The Critical Fish
We began in 2018 with the intention to produce a magazine featuring art work and critical but accessible writing about visual culture. We support creativity and culture in Hull and the region, but are also outward facing and invite contributions from further afield. We champion critical, creative, collaborative and experimental writing and art work. This journal partly grew out of the City of Culture year in Hull and the feeling that there needed to be a forum for debate and connection; linking artists, writers, organisations and audiences through cultural conversations.
Over the last extraordinary year we have mostly worked on line and have enjoyed the opportunity to work more closely and less formally with artists and writers, and to expand our focus/ outcomes beyond print magazine. Three directions have emerged. Firstly we are accumulating work on our website page and gallery in response to the theme Above, Below, at the Edge of the Water, and although we haven’t dictated it, many contributors are exploring the intersection between art, the environment and activism or change. Secondly Postbooks - a project involving artists with disabilities where a communal sketchbook is circulated and each recipient completes a page, in response to the work that is already there. And lastly we have produced some Interdisciplinary Conversations (podcasts and videos). We aim to continue developing these different strands of our work.
At The Critical Fish we believe culture is our common property, that everyone is an artist and that art has a vital role to play in communities, and especially in the context of climate crisis. Our print magazine is free, we are non-profit making and endeavour to pay artists and writers where we can. We are committed to creating opportunities for artists, writers and researchers, to showcase their work, as well as reaching out to non typical and underrepresented audiences.
