MISSION
South Asian Avant-Garde (SAAG) is an argument that South Asians have claimed avant-garde traditions since longer than the word was coined. They experimented wildly in form, function, and craft; some had an enormous impact on European avant-gardism. But South Asia is rarely the locus of those histories. (See: “Picasso manqué syndrome”)
How do we carve out this space in the contemporary media landscape, where traditional media is shuttering & literary magazines, art exhibits & academic journals exist as silos (especially without mass generational wealth)? By compensating both our immensely hard-working staff and contributors. By publishing work that is thoughtful and rigorous: work that connects the local and the global, work that is unafraid but not provocative simply for the sake of it, and work that is internationalist in scope. By traipsing across genres and modes of art.
SAAG exists to create a truly activist-literary space: not one that serves to preach to the choir or provides a drifting sense of "representation," but one that challenges and enriches our intellectual lives.
Subscribe below to get the chance to become a member of SAAG early, and get early access to our online store (under construction), discounts to a dizzying variety of new merch, including subscription boxes for books, zines, board games, and art, our first print issue, access to events in cities across the globe, our archives, paywalls, and active collaboration with the editorial team. Stay tuned for more.
We have a lot of exciting new places to go, grassroots organizations to partner with, and stories to tell. We’d love for you to join us in interrogating and shaping the South Asian Avant-Garde Vol. 2.
South Asian Avant-Garde is published by 501(c)(3) nonprofit South Asian Avant-Garde, Incorporated.
DESIGN
The design system for Volume 2 of SAAG is wildly different to that of Volume 1, for many reasons. Read more on the process and conceptual thinking underlying the changes in the design system here.
Display face, Issue 1: TT Ricks by TypeType Foundry
Primary sans typeface: Social by Dinamo type foundry.
Serif body text: Erode by Indian Type Foundry (ITF).
Our colophon (representing the collective above) is inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's painting Head Study.
COLLECTIVE
We are an unwieldy, globe-spanning collective (see: masthead) of forty-six South Asian writers, editors, academics, organizers, translators, playwrights, journalists, visual artists and designers. We share a deep political commitment to radical art that says something new about power and inequality.
CHANGES
As crises deepen both in and around South Asia, we extend our mission to encompass other parts of the world. Part of our mission is to forge new communities and build upon long-running traditions of solidarity across oceans, languages, and nations. Our column centering solidarity—what we call “The Vertical”—is the first in our effort to include essential stories from around the world, featuring voices that offer a deeper introduction to key issues impacting regions not limited to South Asia.
Our reorganized categories allow for various forms of work to be presented in any category. The Vertical will publish timely op-eds and dispatches in any format, be it prose, comic, or photo-essay. Read the work from Issue 1 now.
