JANUARY WINDOW ARTIST: ALEX HAMMOND
ALEX HAMMOND lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and is currently working on her MFA in SVA’s Art Practice department. Her work investigates the construction of grand narratives and utopic visions, their uses and hazards. Hammond grew up in California’s Sacramento Valley, a region defined culturally and economically by back-to-the-land hippies, corporate agribusiness, biotechnology and urban sprawl. After spending years in San Francisco, Hammond became fascinated by the dominant language of hypercapitalist technology culture, its rhetoric of redemption through profit. She was obsessed by the fact that this self-proclaimed cloud-based culture of app-development and megaservers actually was located somewhere, and that that somewhere was California, the historic land of milk, honey and boom and bust economics.
The Walliecamp Fortune Factory installation employs verbal and visual imagery of the desert landscape of the American West, a site inscribed with myths of heroic freedom, masculinity, and self-reliance as well as histories of genocide, exploitation and ecological crisis. Hammond uses this imagery to investigate constructions of the American Dream as it relates to labor, wealth, technology and quests for spiritual enlightenment. In other words: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
A site-modified presentation of the Walliecamp Fortune Factory was installed at the Dirt Palace for January of 2015. Window text enumerated "facts and fantasies" regarding the economics of American life in the 21st century. Windows were painted with the following texts:
LEFT PANEL
A modular epic landscape that inspires in spite of architecture… imagine:
Self reflection, commerce, exchange, meditation, yoga, relaxation, awakening , reinvigoration, natural healing, networking, entreprenurealism, wilderness, self-reliance, emotional wellbeing, connectivity, oneness, freedom, integration, harmony, freshness, pristine newness, spontaneity, disruptive technologies, purity, wholeness
sublime beauty. endless horizons…
A truly grounded sense of self rooted in authentic lived experience
RIGHT PANEL:
On life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness:
· 1 in 3 of us is very happy.
· nearly 1 out of every 100 adults in prison or jail.
· our prison population is largely drawn from the most disadvantaged part of the population: men under age 40, disproportionately minority, and poorly educated.
· we are more unequal than most of our developed-world peers.
· wealth inequality is even greater than income inequality.
· the richest fifth of Americans held 88.9% of all wealth in 2014.
· emotional well-being rises with income up to ~$75,000/year.
· low income exacerbates the emotional pain associated with misfortunes
 Territorium Insula
MICHAEL MENCHACA's work is heavily informed by his background. As the child of two Mexican immigrants, his work reflects a desire to bridge his Latin roots and contemporary American culture. His chosen medium, printmaking, lends to the history of art and language in Mexican-American culture, and his work continues to be an exploration of the iconography and symbology of Pre-Columbian civilizations.
Menchaca’s work is an allegory that re-imagines the history of the Americas. He presents metaphors of contemporary social issues with a uniquely pre-Hispanic visual vocabulary. His symbols and motifs harken to those of ancient South American culture specifically; however, his imagery speaks widely to human communication and history.
*****UPDATES*****
[Upcoming RRLEW Performance]
[poster by v manuscript]
Rachel adopted her first puppy in February of 2015. This new companionship is filling a number of emotional voids for Rachel. Rachel spends a lot of time smiling now. Rachel is finally Perfectly Happy.
Muffy has spent 2015 restocking kid's leggings, but also taking her Etsy shop in a new direction.
She also has a new silk screen print of sex scenes from ancient Greece, available in t-shirts, crop tops, skirts, and leggings, pillows, and cum rags.
Jieun's prairie dogs have been living in mortal sin in an attempt to combat the slow and steady winter.
This winter, Nina has been discovering many new things.
You don't have to have fun EVERY day
MONTHLY PICTORIAL TREAT FROM THE DUSTY SHELVES OF THE DIRT PALACE
FURTHERING THE QUEST TO SPREAD FUN
LIKE GIN AND JUICE, MOSTLY GIN
New Book about the epic and revolutionary Bookmobile project! This book came as a surprise gift to us in the mail. Is there anything better than getting surprise books in the mail? The answer is no. There is actually nothing better. After melting with joy, we did a little investigation and figured out that our pal Coral Short was part of how this book found it's way to our shelf. Thanks Coral!!!
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