libbymodernpace

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Getting all of the info and planning together for the Phillips museum exhibit was a beast...trying to articulate my project in the form of an installation, figuring out how to write about it, set it up, etc. was much harder than I’d imagined. 

A big thank you to Josh and Gabrielle who met with me to talk everything through, helping me edit and coordinate, and to the Phillips museum staff for walking through the space a second time with me to figure out how everything will fit. There’s still a bunch of work to do to get ready for January (including figuring out how to move the massive card catalog from my studio) but I’m excited. 

I’m starting to plan out a map of the installation that will sit at the entrance to guide people through the hidden delights of the exhibit. 

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I was so blown away by Shauna’s Fall Fest event at the Garden in the Light: the garden, the artwork, her photos of neighbors, the felt map of the neighborhood and all of the happy people smiling, laughing, playing music. It was a beautiful community event. And I was also excited to get a snap together with fellow PACE artists Shauna and Jose!

Congratulations, Shauna! You really made something so beautiful and inspiring. 

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I’m so happy that these three (Josh, Dom and Sai) were able to come visit Modern Art this week to (patiently) film me for the PACE video, and to check the space out. Looking forward to collaborating more. THANKS GUYS!

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This week I opened up the FREE MUSEUM outside Modern Art. Where everything is FREE and everything has a fancy museum placard description to honor (or to entice others into taking!) all this so-called junk that otherwise might get tossed. It’s been pretty funny seeing people check it out, slightly confused but with smiles.

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Last week I repurposed the CrashPad from the Welcome to the Analog Neighborhood weekend into the ARTbARTermART - a neighborhood art swap. I’ve invited neighbors and passers-by to come by, make some art with the supplies inside, leave a piece of art they’ve made to share, or take a piece of art from one of the drawers. 

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I’ve spent last week working on updating the Maps of Neighborhood Delights I had created during the Phonotel weekend with all the new comments, ideas, and locations that visitors have pointed out. I’d found this old newspaper distribution box at an antique store a couple weeks ago that I wish I’d bought to old the maps. Hoping I can get back to that store, or find another, that I could pain and put outside to distribute all the maps.

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Earlier this summer, I began an epic battle with an extremely prolific mullberry tree that (for the first time in 10 years) fruited an unbelievable amount of berries-- and an unbelievable mess on the public sidewalk below. Trying to be a good neighbor, I spent hours sparring with the branches that hovered over the walkway in order to stop the shower of staining purple juice, and obsessively tried to (mostly in vain) clear the way of the giant sloshy puddles of smooshed berries that folks had to walk over (not to mention the accompanying droppings of the ecstatic birds who had taken up residency in the branches). 

After way too much struggle, I decided if you can’t beat em, join em, and started just eating the berries. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought to try them- I’d just assumed that because I didn’t see anyone else eating them, they must be not be edible. BUT FRIENDS-  they were DELICIOUS. SWEET. JUICY. FRESH. I started collecting them and shoving them in my mouth every chance I could.

And then I realized that I had to spread this good news. If I didn’t know they were edible and delicious, I guessed that others may not know as well. So as soon as I’d gathered enough berries, I took them home and made my first ever Mullberry Pie (and my first ever pie). Then I put a big “FREE PIE” sign outside and on social media- low and behold, it was gone within the hour, and from that day until they were all gone, everyday I saw at least a handful of people snacking on the berries they could reach from the sidewalk. One of my favorite interactions was with a kid who lives nearby. I picked a handful of berries and gave them to him to try- he was skeptical- but when he popped them in his mouth I saw his eyes get real big, a smile explode as he expressed total disbelief. “Did you make these?” he asked. I laughed and told him, No, not me. But good old Mother Nature had cooked them up just for him. 

It reminded me of one of Modern Art’s mottos: It’s not what you have to do, it’s what you get to do. You don’t have to struggle to clean up a mess of mullberries- you GET TO clean them up (and eat them or turn them into a pie or give them to a sweet kid).

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Check out these amazing sculptures by cuban artist Claudia Rojas. She installed them here earlier this month and it’s so fun to see people check the out from the window, then come in to admire the beautiful, intricate detail work. Just like with Matty’s cacti earlier this year, Claudia’s work in the window has been an amazing way to draw people into the space and have conversations about how happening upon surprising, interesting artwork is an essential part of neighborhood life. 

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I’ve spent the last week documenting everything that happened during the Welcome to the Analog Neighborhood weekend (and catching up on all of the things I ignored while preparing for it!) Here are a bunch of the polaroids snapped for the AN(alog)STAGRAM wall. It’s funny trying to figure out ways to share the events without going all digital!

All in all, I had over 100 visitors over the weekend, 37 of whom checked in their phones to the Phonotel for at least an hour. 

A big thank you to the 34 neighbors who hosted signs from the Narrative Delights in their windows, yards and porches, the 3 local writers (Erik Anderson, Michele Lombardo and Stephanie Bradford) who shared their work for the delights, and all of the neighbors who put out treats, made chalk masterpieces and suggested hidden delights and portals for the maps. Thanks to Mike who lent me his old pay phones, PACE artist Matty who’s work inspired the Palm Springs vibe and who let me keep his cacti for the weekend. Thanks to friend and neighbor Michelle Johnsen who photographed the whole weekend (and helped out when things got busier than I’d planned). Thanks to all the amazing volunteer bell hops and concierges: PACE manager Gabrielle Buzgo, Comprehensive Plan Committee member Kerry Sherrin Wright, Matt Johnson, Nicole Michels, Lina Seijo, Dennis Herbert, Lauren Snell and Sidney Brant. Thanks to the dedicated Cristian Toro Meza for interviewing everyone who checked in their phones, and for a lot of on-the-spot spanish/english interpretation. Thanks to PACE Artist Shauna and Vincent who did everything (including almost getting stuck in a portal to Nebraska!!) on the neighborhood map #1 and for marking it up and sharing their experience so vividly and delightfully with me! Thanks to PACE Artist Jose who came out despite having been up all night the night before directing a 24-hour play! There are many many more people to thank that I know I’m forgetting...

Some highlights: - Meeting and connecting with artist Claudia Rojas who will be working on the CWS mural and her amazing family members visiting from Argentina and Mexico. - Shauna finding LINDA despite having no idea who or what she was (she was a cut out of Linda from Bob’s Burgers that I see in one of my neighbors’ windows). - Meeting Miguel and his daughter Izzy who stopped in not knowing anything about what was going on. She is an art student at L-S high school and had wanted to come into the city to see everything at Art Walk. Miguel, her dad, told me that he didn’t know anything about art but had wanted to support his daughter. While I talked to them and showed them around I saw the look in their eyes grow animated, their smiles grow, their easy laughs of surprise and delight as they looked through the Phonotel rooms, the neighborhood maps. Miguel was so kind, telling me that he would have never in a million years walked into a place like this, but now that he had, he felt like it had changed his life. They  both reminded me exactly why I do this. - A lobby full of people reading the paper, looking through art books, picking out records to play, chatting and getting to know each other - a handful of letters written to a neighbor on Mary street: 6-year old George who lost his father to cancer earlier this year - Seeing a 9-year old named Bea fall in love with the sound of the walkman’s tape rewinding and fast forwarding. She was obsessed with the materiality of the buttons and asked why phones don’t have those. - Watching so many kids enchanted with all of the analog machines: the phones, the typewriter (I even witnessed all all out brawl between two young sisters fighting to use the typewriter!), the cameras, the books, etc - A woman who stopped me a couple days ago at Zoetropolis  to tell me how much the parade with Streetbeans meant to her, that she’d been having a particularly hard week and that when she heard the music outside her house, she ran out to see what was happening. She told me that the laughter, smiles, dancing and sounds gave her hope that everything was gonna be alright. We hugged and I cried a little. :)

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A HUGE thanks to StreetBeans Brass band who came out on Saturday to provide some real live analog music to the weekend- they were amazing. There was so much great energy and joy as they played outside in front of Modern Art, and even more as they led a rocking parade through the neighborhood. I loved seeing all the neighbors come out of their houses, dance, sing, smile, wave and join in as we marched around. 

I had a moment of panic when they were setting up and I realized it would be a quite loud, and what would my quiet, elderly next door neighbors (who I’d forgotten to tell about the music) think. That all dissipated when I saw the neighbors come out their front door, with a bowl of water to give to the thirsty dogs who’d gathered, and then proceed to dance. It was adorable.  (Photos by Michelle Johnsen)

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[libbymodernpace]

Welcome to the Analog Neighborhood, 2022 was a blast! I just got a batch of photos from Michelle Johnsen, and will now try to recount everything I can remember. 

ha. well, maybe in the next post- I’m still exhausted....

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I’ve been working with Erin Dorney and Tyler Barton on an installation called “The Hidden Museum, 2022″ at the Pop-Up shop this Friday, 12-8pm. My piece, “The Future of You”, is a museum placard commemorating a mystical light switch.

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I walked around Stone Harbor, NJ on Thursday. There were blocks and blocks of empty houses with tightly manicured lawns, and hardly any people

The top photo is taken a block away from the beach. The bottom photo is from Lancaster, a block away from my studio.  Something about the grass in each of these pictures. 

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Things are coming along for Welcome to the Analog Neighborhood. I got the sign painted and installed out front, finished painting the Phonotel and the CrashPad (check out how sweet matty’s sculptures look on top). I’m working on making all of the drawers. In my mind they are all themed and perfectly coordinated to each phone’s specific needs, but we’ll see...

I feel like I have a solid design for the maps and tours- one is done and ready, the other 3 still in progress- definitely taking much longer than I’d planned. I think I’ve figured out how to print and distribute all the signs for the neighborhood participants. I was walking around today double checking the routes and taking notes. A bunch of people stopped and asked me what I was doing  (at first very skeptically), but they all seemed pretty excited about the idea when I told them. 

I dug up all my old polaroids and instax cameras, ordered some film and disposable cameras. Trying to set up an analog version of facebook or instagram that’ll go in the window or right outside- a big board where visitors can stick any polaroids or notes all weekend.

I have hired an F&M student, Cristian, to help me record interview visitors during the weekend, and a photographer, Michelle, to take photos. I spent way too long trying to fix the speakers to my record player (to no avail, the tuner is broken, so I gotta fix that) In my survey, I'd asked people to suggest songs for a neighborhood playlist,. It was mostly just to get a feel for how they imagine the neighborhood would sound, but I found a friend who said he could record that playlist onto a casette tape which (as long as I don’t sell it) I can slip into my old walkman and give to people to listen to as they walk. I don’t know if I’ll get to this or not, but fun to think about.

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I finished designing and writing the new “Welcome to the Analog Neighborhood” survival guide, and sent it out to print yesterday. Here are some illustrations and pages from the booklet.

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The “Maps of Narrative Delights” are coming together! It gets more and more like a giant life-sized puzzle: some sort of logic game mixed with a treasure hunt mixed with staging a performance- so many parts that need to fit, be mapped out, designed, so many people to coordinate with. 

I have 30 neighbors who have offered their windows or stoops to put lines of stories so far. I’ve walked around to photograph each location, then been slowly mapping them all out into 4 different routes. Each rte will have a destination (The Library, Buchanan Park, the Wolf Museum Native Plant Garden, and Janice Stork Park), a story, and a handful of hidden delights and possible magic portals (like this spot, a land of doors, hidden in an alley that seems like it couldn’t possibly fit in the space I imagined the alley took up. And this wall that reminds me of a the wave pool at a water park). 

I have one route almost all ready to go: I've divided up the story, (“#13 from the Office of Public Narrative” by Erik Anderson) into 8 posters and designed the map of the walking route. Now I just need to do three more....yikes. 

I feel like I’ve way overbooked myself in planning this project and event- it’s way more work than I’d imagined. Typically I’d be freaking out right now, but it’s also been really fun. Like I said, a giant puzzle with all the things I like: people, words, walking, drawing, designing, painting. I’m happy.