Whiz World

2017 and ongoing

WHIZ WORLD is a web of collaborative microsocial organisms that form publications, interactive performances, videos, place based meals, and interspecies collaborations. Founded in 2017 by Queen Whiz, Furtips, and Ghost Whiz in Mendocino County, California, we highlight the lived experiences of women and non-binary artists who probe, question, and rejoice in the material conditions and relationships that bring us into being. We write from a speculative magical feminist perspective, using allegorical language to pick apart the effects of systems of power on our lives. We invite contributors to adopt and write from a whiz persona that encapsulates their essential power. We are committed to an expanding series of tenets that guide our ideology within the power and mystique of the whiz persona. Whiz World’s tenets are practiced outside of the pages of our publications through readings, gatherings, performances and playwork. www.whiz.world

EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES

Printed Matter Virtual Art Book Fair, February 2021: A Performative Reading by Whiz World
Join us for a sixty minute journey to the Realm of Whiz, where 5 whizzes guide us through Issue 6: MUTATIONS

Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA, September 2019, Under the Stars. Place based grounding by Kim Zitzow, Video text written and performed by Annie Albagli, Kim Zitzow, and I. Video created in collaboration with Annie Albagli, Kim Zitzow, Abbey Lee Sarver, Elena Yu, Bonnie Nahmias, and I.
Under the Stars is an annual variety show led by Headlands Artists that includes music, performance, storytelling, cinema, and installations taking place outdoors in the Commons. This video was projected on an inflatable screen while three whizzes performed the text below.

Sierra Nevada College MFA-IA Summer Residency, Sagehen Creek Field Station, Truckee, CA, August 2019. Collaborators: Annie Albagli, Gabbi Ncube, Elena Yu with food by Lucas Casella
Over the course of two residencies on site at the SNC Holman Center studios, Annie Albagli and I created 12 concrete troughths to serve a meal from. During the summer residency of the MFA students at the Research Station, we welcomed the SNC cohort with a 3 hour interactive performance and dinner, which included a script written by Annie, Gabbi, and myself, a place-based grounding by Kim Zitzow, pine resin tasting, a movement and sound workshop by Elena Yu, and an incantation/libation by Rachel Burgos and Niki Ford. The evening concluded with Whiz World’s customary collecting of personal tenets.

Furtips, Queen Whiz, Ghost Whiz, Wize Whiz

Array of Twelve Troughths and Aldo Leopold benches surrounding the Great Basin

The Ten Tenets of Whizzing

Incantation Libation drawing by Mirror Whiz

Appetizers from The Great Basin

Greeting the directions in a place-based grounding by Wind of the Whizzes

“Orientation, relation" movement exercise led by Wize Whiz

Group sound exercise led by Wize Whiz

Dinner by Sagehen chef Lucas Casella served in the Twelve Troughths

Whiz Confluxx at Royal Nonesuch Gallery, Oakland, CA, Summer 2019. With work by Annie Albagli, Elena Yu, Abbey Lee Sarver, Ann Schnake, The Bureau of Linguistical Reality, Gabbi Ncube, Kim Zitzow, Rachel Burgos, Niki Ford, Cara Benedetto.
11 whizzes participated in this group show highlighting our collaborative work in summer 2019 and as part of a month of programming in the space coordinated by Annie Albagli.

WHIZ CONFLUXX at The Royal Nonesuch Gallery

Annie Albagli and Alex Arzt: Twelve Troughths, Tahoe Basin sand and pebbles, Sagehen Creek Field Station charcoal and found trash, Wolf Lichen (Letharia vulpina), pine resin, Basalite portland cement, water sourced from our tear ducts, sweet sweat, and lake da ow a ga.

(L) Ann Schnake: Extraction Became a Way of Life, clay and cord

Abbey Lee Sarver: Hot Creek Ancient Bristlecone Sierra Snow Plant Shadow Glyph, inkjet print on adhesive vinyl, steel, rare earth magnets, Headlands pebbles, sea glass, rocks from California desert, silicone, shell, boot tassel

Rachel Burgos and Kim Zitzow: EXPERIMENTAL VOYAGE, 2 sided full color folded single sheet zine and video documentation of workshop.

Bureau of Linguistical Reality: OFFLUSH, word created by group in gallery

Bureau of Linguistical Reality Salon, July 25, 2019

(L) Cara Benedetto: How to Bite Harder
(R) Elena Yu: Orientation, relation performance outline with selections from transcribed object memory recordings

(Back wall) Elena Yu: Whiz Wears Summer 2019. Custom Whiz Wears for Queen Whiz, Furtips, Picto Gramma, Anise, and Wize Whiz. Worn during our whizzing ‘ventures captured in our most recent Whiz Vids.

Elena Yu: Whiz Wears Summer 2019, new, secondhand, and handwoven fabric, various recycled materials, embroidery hoops, vacuum-sealed cabbage leaves, Whiz Fingerz, Hellmouth Amulets, pebbles, bull kelp, jasmine, with some items from Paychecks Monthly’s Spring 2019 Whiz Wears.

Alex Arzt, Annie Albagli, with Gabbi Ncube: A Site for Communal Ingestion (Bowels), Franciscan complex sand, Basalite Portland cement, Oakland water.

Annie Albagli and Alex Arzt with Elena Yu and Abbey Sarver and Vadim Ogievetsky: The Great Basin, Tahoe Basin sand and pebbles, Franciscan Complex Sand, Mendocino coast sand, Sagehen Creek Field Station charcoal and found trash, Wolf Lichen (Letharia vulpina), pine resin, Basalite portland cement, water.

Whiz World Issues 1 and 2, Whiz Time poster

Whiz World Issues 3 and 4, The Ten Tenets of Whizzing poster

LA Whiz Week and Release of Issue 4: HELLMOUTH at Ooga Booga, April 2019.
For Whiz World’s inaugural attendance at the LA Art Book Fair, we organized a Whiz Week, which included a dinner by Niki Ford hosted at Gabbi Ncube’s Peterson Ranch, a Hand Washing Ritual by Melissa Donaldson, a Hellmouth Amulet Making Station by Elena Yu, and a reading at Ooga Booga by Annie Albagli, Gabbi Ncube, and myself.

Dream Farm Commons Residency and Dinner, Oakland, CA, January 2019. Collaborators: Annie Albagli, Gabbi Ncube, Ann Schnake, Melissa Donaldson, Rachel Burgos, Niki Ford, Kim Zitzow, with food by Bird Evans.
After a week-long residency at Dream Farm Commons, an art space in Downtown Oakland, we hosted a dinner based on a choreography and menu created by our contributors with the theme of Issue 3: BODIES. During the residency, Annie and I made the gallery into a concrete factory. Inspired by the concrete military structures at the Headlands, we created concrete bowls (or bowels) and dinnerware using sand from the Franciscan Complex. We shared libations and incantations by Mirror Whiz and Snake Oil, a place-based meditation by Wind of the Whizzes, hand carved spoons by Scoop, a cleanse by Whiz Bits, a breath of smoke with the help of Babky Whiz, bread by Liz Whiz, and a nutritious and stunning meal by Byrd Evans. We ate with our whiz fingers and the former homes of beloved sea creatures. In closing we communally shared our personal tenets and cleaned up together.

Whiz World at High Desert Test Sites, Sky Village Swap Meet, Yucca Valley, May 2018. With Annie Albagli and Gabbi Ncube.

Whiz World at Sediment Gallery, Richmond, VA, April 2018. Collaborators: Annie Albagli, Gabbi Ncube, Paychecks Monthly, Kim Zitzow.
At Sediment, we held a release for Issue 2: THE ISLAND OF CALIFORNIA and installed a reading room in the gallery’s storefront. We hosted a reading of issue 2, fully clad in whiz wares by Paychecks Monthly (Roseanne Johnson and Devin Harclerode) and Richmond native Kim Zitzow prepared a place based grounding. During the events, videos by Gabbi Ncube were projected.

PUBLICATIONS:

Whiz World Issue 7: EXTRACTION, Summer 2022, 39 pages, Risograph printed in 5 colors, stapled, half letter. Edited by Power Whiz, The Pebbler, Why?s Whiz, and Ghost Whiz. Design by Sleep Scribe. Cover by Pictogramma.

Whiz World Issue 6: MUTATIONS, Winter 2021, includes a series of letters to the virus and a set of whiz-made stationery for you to send your own viral transmissions. Folder includes:  Stationery Set designed by Mirror Whiz, Picto Gramma, The Pebbler, and Quaranqueen ; cover and illustrations by Primiteat ; bumper Stickers by Why?s Whiz, The Pebbler, and Picto Gramma;  pebble Packet by the Whizzes of Whiz World ; 10 letters to the virus by whizzes. Edited, designed, and printed by Quaranqueen, The Pebbler, Why?s Whiz, Ghost Whiz, and Pictogramma.

Whiz World Issue 5: WHIZ CONFLUXX, Fall 2019, 30 pages, Risograph printed in 5 colors, stapled and taped, letter size, on left over whiz project paper. Edited, designed, and printed by Queen Whiz and Furtips.

Whiz World Issue 4: HELLMOUTH, Winter 2019, 32 pages, Risograph printed in 4 colors, Saddle stitched, half ledger, on Astro-brights re-entry red. Edited, designed, and printed by Queen Whiz, Furtips, and Ghost Whiz. Cover illustration by "PICTO-GAMMA" and most inside illustrations by “Primiteat."

Whiz World Issue 3: BODIES, Fall 2018, 36 pages, Risograph printed in 5 colors, Saddle stitched, half ledger, Cougar natural smooth paper. Edited, designed, and printed by Queen Whiz, Furtips, and Ghost Whiz. Cover illustration by "Primiteat."

Whiz World Issue 2: THE ISLAND OF CALIFORNIA, Spring 2018, 20 pages, Risograph printed in 8 colors, Saddle stitched, half ledger, Cougar natural smooth paper. Edited, designed, and printed by Queen Whiz, Furtips, and Ghost Whiz. Cover illustration by "SCOOP." Additional written contributions by California based artists Picto Gramma, Lizz Whiz, Wind of the Whizzes, Piney Wood Atlas, as well as Paychecks Monthly, and Mama Whiz.

Whiz World Issue 1, Fall 2017, 6 pages, Risograph printed in 4 colors, half ledger, Cougar natural smooth paper. Edited, designed, and printed by Queen Whiz, Furtips, and Ghost Whiz with additional contributions by Wize Whiz.