Student juices up artists’ creative expressions with Kiwi Magazine

Pauline Thai opened the minifridge in her Canyon Point dorm for a snack when her gaze fell upon a kiwi. In that instant, she realized she had finally found the perfect name for her art magazine.

Thai, the founder and president of Kiwi Magazine at UCLA, said the publication exudes the funny, quirky and colorful tone she associated with the fruit. Kiwi Magazine, an on-campus arts and culture publication, released online its second issue, themed “Wet,” on Nov. 21. The first issue, themed “Mixer,” was also released online in May 2016.

Third-year art student Thai had contributed to other publications as a freelance artist and illustrator, but she said she felt her creative ventures were limited. Creating commissioned works of other people’s visions came with a set of artistic guidelines that capped her personal creativity.

“I was always creating pieces to supplement articles or other pieces rather than have my work stand by itself,” Thai said.

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Inspired to break loose from the fetters of her commissioned work, Thai set out to create a magazine of her own that would stand free from the constraints of commissioned work, she said.

“I started Kiwi Mag in the hopes that it would serve as a collective space for everyone to create work to convey their human experiences and be valued as creative,” Thai said.

Like the name of the magazine, the theme “Wet” also came to Thai spontaneously.

“I was curious to discover how people would interpret the word ‘wet’ in different ways,” Thai said.

Thai presented members of Kiwi Magazine with the theme early in fall quarter and gave them several weeks to develop their artistic projects based on their interpretations of the theme. Consistent with Thai’s vision of an unrestrained celebration of creativity, the magazine does not have any constraint on mediums of expression, she said. Entries include photography, writing or illustration pieces.

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The broad nature of the term “wet” produced a diverse set of submissions, resulting in emotional, sexual, bodily and visual references from 27 members. For Thai, the word reflected a somber and nostalgic tone which inspired her pieces in the magazine, she said. She paired one article with a photograph of an empty bus and her other piece of writing with an illustration of a romantic embrace between two people, recalling past memories of a relationship, she said.

Vice president of Kiwi Magazine and third-year art student Zori Swanegan associated the term with a sense of emotional lethargy and heaviness, said Swanegan. Her works consisted of black and white self-portraits drawn with uneven ink application. Some regions contained only a hint of ink to suggest a frail outline on Swanegan’s figure, while others displayed strong and deep black swipes of ink. The variation of higher or lower levels of ink on the portraits serve to give the images a weight of their own, she said.

“I wanted to make sure I referenced myself in the content I submitted to reflect this self-assessment,” Swanegan said.

For Risley Cline, the head of organization and structure, “Wet” evoked thoughts on the fluidity of water and transformation. The third-year art student submitted a photo-essay of her roommate becoming a drag queen as he applied makeup and struck poses in a jeweled dress. Cline viewed transformation as a process of coming out and owning one’s identity, she said.

Both complex and flexible, the theme “Wet” resulted in a set of personal, diverse reflections for submissions, Thai said.

“Variation makes the magazine interesting because you aren’t stuck with one tone throughout,” Thai said. “Everyone gained something complex and somber from the word ‘Wet.’”

Kiwi Magazine encourages people to slow down, appreciate and contemplate art pieces amid society’s rapid consumption of pictures through media and technology, Cline said. Cline hopes Kiwi Magazine will remain a safe place for creative expression even after her and her peers have graduated, she said.

Thai hopes the magazine can inspire not only the admiration of art works, but the creation of one’s own work as well, she said. Next year, she hopes that Kiwi Magazine will not only be an art publication, but also an artist collective. The group would function as a network or a fraternity for creators in which a creative and supportive atmosphere could flourish, she said.

“A lot of work, time and energy this quarter was dedicated to the issue,” said Swanegan. “To finally see it finished and released is definitely something to celebrate.”