Palmer Fishman Industries presents... Jessica Hirst

Ritual for a New Year

2012-01-01T08:11:00.000-08:00

Releasing the Bad Spirits of 2011, Welcoming the Positive Sprites of 2012 - A Performance done for Myself

At sunset on December 31:
1. Unroll a long piece of white paper from a scroll
2. Write across it in very large letters:
"Goodbye to all the Bad Spirits of the Last Year, 2011"
Note: Bad Spirits of 2011 included four in-patient hospital stays, several rounds of out-patient day treatment, several new medications that didn't help, a round of 20 electro-shock treatments that didn't help and also totally wrecked my memory, months of major depression and anxiety, plus cancelled, missed and forgotten opportunities.
3. Tear the paper into a number of smaller pieces, and crumple each piece into a ball.
4. Go outside with paper balls and a metal bucket.
5. Put the first ball into the bucket and set it on fire.
6. Enjoy watching it burn, concentrating on releasing all the bad spirits of 2011.
7. Add each ball in succession until all are burned.

On New Year's Day
8. On small strips of paper, write the qualities I aspire to welcome into my heart in 2012:
Generous
Creative
Open-hearted
Positive, happy
Grounded, centered
Flow (as in, allow the good to flow through me)
9. Go for a walk in a beautiful natural place, in my case the mountain below my house and above Barcelona.
10. Select spots to 'plant' each seed/quality, under a rock, in a tree, in a puddle.
11. Think about the seed of each quality sprouting and growing in me during 2012.

Where I Am

2011-09-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago I made this video as an update on my struggles during the artist's residency at the Carpenter Ranch, organized by Colorado Art Ranch. I wouldn't say it's art necessarily, but more part of my efforts to deal with my inner turmoil, and an element of my survival strategy.

Stream on the Ranch - Changing Course

2011-09-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

I went for a walk before breakfast today and stopped alongside a branch of the stream that runs through the ranch:

The stream is an offshoot of the Yampa River, which apparently carries quite a sediment load from up higher in the mountains.

The Yampa River is a free-flowing river, such that it changes its course when it floods, sometimes quite dramatically. This movement of the river bed allows for the generation of new forests and wetlands, some right here on the Carpenter Ranch.

I was thinking about how the flooding river changing course could be a metaphor for life, how sometimes we are forced, or allowed, to alter our plans or activities based on incoming influences beyond our control. Sometimes these changes are welcome, other times they feel like an imposition. In the second case we might do well to look for what new possibilities or opportunities arise, as the new wetlands can be fertile ground for new growth.

Field Dance

2011-09-05T15:54:00.000-07:00

Today I did a short movement improvisation in one of the fields on the Carpenter Ranch:

Day 3 Color Impressions

2011-09-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

Today I tried to abate my morning anxiety by going for a walk along the creek before I even had breakfast. It helped, but I still had a sense of desperation and had to use a lot of energy to contain all my negative feelings. At the same time I made a huge effort to reach out and connect with the positive elements in the environment here. I joined my two fellow artists for an hour of weeding the garden around our little house after breakfast, and that collective physical exertion definitely helped my mood. Weeding, the process of editing plants on the land, is already a major theme of my experience here. I also went for a run with one of the other artists along the river under the cliffs, and we had a pleasant conversation and got to know one another a little bit better.

I don't care too much for this drawing. I was trying to capture the feeling of looking up at some amazing cliffs high above the river, and how they have been sculpted over time by the water, but I didn't get it right. Oh well, that's why I call this a process exercise, right?

I like the detail better - it looks more like some of the abstract paintings I like by other artists.

Day 2 Color Impressions

2011-09-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

Today has been an internal battle, with repeating thoughts that I can't handle this project and that I need to leave and escape to a safe retreat. I went back to bed for a couple of hours after breakfast because I just couldn't face the day. Here is what it looks like:

The drawing came out prettier than I felt - I think perhaps the blues should have been greys, but in the moment I was drawn to grasp the blue pastels. The pink up-and-down mimics my internal ups and downs, one moment feeling positive and a part of something, the next feeling absolutely alone and without anything meaningful to offer.

A detail -- some of the conflict in direction - can I grasp onto the positive energy, or will I collapse inward?
One of the positive things I got to do today was borrow a car to go to the nearby town and explore a little bit. I went to an awesome nursery/tackle/feed store and got some interesting, articulate interviews with the owner and her children. I also had a fun conversation with the owner of the town's grocery store, in which he described how Hayden is special because everyone knows everyone else, and you can feel safe about your kids walking around because you know everyone cares about them.
Here is my impression of the drive from ranch to town, several steps removed from reality:

Just my remembered vision of the road, the farms, the grasses and some herds of cows.

That's about it for today. Oh, one more positive note - I worked with the other artists and the daughter of the ranch managers to move a huge pile of trimmed cottonwood tree branches from where we'd left them in the middle of the garden to the graveyard for discarded leftovers behind the barn. It was hard physical work, and the cooperative effort helped me want to be awake for the rest of the day.

Day 1 Color Impressions

2011-09-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

So I don't consider myself a painter at all, and I don't often draw or sketch much of anything, but during my last week in San Diego I was introduced to a liberating expressive art studio, where people gather to collectively create with color. Otto and Raquel and I attended an 'Art Lunch', for which people bring their lunch and set themselves free with paint collectively on a huge shared piece of paper taped to the wall. I enjoyed it enough that I went back for an individual expressive art therapy session, focussed on my decision whether or not to come to this residency. I made a large, colorful, chaotic painting, half relating to my feelings about coming to Colorado and half about the possibility of not coming, and what that might mean.
Obviously I decided to come, and I further decided I wanted to use this tool of uninhibited color application as part of my process for dealing with my complicated emotions, and for getting to know the ranch and coming into relationship with the physical environment. This is what I made on my first full day here:

This is my impression of my internal feelings: intense anxiety and fear, yet making a heroic effort to contain myself and begin to look beyond my inner turmoil to the excitement and possibilities of being here.

A detail of the same drawing. I am using chalk pastels as an initial layer and then adding details with oil pastels.

Another detail - my father asked me what color my anxiety might be, so here it came out orange with purple chaotic energetic impulses, against a ground of black.

This is the second color impression for the day, a simple observation of the view outside the window of the studio: grasses, a fence, and a sky hung with some heavy clouds. It doesn't look like much, but that's not the point. The point is that drawing it brought me into closer relationship with the ranch environment, and forced me to make some more detailed observations than I would have otherwise. I also found the process of spreading the color on the page helped distract from and calm my raging anxiety.

A detail of the road, grasses, and the wooden post fence. I really enjoyed smearing the chalk pastels with my fingers and then attacking the paper with the oil pastels.

A detail of the sky. This morning the sky was almost completely blue, but by the time I was studying it in the early afternoon some clouds heavy with rain were gathering in different spots. It still looked mostly fair, and I was surprised to get caught in a shower when I took a walk. Drawing these clouds and taking that walk both taught me something about the variability and unpredictability of the skies here. Pay attention to the darkness in the corners!

Day One on Carpenter Ranch - Getting to Know some Hay Bales

2011-09-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

First of all, I admit to lingering terror about being here at all. Apparently we (the three artists) are each expected to make a 35-40 minute presentation at a community event on September 24, and I have no idea what I will say/show/present. There is no connector for my computer to the projector, so unless I find a technical solution I won't be able to present video, which I had been thinking could be a central element of what I will do here this month.
However, I decided that rather then focus on this gaping hole of fear inside me I would shift towards the external environment, so I set off across the ranch with my pack full of notebook, camera, video-camera and tripod. What would I see? What could I find to think about in a positive way?
Suddenly out of nowhere the sky opened up and I was caught in a rainstorm with no protection. What luck! I ran through the tall grass and ducked under a shelter for gigantic round hay bales.

I had some time to appreciate the aesthetic form of these hay bales - they are substantial in size, each taller than I am, yet they are somewhat fragile, and could be torn apart with not much effort. They are a good example of the interconnection Thich Nhat Hanh talks about: the bales represent a lot of energy, all that went into growing the grass that became the hay; the sun, the rain, and the minerals and nutrients in the soil. Then they also contain all the energy that went into harvesting the hay, processing it into bales and transporting it to this storage area - all the human energy, plus the fossil fuel to power the machinery used.

And here the bales sit, beautiful to look at, waiting to take their next steps to complete their destiny to supply energy to cows or other livestock. Their circular form is a perfect reminder of their participation in a cycle of production and the perpetuation of life.

Heading off to Colorado Art Ranch

2011-08-29T08:27:00.001-07:00

On August 31st I will be departing San Diego and heading to Hayden, Colorado to participate in a month-long residency organized by Colorado Art Ranch. I've been very anxious and uncertain about whether I am strong enough to undertake the residency. I've been suffering a severe clinical depression for the last several months and have been trying different medications, different therapies, and undergone several hospitalizations due to suicidal thoughts. All of which leads one to question whether I can handle being in an unstructured, fairly isolated environment for a month. In the last week I have become determined to make a go of it. I want to take advantage of the opportunity, and I want to prove to myself that I can still be a creative, productive, independent person.
Here are some thoughts I've had on possibilities for the residency:

Self-interrupted, a video by Palmer Fishman

2011-01-17T12:34:00.000-08:00

A short experiment in how the video editing process can add layers of content.

The brain, disorganized by a major depressive episode

Actively distracted by

withdrawal from some tired psychotropic medications and

the lag time to achieve a

'steady state' (at least in the blood) of

some shiny new pills

The video

shot as a retrospective log of one day's effort to get

dressed and out the door

Edited by s t r e t ch ing it out and

excising

alternating

seconds

then adding back in slivers of

greenery, the search for relief

itself another interruption

To watch in full-screen on youtube.com, click here:
self-interrupted

Excerpts from Nevertheless

2011-01-16T06:59:00.000-08:00

My rough cut of two iterations of Nevertheless, a piece about chance and inevitability, the inexorable progress of events unfolding.

How do we choose to understand the things that happen to us? How do we perceive the things we cause to happen?
How much choice do we have in how we understand or perceive?
How fragile, or resilient, are we?
One roll took place at Metafora art center in Barcelona, shot by Desiree Haupts, the other in a courtyard in El Papiolet, a small village in Spain, shot by Manuela Bernasconi. Both were shot for informal documentation. There's a more intentional video performance piece yet to come.

To see a larger version directly on youtube.com click here: Nevertheless, a Palmer Fishman production.

Nevertheless... El Papiolet

2010-12-29T11:19:00.000-08:00

Video artist Desiree Haupts shot the egg performance, for now titled 'Nevertheless', for video in El Papiolet, a small village in Barcelona wine country. The editing is underway, so I bring you these preview photos taken by Manuela Bernasconi.

Fashion by the Sea

2010-11-21T02:36:00.000-08:00

A fabulous multi-hued stroll in Sitges seaside resort town.

On top: multi-layered striped cotton shirts tagged by screen-print with PF logo, sweater wrap with embroidered tag. All from Palmer Fishman Fashion Revolution

Brand-new photo-with-embedded-logo!

On bottom: cashmere sweater-skirt with embroidered PF logo in violet and turquoise, with pink Indian sari-fabric wrap.
Piece converts to sweater or cocktail dress for on-the-go glamour.

Only in Barcelona would one find boots in a Palmer Fishman array of hues.
Now, how could I get the PF logo on them...?

Palmer Fishman Convertible Accessories...

suit

your

every

mood...

Palmer Fishman's Fear(less)(ful) Photographer...

It's not as though anyone was looking at us strangely this sunny Sunday afternoon, unless with was with envy!

PF Fashion Revolution in progress at Can Serrat

2010-11-04T02:25:00.000-07:00

an ethereally practical wrap, formerly used in highway construction. Stretch denim button-down skirt from Karine.

Some photos of the last few days in the Palmer Fishman Fashion Revolution, underway at Can Serrat. All pieces are made from articles gifted, found or purchased at the Les Encants flea market in Barcelona.

channeling Frida with lung-wings. Denim stretch shirt-skirt.

flared pants from Carla

PF with op-art

Palmer Fishman PJs - the height of cozy comfort

Sideways logo wraps around the side of Carla's shirt. Necklace assembled
from finds at Les Encants market in Barcelona. Perfect for portable flowers.

Op-art fabric from Les Encants. Printing of PF logo in progress.

real world wisdom, from Palmer Fishman to you

2010-11-02T14:59:00.000-07:00

Palmer Fishman, known worldwide for her boutique cathartic performances, her designs, and her fashion revolution, is branching out.

"I've always been a keen observer of human behavior and culture," she said breezily one afternoon at the YMCA cafe, "and several editors approached me about writing op-ed columns for their publications."

She eventually agreed to placate them, but with an exclusive feed to her own blog. You can say you read it here first.

On airline travel
Airline passengers have a stubborn inability to accept the limited volume of the overhead bin, or of their proportional share thereof.

¨No, no I´m SURE it will fit,¨ the slight man says, desperately shoving and heaving a bag the size of a baby elephant into a space meant for a daypack.

And the flight attendants are often so damn polite about it.

¨Let´s see, I´m sure we´ll find a place for that...¨

as the bag goes bumping down the aisle, nearly taking out a small child and an elderly woman's elbow.

Why don´t they just cut to the chase?

¨Look, dummy, it won´t fit. Now, you either let me check it or you both go out on the tarmac."

"Hey, you want to get a drink when we get out of here?"

Check your baby elephants or leave them at home.

This wisdom brought to you by Palmer Fishman.

the Palmer Fishman Fashion Revolution has begun!

2010-10-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

Last night Palmer Fishman Industries launched its new label, Palmer Fishman Fashion Revolution, at the Can Serrat artist colony outside of Barcelona.
Fashion Revolution features the elegant, timeless Palmer Fishman logo tagged on carefully selected and reinvented found fashion pieces.

It was a VIP gala, replete with Norwegian supermodels, Catalan child-artists, a Swiss-Spanish-German diva, and many cats.

Palmer Fishman, wearing teacup necklace, with stone model

looking positively revolutionary

Arts writer Clara Mae Bennett took advantage of the opportunity to have a word with the fashion-design mogul herself.

Clara Mae Bennett: First of all, congratulations on a spectacular launch.

Palmer Fishman: Why thank you.

CMB: What's the story of the name, Palmer Fishman?

PF: Well, Ann Palmer and Beatrice Fishman gave up their names and a lot of their individual dreams when they married my grandfathers. Ann Hirst and Beatrice Seltzer were dedicated, strong, creative women, and my name honors the sacrifices they made. Also how they inspired me and my work.

CMB: Fascinating insights. So you say you're not a fashion designer. I think your fans might say otherwise.

totally rocks the look

PF: (laughter). I'm not a fashion designer. I wouldn't make it past the first episode of Project Runway! I can't sew very well. I would say I am more of a traditional graffiti artist, a tagger.

CMB: Oh? Please elaborate.

how's THAT for a big pony?

PF: Taggers throw up their nom de plume, or tag, in as many interesting and difficult places as possible. I do the same thing, but instead of tagging walls or bridges I tag clothing, accessories, and furniture.

CMB: So you don't make the clothing and objects yourself?

PF: They are usually, but not always, found pieces that I reinvent. My team and I may add, subtract, divide, multiply or transpose to a novel use or setting. I am interested in finding beauty in odd places, and in the power of a good logo to add aesthetic curatorial value.

CMB: What is your aim for Palmer Fishman Fashion Revolution?

PF: Global domination. (laughter). No, really. (laughter stops).

I just found myself...

2010-09-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

... on the Kennedy Center website. The Millennium Stage keeps amazing archives of all its shows! I curated and performed in this one as part of the Hip Hop Theater Festival in 2005.

Check it!
"Snooze" solo on Kennedy Center website

Couldn't be better

2010-09-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

Metafora, Barcelona, Body and Limits

Calle Papin in front of Metafora, before.

Metafora, Barcelona Calle Papin, after

2010-07-10T20:19:00.001-07:00

New Palmer Fishman Logo

2010-07-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

Here it is, the new logo. Refined, elegant, bold and yet subtle. The Palmer Fishman Experience.

Toilets of Catalunya

2010-05-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

toilet from Barcelona apartment rental wesbsite

ditto above

Two foreigners from the Americas arrive in Barcelona and start to look at online apartment listings.

They notice a relatively strong emphasis on photos of bathrooms and, more specifically, toilets. If there were only two photos of the apartment, one of them would be of the bathroom.

They eventually moved into a very nice new house.

The first night they noticed that the toilets
wobbled. They were not securely attached to the floor.

When they mentioned the wobble to the landlord, he explained that they were loose for the same reason he had not installed light fixtures:
the eventual buyers of the house would of course want to put in their own choice of toilets.

The two foreigners noticed the landlord had extra-round, high-design toilets in his house.

Their new Catalan friends explained that por supuesto bathrooms were extremely important as a site for contemplation and relaxation. People would reject or desire a house based on its bathrooms.

gotta love the bidets

I downloaded many bathroom photos from various real estate websites and printed twenty-four, one for each hour of the day.

I framed and exhibited them as part of the Des de Fora exhibition.

yes, this is an advertisement for this bathroom

orange tile is known to increase the effects of caffeine ten-fold

Throw

2010-05-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

THROW! a video.
Duration: 4:15
Contents: clips from my recent video archives all including the act of moving something with force -
throwing, swallowing, dumping
pills, rocks, paint, my body, stockings filled with sand, water, papayas

view at: THROW!

Stuck

2010-05-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

Lost in time and space, aware that you are lost, but unable to find anchors to hold onto.

In February 2010 I visited my family in San Diego. My grandmother had just been moved out there from New Jersey, from the house where she had spent over 60 years.

Where am I?
What am I doing here?
And what happened to my teeth. Do you know?

A video consisting solely of the moments in a visit when she repeats these questions.

available on YouTube at Stuck

SKY

2009-12-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

Many people in the world can only see the sky through a curtain of violence. Conversely, even on your darkest days you can search for pieces of light.

Soldiers

2009-12-09T12:24:00.000-08:00

Why kill someone yourself when you can have someone else do it for you? Palmer Fishman Industries’ Grade A Soldiers are highly trained, loyal, obedient and disposable. No need to get your own hands dirty.

starting at $2000 per soldier. quantity discounts available.

Trauma Processing

2009-12-09T09:02:00.001-08:00

Many traumas are characterized by loss of control, where the survivor is subjected to something they cannot stop or change.

Sometimes ritual acts that one controls from beginning to end, such as dropping a ripe papaya from a rooftop and then cleaning up the wreckage, can promote increased well-being.

Palmer fishman industries can facilitate your papaya-dropping experience

Stigma Exorcisms

2009-12-09T08:52:00.000-08:00

stigma exorcisms, performative or participatory

Tired of the burdens of your secrets? Of being stigmatized for your HIV status, profession, addictions, disabilities? Palmer Fishman Industries can perform a public or private stigma exorcism, or design a personalized, participatory ritual based on your stigmatized characteristics of interest.

Performed for you - corporal list of secrets, ritual covering, liberation. from $300.

participatory - same elements on your body. from $500, each additional person $200.

Made in China Luxury Brand

2009-12-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

made in china

Be a trendsetter. Don’t hide those ‘Made in China’ tags - make them bigger!

The Palmer Fishman Industries ‘MAO Made in China’ logo is overtaking the glamour and prestige of Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Coach, and the rest of the obselete brown initials.

The 21st century requires something bolder!

China is cheap.

China is kitsch.

China is powerful.

China is everywhere you want to be.

Be part of the real Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward in style.

Palmer Fishman industries can print the logo on any of your goods that were made in China, from an Ikea apron (above right) to a Dianne Von Furstenburg silk wrap dress (above left).

starting from $150.

Stigma Elimination Cakes

2009-12-08T14:00:00.000-08:00

Countless aspects of identity are stigmatized, from ethnicity to sexual orientation to hairstyles (mohawks, mullets). Don’t tolerate stigma a moment longer!

Order a custom Stigma Elimination Cake for your next corporate event, support group, or birthday party. Your guests, supporters and yes, even those who stigmatize you will enjoy helping you eliminate stigma.

Don’t hide! Eat!

In Case of Emergency...

2009-09-13T03:10:00.000-07:00

...Break Plastic. So reads the plastic cube on the New American Coffee Table. This piece is designed for the family of today, who wishes to reflect high status and wealth (via gold leaf on the frame), enjoy superlative comfort and kitsch with the turquoise and green shag fur tabletop upholstery.

The cube contains supplies for common family emergencies:
1 guide to Psychopharmacology
3 bottles of antidepressants
1 bottle of tranquilizers
1 squid egg-beater
1 pipe-cleaner choker with 'help' computer key pendant
1 guide to couples and family therapy
1 'Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath
1 R2D2 action figure
1 American Idol clapping squirt gun

The case can be opened by authorized user to customize contents.

Seating by PFI

2009-08-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

I think she likes the cushions - they're waterproof.

What? You never realized that you need a Transformer hiding in your armchair? Or pockets? Just think, a place to stick all the remote controls, toys, maybe a snack, or an extra cold one?

Armchair dressed in the suits of one professional San Diego woman.

Palmer Fishman Industries at 16th and Market

2009-08-08T16:17:00.000-07:00

Palmer Fishman Industries held an exclusive market for the resident's of Father Joe's Villages' beautiful new apartment building at 16th and Market, downtown San Diego. The price? Exercise your creativity! Seek inventive solutions, even if all you have to work with is trash. She looks like a satisfied customer.

We had a rush on the chalk-board table and the children's books. These two sisters took the table home, with dad's help. "Maybe they'll stop drawing on the walls," he said, hopefully.

Palmer Fishman Industries staff installed the throne next to Mission Bay in late afternoon, in time for the sunset.

Palmer Fishman Industries at Art Around Adams

2009-07-04T23:27:00.000-07:00

Palmer Fishman Industries, the artist collaborative made up of Otto Castillo and Jessica Hirst, presented Palmer Fishman's Recycled Lounge at the Art Around Adams Festival held in San Diego on June 6, 2009. The artists installed the equivalent of a living room with two seating areas on the ball field in front of the main stage. All of the pieces were reconstructions of discards left on the curb, mostly around Pacific Beach. Castillo and Hirst have become known for their imaginative transformations of everyday and found objects, with past projects including a jewelry collection made from bottle caps, corks, seeds and other ephemera, all in collaboration with dump-dwellers in Managua. The motto of Palmer Fishman Industries, "so much more than just trash," is just this side of twee cheekiness, appropriating the cadence of corporate shininess while attempting to subvert its mercantile motives.

Visitors to the Lounge were invited to choose from a variety of seating options, including a LaZBoy loveseat stripped down to its skeleton, then polished and painted a shiny red, with somewhat disconcerting cushions made of clear vinyl stuffed with bubble wrap. The coffee table was a celebration of kitsch, its surface upholstered with turquoise longhair fake fur, and a centerpiece titled "In Case of Emergency Break Plastic". Inside one could see a copy of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, a bottle of antidepressants, an R2D2 figure, and magnetic refrigerator letters spelling out "Om".

Palmer Fishman Industries crosses boundaries of design, installation, sculpture, participatory durational performance, and good taste. Not all of their experiments yielded attractive or indeed fully functional results, but their interactions with visitors were worthy of documentation and study. Several people spoke about loneliness, depression, and frustration with work, within five minutes of sitting down. Instead of prescribing pills, Palmer Fishman Industries offered one-word talismans in keeping with their re-use, transform philosophy: plastic bottle caps inlaid with computer keys reading "Shift...." "Home..." "Control..." and "Option". By removing these words from their daily context, the artists recapture alternative meanings, and in so doing challenge viewers (or clients?) to renew their perceptual possibilities.

Mason Beatriz, critic at large

Plantain Sofa

2009-04-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

I designed this sofa and had it fabricated using traditional mimbre, or twisted plantain leaf, techniques. The sofa took a team of about 5 men two weeks to make, from wooden frame to twisting leaves into ropes to weaving it all together. My design was a departure from the norm, with its Dr. Seussian curves and deep seat. Since we had no soft furniture in the house, I wanted 1 piece that could serve as a sofa, day-bed lounger and guest bed.

Nicology Furniture

2009-04-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

My partner and I decided not to buy furniture. We ate on the floor, sat on the floor, worked on the floor....luckily he already had a bed before we made this decision. Bit by bit we collected pieces of junk and assembled what you see here.

The coffee table is supported by decorative concrete blocks that are often used in place of glass windows. I had three triangles cut from one piece of glass. Aluminum cans (dog food) support the glass in this photo, but on other occasions I used glass bottles, each with a plastic dinosaur or soldier inside. I also tried yellow and red Imperial beer cans from Costa Rica. This table is also fun because the user can reconfigure the structure entirely by re-arranging the blocks, glass, and supports. Heck, you can even replace the concrete blocks with something else you fancy, like paint cans or plant pots or wooden hippos.

The Lamina Lamp is made from a long piece of metal lamina, used in construction, a car wheel, and a small glass lampshade.

We had seen large cable spool tables before, but I found the smaller ones more useful, especially once we added wheels.

That's my bag

2009-04-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

Handbags made from vinyl movie posters. I tried a clutch, a small handbag, a mini-messenger, and a shoulder bag. While people really liked them I did not move forward with production because these posters and billboard banners were already being reused as shades over bike-taxis, tarps over loads on trucks, and, yes, shelter.

The four bags are hanging on a headboard I made from an old supermarket sign.

"With us or against us" lamp

2009-04-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

The US Embassy in Managua donated hundreds of these white plastic quasi-cylindrical containers to the NGO that hosts Nicology. The NGO used a few as pencil-holders, but couldn't find any further use for them, especially as there was a small hole at either end. They were on the verge of selling the rest to recycled materials consolidators at the dump when I walked into the office and saw... lampshades! If Ikea can do it, why couldn't we? This is one of our first experiments, using a piece of driftwood as a base. My collaborator, an electrician who also scavenges in the dump, created additional bases out of cologne bottles shaped like cowboy boots, and we tried a few pendant and wall lamps using multiple shades.

Then one day I opened a new box of shades, and an instruction card fell out that. Gas Masks! These were the shipping containers for the hundreds of gas masks supplied to the US embassy! The Embassy workers were protected in the event of a biological agent, nerve gas, or other aerosol attack, in NICARAGUA, but when I called the US Citizen Emergency line during a riot after my passport was stolen, it went directly to voice mail. For over 12 hours. At least you can buy a lamp!

Tub Shiva

2009-04-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

Please see previous entry for context. Tub Shiva was printed life-size on vinyl, to be installed in the bottom of the same bathtub where the shots were taken, then filled with water and surrounded with candles. Tub Shiva would be encountered by gallery-goers who entered the rest room.

Split

2009-04-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

This image was created as a solution to a logistical problem: how to do a site-specific performance that intervenes in the spaces of an empty house without being at the site in person during the show. As video did not feel sufficiently tangible I decided to condense several mini-performances into composite photos, print them somewhat larger than life-size, and install them in the house/gallery. The composites are deliberately crude, with no effort to hide the edges of each piece. I was interested in leaving as much evidence of my physicality as possible, much as painters started to leave brushmarks visible to draw attention to the act of painting.
This image was meant to lie on the floor in the hallway, leaving viewers to decide whether to step on my image, or walk around it. The image was also seen floating in a 3-feet-deep long rectangular pool of water filling one of the house's courtyards, recalling Arthurian legends and inebriated party hallucinations in equal measure.
In the end neither my images nor I could participate in the show, as I was in a tragic car accident the week prior and on house arrest. Ironically, my stunned expression and fractured body, created weeks earlier out of light impulse and improvisation, portrayed eerily well my state of mind during those almost unbelievable days.

The Coke Side of the Revolution

2009-04-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

"The Coke side of Life". "El lado Coca Cola de la vida". A recent public health study found that Nicaraguan children drink more Coca Cola than water. When families have only a couple dollars a day to spend on feeding their families, they spend up to half of it on Coke. Of all the exotic or pretty bottle caps we've used to make jewelry in Nicology, the best-seller by far is Coke keychains, earring, and necklaces. Although the silouette of Sandino watches over Managua and tha Sandinista party spends large amounts on publicity extolling the ongoing revolution, I think it is Coca Cola that has won the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of the Nicaraguan people.

I mounted several of the Aspire-Acquire designs on circular canned food lids, then sealed with resin to make coasters. Coasters, being fairly trivial products, and used in bars for advertising, seem an appropriately ironic vehicle for these images.

Aspire/Acquire

2009-03-30T23:37:00.001-07:00

The word 'icon' (according to the authoritative, reliable Wikipedia) used to refer exclusively to images of religious figures. It now applies to a range of religious, political, cultural figures who no longer stand for themselves as individuals, but who signify certain values, ideals, or types of accomplishment. The person's image may inspire people to aspire to the heights reached by the icon. The importance and value of the icon's image starts with her or his life, character, and accomplishments, and it grows with the strength of particular images, whether captured or created, and with ensuing history. The icon's image can become so popularized that it stands for a loose set of connotations more than for specific details. Che Guevara's revolutionary ideals and military prowess are internationally famous in part based on Alberto Korda's photo, taken in Cuba in 1960. Jonathan Green, director of the UCR/California Museum of Photography, has speculated that "Korda's image has worked its way into languages around the world. It has become an alpha-numeric symbol, a hieroglyph, an instant symbol. It mysteriously reappears whenever there's a conflict. There isn’t anything else in history that serves in this way."

Corporate brands and their logos aim for similar power and recognition, but of the completely manufactured sort. There is nothing organic or real about a corporate brand and its logo. Naomi Klein does a much better and more thorough job than I will attempt here of outlining the development, spread of and current resistance to brands in her book No Logo. Suffice to say that some corporations have been very successful at convincing consumers of the 'iconic' nature of their logos. But rather than inspire consumers, their aim is to acquire consumers, and their obedience.

La Virgin de las Mercedes

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism?
How the (official) Catholic Church in Latin America continues to reinforce class hierarchy and division begun by the Spanish conquistadores?
Or an oblique critique of the hypocrisy of Daniel Ortega's revolutionary rhetoric, while he is driven in a flotilla of silver Mercedes jeeps and makes backroom pacts with the Catholic Church - you support me in the Presidential elections and I will completely outlaw abortion. Even in cases of rape of young girls by their fathers or uncles, or when the mother's life is in imminent danger.

Dalai Latte

We all know Starbucks sells lifestyle as much as coffee. They are also at the forefront of large corporations marketing hip virtue, and who embodies hip virtue more than the Dalai Lama?

None of what I've written is new or earth-shaking. Some have criticized my images as laissez-faire art, or as unoriginal, or not theoretically rigorous. I don't claim that any of my images are high art, whatever that means anymore, and I don't find such categories useful. Some pop images and advertising are provocative and aesthetically interesting. I also don't claim to be highly skilled technically. These images are some of the first I've made with Photoshop, and software doesn't come easily for me. And I'm not going to write a super-duper post-modern contemporary contextual critique of the zeitgeist of the temporal gestalt of my discourse. It doesn't seem to be fashionable for artists to say what they mean. So I may never be a famous or successful contemporary artist. I'm afraid I find most of the essays and gallery catalog articles pretentious and elitist and terribly difficult to understand. And I studied at Stanford, UC Berkeley and Johns Hopkins. A lot of contemporary art-speak looks suspiciously like a secret language to make certain that none of the unwashed millions can enter the conversation.

Vamos por mas Victorias!

2008-09-08T11:02:00.001-07:00

"Vamos por más Victorias¨was the title of a variety show I performed with colleague Ariel Bravo for the 2008 International Theater Festival in Managua. It was also President Daniel Ortega´s slogan, plastered all over the country on large billboards to small stickers, for the municipal elections held in November 2008. Ortega´s intended meaning was ¨Let´s go for more victories!¨as in municipal electoral victories to add to his win as President and his party´s accomplishments. ¨Victoria¨is also the name of one of Nicaragua´s most popular beers, of which there are only two, so I read the slogan as ¨Let´s go drink more beer!¨. My interpretation became the punch line for stories and people´s complaints regarding the failure of the Ortega government to live up to its promises. So you lost your job? Vamos por más Victorias! So more women are dying because Ortega made all abortion illegal? Vamos por más Victorias! etc.

Ariel´s and my show juxtaposed the plight of freedivers on Nicaragua´s Atlantic coast whose bodies shrivel from their punishing work with my tales of cultural misunderstanding and mediation with the traffic police, littering, catcalling men, shopping etiquette, and dogs.

Basement Geniuses

2008-08-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

Why do journalists frequently trumpet the uncomfortable, humble physical locations of the development of new enterprises that later become wildly successful? The classic suburban basement is the most favored, followed closely by garages and dormitory rooms. Is there an inverse relationship between one’s level of creature comfort and commercial greatness? Does mentioning Bill Gates’ basement beginnings make the rest of us less jealous of his outrageous gifts and good fortune? Or does having written your first great novel in an attic perched atop an unlikely tower of steamer trunks confer goodness and integrity you might otherwise be suspected of lacking?

Michael Chabon is one of my favorite writers. Like so many others I admire his imaginative storytelling, his relationship to history, his crafting of language. He writes like a very intelligent man. So why, Michael, why, would you write your master’s thesis, soon to become your acclaimed debut novel, in such a precarious position that you had to hold your breath the entire time? And then talk about working in a crawl space at the start of interviews? Is it a point of honor? Because your description sounds preposterous. Either you wanted to be in a high-anxiety position or you were simultaneously practicing to join the circus, if things didn’t go well with the book.

Perhaps there is a secret society for geniuses who hatch their plans in subterranean, cramped, noxious or otherwise claustrophobic surroundings. To be admitted you must boast physical scars of you internment, like any other gangbanger.

Since all the vaunted hideouts are short on windows, perhaps there is a link, until now overlooked by science, between lack of sunlight and creative breakthroughs, at least among young adult while males. I personally do not have this twisted piece of DNA in my genetic code, and find my creativity and intelligence much more accessible in a well-lighted space, preferably with a good cup of organic fairly traded espresso close at hand.

Even if normal people, not only geniuses, claim to work on new ventures in their basements, attics or crawlspaces, I’m not buying into the fad. As a heliotropic human, I would sooner move my dining room to the basement and work next to the kitchen windows.

Message in the Bottles

2008-07-22T11:55:00.000-07:00

Action taken during the International Festival of Poetry in Granada, Nicaragua. Palmer Fishman joined a renegade group of young poets who broke into the parade of the Established Poets. During the course of the parage Palmer invited children, ancianos, waiters, and passersby to scribble a short poem or prayer for Lake Nicaragua, the beautiful polluted body of water that was the destination of the parade. She put all the poems inside the plastic bottles. Walking right in front of her were the candidates for Miss Nicaragua from Esteli, Diriamba, Ticuantepe, etc, prompting several gawkers to conclude that Palmer Fishman must be the candidate from La Chureca, the dump.

The parade reached the lakeshore just before sunset. Palmer and her fearless friends convinced government officials to allow us access to their very long pier, and even provided a gun-toting guard to carry the globe of bottles on his head. By now the globe flashed red and white from within, like and ambulance. With the wind blowing and the sun setting we walked to the very very end, where Palmer hurled the flickering globe into the water, an offering to Lago Cocibolca. Looking for all the world like a fallen UFO, the wind and waves carried the globe of garbage back to the crowd on the beach.

You can try to throw your garbage away, but it always comes back to you.

Nicologia / Nicology

2008-07-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

More examples from Nicology. Including designs by the girls of NicaHope, caps from the Left Hand brewery in Colorado, and an experiment with collage on the backside of the caps. Nicology is a project I founded to design and produce diseño de desechos, or design from discarded materials, with families who survive by scavenging in Managua´s massive dump. For more images and information on the project please see Nicology-Nicologia.blogspot.com.

Casa Crearte

2008-07-21T08:43:00.001-07:00

After living with the conservative hues and architecture of the DC area for most of my life, I went a little nuts with the paint catalogue at our first house in Managua. It had not a single square room, taking on some undefined polygon form with some curves around the terrace. Taking my cue from the palette of the movie 'Frida,' and with a little help from graffiti artist friends, we created Casa Crearte.

Climate Change - the terror flick

2008-07-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

Nicaragua is already being affected by climate change, in the form of unpredictable, abnormal, and extreme weather events. Poverty, closer dependence on local subsistence agriculture, unstable construction, and poorly-built infrastructure increases vulnerability far beyond that of more industrialized countries. An afternoon thunderstorm that would cause at worst heavier traffic in Washington DC results in bridges washing out, thousands of homes flooding, and potholes that swallow taxis. Whereas people in Costa Rica or India know that climate change is to blame, many Nicaraguans don't make the connection. Others think God is punishing them. They don't realize that climate change is the latest version of imperialism, of wealthier countries living large at their expense.

The silhouette of Augusto Sandino, Nicaragua's national hero, looms large over the city of Managua, with smaller versions placed strategically around the country. The Sandino silhouette represents national identity like the US flag, the bald eagle and Uncle Sam combined.

´Damnificado´refers to people affected by natural disasters.

"Inundado" = flooded

Icons / Iconos

2008-07-18T14:46:00.000-07:00

It is common to see stickers or drawings on buses in Nicaragua of Che next to the Nike 'swoosh', or the Virgin Mary next to the Apple of Mac computers. Here and in the US the images of revolutionary or counter-culture icons are plastered on t-shirts and teenagers because they are cool, not for any deep knowledge of their actions of complex beliefs. What happens when we remove all distance between the human icons and the commercial ones?

Che-Nike, printed on page from Paginas Amarillas, which by total random chance happened to be the page for 'Guevara'.

Malcolm X - Visa. Malcolm X's most famous quote was to achieve (justice) 'By any means necessary'.

Virgin Halliburton. Halliburton's slogan is 'Release the Energy'. They have received the majority of contract dollars from the US government's war in Iraq.

Joyas y Chapas de Tapas - Nicologia

2008-07-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Nicologia is my name for the Nicaraguan ability to transform objects considered by others to be garbage into useful and often beautiful things. This ability is most obvious in poor communities, and thus is often rejected by people of greater means, who seek the shiniest, newest, most ostentatious of everything. My Nicologia project seeks to raise the profile of this national strength, and promote it as something 'cool', and as a tool for sustainable development.

I started with bottle cap jewelry. I now work with a nonprofit called NicaHope and group of teenagers whose families make their living scavenging in La Chureca, Managua's enormous dump. I collect bottle caps from several countries, and have allies who collect on our behalf. Coca Cola's representative in Managua has approached us with a proposal to make promotional items. Over the 2 years since I started wearing my 'trash' earrings public comment has shifted from calling me 'la gringa loca' to 'donde se puede comprar?'

Intervencion en Bienal de Arte Visuales

2008-07-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

My fellow artist Ariel Bravo and I decided to do a performative intervention at the inauguration of the Bienal of Arte Visuales in Managua. The jurors and patrons of the event thought we were part of one of the chosen pieces and had their photos taken with us for the press. We had many amusing and surprising interactions with the other attendees.

Casa Crearte

2008-07-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

Performance Installacion 'Gol' y 'Cut Piece / Corte'

2008-07-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

In Yoko Ono's Cut Piece she sat on a stage, handed scissors to an audience member, and invited them to cut her clothes off of her. It was during the Vietnam War, and the behavior of the cutters took on many different meanings. In my Cut Piece I also invited audience members to cut my clothes off of me, but rather than sit silently, I read from a scroll of newsclips, testimonies, and studies about sexual violence against girls in Latin America. On different occasions people cut with anger, sadness, tenderness, and great anxiety.
During my time in Nicaragua I did performance-therapy workshops with groups of women and girls, many of whom had been raped by male relatives or family friends. In general they are filled with shame, when of course it's the offenders who should be ashamed. In these workshops with survivors I wore black, and invited them to cut my dress as an affirmation, or a rejection of shame, symbolically cutting a piece out of their experience and claiming power over it. It was very moving. In most cases they did not say anything during the performance, but afterwards we had small discussions with counselors.

I did a special performance for a group art show in Nicaragua protesting President Ortega's nakedly political prohibition of ALL abortion, including cases of rape, incest, or serious threat to the pregnant girl/woman's life. For that show I read clips about the deaths and emotional torment resulting from the law, wearing a long white dress with a basketball lashed to my belly. The photo showing several men cutting is a multiple-exposure from a performance in Tijuana, an extremely violent city and portal of sex-trafficking of Mexican girls into the United States.

With each iteration I appreciate more Yoko Ono's genius in creating such a potent action/performance, capable of receiving so many projections of human emotion.