Lifecycle of a bed(bug)room

Zine. Printed and saddle-stitch bound.

The distinct division between the private and public spheres that is evident in traditional media - and design - means that the private is often considered taboo or out of place in public media settings. As these two spheres apparently cannot coalesce, the combination of them in the zine ‘Lifecycle of a bed(bug)room’ is tactical in its intimacy and vulnerability.

The presence of bedbugs in what is generally considered a highly private and personal space – the bedroom – means that any communication of such an experience publicizes the private. The zine aims to capture the erosion of the sanctuary of this space and render the private into the property of the public or collective. Encouraging a sense of intimacy, the grayscale documentary photography traces the bedroom from its conception at the commencement of the lease to the aftermath of a bedbug treatment. Grayscale functions to remove the warmth from the imagery, and instead codifies the space as a fixed entity. The handmade aesthetic of the zine further highlights the notion of the personal and private, as the photographs are taped to the page and collaged as if part of a journal. The inclusion of poetry serves to juxtapose the heavy presence of photography, although it still displays visual signals of fragmentation and displacement in its arrangement.