An Interview with Sticky Institute
Melbourne’s thriving culture is one of the main drivers behind our success as a city. A major part of our label as ‘the world’s most liveable city’, comes from the incredible work that occurs here and is supported by our lifestyle and involvement as a society. We are apart of this community that embodies the booming of creativity.
A perfect example of Melbourne’s innovative culture is Sticky Institute, a non-profit zine store, which provides a space for both local and international artists to come together and showcase their passions side by side. Nowhere else in the world will you find a place like Sticky. They represent the core meaning of art and expression, constantly supplying customers with new and exciting ideas from creators. The store itself is extremely small, but on either side of the walls, hundreds of zines made through hundreds of hours of hard work are displayed on the shelves.
Located in Campbell Arcade, it has been running since 2001 and is the only dedicated zine-store in Melbourne. The organisation has been a place for artists to express themselves and their interests through zines without the mediation of a gallery or an art dealer. It contains hundreds of zines, and accepts all works that are within the form; holding copies of doris a zine shipped in from America, right alongside Love on Everest a zine submitted by a local 5 year old girl. This along with the resources it provides to zine creators with typewriters and a photocopier in house, they also run the Festival of the Photocopier which is held annually, and showcases a wide array of zines created by everyone in the area and abroad.
We met Luke Sinclair, a volunteer who has worked at Sticky since 2009 and told us about the struggles the store had faced. “We’ve nearly closed every three years since we’ve opened, and as we have gone on each challenge has become more and more insurmountable.” The most recent challenge for the store is the development of the Metro Tunnel, which is planned be going right through the current location of the store despite the arcade being Heritage listed. This poses a real problem for the store which has relied on subsidised rent from the City of Melbourne, being now faced with the task of finding a new location. “If we move above ground, rent is essentially going to be 15 times what we pay now,” Luke tells us. Despite this, there is a glimmer of hope as the tunnel planners are expected to come back with an offer of a new location above ground. “[If they do] it could be good for us, we could go to a bigger place”. Even if these plans fall through the store will continue as long as it can, fighting to maintain its place as a vehicle of artistic expression in the community.
In February, the store holds their annual Festival of the Photocopier in the Melbourne Town Hall, which is very popular and was initially just set up in Campbell Arcade outside the store with tables on either side of the walkway when it started in 2008. 10 years later, it had a record 270 stalls set up inside the main auditorium of the Town Hall by people wanting to show off and sell their work. The festival has grown incredibly, with creators and people jumping to attend. At this years event, people had to be turned away at the door due to full capacity meaning around 15,000 people were in the space. The continued and growing success of the event has caused Sticky to attempt to extend it to 2 days so as not to restrict visitors. 10 years after its conception, the festival is in a better place than it has ever been.
Sticky gave a great insight into the possibilities of zine culture and is a daily reminder of how powerful art and expression is and an example of how large this city's creative output really is.
From the Editors