Description:
A sm. bk. w/ 167 drawings of people waiting. in a line... on the phone... patiently... working at home. A future field guide or tarot?
Brief description: MP Fikaris is a multidisciplinary artist who can be found drawing every day in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia. They work primarily on comic art, printmaking and painting, exploring ideas of persistence and connection. Fikaris has artwork held in numerous private collections as well as the National Gallery of Victoria (Living Artists Collection), State Library of Victoria (Artists' Books Collection) and National Gallery of Australia (Book Arts Collection).Alongside his artistic oeuvre, Fikaris is a small press publisher and community arts worker, which has allowed him to work extensively with various communities as well as art institutions and educational bodies. He has been coordinating printed artist anthologies, live events and workshops under the name Silent Army since 2007.In 2017 he was awarded the National Platinum Ledger for outstanding service to Australian comics.In 2022 he continues to draw every day, work on local commissions and finish his comic book opus.
Review Quotes:
The Weight slowly builds while staying in the same place. Its funny & weird & unique. And also good. - Shannon Wheeler, New Yorker cartoonist; author, Too Much Coffee Man
Fikaris explores the tentativeness of identity under lockdown with a deceptively light hand. Before Homo Sapiens decided that COVID was here to stay, the existential shock of proximity to a mysterious death brought people to simultaneously lose their performative identities & rely on them even more. The Weight brilliantly captures this fine line between archetype & dissolution. The individuals in this book are poured into protective suits, converted to slapstick yet elegant symbols. Some are forlorn; others indomitable. Moving through this index of personalities is a humorously hypnotic exercise. Not unlike querents' use of the I Ching, I envision a future bibliomancy where readers randomly flip to pages in this book for insight. Is the correct response to today's challenges the reckoner or donk? - Jennifer Robin, performance artist, narrative trickster, author, You Only Bend Once with a Spoonful of Mercury, Death Confetti
"s! # 37 - kus! Comics take us "Down Down Under" in a collection of the work of 20-plus Australian comics creators.... & there's a lesson to us all in Michael Fikaris's Message to a Younger Self that maps the wisdom of hindsight onto more representational imagery." - Andy Oliver, Broken Frontier: Exploring the Comix Universe
"[Fikaris] paints a picture of these artists as doing the work primarily for the joy of creating sequential art, making friends, & building community, not necessarily for financial remuneration.... The resulting collection feels like a high-end zine, crafted with care & energy." - Robert Kirby, reviewing s! Baltic Comics Magazine #37
"...[Fikaris's] Silent Army does a vital community service by curating anthologies, holding workshops & exhibitions, archiving & building international ties with other comic scenes." - Comics Journal #308, Scene Report, Wint.-Spr. 2022
Fikaris: ...It's like keeping the pen walking.
Gerrard: You keep the pen walking?
Fikaris: It's an old expression: You take the pen for a walk. - Bench Talk [podcast] 96/Fikaris, Tom Gerrard