Sickness, being, fucking, caring, menstruating,
writing, soreness. Sleeping.
Image, surface, and throwing stones. Scale.
Precarity, alternative economies,
light, mass, and everything you can see is holding you.
Pluralities, multitudes, murmurings.
Leaps of faith.
I am a chronically ill writer, designer, and publisher from Aotearoa, living in London. My writing has been featured in Counter Signals 5: Systems and their Discontents (forthcoming), AIGA Eye on Design (forthcoming), Ache Magazine, Sick Magazine, DreamsTimesFree and others. I have had work exhibited at Lunchtime Gallery, South Kiosk Gallery, Transmediale and Alchemy Film & Arts, and have given talks and workshops for NN Contemporary, Control Shift Network, Dash Disability Arts, the Remote Body and more.
Alongside Sophie Paul, I co-run Sticky Fingers Publishing. We started working together out of a shared concern for what knowledge feels like, and since have developed Sticky Fingers into a feminist intra-dependant print publishers working with over 75 writers across the last three years to publish work too terrifying, messy or fragile to be published anywhere else. We are concerned with feminist, queer and crip publishing methodologies and prioritising work dealing with these politics.
Currently, alongside running Sticky Fingers Publishing I am an associate lecturer on the BA and MA Graphic Design programme at Camberwell College of Art; a context tutor on BA Design at Goldsmiths University; I am one third of design trio Access Power Visibility working on Healing Justice London’s Death by Welfare project; and a freelance writer and designer.
︎︎︎
Royal College of Art 2022 degree show
stickyfingerspublishing.cargo.site
acesspowervisibility.com
writing, soreness. Sleeping.
Image, surface, and throwing stones. Scale.
Precarity, alternative economies,
light, mass, and everything you can see is holding you.
Pluralities, multitudes, murmurings.
Leaps of faith.
I am a chronically ill writer, designer, and publisher from Aotearoa, living in London. My writing has been featured in Counter Signals 5: Systems and their Discontents (forthcoming), AIGA Eye on Design (forthcoming), Ache Magazine, Sick Magazine, DreamsTimesFree and others. I have had work exhibited at Lunchtime Gallery, South Kiosk Gallery, Transmediale and Alchemy Film & Arts, and have given talks and workshops for NN Contemporary, Control Shift Network, Dash Disability Arts, the Remote Body and more.
Alongside Sophie Paul, I co-run Sticky Fingers Publishing. We started working together out of a shared concern for what knowledge feels like, and since have developed Sticky Fingers into a feminist intra-dependant print publishers working with over 75 writers across the last three years to publish work too terrifying, messy or fragile to be published anywhere else. We are concerned with feminist, queer and crip publishing methodologies and prioritising work dealing with these politics.
Currently, alongside running Sticky Fingers Publishing I am an associate lecturer on the BA and MA Graphic Design programme at Camberwell College of Art; a context tutor on BA Design at Goldsmiths University; I am one third of design trio Access Power Visibility working on Healing Justice London’s Death by Welfare project; and a freelance writer and designer.
︎︎︎
Royal College of Art 2022 degree show
stickyfingerspublishing.cargo.site
acesspowervisibility.com
︎ kaiyawaerea0@gmail.com
︎@kaiyawaerea
Education & Awards
︎︎︎Shortlisted for Shape Arts EMERGENT award 2022
︎︎︎UAL Equality, Diversity and Inclusion staff research grant 2022
︎︎︎MA Writing, Royal College of Art 2020-21
︎︎︎BA Design, Goldsmiths University of London 2016-20
︎︎︎Foundation Diploma in Art & Design specialising in Performance Design & Practise, Central Saint Martins 2015-16
Professional Experience
︎︎︎University of the Arts London CCW, Associate Lecturer 2021-ongoing
As an associate lecturer I work with undergraduate students across the Graphic Design programme at Camberwell College of Art. My work here has included devising and running workshops thinking through writing as design practise, writing briefs, giving talks about my work, and proving both one to one and group tutorials on and offline keeping students on track with both practice based work and final year dissertations. I am currently carrying out an Equality, Inclusion and Diversity funded research project developing a student-facing resource about accessibility and self-publishing.
︎︎︎Access Power Visibility (APV), Designer 2020-ongoing
APV (an abbreviation of Access, Power & Visibility) are a London-based collective addressing issues around Disability Justice in the UK by exploring notions of radical accessibility, the relationship between power and presence, and accessibility as concept and medium. Formed by designer and educator Arjun Harrison-Mann, artist and producer Benjamin Redgrove and myself, we are currently working on a long term project with Healing Justice Collective Uk called Deaths by Welfare.
︎︎︎Sticky Fingers Publishing, Publisher 2019-ongoing
Sticky Fingers Publishing is an intra-dependant feminist publishers run my myself and Sophie Paul from our studio in Elephant & Castle. Working with mostly queer, femme & disabled writers, Sticky Fingers is a site for experimental feminist methodologies, print-based self-indulgences, and publishing work that feels too fragile, terrifying or messy to be published elsewhere. In addition to publishing we provide consultation sessions, Risograph print services, workshops and talks. Sophie & I share all tasks from writing & editing to design & printing to finance management to marketing.
︎︎︎Sick Magazine, Graphic Designer 2019-ongoing
Currently in its fourth issue, Sick is a magazine by chronically ill and disabled people founded and edited by Olivia Spring. It brings together essays, articles, prose, poetry and visual art together in dynamic issues which think through the varied and complex experiences of disability. I have been the graphic designer for Sick since its inception, developing a bold, colourful, and typographically led visual identity.
︎︎︎Abby Nocon, Support Worker 2022
︎︎︎Europa Europa, ‘RCA Degree Show 2022’, Accessibility design consultancy 2022
︎︎︎Sainsbury’s Gallery, ‘Site Writing’ publication designer 2022
︎︎︎Gillie Klieman, ‘Friend’ Graphic and Production Designer 2021
︎︎︎Eclipse Theatre, Graphic Designer 2021
︎︎︎Sick Magazine, Assistant Editor 2021
︎︎︎Thamesmead Arts and Culture Office (TACO!), Graphic Designer 2021
︎︎︎Goldsmiths Press, Cover Designer 2020
︎︎︎Figs in Wigs, ‘Little Wimmin play text’ & ‘Astrology Bingo’ Graphic Designer 2019-20
︎︎︎Goldsmiths University College Union, Graphic Designer 2018-20
︎︎︎Goldsmiths Students’ Union, Graphic Designer 2018-20
︎︎︎The Gold Paper, Graphic Designer 2018
︎︎︎Dice Festival, Co-Director 2018
︎︎︎Matheson Marcault, NOW PLAY THIS, Installation Assistant 2017-18
︎︎︎Goldsmiths Students’ Union, Design Intern 2017
︎︎︎Forest Fringe, Production Assistant 2017
︎︎︎Forest Fringe, Technical Assistant 2016
︎︎︎Joel O’Donoghue Company, Producer 2016
︎︎︎Jack Irving, Artist Assistant 2016-17
Workshops
︎︎︎Woke Designers Reading Club Season 4: Designing on Crip Time 2022
︎︎︎Dash Arts, World Within Worlds ‘Science Fiction, Disabled Futures’ zine making workshops 2021
︎︎︎Knowle West Media Centre, Come Together ‘Proxy Politics: Making and Unmaking Perspectives on Access’ with APV 2021
︎︎︎We Are Superfluous, Bodies of Work‘Work is a Verb’ zine making workshop with Sticky Fingers Publishing 2021
︎︎︎Control Shift Network ‘Proxy Politics: Making and Unmaking Perspectives on Access’ with APV 2020
︎︎︎The Remote Body ‘In the Sick Hour: Writing Workshop’ with Jane Hartshorn 2020
︎︎︎Freedom Press ‘DIY FANTHOLOGY’ zine making workshop with Lily McCraith 2019
︎︎︎Anti-University ‘We Go In A Circle And End Up ︎︎︎Writing A Book’ with Lily McCraith 2019
Talks
︎︎︎BRICKS talks: Anxieties and Accessibility of Networking panel 2022
︎︎︎University of the Arts London, MA Graphic Visual Communication, visiting practitioner talk with Sticky Fingers Publishing 2022
︎︎︎NN Contemporary, Access, Power, Visibilitywith APV 2021
︎︎︎The Future of Work Conference, ‘Future in Practise’ with Michelle O’Higgins 2019
Residencies & Alternative Education
︎︎︎Zine Making Residency at the Cornwall Zine Library, the Fish Factory 2022
︎︎︎Writing Survival writing course led by Catriona Morton 2022
︎︎︎Arvon, ESSAY week-long course led by Olivia Sudjic and Sam Fisher 2022
︎︎︎LADA DIY: The Politics of Intimacy Residency led by Raju Rage 2020-21
︎︎︎Making Futures Summer School run by UDK Berlin and ZuloArk Architects 2019
︎︎︎Performing Togetherness, School of Civic Action, run by Public Works 2019
Exhibitions
︎︎︎Lunchtime Gallery, I’M BORED OF READING I WANT REVENGE, Sticky Fingers Publishing 2022
South Kiosk Gallery, Perspectives on Visibility 2021
︎︎︎Alchemy Film & Arts, How to Smash your Head into your Computer Monitor and Come Out Near the River Ravensborne 2021
︎︎︎Transmediale Almanac of Refusal, Perspectives on Visibility 2021
︎︎︎Control Shift Network, Perspectives on Visibility 2020-21
︎︎︎Kings College University ‘Criposium’, A Collision, 2020
︎︎︎Prelon Musk: Acts of Klieness, Bags of Slime of Bags of Slime of Bags of Slime,with Soul Miles 2019
︎︎︎Themselves Commune Peckham Festival, I Dream About Thinking About Work 2019
Creative Practice
︎︎︎Research interests
Feminism, Crip Theory, Disability justice, illness, embodiment, auto-theory, the erotic, design thinking, methodology, diaspora, Maaoritanga, anti-colonialism, epistemology, accessibility, libraries, etymology, local histories, material histories, precarity, image, surface, holes
︎︎︎Formal interests
Pedagogy, publishing, creative non-fiction, essay, epistolary, video essay, image-making, zine-making, glossaria, email, indexing, cartography
︎︎︎(Some) skills
Writing, editing, academic research, facilitation, tutoring, Risograph printing, Adobe Creative Cloud, Google Suite, Microsoft Office, Notion, Zoom
References available upon request.
Please ask to see my access rider.