While in Los Angeles for the opening of suddenly at the Pomona Museum College of Art, Junior Ambassador and I decided to personally invite Mostlandian citizens living in LA to contribute to the mapping project.
Junior made a connect-the-dots style map from the place where we were staying in Los Feliz to the beach, and we made our way across town over the course of about 6 hours, getting lost, sitting in traffic, stopping for lunch and generally enjoying ourselves.
As part of our efforts to understand the future of Mostlandian mapping, Junior Ambassador and I decided to visit the actual location of the first map of Mostlandia, the one located on Matthew Yake's apartment floor. On Thursday, February 19th, we donned our safety helmets and clip boards and met with Matthew to discuss the current status of the spot. My classmate, Motoya Nakamura, joined us to take the photos appearing in this posting.
Junior and I met outside of Matthew's apartment to discuss our questions, which were:
-Have you noticed any physical changes to the spot in terms of its dimensions, wear and tear, or surroundings?
-Has the spot changed due to any changes in relationships you may have had with other people related to it, such as the woman who painted it, Paige, The M.O.S.T., or any other friends related to your experiences with the spot?
-Have you thought about making any modifications or changes to the spot?
-How can we address the spot in a way that leads to it having a more positive or more desirable relationship to your apartment?
According to Matthew, the spot itself hasn't changed much at all, aside from a little bit of wear and tear, and his storage of record on top of it. During one of our visits to the spot in 2004, Matthew mentioned that most of the objects in his apartment occur in pairs, such as his lamps, paintings, mannequin head decorations, etc. As seen in the picture above, many of these items still do occur in pairs. Rudy and I both noted how the actual spot has more detail than either of us remembers, and commented on how memory has a way of blurring the sharp edges, scratches, and tears of reality.
In terms of the more relational/emotional aspects of the spot, Matthew explained that the spot on the floor and the map of the spot hanging on his wall continue to occupy a larger portion of psyche, in the same way a cat or houseplant might, than other items in the apartment. He explained that to him, the spot has a one to one relationship with The M.O.S.T., comparing it to a portrait, or with the death of The M.O.S.T., an urn. At the same time he noted that they don't get discussed much, a phenomenon he attributes to their "seamless integration into his apartment as purposeful objects" that evolved from dialogue and that represent continuing relationships with everyone involved.
In terms of maintenance, Matthew assured us that the spot is not in need of relocation, dusting, or alteration. His relationship with it is benign enough that he is happy to coexist with it until the day he moves from the apartment. Rudy speculated that the removal of the spot map might cause the entire apartment to crumble around us, and agreed to leave it hanging in its current location. We attached and initialed an inspection sticker to the spot map as a conclusion to our visit, and invited Matthew to contact us in the future should he need any assistance.
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