Because Sun Spot is at a place called “Sky Village Swap Meet” I wanted present a “swap” instead of a monetary exchange. I believe it’s my role as an artist to present ideas and one of the ideas I think we all need more contact with is: alternative exchange. Here, at Sun Spot, a marketplace for artists, I am presenting an idea of exchange that skips the US dollar altogether.
One utensil in exchange for another. There is only one rule: “Don’t leave if you can’t take, don’t take if you can’t leave.” The manifesto in the shop also has as a log. Anyone can bring a lip balm, a chopstick, a pen, or a pencil to exchange at Sun Spot for an available utensil in the holder.
This idea came to me after I came across a pencil left in the soft sandy desert by my house by some chance incident on the same week as I was trying to imagine a stationery concept shop to move toward my enthusiasm for writing instruments.
So far, the project is in it’s forming stage, but still available at Sun Spot to see and experience as an idea to cook in your head as you leave. As the manifesto says at the end, “If you can’t figure this project out, that’s okay, maybe it will grow on you now that you have read this far. “
I’d like to share with you some of the highlights of my first year in the wildly freeing and welcoming place I have been treating as a self-made artist residency and new home.
Hello from “other desert cities”
The high desert which includes Joshua Tree, Pioneertown, Landers, Yucca Valley, 29 Palms and Wonder Valley is an area indicated on a highway sign on I-10 as “other Desert Cities”. I first came here with friends in 2019. After the pandemic insisted road trip escapes only, Hashem and I visited here and agreed it was special and inviting. Over the summer of 2021, we took the plunge to make this “other” rural desert our home.
Mary: What is your favorite thing about your neighborhood?
Sinema: I love that there are many places, such as churches, parks and community centers, for the youth to hang out after school.
My conversation with Sinema White, a resident in this year’s Laundromat Project Create Change Residency has just been posted. Read the full conversation.
Inventing alternative forms of exchange for a fair economy is one of the most crucial creative challenges of our time.
Fix It Yourself: The Art of Creating Revolutionary Economic Models
Saturday, June 16, 2012 2 PM
The Kitchen, 512 W 19th Street
Organized in collaboration with artist Paolo Cirio, 2012 Fellow at Eyebeam.
Speakers include Paolo Cirio, Mary Jeys, Jessie Reilly, Gregory Sholette, and Caroline Woolard.
This program is free of charge and open to the public; seats will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
This event is organized in conjunction with Creative Destruction on view at The Kitchen.
Over the next weeks months I will be updating this wordpress site. Eventually it will take over the main site and not just live in a hidden wordpress folder.
