I’m honored and excited to be a researcher spotlighted on the New York Public Library’s blog. My fascination with the @nyplpicturecollection began in 2018, leading to my takeover of their Instagram in June 2019 and most recently, an interview with Jessica Cline, the Supervising Librarian, for the @psuartandsocialpractice Social Forms of Art Journal. I treasure this connection to the Picture Collection and the ways it informs my art projects. Special thanks to Jessica for this opportunity, @evansent and @sarahmirk for thinking through these questions with me, and @theovamvounakis for going to the library with me in the first place. Link in bio! (at Portland, Oregon)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ccs5l2cpfre/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
I am honored and excited to be a researcher spotlighted on the New York Public Library’s blog. My fascination with the @nyplpicturecollection began in 2018, leading to my takeover of their Instagram in June 2019 and most recently, an interview with Jessica Cline, the Supervising Librarian, for the @psuartandsocialpractice Social Forms of Art Journal. I treasure this connection to the Picture Collection and the way it informs my art projects. Special thanks to Jessica for this opportunity, @evansent and @sarahmirk for thinking through these questions with me, and @theovamvounakis for going to the library with me in the first place. Link in bio! (at Portland, Oregon)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ccs490_pkgC/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
I don’t remember where I saw this but it’s a screenshot on my phone. I want to keep remembering it, especially that last line about speaking and listening becoming the first and last purpose to every social encounter.
Kind of out of the blue, one of my most beloved friends sent me a link to Mira Calix’s obituary. I can’t recall why she would think of me with this news, perhaps I played her music on the radio show although I don’t think I did. (I definitely played music from her label-mates, though on Warp Records.)
Regardless of all that background info, I’m so glad she sent this to me. Especially because of this quote:
“I like trying to change somebody’s day,” she told the music and cultural website The Quietus in 2012. “I like people coming across something with no expectations. They don’t care who made it. They haven’t gone and bought a ticket, so it’s not about being reverential. People can just wander by.”
That this desire is enough for an artistic practice.
Also, I’m intrigued with her saying:
“We are not trying to make things easy for our audience. We are trying to make things true.”
Reading this at the end of a week of my own uncomfortable soul searching makes me smile thinking about next week and that maybe it’ll be a little better.
I’m working on a new project called SEE ALSO SEE! Each zine is a collection of curiosities gathered from one person’s research using the Picture File at Portland’s Central Library. (Although for this issue, it’s a collection of curiosities from a group of students in PSU’s Introduction to Art and Social Practice class.) A picture file is a collection of images clipped from books and magazines (+ more!) organized by subject into file folders by subject.
The inspiration for this project came from my 2019 guest Instagram takeover for @nyplpicturecollection and a desire to explore social connections around visual research and publishing.
I’m very grateful to @illia.yakovenko for inviting me to do this as a workshop in his class and to the inspiring students who shared their curiosities with me and each other and to the helpful and supportive librarians of the @multnomahcountylibrary Central Library. #seealsosee
(at Portland, Oregon)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CbLtBeAB4NG/?utm_medium=tumblr
I’m thrilled to participate in an art book fair! I love attending them but this is my first time being in one❣️ I submitted the Hazel Hall Traveling Libraries and a set of three related zines that I published. The fair continues at @carnationcontemporary until March 20 and there are many exciting publications there to spend time with. (Sat-Sun 12-5pm and by appt.) (at Carnation Contemporary)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Caxr6VWPRXf/?utm_medium=tumblr
Watch Book Looking hosted by me with special guest, artist Harrell Fletcher. You can see it in the videos tab of the @psuartandsocialpractice account. In this episode we looked at The Pond by John Gossage, first published by in 1985.
@harrell_fletcher#johngossage #booklooking (at Portland, Oregon)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CaeDYhWLc4E/?utm_medium=tumblr
A few weeks ago I was browsing around the bound periodicals at the Central Library and way down at the bottom of a shelf were collections of old POETRY magazines, all nicely indexed.
I remembered the years in which Hazel Hall was active and pulled those volumes from the shelf. I found this one from the July 1918 issue and just assumed that it would also be in the OSU Press Collected Works book.
Now, today, I did a quick search of that book and nope, it’s not there! I am so thrilled that I put my hands on something that exists in my world only in the library. (Although, the poem is available to read on the Poetry Foundation website, too. But the digital version is much different than reading it in its original printed form at my local public library.)
I’m trying a new thing! ❤️ Please join me for the first episode of a new series called Book Looking on Monday, February 7, at 2:30pm Pacific on the @psuartandsocialpractice Instagram Live.
A few weeks ago, I sent @dogsighs__ an Instagram post about an art project that made me think of them and they mentioned that it reminded them of Eva Hesse’s diary entries. So I requested a copy of the book from the library and now we are going to look at it together!
I think Book Looking will be chats between me, classmates, and other book-ish guests exploring publishing as artistic practice, books as art objects, and reading artist books.
Shelfie photo is by Luz and they kindly gave me permission to use it here. ❤️ I love this glimpse into their life! It’s always exciting to see what’s on someone’s bookshelf. (at Portland State University)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZqqdkmLtHW/?utm_medium=tumblr
While I watered my plants on campus a few days ago it occurred to me to make a note in the window in case anyone walking by wanted to know more. It was always my intention to display research and related objects in these windows and now I’m sharing the story of my plants.
Listening to Bonnie explain all the little details and sentiments and fragments is my favorite part of “Mending the Social Fabric.” @bonniemeltzerartist @ojmche (at Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZX27yrvjYa/?utm_medium=tumblr
A winter highlight is the annual postcard from @hoarfrostpress ❤️ (at Portland, Oregon)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZQe-UPFaj5/?utm_medium=tumblr
My winter break from school took so many turns that I’ve nearly lost track of all the highlights! One that stands out is returning to one of my all-time favorite bookstores, Dove & Hudson Old Books, in the Center Square neighborhood of Albany, New York. It’s been five years since the last time I was there and the changes are minimal despite the new ownership. The outdoor seating area is delightful and I admired the lattice overhang by the checkout area to allow plant fronds to grow above.
Just like all the times I’ve been there, I looked at each shelf hoping to find the exact right book for this moment in my life. (Which means that I easily spend hours in the store, exploring all the sections with intense curiosity.) This time it felt like I was visiting all those shelves and parts of my past selves, too.
And I found a book I’ve been looking for! It’s called Wiener Werkstatte: Design in Vienna 1903-1932 and I’ve owned it before but let it go because I hadn’t truly discovered my affection for that style of art yet. (Which changed when I found a discounted and battered copy of Wiener Werkstatte postcards at the Jewish Museum.)
Note to self. On what JJ said this week during a talk we gave on Agnès Varda Forever.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWgsnNThSRo/?utm_medium=tumblr
I am grateful for every Instagram post from Margaret Murray. Many years ago, I visited her gallery for a Moyra Davey exhibit and last year began following her on Instagram. Her posts have informed many of my inquiries ever since and today’s is no different.
This post introduced me to the work of Richard Wentworth and based on this quote from him, I ordered as many of his books as I could from the library.
In French there is the wonderful ‘meninges’ for the workings of the mind, the piece of kit we are each given which we then have to employ to understand our own mentality. We have fine words for the acts of considering things- mulling, ruminating, ’brown study’ was something my father would say. You might say that ‘ambition’ in its proper sense, a cousin of ‘amble,’ the act of walking around something considerately, is the daily hymn of sentient beings.’ - Richard Wentworth, ‘Motes to Self’, 2006-2014
