, "The Unfinished Chronicle of the Cahir Ballad", suggests exactly the focus of the magazine that explores the chair object from an intimate and personal point of view, not just an iconic piece of design or useful home furniture.

The FAMzine is enclosed in a small box that resembles that of board games, you open it and the first thing you find is a wooden kit that will come in handy in the end. Take it off and here is Rubbish: 6 mini magazines bound together with increasing sizes. 

It begins with a polaroid of the two children on a chair and the first zine is entirely dedicated to photographs of chairs used by the family in various situations: to play the chair game (yes, the one where the music plays and you have to sit down when it ends. ), the chair for the cat, the one in the bedroom, the one for eating and for various other situations. The interesting aspect is that for each chair it is indicated the year of origin and designer, up to compiling a catalog of the design of domestic chairs. The emotional aspect is that we see Renn and Aira grow up as they interact with the chairs in their home, from children to teenagers. 

The next zine is a collection of benches portrayed with a camera by Pann on a trip to Japan. Each bench has an indication of where it is located. Among these pages you will find some cinema tickets stapled, just to give you the sense of sitting down for a while with this nice family of artists and to move on to the next zine. 

The next zine is on chairs in cinematography: with a research work by true cinephiles, here is that the Lim capture some of the most famous chairs in the history of cinema indicating reference films, the scene in which we find this object, the designer and, as always, the year of realization. 

The following is the tribute to another great family collective in the world of design: Charles Ormond Eames and his wife Bernice Alexandra Ray Kaiser. Rubbish walks into their museum house, lets us discover it and again focuses on their personal world of chairs.

Beautiful, the design chairs, but those thrown away, of little value or never used? Rubbish's interlude brings us back to the Lim home with some photos of unused chairs in their home, of those that are forgotten, are filled with dust or objects, which may not be beautiful but remain there with us for decades. 

The grand finale begins with a piece, this time on a pamphlet in glossy paper with an orange background, about the Memphis school and some of Ettore Sottsass's most famous chairs. From there to Ikea the step seems risky but it is very short: this company has managed to enter, with its Scandinavian design, the homes of millions of people around the world.

And finally, here it is, the Frosta Godis: in the last booklet, with the outlines of the pages in zigzag, the process of designing and manufacturing the design chair of the Lim family is presented. Yes, because in the art room of the Rubbish family a new chair was born, perhaps not very comfortable, but which contains the influences of this wonderful piece of independent literature in a practical object.

The Frosta Godis is inspired by the famous Ikea Frosta combined with a slide for children and with the color patterns of the Memphis school. Of this chair we find an Ikea-style booklet that shows us how to assemble it. The artistic and design process defined down to the smallest detail: a pleasure for fans of design publishing. 

And now that you have finished one of the most interesting contemporary editorial projects, as well as one of the most interesting artistic excursus on chairs, what can you do? Get creative with the miniature wooden chair you found as soon as you opened the box!

You will love Rubbish because it is incredibly authentic, the Lims are able to involve you in their life using paper and ink, but above all you will appreciate a sui generis and very deep research work.

You can purchase Rubbish HERE