In January I was invited to be join the 2023 Cohort of Artists with the Desert Research Library. A project sprung from the High Desert Test Sites. This library is unique among special library projects I have experienced. The entire collection is curated through artist’s selections. In being invited as an artist, I was invited to curate a selection of reading materials for a library in the desert. Being a super fan of all libraries- so quiet! so full of ideas! so teeming with future potential! so careful in preserving history! I was so excited to contribute my own ideas and archive of thinking and material to the library.
Of course, I went down my own rabbit hole tangent which involved spending A LOT of time researching video games, gaming history and philosophy and interweaving research on desert landscapes as gaming landscape. By mid-March, I had surfaced a short list of games that I believed were worth including in a library whose focus is the desert. I was also prepared with my understandings of video games as a kind of cultural property which we can “read” like a long form novel as justification for inclusion in a library of artist’s researching.
I am joining the HWY 62 Open Studio Art Tour this year. In it’s 21st year here in this region spanning 8 desert communities, the tour is these weekends: October 8-9, 15-16, and 22-23, 2022.
My studio will be open on: October 8-9 and October 22-23 from 10am-5pm.
I will be visiting other studios on the second weekend. Please reach out if you will be around or if you want to visit studios with me!
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.
I created and co-curated this six week residency and exhibition. See below for detail photos and curatorial statement. Click “read more” to see postcard invitation and more installation photos.
Opening Reception: November 30th, 2018 6-9pm Artist Talk: Saturday, January 26th, 2019 2-4pm Closing Reception: February 16th, 2019 6-9pm
Regeneration has an embedded notion of loss. Loss of limb, loss of life, loss of deadweight. In this residency, we considered the work of rebuilding artistic practice after having lost something. Many of us have experienced loss in our community, in our perception of safety, in political decency, and in our personal economics as independent creators. In this residency, we recombined our efforts, tackled our own challenges and met them with powerful regenerative forces.
For six Sundays in the fall, artists Autumn Bree, Kate Godfrey, Constance Moore, Stephanie Potter Corwin, Tracey Rolandelli and Noga Wizansky met as a group with curators Mary Jeys and Shoshana Zambryski Stachel to discuss topics brought forth in their proposed projects. Weekly discussions addressed issues of regeneration and process as they related to each artist’s practice.
Given the curators’ interests in artist/gift economies and community arts access, artists were also encouraged to create companion works available in the gift shop during the fall/winter season. All artworks are on sale — both gallery-installed and smaller companion works available in the shop.
ArtVale Gallery 3463 Champion St. Oakland, CA 94602 WEDS-FRI: 1-7PM SAT: 12-6PM artvalegallery.com
We revived the Brooklyn Torch Trade Store at Proteus Gowanus on February 21st. As part of their current exhibition on Labor in their series on Commerce, the Brooklyn Torch Project has been invited to tender a medium of exchange for the Diego de la Vega Coffee Co-op, selling Autonomous Zapatista Coffee in the gallery.
The Diego de la Vega Coffee Co-op is a project developed by Fran Ilich that offers organic coffee sourced locally in Chiapas, Mexico from Zapatista autonomous farms. Its goal is to connect social movements and geographical regions – Chiapas and New York City – and to create a horizontal financial flow between social movements.
Just moved to California. It has been a whirlwind and I’m excited to start a new journey on the left coast. Below are some things that have come through my inbox, all great:
Third Annual Public Art Potluck
Engage our Create Change artists in conversations about their projects and creative ideas set in communities across New York City and Philadelphia. You’ll hear about socially-engaged art projects ranging from yoga-based printmaking in Jackson Heights to envisioning a new waterfront for the South Bronx to a multimedia installation highlighting the history of garment workers in Sunset Park.
What Do We Bring? Yummy Food and Public Art!
What Do You Bring? An Open Mind and Creative Ideas!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012 | 7:00pm – 9:30p
Doors open at 6:30pm
University Settlement, 184 Eldridge Street, New York, NY 10002
Dinner will be prepared by Organic Soul Chef Madea Allen. Get Tickets
In 2011, Macktez granted me a Summer Stipend to document my monetary exchanges in North Brooklyn. The project was a piece of the overarching Brooklyn Torch Project, but was specifically designed to use special film and to follow my own spending habits. Thank you to Macktez, you can see the photos here.
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.
