Introducing “BAD PRESS” - Sydney’s newest not-very-new printing collective!

 It’s been a long time coming! (We don’t do anything fast).
 Over the last few years we talked it over, and we finally decided.
 For our 20th birthday, we’re giving ourselves a new name!   

 Back in 2004, we named ourselves after the heavy metal machine that brought us together: the good ole “F.A.G.104 Offset Proof Press” from Switzerland. It was a no-brainer:
It’s a BIG machine (4 tonnes).
It’s a FAG (manufactured by Swiss-French company Fournitures pour les Arts Graphiques).
It’s a PRESS (offset lithography, in case you’re interested).
 Hence the name “Big Fag Press”

Of course, the name was also tongue-in-cheek. It worked for us as we were enmeshed in queer culture of the time (some of us even stripping for Man Jam in the naughty noughties!) but it hasn’t aged amazingly. Looking at those of us still holding the reins of the press two decades later the name can look positively like cultural appropriation!   

 And now it’s time to move on!

 Let’s celebrate what we achieved in two decades and rebirth ourselves with a new name: BAD PRESS.

Why BAD PRESS?

Because There’s No Such Thing as Bad Press. In this new BAD PRESS era, we celebrate everything BAD about DIY printing. And by bad, we mean good! Good-Bad! Mismatched colour registration, dot-gain, crusty old inks, and hours spent standing around the machine scratching our heads because this $#S%&* 1978 behemoth just won’t behave itself today. In the age of big AI and apps for this that and every freakin’ thing, we the luddites of BAD PRESS champion the old-skool, the unplugged, the dance of oil versus water, the toxic burp of solvent-n-ink chemical washups, the physical kiss of sticky pigment on aluminium plates on rubber rollers on fibrous thick paper stocks… and the thrill of artists working alongside communities bringing print projects that matter into the world.

 And for OG Big Fag fans - fear not! The legacy of the Big Fag Press “era” will endure. We honour the name by day and by night with a new initiative - Big Fag Editions - an annual funded project fostering emerging queer artists to produce a print with us. Watch this space for details on how to get involved.

 In the meantime, we summon old and new friends and supporters!
 JOIN US this week, everywhere online for the Bad Press Soft Launch, Friday 23 August at 2 pm
 And SAVE THE DATE for the official BAD PRESS launch at our Sydney workshop, an afternoon of nibbles, drinks, prints, art-chat and more. Sunday Oct 27, 2–5pm.