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. “
Saturday, February 3rd was the inaugural yahtzidency at Sun Spot at Sky Village Swap Meet in Yucca Valley. We played with handmade ceramic cups and dice and a scoresheet designed by hand. I am taking applications for new yahtzidents! If you are interested in becoming playing with me, please see the open call here.
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’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.
For this project, I am working with live internet time. Ever since we were forced by health and safety guidelines to stay at home during the Covid-19 pandemic and many workplaces became our homes we lived our lives evermore in front of our screens. This work was developed exclusively considering the meaning in this context. I have created programming for live-streaming on my Twitch channel towards unknowing each day through December 5th as follows:
My portion of this artist talk starts at the 1:22:10 point of the video. I talk about what it feels like to be making work during the pandemic and coping with mental strategies to both address my body and my mind while hiking. During this Zoom presentation, I present a recording of myself while wearing the same clothing as the recorded version of myself.
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
A short-length audio file for your dogwalk, your daily exercise, your short commute. Topics include local wildlife sightings, neighborhood legends I’ve heard, field recordings and more. The show is a weekly 10-30 minute audio show with neighborhood news/updates; segments on local legends/lore; field recordings; and personal musings about wildlife, history, technology, and the ways that we do and don’t communicate with the people closest to us. The podcast will be available exclusively within the neighborhood through September 2016. A compilation for broader interest will be available in the fall. Read the rest of this entry »
