Soft Stir

Back blurb for Issue 03: Stories of Collision.

What happens when objects collide?
Eardrums explode to the Shinkansen of Sydney hardcore. Poets fall in love, unravel, break up and shatter into oblivion. Our techno-dystopia spins a zillenial misfit into unhinged hilarity. A capitalist cult creates a black hole from a common department store. Rugby league superstars battle and make love in the middle of the field. Voices of a multifarious mass reach harmony and burn the system down.
Big cats pounce and pull us into the tall grass of regional town mythology. Disparate dance icons confront tradition through the language of movement. A magic carpet of pixelated type takes us around the world of graphic design. Hungry ghosts swallow up an island nation with the voracity of an invasive w**d. Currents drag us from mid-air through reverberating canals and into the vast ocean. Planets, moons, and stars coalesce into a double helix of q***r, Indigenous futurism. 45 emerging creatives come together in a bricolage of infinite potential and possibility.

In ‘Body Language’, three prolific Australian dance artists: Bhenji Ra, Amrita Hepi, and Belle Beasley come together to confront tradition through the language of movement. From ballet to contemporary to ballroom, we pay homage to the collisions between their diverse discplines, their communities, and themselves.

Thank-you to the incredible collective of creatives who brought this to life.

Cover stars: Amrita Hepi (), Bhenji Ra (), Belle Beasley ()
Photographer: Joshua Bentley ()
Stylist: Georgia Harper ()
HMU: Sean Brady ()
Creative Director: Alex Stevenson ()
Producer: Chloe Hayman ()
Wearing: Alex Entick (.entick), Alison Pyrke (), Butterfly and the Lamb (), Diaspora (.iaxs), Nicol & Ford (), Ramp Tramp Tramp Stamp (), SWOP (), Trashion (), and Wackie Ju (.ju).
Writer: Amit Noy (.m_i.t_)
Story editors: Alex Stevenson, Chloe Hayman, Henry Chase Richards ()
Camera Assist: Conrad Wainwright
Studio:

Look closely within Issue 03, and you’ll find touches of collision in every crevice.

Drop 2 from our Collision launch event with – packed full of music, mags and mischief.

(Stills 1, 4, 6, 7, 8)psd (Stills 2, 5, 9, 10)
Culture Guide (Still 3)

Stills from our ‘Stories of Collision’ launch party at thanks to & .psd ❤️‍🔥

(Images 1, 4, 6, 7, 8 & 9)psd (Images 2, 3, 5, & 10)

Surprise! We’re having a last minute laidback Naarm launch this Sunday 26th at

Come celebrate ‘Stories of Collision’ with us and the sweet dulcet tunes of , , ❤️‍🔥

3-7 PM
High Note

There will be mags !

More spreads from Stories of Collision 💫 Each is lovingly designed in response to every story from our 45 contributors, complete with bespoke layouts, expressive typography, graphics, colour, texture, and so on.

Pre-order your copy with a ticket to our launch this Saturday, 18th May.

Roll call for our upcoming launch party at • 1 week to go !!!

In the spirit of Issue 03: Stories of Collision, we’ve gathered some of Eora’s most exciting emerging creatives to bring their colliding sounds, tastes and sights to celebrate with us.

Find more about them below.

is a Sydney composer, musician and artist. His live music performance will feature some tracks from his new album ‘Ecstasy’, which draws from the ethereal dramatics of Christian liturgy, homosexual camp, diva worship and rave culture.
•
is an Eora-based DJ and multidisciplinary creative. They host ‘The Bridge’ on and co-host RECOMP:OST on , embracing both the delicate and more abrasive corners of dance music.
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– co-founder of , and host of ‘Juice’ on FBi Radio, is one of the most trusted sources of sound in Sydney, spinning an eclectic range of vibrant sounds from around the globe.
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When isn’t getting bodies moving in the club, you can catch them co-hosting FBi Radio’s long running dance music show, Spin the Bottle. With high-energy club cuts, their sonic world is a guaranteed good time.
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Multi-disciplinary artist is back with their infamous CRT TV Installation – playing host to the intimate making of our publication.
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Prepare your tastebuds for .boi – a project started by Aldwin Hidajat that explores and showcases the rich and abundant flavour of southeast Asia, especially Indonesian cuisine.

💌 Get your tickets from the link in our bio before they’re gone. 💌

We’re very honoured to announce award-winning Wiradjuri poet and artist as our First Nations Curator for Issue 03, Stories of Collision. Based on Gadigal land, her practice centres around poetics while producing works spanning installation, digital, performance, film and print.

Over the past 18 months, she’s worked closely with us to curate, nurture and shape an incredible selection of emerging and early-career Indigenous creatives including Dean Cross (.cross), Elijah Money (), Lay Maloney () and Ellen O’Brien () – whose work collectively shines thanks to Jazz’s warmth, cultural insight and creative prowess.

She’s also strengthened our understanding, processes, and engagement towards First Nations folk and culture, advised on cultural sensitivity for any pieces that touch on Indigenous or post-colonial themes, and penned a Curator’s Letter that reminds us how instrumental collisions are amongst Country and community:

“I am immensely grateful to each of the First Nations contributors to this issue; it was an honour to work with such brilliant artists and writers. Across dialogues with each contributor, I was reminded of the ways that First Nations, People of Colour, q***r & trans folk, disabled folk, and all marginalised groups exist with constant violence and erasure from the colonial project of ‘Australia’ and yet are never defined solely by that violence, always instead showing up with resistance in the form of joyous, cheeky, sexy, smart, and generous community-centred love.”

It’s a true privilege to work with Jazz; we have learnt so much from her, reaching new depths within Stories of Collision through her wisdom. We can’t wait for you to learn from her contributions too.

To celebrate the launch of our third issue, ‘Stories of Collision’, Soft Stir is throwing a big ol’ party at . Packed with DJs, live music, video installations, virtual readings, and more, it’s set to be a night of colliding encounters.

Saturday, 18th May
5.30–10 PM

Dance to the sultry hip-hop jams of , the high-energy club cuts of , and the left-field reverberations of . Witness the ethereal sonic poetics of Marcus Whale. Watch the intimate making of the magazine through ’s CRT TV installation, wander through the exhibitions programmed by and eat succulent delights from .boi.

And of course – grab a copy of ‘Stories of Collision’ available for the first time and fresh off the press.

Tickets are now live; link in the bio. Bundle it with the magazine for a hot deal.

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Artwork by

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~ This is the first chance you can grab a copy of Issue 03, retailed at $40. Bundle it with an event ticket for a discount.
~ Free tickets for First Nations people are available. Discount tickets are available for those facing financial difficulties. Email [email protected].
~ Venue is wheelchair accessible via the ground floor, but not the second level. Get in touch via email or DM for more information.

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Soft Stir acknowledges that this event, and all of the work that we undertake as a collective, happens on unceded land. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this event takes place, the Gadigal people. We pay our respects to Elders past, and present who continue to care for Country, extending this respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.

Sneak peak 👀 some of our favourite spreads from Soft Stir 03, Stories of Collision.

Incoming soon.

🧢‼️ RESTOCKED ‼️🧢

If you’re looking for a last min Xmas present or to stay sun safe n sxc this summer, we’ve just restocked our caps. Order through our shop thru the link in our bio 📦

💭 Thinking about our issue 02 launch event & our incredible community 💭

Photo:

Details of our first issue, meditating on stories of home. Here, photographer captures the soft, translucent pages that are scattered through the book.

Photography:
Art direction:
Producing: &

We’re so excited to be at the inaugural Same Page Art Book Fair!

Big love to and for putting this together. We’ll be there all weekend alongside lots of incredible indie publishers — stocked up on mags, posters and a fresh run of our well-loved caps. Our first Naarm appearance too, gonna be special.

Book Fair | 2 - 3 September, 11am - 5pm
Launch Party | 2 September, 5 - 7pm

Gertrude Contemporary
21-31 High Street, Preston South
Wurundjeri Country.

Submissions close tonight!

Breathe out those final scrambles and send in your piece or proposal by 11:59 PM AEST this evening (27/11). We can’t wait to read what you’ve been stirring.

DEADLINE EXTENDED!

We’re giving you the weekend to get your submission together for our third issue, ‘Stories of Collision’. Just in case you needed that extra little nudge – you now have until this Sunday (27/11/22, 11:59 PM AEST) to send in your piece or proposal.

If you needed a sign, this is it.

12 days left to submit to Issue 03: ‘Stories of Collision’.

Whether you’ve got a golden idea to propose, you’re sitting on a piece that’d be perfect or feel inspired to spend all day writing one out – Soft Stir is ready to help bring your story to life.

Deadline for submissions is 25/11/22 – don’t miss out on getting yours in!

More info in bio x

Have you sent your piece or proposal for Issue 03: ‘Stories of Collision’ yet?

Submissions close soon, so get writing!

See our bio for more info.

The word is out! The theme of Issue 03 is 'Stories of Collision.'

So, what does ‘collision’ mean to you? It comes in many forms, shapes and sizes – whatever story you have to tell, we can’t wait to hear it!

Submissions close Friday 25th of November, 11:59 PM AEST. Link in bio for more info.

👀 TY Purple Sneakers

Creative Callout: Soft Stir Announce Third Magazine And Is Open For Submissions Soft Stir is an independent so called Sydney based publication that examines art, music, culture and philosophy through the eyes of emerging creatives.

Our limited edition INHALE/EXHALE risograph prints, designed by Gab Flood.

From sundown walks under a blanket of bats to mystical dreams of missing teeth - Gab pieces together symbols from a healing journey in this stream of consciousness collage.

Few still available online.

Printed at

Oh yeah bby - our infamous tees have been restocked. Black and white. Embroided logo. Bespoke hem tags. Soft and robust. Get em' online before they gone forever.

A preview of what's inside Issue 02, Stories of Healing. Every spread is lovingly designed to capture the distinct energy of each piece – from poetry, fiction, interviews and essays to paintings, illustration and photography. 132 pages of sweet, sweet print.

Available through our bio.

More photos from SALVE ~ our launch event for Issue 02. A huge thank you to everyone who celebrated healing, creativity, community and this project with us. See you at the next one.

BIG TY to the for having us, .wav for their sounds, .yous for the light installation, .kneeling for the audiovisuals, and to for capturing such a special occasion.

A starry-eyed photo from a star-studded evening, celebrating the launch of our second issue. For those that came through to SALVE, you'll have witnessed the iconic fire truck moment – sending us all on the street for a smokey intermission. It was a false alarm, but a strange omen for the many references to fire in Issue 02: Stories of Healing. From ashes, smoke and the soft glow of a candle to the burnt umbers colouring our pages – fire became our guiding thread to stitch the theme of healing together. Even our cover with is a fiery ode to the "It's Fine" meme, calmly perched within the flames of chaos, only to rise resilient like a phoenix.

We suppose everything, even a false fire alarm, happens for a reason. More photos from SALVE to come.

Big thank-you to for capturing such a special occasion.

Introducing our incredible First Nations curator and contributor, .herczeg. Tiarna is a Kuku-Yalanji artist who has spent most of her life living on Dharug Country, and now pratices on Gadigal lands.

Living off Country and practising mostly inside her studio, Tiarna is guided to use the emotional and creative energy within her, which provokes memories of colourful landscapes; drawn from a sense of urgency regarding her spiritual and cultural identity.

Tiarna has been instrumental in helping shape the vision of our publication, in particular – curating the likes of fellow First Nations creatives, , liv, travis, dakota.

For her own contribution to Stories of Healing, Tiarna captures a sentimental landscape from memory in Bilamal (homesick).

“My connection to Country and culture is so deep that I live 2,550 kilometres away and am still able to tap into that ancestral power and find peace while painting. Exploring outside is where I belong, and whilst this pandemic has made that difficult, I found a new way to explore aspects of my identity through this body of work. Using pinks and oranges to balance the harmonious relationship between the biodiversity of Kuku-Yalanji Country, Bilamal is a body of work around what I binalku/remember.”

By allowing herself to listen and be guided by her cultural intuition, she is left with a sacred depiction of Australia that cannot be told by anyone else.

Pre-order Issue 02: Stories of Healing. Link in bio.