This Is The Salivation Army

This Is The Salivation Army - Issue X

This Is The Salivation Army is a zine from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, created by Scott Treleaven.

The first issue of this black and white, cut and pasted, photocopied zine was released in 1996. Eight issues were published until the end of the zine in 1999. During this time editor Treleaven was interviewed in zines such as Broken Pencil and Fanorama (in which he was featured as a pin-up boy). The zine incorporated a vivid mixture of punk, goth, the occult and industrial music aesthetics. Articles about filmmakers Derek Jarman and Kenneth Anger were featured. Contributors included REB from Fanorama, G.B. Jones, and Paul Zevenhuizen of Infantile, among others.

In 1997, Scott Treleaven appeared in the documentary film Zined! by Marc Moscato, talking about his publication.

In 2002, Treleaven presented an overview of his zine experience in a film entitled The Salivation Army which quickly became a cult hit, playing at film festivals across North America and Europe and counting as issue 9 of the zine. In 2004, 'Issue X' of the zine was released. This issue featured a number of writers and artists that Treleaven had come to know, or who had contacted him, since the zine's official end. These included Jason Louv, AA Bronson, Paul P. , Genesis P-Orridge, G. B. Jones, Kim Kinakin of Faggo, Rufus Poser of Poser, Julie Voyce, Black Sun Productions, Ango Visone, and others. In 2006, on the tenth anniversary of the zine, all the issues were gathered together and issued in book form as The Salivation Army Black Book.

This Is The Salivation Army is filled with editor Treleaven's distinctive collages, which he now exhibits in galleries around the world. His work has also appeared on CD covers and t-shirts, and in books and periodicals.

"... Once And For All: There Is No Scene: There is no membership activity. We’ve all done our time with the punks, the Goths, the crusties, club scenes, art scenes. Galleries, grebos & factories. You name it. We’ve done the tattoos, the hairdos, the scars, and the steel till we all looked alike. Communist meetings, Anarchist rallies, potlucks, back rooms, witch circles; all the underground credentials you could want....Having now safely returned to the helm we can report: there wasn’t really anybody there. Despite genial perversions, bright markings and self-avowed mutilations, we were still starved for the compassionate ones. (he cums in my mouth, calls me a “good citizen” and then tells me a story about a junky). We were looking for the ones who wanted to begin. This circus is as far flung and varied as any cabaret. Infiltrating all areas. Infuriating people with a total inability to wear one disguise, to believe in one idea, or to take anybody’s word for anything. We truly cum & go as we please from one circle to the next, taking only what we need. Scavengers from a school far larger than any small-minded cult of primitivism, theory, dogma, decadence, or sham. We are ageless jacks-of-all-trades; dilettantes, masters, and examples. Please don’t be afraid: you will know each other by scent alone. We are the new circus. We are the envy of the fucking World."
(exerpt from Open Letter to the New Queer Radicals by Scott Treleaven. From This Is The Salivation Army, 1997)

This Is The Salivation Army was one of the featured titles in the 2023-2024 Brooklyn Museum exhibition devoted to artist-made zines, Copy Machine Manifesto.

External links

• Scott Treleaven interviewed by Broken Pencil