This is my first ever zine - "Changes Here and There: Parramatta Road."
"Changes Here and There: Parramatta Road" is my first ever zine, originally published on February 2024. (Photograph taken by me; Please message me for permission if you would like to use it)
A sneak peek of the inside contents of my zine, featuring illustrations of ageing signs hand-drawn by me (Photograph taken by me; Please message me for permission if you would like to use it)
It is dedicated to my Dad, who unfortunately had a stroke back in 2021. During my childhood, he used to drive the family almost every week to the city via the Inner West's Parramatta Road. I remember back when I was in preschool, one of our stops was at Fantastic Furniture in Stanmore (now closed and replaced by 99 Bikes, right next to McDonalds). My sister and I always ran berserk around the store, climbing up onto the bunkbeds and begging our parents to buy one for us, which of course, they said no many times. We lived in Marrickville not long before that, therefore my parents were familiar with the route as they used to go to the city every week to do groceries and run other errands.
As I grew older, we had less family bonding times, yet this prompted me to become nostalgic about our road trips. It wasn't until I was in high school when I discovered my new-found interest in decaying old buildings, sites, and signs, while working on my HSC art major, through the inspiration of Vanessa Berry, an avid Sydney-based explorer of all things overlooked and anachronistic. She has documented a lot on her blog Mirror Sydney and zines about a vast number of buildings and signs that she encountered on the Inner West's Parramatta Road, stretching from as far as North Strathfield towards Annandale. I decided to make some visits to the busy highway to follow the paths Vanessa took, in order to see the world through her perspective, and it didn't take me long enough to develop my mutual interest for decrepit buildings, signs and other details that trace back to yesteryear.
This zine explores my different experiences of busy highway of Parramatta Road through three significant segments of my life, including 2009 (12 years old), 2014 (17 years old) and 2023 (26 years old). As much as I matured physically and mentally, the highway also changed, in terms of different factors such as further wear and tear, overdevelopment, gentrification and constant changing of businesses.
Please DM me in my Instagram account or personal email for further information and enquiries regarding this zine.
Comments