Ladies of The Press
The Ladies of the Press* are Ana Cavic and Renée O’Drobinak: a performative publishing duo based on a contemporary art practice that re-imagines the role of the publisher into a theatrical persona. Each project focuses on ‘enacting’ a publication, extending the act of performance in to the realm of print by citing the page as the primary outlet for the work, thriving on the collaboration between the Ladies of the Press*, each participant, and the space that surrounds the publication. Cavic and O’Drobinak are the editors and publishers of the annual interdisciplinary arts magazine Cluster Arts Magazine, and are known to appear at events to invite spectators to join their signature performance of impromptu gazette/zine-making, or develop publishing projects alongside gallery events. They have also been commissioned to design catalogues for various group exhibitions.
Biography
Yugoslavia-born Ana Cavic and Japan-born Renée O'Drobinak first collaborated, by accident, in a Surrealism seminar involving Freud, orange juice and hats while students at the Slade School of Fine Art, and had reunited as a catalogue team for an exhibition at the school during their third year. The catalogue in question, however, quickly morphed into a bookmaking improvisation that became the first LIVE PRESS performance, a great success. They spontaneously declared their continued collaboration at a university assessment thereafter, and have been working together since. Infamously never agreeing with each other—after all, Ana devoted her essays to Apollionaire and Baudelaire, and Renée to Foucault and Bhabha in the same seminar—they have been rigourously pursuing their interest in live art and print, respectively through their interest in concrete poetry and graphics. The Ladies of the Press* was a name given to the two during the aforementioned performance as a submitted piece by a fellow artist, which they officially adopted a couple of years later.
About LIVE PRESS!
LIVE PRESS! is the Ladies of the Press*' signature performance of impromptu gazette-making, opening up a "press desk" at various events and creating an on-site gazette filled with live documentation, peripheral material, interviews, doodles, finished pieces and any other quirk that they deem fit.
LIVE PRESS! is a living, on-going documentation made in situ, and an alternative A5 exhibition site that fits snugly into a bag. Created from a simple setup of a scanner, a camera, laptops and household printers, the Ladies are open to both pre-event and on-site submissions from exhibitors, performers, and visitors alike.
All live press books made in the past are available for download at the following link:
www.ladiesofthepress.org/livepress
