Cannonball Wuz Here, And Still Is.........

Cannonball Press
Drink Up and Be Somebody

Show run: December 5 – 27, 2008

Lump Gallery
505 S. Blount St
Raleigh, NC 27605
Hours: Saturdays 12-5pm and by appointment during the week

Lump will also be open additional Friday nights (12/12 and 12/19) from 6pm -9pm as part of the Every Friday in December is First Friday event.

Them scallywag, good-for-nothing, woodblock carvin', boys from Cannonball Press made a pilgrimage down from Brooklyn last week to install their recent Lump show, "Drink Up and Be Somebody". They dub it the "World Premiere" of a series of giant block prints full of "can you hold my hair while I puke", booty grinding, slobbery. For nine years, Martin Mazorra and Mike Houston have been producing limited edition relief cuts, silkscreens, and lithographs from their own hands as well as publishing prints from other artists, many of which are included in C-balls third Lump show like, Dennis McNett, David Ellis, Maya Hayuk, Bill Thelen, Aiyanna Udessen, Swoon, Bill Fick, and the Amazing Hancock Brothers.

One thing the Cannonballers do very well is squeeze a lot of party into one print, and they sure as fire went "Saloon style" with this show crammed with hundreds of $20 lim ed. works in a space they broke up masterfully by hanging 8x4 foot prints on canvas from the ceiling. Team Lump's Tory Wright took one metric shit ton of pics from the opening night: here's a few.

OBAMA

Barack is President yall.

Cartune Xprez at Lump

HOOLIGANSHIP will sail into Lump on Wednesday, October 29th, presenting their Fall Tour "Cartune Xprez - a roadshow of animated videos and multimedia performance."

Hooliganship is Peter Burr and Christopher Doulgeris. Both artists were born in 1980, and live and work in Portland, Oregon. They formed Hooliganship in 2002 creating performances, videos, music, and installations that revel in a hypnotic abundance of digital information. In REALER live music, cartoons, and video game worlds cross paths in a surreal adventure through 3 dimensions. 3D glasses will be provided at the screening.

A 70-minute program of short animated videos that celebrates the wilderness of imagination through motion pictures will be presented. Featured artists include Bruce Bickford, Eric Dyer, Shana Moulton, Takeshi Murata, Paper Rad and more. Alongside this cartoon theater Hooliganship will be performing their most recent piece entitled “Realer” in which audiences strap on a pair of 3D glasses to bear witness to a televised parade gone awry.

For more information, images please visit: http://www.cartunexprez.com/press/ or contact us at lumpgallery@gmail.com

Big Kids/Little Kids: Raleigh

Big Kids/Little Kids: Raleigh

Posted using ShareThis

This is a really great group show that comes to Lump Gallery for the month of October via Philadelphia's Space 1026. The show features artists whose life and art have intertwined with Space 1026 over the years. A catalog for Big Kids/Little Kids is available at Lump. This traveling, yet evolving, exhibition was curated by John Freeborn. More information as well as catalogs can be found at his website.

Also visit Lump, Space 1026.

Artist included in the Lump version:
Adam Wallacavage
Amy S. Kauffman
Andrew Kuo
Andrew Jeffrey Wright
Barry McGee
Ben Woodward
Dave Delaney
Eric McDade
Isaac Lin
Jim Houser
Jordan Isip
John Freeborn
Joseph Hart
Ryan Wallace
Shepard Fairey
Shelley Spector
Shelter Serra
Tim Lewis
Thomas Maher
Todd St. John
Tom Lessner

Shephard Fairey

We're back!!!!

www.teamlump.org is back up and looks better than it has ever looked thanks to our friends at OPP (www.otherpeoplespixels.com). Let us know what you think.

Almost online..........but here's a short cut.

The new Team Lump site!!!!!!

The new Team Lump page is almost online , we're just waiting for the powers that be to connect our old domain to our site. For now though, the above link will take you to the webpage. Let me know if you have any ideas for how this should look. I'm especially looking for advice from current and former Team Lumpers. The front page image will change often, like the old site, and there will be a video component soon. If you know the link to artist or gallery websites from any of the former Team Lumpers, let me know so I can add them to the 'artists & friends' page. The books/zines page will be expanded, and they will be purchasable through Paypal or by snail mail.

We're soo down!

Hey, you may have noticed by now that www.teamlump.org has been down for about a week. We (bill) were getting gouged by the server host, and it seemed like they were charging more and more. We're changing hosts and in the meantime, we're re-vamping the entire site. It should be back up and running in the next week!

Ryan Martin / "Secret Xerox"

The other night while perusing Downtown Durham after going to the Stacy-Lynn Waddell show at Branch, we walked into an amazing studio/gallery space I've never been inside. The building was beautiful, and the interior reminded me of a Space 1026 with more walls and rooms. Sadly, the majority of everything on display was not quite as amazing as the building itself except for one man, Ryan Martin. You know him as Boy Zone, or Secret Boyfriend, and I believe he was in a little number called Boner Machine for a while. Ryan by far had the most interesting work in the show with his xeroxed drawings taped to the wall. If you live in Chapel Hill or Carrboro you see Ryan's drawings all the time on Nightlight flyers. Here's some photos of the xerox wall, and a video of Secret Boyfriend playing at the Nightlight.

Matt Keeney interviewed by Tory Wright

With the end of school and a thesis show behind her Tory Wright asks Matt Keeney a current grad student at MICA some questions (via e-mail) about his work.



Tory Wright:
So Matt, over the past three years you have explored performative acts in public spaces such as the internet, baseball parks, football stadiums, Wal-Mart and sidewalks lining the streets of Baltimore. How did you begin using your body within these performances?

Matt Keeney:
I first began using my actions as way to activate the sculptural pieces that I was working with, however I quickly found the medium of performance to be the perfect fit
for exploring the questions that the work was asking.

TW:
Curious! What were these sculptures that you were activating? What were these questions?

MK:
Well at first I was purely interested in our relationships with space, however making static sculptures to address this never quite seemed to fit. Once I started inserting myself into them I realized that there was a whole new set of possibilities that emerged. It was at this point that I started working in public space.

TW:
Did these activated static forms become the starting point of performances that moved from your body and on to Sports?

MK:
Yes, the more I worked this way, the more it became apparent that I was concerned less with the form and more with the actions as a way to express my ideas. As I focused on the actions I found that I was referencing many of the ones that I had seen or experienced through my involvement with sports.

TW:
I can’t see that. In the video (below) outside the Orioles stadium you seemed to collect Hi-fives (with a mostly dead pan look on your face) as though you were a spectator of sports fans themselves more so than the game. The video, a documentation of the hype that exists without a physical cue from the team’s actions but with your visual cue. A typical sports fans gesture of a simple high five. An action that activates a physical connection loaded with questions.



TW:
A game outside of the game or commentary on community within spectator-ship??

MK:
In the newer work, I am beginning to focus in a little more on the spectator-ship that exists in sports. It is amazing to me the way that sports/games have a way of creating commonality among groups of people.

TW:
Football or Basketball?

MK:
Well, I am interested in working with all different types of sports (games). However, being that I live in Upstate New York, these two, along with hockey, seem to get most of the attention.

TW:
Do you see a connection between athlete and fan and artist and viewer?

MK:
Yes, I do. In many ways the relationship between the artist and their audience is much like the way a fan follows their favorite athlete or team.

TW:
You were able to participate in one of Lee Walton's remote instructions projects, Let's Push Things Forward. How did that opportunity come together? Any awkward moments, with doing it in Baltimore?



MK:
There was an open call for participants posted on Walton’s website, and I simply applied. He was very personable in his emails, and the directions he provided were very thorough.

Shooting the piece was a lot of fun once we got started. A friend of mine at MICA was able to get a couple of her students to help, which really got the project started, and the rest of the people who participated we simply approached on the street. It is amazing to me how willing people are to do anything in front of a camera.

TW:
Has Lee Walton become a mentor or model for you, of what conceptual art could be? If so, how?

MK:
I have been following his work a lot over the last four years or so. For me, I find that his work remains very fresh, because it is constantly changing, which makes it exciting to follow.

TW: After looking at Lee Walton's drawings I read the essay "Drawing Baseball", by William C. Agee, 2005, he wrote,

"But Walton’s model of structural clarity, of the very architecture that he values so highly, has been, above all, the work of Richard Diebenkorn, a fellow Californian he has long admired."
-William C. Agee

TW:
Do you have any influences that I would find surprising?

MK:
There are many other artists besides Walton that I have been following closely over the past few years. I have been drawn to the work of individuals like Francis Alys, and Eriwn Wurm; as well as groups such as The Art Guys, and Harvey Loves Harvey.

TW:
The Checkout video filmed at Wal-Mart seems so different from the rest. It was as though the scanners beeps mimicked a heart monitor and the lens cap could be an eye opening and closing. How did you see that video functioning, could you tell me a bit about that day?

MK:
That video was meant to serve as a follow up to the piece “Honk”, which I did in Washington, DC. For that piece I walked around the National Mall, stopping and starting based on the frequency of car honks.

In the video “Checkout” I wanted to do something similar, but from more of a first person perspective. However, in Upstate New York people rarely use their car horns. The scanner beeps at Wal-Mart were the closest thing I could find to the environment that I had at the mall.

TW:
The Waiting project from 2007-2008 seemed to be an important performance for you. You and your BENCH. You documented it, posted it on a blog, and youtube. Then finally after 7 months and 3 weeks someone ended it by meeting you in Clinton square in Syracuse.

TW:
Usually women are the ones waiting. However cliché that is, do you have any comments on that idea?
HA,HA!

MK:
Well, I just find it interesting that with all the different modes of communication we have and with so many things being in “real-time”, we still spend a lot of time waiting. Also the time that we do spend waiting isn’t usually that long when you put it into perspective, it is just that we are so used to things happening instantly.

TW:
Sort of like E-mail.


For more information on Matt Keeney's video work visit, www.matthewkeeney.com .
And for updates and images from Tory Wright visit, www.torywright.com

Good times had by all.

Here's some pics from the Lump Benefit Friday night. Everyone had a great time, a lot of good friends came out to support the space (philosophically and financially), two great bands performed, and I am still tired. More pictures are available at the Lump Docket post, and Goodnight Raleigh.

Lump Gallery Benefit is this Friday, August 15th

This coming Friday, August 15th, Lump Gallery will be holding a benefit at 8pm. A modest cash donation of $5 will get you in to see two amazing local bands, Phon, and Schooner.
As many of you know, Lump has long been an important venue for exposing Raleigh to fresh, challenging art for the past thirteen years. It's a stripped down, no frills gallery that has given many breaks and chances to contemporary artists whose work needs exposure. Bill Thelen, founder/director/curator/ARTIST/(and friend), has been the driving force behind this unique space. Come check out the benefit Friday night, say hello to Bill, have a beer, see some of Team Lump's work from our Chicago show last April and enjoy two great local bands.

Links--> Phon, Schooner


Phon

Schooner's debut album cover

What we do when Lump is closed.

What do we do when Lump is closed during July and August every summer?
Well, Bill and Med were in Australia forever (late June-mid July); Tory was in Baltimore finishing up her MFA at MICA (Congratulations Tory!!!); and me, I loiter.
Oh yeah, and of course we are preparing for another amazing gallery benefit which will be Friday August 15th this year. Schooner and Phon will be performing and Med will be holding down the donation Pabst Blue Ribbon table. Aside from that, and because of this event, a few of you may have noticed that we were closed during first friday this month. It was actually very nice, because we had a chance to walk around and see what everyone else was up to that night. We watched the Loners play at Rebus Works with an interesting plush show of islands, waterfalls, fauna, and majic fabric works inside the gallery. We said hello to our friend Megan Sullivan at her Morning Times show of her photorealist quilts. You may remember her from the Low End Theory show Tory put together in June as well as last Decembers' "Group Hug" show. We went to the Ladies Shop on the corner of Wilmington and Hargett to see the Reposition show that Tracey Spencer helped put together. We ran into everyone, had some food, maybe some drinks, and jazzercised.

Wild On! at the NC Museum of Art's "Greenway Trail"

Joseph Buey's would have loved the North Carolina Museum of Art "Greenway Trail". Not because of Thomas Sayers' giant dyed concrete rings but because as I strolled along the blackberry lined paved path on Sunday I was pleasantly surprised to see a coyote. We had just checked out the Sayer piece and were on our way to a giant corn-cob style sculpture when I saw what I thought was a large gray fox about 50 feet away into the tall prairie grass. It was staring right at us, and when I yelled out to it, the coyote came towards us. After about thirty seconds, it looked away from us, jumped forward twice and pounced on a small animal in the grass that I assume was either a rabbit or a mouse. Then it smiled at us until we eventually walked off to ask a museum employee if there were actually coyotes out here in the middle of Raleigh at the art museum. At any rate, it was a beautiful animal and I suggest that everyone go out and hike the trail while the weather is nice. Remember to bring a container, because if you don't get to witness a coyote in action, you will see a truckload of blackberries growing around all the outdoor sculpture.

Only the locals know about our secret menu!!

Here's a rad new zine from Bill Thelen and Jason Polan, called "ONLY THE LOCALS KNOW ABOUT OUR SECRET MENU". It's great because it pairs these two artists with similar minimalist drawing tendencies. It's filled with very quirky, simple and elegant drawings that take on a mysterious life of their own. Ashton did some amateur hand-modeling for the photos.

Q & A with Three LowEnd Theory Artists

Tory Wright asks Molly Schafer, Megan Sullivan and Catalina Torres about their work in relation to the exhibition on view at Lump Gallery until the end of June.

MOLLY SCHAFER


Tory Wright Question #1.
Is the connection between reality and fantasy bridged by your video work?

Molly Schafer, Answer #1
The two (reality and fantasy) are somewhat bridged. All of my fantasizing is actually grounded in reality. I subscribe to the notion of the plausible impossible. I learned about it as a kid watching a program about the Looney Tunes comics and it has stuck with me ever since. I'm against Narnia style fantasy where it is just an impossible jumble of everything. I'm less for suspending belief and more for wonderment. Sure it is a fine line, but there is also a big difference if you are paying attention.

I was just thinking about this while I ate breakfast. It's almost as if people need things to be totally fake to believe them. In the Assateague Island video project I'm working on I have some great footage of myself sneaking around the side of a sand dune with a big spear, ambush style. While you are watching this you can also see a car drive by in the background. It is a very important moment. It makes the project relevant. People have told me to get rid of these type of details before. They don't get it. No one will ever forget that there is a camera there, that it is a performance and I don't want the work to be divorced from culture in a separate fantasy world. The fact that it is happening in this world is at the heart of my work. It is about longing. Longing for the unattainable, for an ancient time, to be a different creature, for the course of humanity to have gone differently, for a different reality.

Oh, but can I add that my video "Centaurides" from 2006 is a good example of this. It bridges reality and fantasy by pairing sketches with audio of me recounting my longings, frustrations, and anxiety dreams. Pairing the two and altering the voice raises questions about who/what is speaking. It should be up on my website soon. www.mollyschafer.com

Tory Wright, Question #2.
How do you see the video stills of your Assateague project and your drawings connecting?

Molly Schafer, Answer #2.
Perhaps this is also a different answer to the previous question. In a way my stay on Assateague Island was a fulfillment of the drawings. The video and stills are a document of that. Standing in the dunes among horses, holding a giant spear/staff and facing into the wind; in effect mimicking the posture of "A Hunter and a Plains Dweller (Rebecca)" was a perfect experience. I didn't expect it to feel the way it did and it is difficult to describe. I'd say it resonated the same part of my brain that was resonating when I made the drawing, I was back in the same zone. I had this calming I-am-the-thing-and-the-maker-- Universal Being -feeling. Ha! Since then I am seeing myself as just another character in my mythology.

Tory Wright, Question #3
Now that you have started a blog www.harpiaharpyja.blogspot.com have you had any enthusiasts of your work who come from unexpected places or points of view?

Molly Schafer, Answer #3
Ha! Not as much as I would like. And not so sure about "enthusiasts" but I did receive some comments from a man who collects CGI art of "warrior women." I've seen some of the work and it seems pretty generic and not great. Although, I admit I have no taste for things CGI. He told me I have good talent but I should try Photoshop or Poser to improve my art. For some reason it really set me off. I mean if people need to be posers cause they got no skills well...Let's just say I got skills, I'm not making video games I am making drawings, I mean pencils 4 life, ya heard me? Why does America want everything to be an over-the-top computer aesthetic, extreme, tv commercial? I'm all about considering subtleties and natural ability. Again, people love stuff that is super fake.

Also I posted a few video stills from my project and some guy thought that they were images from the movie "Hundra." So yeah, my art got mistaken for a b-movie,kinda great. The thing about a lot of this fantasy art, and b-movies about warrior women is that they are products of male fantasy. Fighting in some of these outfits is just not practical, a lot of the women just don't look strong. The films especially showcase rape. Google image search "women warrior" and its a T&A fest. I am interested in finding and creating images of these types characters that exist outside of hetero-male sexualized fantasy and are based on actual animal ability. I am also very interested in becoming the embodiment of this. Which is my interest in athletics, the martial arts, and fighting injustice.

Inspiration for a lot of work I have done comes from natural history or evolutionary theory. Although the inspiration was that I was alienated by patriarchal ideologies within the fields and wanted to image a possible reality for myself as opposed to dawn man or the mighty hunter. So it can be disheartening when more men are interested in my artwork and suggest references that are completely misogynist.
I was thrilled when I found theory and field work along these lines. The work of Elaine Morgan, Olga Stoffer and Jeannine Davis-Kimball. I am actively looking for artists or images and haven't found much. Yesterday I found a collaborative project between Ellen Lesperance and your last interviewee, Jeanine Oleson. I am very intrigued.

CATALINA TORRES


Tory Wright,Question #1
1.So how did you come to needlepoint as a medium?

Catalina Torres, Answer # 1
I've always been interested in the role of women in society and why beauty has such an important part in that role. I've always had mixed feelings about it because on one side I enjoy its rituals but on an other one I feel it is tremendously demanding, imposed and obligated wanted to use a complex medium that communicates in its process the contradiction and paradoxes of women's roles. At that point I was inspired by my mother and my aunts who are very into crafts and at the same time away of societies demands of beauty. They are more into doing the best crafts and have the most beautiful house decorated. I begging to ask myself how can women have many different interest but at the same time there is a common end to our wishes. We all have ideals, we all eager to be something else, to be outstanding, and some how all of those wishes are related to beauty.

Tory Wright, Question #2
I found the images in the "Spring" series seductive in the way it implicates the viewer with eye contact. How did this series come about in terms of intent and selecting images.

Catalina.Torres, Answer #2
The images that I chose for spring were part of an article in a fashion magazine that contrasted the fragility of underwear with the heaviness of wool sweaters. All the women in this photo shoot were white, young and blond. I was completely attracted to all of the beauty within the set up and all of the styling, but at the same time I felt very left out. In the first cross stitch series that I did, "All girls go to heaven", there were a lot of different races. On this one I couldn't identify myself with any of this girls. This left a very uncomfortable feeling. I could feel the desire of wanting to be like them but at the same time I was really disgusted by feeling that way and that I let myself be bothered by those images. I guess I chose this images because I was feeling angry and I kind of wanted to "face the demon", so I used its own elements to do it.

Tory Wright , Question #3
Has your new series "Mother" changed your process or approach to transcribing information threw cross stitching?

Catalina Torres, Answer #3
I'm trying to work with monochromes with this new series. With the first series I worked with Black and white, with the second one I used colors, and with this one I want to explore different shades of one color. Exploring with cross stitch is a very slow process because you cant not rely change anything once you started. All the decision making is based on suppositions. This is why I take risks with the prototypes which sometimes don't work. With mother I'm less eager to see the end result, so I'm playing with prototypes and with different kind of images to see which one works better. I'm not looking forward to compulsively stitch a whole series of my mothers portraits. I want to concentrate in the early stage and make a lot of tests to make more concussions decision

MEGAN SULLIVAN



Tory Wright, Question #1.
How do you choose your source material , are these photos found or taken by you?

Megan Sulivan, Answer #1.
I haven't quilted a photo I have taken yet, but I plan to. If I could just remember to take my camera places.... that would be a good start. I quilt a lot of photos by Scott Jackson http://www.jacksonism.com/. He and I are friends and I kind of have open permission to use any of his images for a quilt. The first quilt I made that was based on a photo was for him. It's still one of my favorites. When I feel guilty about using so many of his incredible images, I search for photos on flickr. I figure they're fair game.... let me know if you know any different!

Tory Wright, Question #2.
Would you ever show the original photograph or photo album with the quilts?

Megan Sulivan, Answer #2
I would love to show a quilt with one of Scott's photos. I think about that a lot. If I ever have a chance to get him into a show with me, I'll jump at it.

Tory Wright, Question #3.
Have you ever installed an environment around the work,or photographed it in your environment were it is made?

Megan Sulivan, Answer #3
No, never anything like this, but I have been thinking about some sort of sculptural quilt/video installation.... quilting an object of some sort to project onto? I haven't gotten any more specific than this, but I think that is because it should be a collaboration. So, the specifics won't come out until I find this person.

HUSH HUSH zine

I just finished a new zine , HUSH HUSH. I know what you're thinking,"isn't that the name of the gossip rag Danny Devito's character writes for in the 1996 action spoof, 'LA Confidential'?" Uh, duh. Anyway, it is basically the fourth in the series of super tiny zines I've been making except this one is big, comparitively.

HUSH HUSH
28 pages w/ fold-out insert and bookmark
xerox
Edition of 80
$3

Tory Wright Interviews Jeanine Oleson

After hanging out with Jeanine Oleson during the installation of her show, "Urd Up", at Lump, we decided to have Teamlump all-star, Tory Wright, conduct an email interview with her about IKEA, road-rage, and weaponry.

Tory Wright: Jeanine, I thought I would drop you a note to say hello and
start an interview of sorts for the TEAM LUMPS BLOG!

It was so much fun hanging out with you and Marina. Especially leading up to the show. Good times.

Jeanine Oleson: It's great to hear from you. It was super fun to hang out with you too. You are a funny one.

TW: How was the trip back? (NC to NY) Did you buy anything at rest stops that was terrible and terrific at the same time?

JO: The trip back was tots fine. Weirdly fast, even though there were crazee winds by the time we hit Delaware, your home state. We got stuck in traffic and decided to chill at a rest stop where there were throngs of people acting like rabid animals at the Roy Rogers counter. The only thing I got was a corn dog meal at Nathan's. Mister (the dog) was too freaked out to shit at that rest stop cuz there were crazed busloads of teens running around on the grassy dog-shitting zone.

Other than that, we tried to figure out what DVDs people were watching in their cars and also the usual hexing of assholic drivers. Marina kept threatening that we were going to stop at Ikea, just to torture me. That's all though. It was an easy drive.

TW: Poor Mr. Teenagers make me constipated to. I hear they have that affect on their high school teachers as well.

JO: And you? Has anything tried to run you off the road on your way to MICA? Did you buy some Swisher Sweets at the convenience store; smoke them, and then puke? Enquiring minds wanna know.

TW: Actually the last time I went to Baltimore I stopped at IKEA. I didn't puke up any Swedish meat balls or anything....but I sure got a great area rug for under $60 dollars.

JO: I just agreed to take two non-drivers to IKEA in a coupla weeks even though I feel terrible every time I step in the door. Ah, the perils of friendship. I'm-a sit in the cafeteria the whole time with a flask.

TW: There's an art project in side of that somewhere? Speaking of art. (your show) I loved the relationships with the photographs to the objects. Performance, documentation, constructed myth and it's relics. All functioning together with a soundtrack adding yet another critical layer of perception. BLABLABLA....Grad school damage....but really ...were there any other tools or weapons that you made?

Did you have a favorite piece in the show?

JO: Hmmm, I can't decide what my favorite piece was...I think the speaker simply because it actually works and I wasn't sure that would ever be the case. I like that it looks like a Martin Puryear sculpture as well as a beaver dam and vajayjay. This is my idea of a good combo. I also really love the fur suit because well, in one way, I've always wanted something like this to get into, plus I love the photo of me in it in Queens looking like I'm having a delusional ritual.





But then the fence is also something I am happy about and it as a catalytic object/myth with the miniature horse was a pinnacle moment in my year (at least). Yes, I love the idea of making a performative relation between the objects, ritual and photographs, while preserving some humor.



TW: Have you made any other tools or weapons?

JO: I love making tools and weapons. I liked the pink axe cuz I found that perfect stone and also collected the beaver-chewed handle- I was so happy to unite them and make an object that looked primitive while obviously, it functions as a fantasy of the primordial, which is what the whole show sort of revolves around.

I've made other tools like walking sticks, bows, arrows, clubs, and also tons of other stuff when I was a kid. I was going to run away and live off the land, with my horse, of course. Ask me anything else, I love grad school damage.

TW: So how did IKEA bring the pain? This place keeps coming into ya life.

JO: I have avoided Ikea. Whew.

TW: Mass produced design does kill the last unicorn.

JO: You got that right!!

TW: Speaking of unicorns I did explore the U Tube videos of Unicorn Planet you
spoke of. (very catchy opening song.)Heyyyy! I prefer the remix episode. Purely due to the Tyra Banks reference.

JO: OMG. I love Planet Unicorn- everything about it. I love their names, I love how they all talk at once and spend a lot of time giggling. Plus, the gay haus jamz intro is a part of my psyche at this point. It reminds me of a music downloading odyssey I went on to gather all the music I remember from gay clubs in the 90s. So GOOD. It can undo any queen or dagger in seconds. Just the slightest bit of Crystal Waters and they're on the ground.

TW: America’s Next Top Model is an epidemic. I fell off after Mel-rose got the shaft and Kerry D was crowned commercially viable for cover girl. RANT,RANT, RANT!

JO: Oh girl, I HATE Tyra Banks. I can't even go over to camp appreciation. I once had the flu and ended up watching her talk show which made me think she was HORRIBLE. It is funny on ANTM sometimes though...I'm trying...

TW: Anyway...You should have a book . I know I selfishly would love to flip through the history of these objects, photos, and performances.

JO: OKAY! I would love a book, I guess I can publish one on the mac site for now.
It's nice to know you like the work enough to want some pictures of it in a permanent way. Thanks, man!

TW: You should also have a trophy case!

JO: Ugh, I almost brought home cases from the Museum of Nat. History a few years
ago, but they were HUGE. And well, I do live in NY and I do have way too much crap. But yes, I wanted my own displays. Maybe a fossilized menstrual pad, etc.

TW: HA HA...I am projecting ….(damage, damage, grad school damage)

JO: I dunno, your damage is fun. We get to talk about unicorn planets, IKEA, and
Tyra unease. If that's what you're "learning" at grad school, sign me up. Plus, who wouldn't want a book. It's like a family photo album of the things we labor over, PLUS it is a sign of legitimacy/worth (for yourself as well as others) in the form of a physical object. It must be weird to be a writer and have a world of ideas that pretty much need a physical form in order to be distributed. Sorry, I digress.

TW: Wait there is more: I could totally see you excavating a history, real or invented. Like an archaeologist. I guess you are already doing that, but with the end results. The objects.

JO: I've thought about this and been a little afraid of neat classification categories, but I would take things from one context to this as another. I do love the idea of becoming a freaky Margaret Mead character who examines her own work as subject.

TW: What I am getting at is ...Have you ever documented the work coming into existence as part of the work? Or would that be more of a private studio practice? Perhaps securing the mystery of creation and or origin.

JO: OOOH! I love the mystery of creation and or origin! What nice words you use,
Tory! Yes, there are some great shots over the years. I know people who really concentrate on that aspect. I've thought of it, but also like to leave things unseen, to allow some aspect of fantasy projection on the part of the viewer.

TW: All is good in NC. Just lots of rain and Internet surfing to break the boredom. Do you have a favorite web sight? Better yet if you could require reading what would it be?

JO: WELL, I just read all of Ayn Rand's books (appalling and amazing all in one), then I moved left from the far right and read Doris Lessing's Martha Quest series and also her Canopus in Argos collection, plus two new post-apocalyptic books. That's one of my fav topics, as well as sci-fi (esp. Feminist Revisionist histories like Herland and The Female Man). I am also am a huge fan of Samuel Delaney, Angela Carter, Linda Barry...could go on. I like to read that newish genre of natural history/travelogue books too. You know, people who go to the Artic and write about surviving on the flowers and fauna, another fav is one about searching for Sasquatch in the area where I grew up while picking mushrooms, berries and dodging drunk hunter bullets. Last but not least are the art/cultural theory stuff, which might be what you were aiming for in the first place. I'm constantly reading journals, anthologies, etc. I especially love artists' writings. Something I always give out to classes is on by Adrian Piper called "identity, Confrontation and Political Self-Awareness, and Essay, 1981." It's a brilliant article about the human social condition and what perpetuates it.
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Xo,
Jeanine