Extra Nice Fund recipient Cahyati Press to bring the first community Riso printer to Bali

Cahyati Press is a space surrounded by creatives. Creatives that come through the studio and bookstore to read, creatives that come to collaborate and publish their works, and creatives that work behind the scenes, helping the independent, self-funded space run throughout the year. While the community surrounding Cahyati Press is rich, many looking to print their work in are still faced with a crucial barrier: cost.

Cahyati Press has had an idea to help. From its base in Seminyak, Bali, the studio wants to set up a community Riso printer, which it will maintain and run on a tiered membership system, with subsidised memberships available for working-class creatives. After receiving hundreds of excellent applications to this year’s Extra Nice Fund – which exists to help bring to life projects that positively impacts underrepresented groups – we are thrilled to announce that Cahyati Press founders Syarafina Vidyadhana and Katyusha Methanisa are the recipients of this year’s fund and will receive £2,500 to help towards their community-driven mission.

For Syarafina and Kat, the printer will do more than just support creatives logistically with publishing – though this is an important part of their plan. It will also break down barriers that might exist for those wanting to experiment.

“It costs a lot to print something, pushing artists to try to make things as perfect as possible before they get published,” says co-founder Kat. Riso printing is traditionally cheaper than running digital copiers and, in some cases, more sustainable due to its use of soy or rice oils over petroleum-based inks. Its price point and the unexpected nature of the printing process opens up all sorts of possibilities for creative exploration. As Syarafina puts it: “When things are low stakes, people feel encouraged to create.”

“In a visual sense, we are drawn to Riso because the results are interesting and not ‘perfect’,” Syarafina says. “Also, Indonesian artists are very diverse, but a lot of them have vibrant colour palettes that could really come to life through Riso.” By increasing access to the technique, Cahyati Press can help realise more of the kind of projects it is currently working to publish – like Aca & Ica, a comic series from the artist Ula Zuhra that follows two girls in Jakarta, or a chapbook of essays by Rizky Rahad, investigating queer cinema as a radical means of liberation.

“We only sell books and zines that we love and believe deserve to be read by more people,” says Kat. Syarafina adds: “We get teary eyed when people from all over the island come to our store and say they resonate with our curation. These are people who, like us, yearn to read works that are otherwise not available at chain bookstores – either due to their perceived lack of commercial value or unpopular perspectives.”

One of the most fulfilling parts of running Cahyati Press is the friends Kat and Syarafina have made along the way and the connections they’ve helped facilitate. Even their first zine, Some Type of Love, brought people together. Working with their friends and collaborators Christabelle Adeline, Rara Rizal and Farhanah, the duo created an interactive publication featuring writing prompts and a draw-by-numbers poster. “To this day, we still give out these activities at the store for visitors to do,” says Syarafina.

Like any labour of love, there are challenges too. Both Kat and Syarafina work day jobs, funding and running the Press between them (although they’ve recently brought on their friend Gita to help with the workload). “I live and work in Meanjin (Brisbane in so-called Australia), something we knew could be a challenge going in,” says Kat. Beyond this, limited resources means that stocking and restocking a range of books is difficult and they often have to choose quantities and texts very deliberately. But the pair have come up with some ingenious solutions too. For example, Cahyati Press operates by appointment only. But rather than holding back the venture, Kat and Syarafina confirm it’s actually been a positive for the space, allowing visitors uninterrupted time to browse and discover.

As for the kinds of projects Cahyati Press hopes to welcome on a personal level, Kat would love to see artists print their comic books and graphic novels, or bring to life their experimental and non-fiction work. Meanwhile Syarafina wants to see more poetry chapbooks or even translators coming together to create multiple translations on the same text. In many ways, that is the beauty of Kat and Syarafina’s printer, the possibilities are limitless; its purpose can be defined by the community that uses it.

In just a short year, Cahyati Press has already made a huge impact. But when it began, the duo had no real guarantee it would resonate. “I think that more than anyone, Syarafina and I needed Cahyati Press,” Kat says. “It’s kind of an all-encompassing space, both in a physical sense and otherwise.” While the pair began the Press on “the assumption that we couldn’t be the only people on the island (or at least the Seminyak area) who needed a space to nerd out over books,” says Syarafina, it has grown into an essential part of the local creative landscape. We can’t wait to see where the Risograph printer takes Cahyati Press next.