installing

i’ve been having all these flashbacks to my Senior Thesis project installation week/month while installing my piece for the 10×10 show this saturday.

First is loading the trusty ole lightning fast nissan maxima with weird shit. In April 2009 it was rubber animals, bolts of fabric, chicken wire rolls, telephone parts, paper airplanes, keyboards, string, tables and lamps, clothing with notes, stuffed animals, clothespins, hats, rocks, pleather, stuffing, babyfood jars, luggage tags, adhesives and connectors of all kinds. Now I’m loading trophies of all sizes, boxes, newspapers, sheets and comforters, blankets, stuffed animals, tea sets, suitcases, toothbrush collection, fishing line, jars, lamps.

It’s similar but different obviously. This is a one-week intensive installation where I’m thinking about this mostly, but 4 other projects/jobs/upcoming things to organize for at the same time. Then I was thinking about that project only. I had 10 rooms to install then, now I have only 1.

I also love the similarities in assistance. I was installing in a creepy empty space then and had more work than I could do just by myself (or needed taller people with more hands than me), and exactly the same now. Its so exciting to have assistance and company and I hope those people enjoy it too, even if all they’re doing is folding paper hats or assisting me to hang trophies as a chandelier. (I almost had someone come assist me as a second date. I thought that was fitting — “Hello, nice to meet you, come be a part of my art now.” That’s basically what’s required of any future boyfriends.)

anyways. the point is it’s nice to be installing again. and having people in my life be there with me and finding old weird shit to put in my installations. and having it come together (at the last minute?)

highlights from today’s working day:

• getting a full night’s sleep (even though it felt mostly the same as a little night’s sleep after the first hour or so of being awake)
• wearing my newly reconstructed orange dress with boots
• having a fab profesh newspaper reporter photoshoot (an article featuring me in 10×10 to be published… friday?)
• figuring out a way to be both at the conference I’m going to in Miami this weekend AND my art opening all at once.
• getting RSVPs all day to my art show… people from the synagogue, former art teachers (from high school and from Hampshire!!), JumpStart co-workers, former supervisors, and friends near and far
• having amazing assistants!! Caroline, Jerron, and good ole MOM AND DAD.
• DELICIOUS veggie burrito for lunch. it was bigger than my face. I didn’t think I could finish it. but working hanging trophies upside-down in a tent makes you hungry apparently. (PS EVERYONE COME VISIT ME JUST SO WE CAN EAT MORE OF THESE BURRITOS REALLY OMG SO GOOD).
• hanging all of my and sam’s trophies from our days of glory upside down as a chandelier. I’m so proud of this invention/aesthetic effect. I’m going to start marketing these chandeliers as soon as this show is done. and as soon as I figure out how to spell chandelier.
• getting a great big self-expressed hug from my friend who is in the 10×10 show and has inspired me in so many ways.
• Having a great conversation and regaining a friend I hadn’t been talking to.
• possibilities: that amazing friends will be residents in the Bonar Family Residency Program this upcoming January; that my arctic pets and fancy dresses will be being sold in stores in New Orleans, Boise, and New York soon!; that I might coordinate/create a big public art performance/event/festival for Phoenix Bikes in VA?

best part of this project is getting rid of all the stuff i’ve been holding onto unable to let go of. also best part: using all the leftover stuff from my Senior Thesis and My Childhood and not spending much money at all. biggest costs so far: the $8 PVC pipe, $8 thrifted china, $4.50 burrito, driving back and forth to Lake Worth a billion times. Can’t leave out the “membership” to the creative scrap reuse center… but that’s good all year!! and comes with cute artsy scrap boys.

up next: jewelry making out of trophy parts, animation making for moneyz, leopard print dress making for hottness, arctic pet making for selling, friend making projects for friends, adventure planning for futures, family planning for thanksgiving, sleep?

<3

ALIYA

the last few weeks in pictures

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blog promises for friday

• finish cleaning my room. blog promising to post pictures of said clean room
• draw out animal designs and patterns
• make 5 phone calls to potential job opportunities: create something magical that makes me want to throw my sheets off me in the morning, jump out of bed and run into the florida sun.
• be fearless

alternative biographies

Aliya Bonar received her Bachelors of Arts in Installation Art and Community Organizing from Hampshire College.

She is looking for her next big project, and the amazing friends that are going to fill it up with wonderful. She hopes maybe you will be her next best friend, but you might not be cool enough, because she is also kinda an opinionated jerk. She is alternately a superhero business lady making amazing things happen and also a pathetic pile of tears worried that she won’t make a difference in the world.

She really craves hot dogs, especially with grilled onions and mustard and ketchup and cheese and beans? but every time she eats one she complains about her tummy hurting. Her comfort foods are brown rice and tofu stirfrys. She is forever terrified of being alone. The world is huge in her eyes. She knows she could make something of it all, but it feels really scary, she says.

when she says “goodnight” or “sweet dreams” she really means it. its like a little tiny present she is giving you and it is personal and yours and special.

She listens to the same music over and over because it is comforting and familiar and friendly. She loves Florida, but can’t figure out what is missing. She doesn’t know how to decide where to go. or what to do. or if anyone will ever join her in that big vague project anyways. She’s looking for applicants. to all of the available positions (all of them). but those applicants have to come through and actually make something happen. She is kinda a big faker. She says that she wants to make art and make community and make friends and have a boyfriend and be fearless and be the biggest businesswoman badass she can think of and dream of but she lets her fear of doing it all alone get in the way. She blames boys. She blames the economy. She blames the fact that her room is a mess. Who can make a difference when their room is a mess?

she makes art that is about memories and stories and
she

I am committed to making a difference in the world and making amazing friends at the same time.

halloweeeeen.

hello friends!

halloween was delicious! full of all kinds of events! family friendly, PG-13, and cookies!

1. Neighborhood Pumpkin Carving Partykirsten brought cupcakes WITH SPRINKLES!!! fliers work, people!!maggie, kirsten, james, sophia, aliya, avery, jenny!i love when little girls decide that they have to write “I love you” all over your pumpkin. heart eyes inspired by sophia.we had to have a mean face to balance out the dorky heart-eyes face of the big guy.
2. My Parents Are Super Cutemy dad was… cotton candy! and my mom was… belly dancer lady mask lady!! (the cotton candy costume was my design. thank you thank you) (they didn’t wear the costumes much past the car ride to their destination… oh well).the best!!!
3. Dancing and Friends!! it was my going-away party! but im not going away yet. dancing had by all regardless! thank you lovely friends for planning this!
4. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!my halloween-night treat! followed by a tegan-and-sara inspired solo-dance party. next time you should be there to dance with me.

i miss you all, friends! come visit the Bonar Family Tropical Residency Program this winter. it’s really quite amazing. It will change your life. think about it.

LOVE, ALIYA