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

Project Treehouse Demolition

Historic Day in the Bonar Family Residency.

Today we took down the walls of The Treehouse, an installation constructed cerca 2001. It was so great. The floor was still sturdy and holding strong, but the walls and roof had long ago given up. The tree was actually rejecting the walls, having already pushed one over. we got to just knock it down, hammer it up, throw shit around.

here is the treehouse as we began. the wall facing the camera was mostly pushed off already by the tree.

1. note the really delightful original murals created by myself and Ms. Tessa McGow. real gems. Actually, I think sam did the yellow and black one, and that’s kinda my favorite.

2. note the GIGANTIC PILE OF LEAVES. this was the most disgusting part of the whole thing. we were upsetting probably a year of carefully made bug nests. termites, cockroaches, ants, ugh they were just crawling up everywhere and it was so disgusting. ugh ugh ugh. I took it upon myself to sweep sweep sweep till they were flung off the side oh i’m getting itchy just writing about it. sorry bugs, but you gotta go.

Aliya’s 1st Installation: nail a bunch of crap to the wall. Still somewhat in line with what I do now, I guess. Best thing nailed to the wall: Sam’s old “Official Beanie Babies Club Membership Card”

also great: evidence of my first toothbrush art piece!

look, i’m doing real work. i was getting so down and dirty with those cockroaches it was ridiculous.

sam is so manly.

the roof goes flying off the roof!

right before we knock down the second wall.

At this point, it started raining -downpouring- epically. OH MAN, this must have been a tropical storm I think. it made the whole event MUCH MORE DRAMATIC. and fun. but also, less document-able. So, sorry, but you missed the really awesome Throwing of the Front Wall Off the Platform (where Aliya is very frightened but We Plan It Out So It Goes Great), the Bending the Side Wall Back And Forth Until It Breaks Off (Where Sam does some Weird Footwork Straddling from the Ladder) and the Awesome Removal of All Excess Nails By Everyone (in which the Bugs are Excommunicated from the Treehouse).

see that really small dot on my wrist? Yeah, that’s where I poked myself with a rusty nail. (HARDCORE)

MINUS THE WALLS!!!

WOOOO!!! note the bat-house made and added cerca 2003

the pile of all the walls out on the curb!! weird.

THE END!!

And now, we have a really great elevated platform! really, what I’ve learned from this is that the best treehouses don’t try to actually be little houses. that just doesn’t work. a house outside like that will never be rainproof, bug proof, or secure. I mean even big houses barely do that, especially in buggy, rainy, muggy, intensely powerful sunshine-y state Florida. I’m really excited to sit on this platform.

february 13, 2010

keeping your teeth sparkling

february 13

13 toothbrushes, 1 toothbrush head, glitter, sequins, shampoo-filled water

sink, bathroom

february 11, 2010

grant heaps is really tired (so am i).

performance and installation

february 11 (sorta)

13 toothbrushes, one toothbrush head, shampoo

the bathroom

virtual collaboration with grant heaps

inspired by my good friend grant heaps. Despite the Bonar Family Residency mantra of: “sleep is just practice for being dead”, it’s also pretty important in general.