never friends, always lovers
Never Friends, Always Lovers is a zine composed of embroidered images that explore how relationships are read through sameness and difference. Using pairs of domestic objects and pop culture references, the work questions why difference is often interpreted as romantic while similarity is neutralized. Through repetition, mirroring, and subtle variation, the project resists both binary opposition and complete fusion, instead inhabiting an unstable space between the two. The use of pixelated cross-stitch introduces a tension between handmade craft and digital aesthetics, queering both the form and the representation of intimacy.
The zine was made entirely in cross-stitch and later photographed and separated in a two color profile and printed in RISO.
Printed at The Riso Room at the University of Missouri with Light Teal and Scarlet.
Designed and conceptualized by Estúdio Missô
This project was featured at the #40 ANMLY you can access it here.