10×10 beginnings

nothing gets me more excited than color-coordinated piles of fabrics:

= the beginnings of tents & animals for the 10×10 show in november.

my favorite: that the blue star-print comforter has been in the top of my closet for years. The last time I used it was when my dog would sleep on my bed every night. The comforter smells like her.

I’m A Pretty Big Deal in these parts.

If you didn’t get the Official Memo released by the National Council of Upcoming Amazing Community Based Artists who are Up To Something Big, one of my installations is going to be in an art show in November!

This show is curated by Kara Walker-Tome, a really amazing south Florida curator that I heard about from states away (an Elsewhere Board Member recommended I talk to her about a year ago) and from close by (an amazing Milagro Teacher — who’s also showing in the exhibition! — also recommended I talk to her). So I finally did! and here I am! I’m so excited to work with her. She says her father-in-law owns a laundry mat where she curated this totally fun performance piece a couple years ago – and that she was thinking that I’d be interested in installing a piece/performance there… um, yes!!

For some reason this feels like a really big deal. At the site visit, I realized that everyone was relating to me like a REAL. PROFESSIONAL. ARTIST. and they all loved me! and what I was up to! And talking about all the other projects I’ve done, people were visibly IMPRESSED. wow. I’m not bragging (too much), but the weirdest part was just realizing that I was really being professional about it all — and so that’s how they were relating to me. I’m being totally serious (about tents, made up stuffed animals, art in storage units, hot pink, glitter), so they are too. I love it.

I’m excited for the opportunity to make art work that is tactile and visual (addicted), but in a totally different context than to be put up in a gallery. If this were going to be in the biggest room in the Miami Art Museum, it’d be boring (ok, maybe not, cause the biggest room? I could make something SO BIG!!). but in this unusual setting, in the context of making art outside of the gallery walls, oh it’s exciting.

Due to an unfortunate scheduling conflict I will be knee deep in a conference in Miami that night and will miss my own 1-night opening… but I’m making the piece interactive and requesting that the visitors leave a note and a story, so there will be something to come back to. It’s all going to be perfect.

sewing begins tomorrow! pictures soon.

Coocoons, community, (other) artists

Yes, some of my favorite words. AND, I’m not even talking about my own art.

I mentioned this at the end of my last epic novel post, but I wanted to highlight it a bit more.

The other day I had an INCREDIBLE conversation with the amazing artist and also Hampshire Alum, Kate Browne. I saw her work featured in a Hampshire Newsletter a couple months back and it said how she was a community artist working on a project in Mississippi involving making a giant cocoon made from bamboo and giant cane and a willow structure. OH-EM-GEE. this is an incredible combination of interests! We are surely destined to be best friends.

I emailed her and it took a bit but we finally got the chance to connect and have a really great phone meeting this past week.

It was just SO GREAT to have this conversation with someone who gets where I’m coming from, artistically and community-building-ly and hampshire-y. She was just so casual and easy going and fun — if you want to create a project, just go out and start creating it. I asked, “how do you start a project like this?” and basically she just starts. She starts talking to people in the place that she wants to work (SHE chooses the place — she doesn’t wait for the perfect arts organization to approach her with a big grant and a huge desire to make cocoons and community art… hmmm….), she keeps asking and talking until she connects with the person who is willing and interested to take on this project, or part of it.

She builds her team of installers, of workers, of planners, of community organizers. She navigates between the people who totally get the project and are willing to not know exactly what it is going to look like but still advocate for it, and the people who have a “great level of anxiety and can’t bear the artistic process”.

I spoke about my ongoing internal debate:  being the “outsider artist” coming into a community I am not a part of, deciding what we are going to do and what is important to that community and then executing that project based on my desires and artistic leanings VERSUS having my work to be very organic, based in the community member’s concerns, talents, passions and a true expression of them. The conflict arising when I present a project with lots of room for others’ input and end up with very vague and intangible projects where I have more difficulty enrolling people in participating because they don’t know what I’m talking about or how specifically and concretely they can participate — people want direction and a leader of some sort.

She laughed and said that yes people do want order and structure and direction. For her, “the materials and the humans are different; the project and the design is the same (for each project).” And she doesn’t worry about it being of that community because it always will be because it will be made from their material and with their histories, their inputs, and most importantly, their mini cocoons filled with something that is important to them. The shape of the project almost isn’t important — it’s just an event, an object, a project to work on which brings out these people and issues and histories — an opportunity to interact.

She spoke about some of the really really interesting social interactions and layers of the projects: how different people interact with the project and their fellow workers and project participants, and how people relate to the installation work itself. People end up focusing their anxieties about the social / racial / historical tensions that are playing out in the making of the project onto the object itself – getting frustrated at the weaving or the speed of progress or the materials instead of acknowledging (at least immediately) the deeper issue.

I loved how casual and non-judgemental Kate was about all these layers. Like an observer and a knowing parent, she lets the process of making the cocoon work itself out.

She reinforced what I’ve been seeing happen to myself in real life this week: you go door to door (or in my case email & phone call to email & phone call) and share yourself and your project and what you’re committed to and what you’re creating. You enroll people in what you’re up to and ask them to play with you. It also reminded me of Greensboro and walking door to door every week — it felt pointless and stupid for a while, but after about a month and a half, there was this shift, and suddenly I was just one of the neighborhood people, slightly recognizable, and credible as someone worth talking to, even just for a bit. “Some people think that community organizing is about ads or commercials. No; community organizing is about talking.”

Kate said I should move to Detroit, that’s where her next project is going to be and she just loves it. She thinks that since it is the first industrial city that collapsed, it will be the first to come back in our new, future-city way. There’s lots to learn from that city. I totally get that!

So, that was amazing. And I’ve been emailing and calling all kinds of people I admire or aspire to be like or just want to talk to, and amazingly they are responding, despite being busy and important and beautiful! despite me sending them a brochure that had the word “TITLE” on the top of the first page because I still haven’t come up with a good name for my workshop! Things are moving, I just need to keep talking.

more updates soon.

<3

aliya

p.s. i just got this 5-year journal I’m super excited about (inspired by mz. Adrienne Skye Robert’s 5-year journal). You write about 1 paragraph per day, and you write on a new page each day. so the next year, I can look up one paragraph and see what I wrote about one year prior. and then the last 2 years. and 3. and 4. These are going to be a good/interesting next 5 years.

YOUR OCTOBER ALIYA-DIGEST

Presenting: Your Blog Post Table of Contents.

please feel free to refer back to this diagram at any point during your reading, if you need a break, if you are feeling fatigued, if it’s time for a snack, if you forgot where we were going with all this anyways.

I hope to see you at the end of this page. It will be great.

Sincerely,

your trusty author & guide.

1. I’m Not Moving to Dallas (Yet). [September 30]

I found out recently that my position at the bcWORKSHOP has been postponed until Maybe February (no dates yet). funding cuts, bureaucracy, possibly/definitely (but not explicitly said) a federal relief/jobs stimulus bill not being renewed?

Point is i’m not leaving florida until february maybe. They want me, but they can’t pay to send me to the required training. The next training is in maybe February.

This felt like a huge blow. I had even made cute booty shorts inspired by the state I was moving to (see pictures at the end of this post)! Worse was just feeling like I was about to step into something, into a larger context that was going to bring me to the next logical place, and suddenly that stepping stone was moved way far away. i don’t want to wait around for 4 months. i don’t like waiting around ever. i could fill my life with little projects forever, i know. i could sew and putter around and eat fruit in tropical wonderful florida winter for weeks on end but this wasn’t enough. i would be like an empty shell.

so i realized it was time to create something. something super compelling to drive me through the winter and into dallas. i started imagining art on the road. art in a cute adorable trailer. art + friends. art + visiting friends. art + a troupe of friends traveling and making amazing things and communities all over.

this sorta became a different idea once i looked into more logistics. I realized, “what about really just taking on florida, the whole reason / idea i had for this Bonar Family residency in the first place. what if i did sewing workshops, friend making workshops, community art workshops, projects, involvements right now here in delray. and maybe miami too. miami could be like traveling to somewhere new and foreign, and delray can be the familiar try-it-out setting.”

the thing that pulls me in two directions is that i say i want to do this big community art project — and i really do. but it terrifies me. i feel incredibly alone when i talk about this project. it feels like little aliya going up against the world to make this big thing all by myself. fulfilling on a promise i don’t even totally know i can fully accomplish. so the idea of a sewing/altering/creating something great out of old shit workshop seemed like a great plan. but it also seems like a small thing. like little aliya. but is it? isn’t it better to just get started on something already? i need to confidently talk about myself as an artist in the present tense. i am an artist. i am making all the time. i am not waiting. i am moving forward right now. i am a superwoman.

2. Creative Time Summit: Revolutions in Public Practice 2 [October 9-10] featuring appearances by “IDEAS, INSPIRATIONS, FUTURES CREATED!“

so that is the mindset i walked into the nyc creative time revolutions in public practice 2 summit October 9th weekend. i created the possibility of the trip being ridiculous best-friend-ships, partnership, collaboration, connections, community. the possibility of me being courageous and outspoken, fully self expressed and a huge contribution to the world — knowing myself as someone who is a contribution and part of the social engaged art field. I assigned myself the job of a NYC 8th grade book report: ask questions, fully participate, be totally of service to everyone, talk totally self expressed-ly to everyone i meet.

oh, here’s your entrance wristband to get into this blog version of the conference.

Wow! What a great great inspiring conference. Summit. I left feeling inspired, as I had intended and the whole reason for going. As a volunteer, I loved getting to know the people and the organization of Creative Time. They are amazing. I would really like to participate as an intern in their program very soon (foreshadowing).

As a viewer/participant in the summit (I was just a normal summit-goer the first day, and a volunteer the next day), I loved the set up (much better than last year): there were panels who presented, grouped on a theme, and then those people had a panel discussion, mostly led by questions from the audience. That was the real veggie-meat, the best part. Their presentations could make no sense, and then the discussion was where it became a bit more real. I also am constantly amazed at how bad some people are at presenting ideas and having an audience really get it. I mean, obviously I’m still working on that too. But there were so many times when people tried to cram whole years long theories into 8 min presentation, and it was just rushed and confusing and I feel like I understood some parts, but not really where they were going. The keynote speech by community-art-heart-throb Rick Lowe was incredible: he presented his work and the questions and commitments behind his work, but he also touched on the issues and dilemmas of community based work. when it doesn’t work so great. when its hard. when you do everything right and people still end up back in jail.

You can digest the Summit yourself here.

Anyways, here are some quotes/ideas I’m taking away from the discussions (these are all paraphrases):

• “I’m not producing Forms, but experiences.” (surasik usolwong)
• “we continue to be successful as long as someone continues to want our services”
• “art has to be a movement into the world opening out eyes, being of service” (FEAST)
• “we bring these issues into the realm of ART because the question of value is debated in this context. The system of value within our current system needs to be debated” : Within a context of being “art”, these projects get scrutinized and questioned as to the value that they bring — both in what we consider valuable in our normal day to day (capitalist) lives and also beyond that, in what is important for each person to express and declare.
• from rick lowe: “I want to create a space for producing and celebrating culture and neighborhood: talking about pride and community, not poverty and crime. Where is the dignity in neglect? if you give people light they can shine. Wheres the dignity in telling artists there’s no room for them to make a difference in their communities and everyday lives?” (based on idea from John Biggers: take something that is dishonored and honor it, restore its dignity)
• (rick lowe again:) “The work I do I have to think about in terms of social justice — social change is not enough. It’s not change, its peeling back the layers that are already there. It’s not easy, it doesn’t all work. It’s dangerous work, we’re trespassing into people’s lives. Justice is what we have to demand of each other [holding each other to account to produce work that forwards the world & humans in it, not just change it.]
• “artists can be good at map-making/politics of space: we imagine new ways of being and then create spaces for that to exist” (trevor paglen)
• some projects are not necessarily very effective in their goals, but they do open up a conversation to new people, opens up a new kind of dialogue. (dinh q. le)
• “why does everyone living in AnnArbor want to do projects in Detroit?” in reference to a grad school class exploring this idea and divide: reciprocal participation is key in having open and equal exchanges of information and learning across differences. (danielle abrams)
• organizations and art projects want to be a part of a system (for $, recognition, backing, support) but at the same time it is limiting & isolating because of that privilege and backing/support
• there was a lot of questions and discussions about capitalism and commitments to dismantling capitalism, or the school structures, or government structures. in response, at the end of the day, “There is an illusion of artists that we can create new contexts for our art. NO. We rely on the existing contexts and institutions to give meaning and support and existence to our projects and ideas.” (discussion for plausible art worlds)

I don’t know if that is useful to anyone really. those are my scattered notes, and maybe they don’t make sense out of context.

If that list didn’t make sense, then you should definitely read this one:  Here is what I generated in my own head over the weekend, a list of project ideas:

• dinner party art: an entire meal of one-bite dishes beautifully laid out in miniature on a spoon for each guest.
• my room as an installation! color code it, transform the junk into awesome!
• program: “Make Cookies With An Artist” (where you get to make cookies with me. Related “Go On A Date With An Artist” (only a small application fee for that residency, which covers roughly the cost of dinner).
• Backyard BFR Lecture Series!! 15 minute lectures on something you know a lot about. invite everyone i know to play in my backyard.
• ethnography of all the restaurants on “west atlantic” that I consciously/unconsciously have never been to because that’s the “poor part of town”
• have a tropical fruit party exploring all the tropical fruit trees that I find.
• learn spanish really
• meal/research project exploring my food history: “jewish food” and “macrobiotic food”  and where did the “jewish foods” become jewish foods/ why/ and what are the foods that I consider to be foods I grew up on and “my history”
• scan/take photos of all the sentimental stuff i am keeping around. bind it into a book, and then throw away all that stuff.
• make milagro star cards with all the kids at Milagro: a trading card for each kid and on the back it will talk about what they’re really good at and what they love and what they want to contribute to the world.
• a piece in the ocean: 100 floating sculptures.

3. NYC Reunions!! [October 11-12]

Not Pictured!

• Eric Peterson at McSorely’s where we ate way too much cheese and crackers and onions and horseraddish mustard
• Malcolm St. Clair at Upright Citizens Brigade! which was funny because he told me about this place when we were dating a million years ago and I had dreamed of going there with him, and now we were! weird.
• Shoshi Roberts at Cupcake Cafe! which was also funny because we technically just met! and a roundabout/through ex boyfriends way of knowing each other.

4. Bonar Family Tropical Residency Program: Reinvigorated! [October 15ish]

(click on the image to get the full info at my friends Amber and Bobby’s Amazing Network of Domestic Spaces Project)

come visit my tropical residency program!! we will create some magical art together. open for one weekend or week long stays. can’t wait to see your beautiful face

5. Delray Beach Workshops

6. In Action: New Brochure, New Freedom to Talk About My Art!

Since not going to Dallas, I suddenly had a bit more freedom to talk about what I’m up to and make it applicable right here right now (you really). So I created a new brochure! this time striving to be more concrete, more visual, more tangible. Like after reading it, some awesome people and arts organizations are going to say, oh yeah, I can do that. here it is!

I still need a good title/name for my program. Thoughts?

Best is that I’ve been calling people. I need to keep calling them and actually reach them, but I am not terrified of picking up the phone. BUSINESS LADY ALIYA IS IN THE HOUSE!

7. 10×10 Show! [October 21]

Part of that “talking to everyone” thing is that I got in touch with this amazing curator, Kara Walker Tome, who has been making all kinds of incredible art shows in South Florida. Jody Servon from Elsewhere and Steve Bachus from Milagro have both told me to get in touch with her.

I did, it was too late to apply to this show, but I said I wanted to be involved in any way. She responded a week or so later saying, “We have a spot open and I totally love your work!” so I made a proposal and now I’m in! I’m going to be in a real-live established art show in South Florida!!
Here’s my proposal!

10×10 project proposal oct-20-2010

10. QUILTED LANDSCAPES!!

9. Coming Soon: more collaborations with wannamake; Clear Headed Fact-Based Elections discussions;  had a really amazing conversation with fellow Hampshire Alum and Community Artist Kate Browne (who makes COCOONS!!); YOU! at the Bonar Family Tropical Residency Program!!; Rat-Tail Love; Stuffed Animals in the Big Times

PS: check out some cool clothes I’ve been making:

1. 
   

   shirt image designed and drawn for me by mr. Micah Litant

   
   

2. p.p.s. just so you all know, i kinda hated writing this blog post. it was like flossing after not flossing for so long. it sucks. it took me 5 + hours. so i hope you really appreciate it, even the long and make-no-sense lists. All those images! so exciting! relish in the excitement of images and updates from my life!
3. ok. i’m done being bitchy now.