Golden Age Work Group

June 15, 2009

A couple of write-ups

Lisa Radon of Ultrapdx.com and Mike Merrill from Urbanhonking.com wrote some nice words about my graduate exhibit and lecture last month. Thought I'd archive them here.
Oh, Mostlandia on Ultra (LINK OUT OF ORDER)

Collaboration on Urbanhonking

Also, if you haven't had the chance yet - stop by Disjecta this month to see the PSU MFA group show. I've put a smaller selection of items from The M.O.S.T.'s archives up for display, and everyone else in the program is looking great!

June 9, 2009

Box Set: Installation Shots

Thought it might be helpful to post some images from my show- a little tour of sorts.
Here's the view from the entrance

View of the large gallery space:

Here I'm serving in my active role as docent for the show, giving tours:

Citizen Jen Elder and family eating ice cream sandwiches provided as part of the exhibition:

Andrew McQualter

During our preparations for PDF, Lisa introduced me to the work of Andrew McQualter, and his project Studies for the shape of government. I really love the documentation of this project, with the establishing shot of two people at a table followed by the document they created together. It's cinematic almost.

June 2, 2009

Public Document Files @ Public Space One, Iowa City

I have been working with Melbourne artist Lisa Radford to create some PDFs for a project in Iowa City called Public Document Files (PDF). Jen Delos Reyes asked 30 artists (including myself) to create ten files "on or about artists they think are related to ideas surrounding public and socially engaged art work." Lisa and I have been emailing links back and forth for several years now, and decided to make our PDFs out of those links.

Throughout this process, we discussed the possibility of whether we might be living parallel lives in cities on opposite sides of the world. We used the Radio Lab show The (Multi) Universe(s) as a starting point, and Lisa drew this great image in summation, merging our facial features and making connections between us.

May 21, 2009

Show's Up!

My MFA show is up and running.

Monday-Saturday, 12-5PM (except for Memorial Day)
Today through May 29.

Where: PSU Autzen Gallery, 2nd Floor Neuberger Hall
(SW Broadway between Harrison and Hall)

I'm gallery sitting the entire time, so come say 'hi!'

Statement:

In Box Set: The M.O.S.T. Remastered, Katy Asher reconfigures the gallery space into a museum displaying the complexities and rewards of working as part of a collaborative arts group. Organized around artifacts and an interpretive archive space, Asher introduces visitors to The M.O.S.T. – a tight knit social group whose membership prior to their dissolution in 2008 included Khris Soden as “The M.,“ Katy Asher as “The O.”, Jen Rhoads as “The S." and Rudy Speerschneider as “The T.” The exhibition focuses on the cosmology, worldview and philosophies related to the group itself and its primary area of research, Mostlandia.

On display are the complete archives of artifacts from all 30 projects created by the group between 2003-08. The objects displayed give a glimpse into the breadth of the group's conceptual interests, ranging from a 63-card trading card set to handcrafted ambassadorial uniforms, a specialized stamp kit and free ice cream sandwiches. * Asher provides access to volumes of emails and file cabinets packed with research and meeting notes showing the depth of the group's investment in the collaborative decision making process.

*While supplies last!

Bio:

Katy Asher investigates how artists and audiences create shared meaning around ideas of place through group work, participation and facilitative practices. As a founding member of the four-member arts group The M.O.S.T., Asher performed in festivals, galleries and museums including TBA:05, the 2006 Melbourne International Arts Festival, the Victorian College of the Arts Margaret Lawrence Gallery (Melbourne, AUS) and Blackfish Gallery (Portland, OR). The M.O.S.T. received official recognition for their work as Mostlandian ambassadors from the mayors of Melbourne, Australia and Tilburg, Netherlands. In addition to creating socially engaged artworks in Matthew Yake’s living room, Melbourne’s town hall and Portland’s city streets, Asher toured Eastern Europe with Red76 during their DIY artist-as-rock-group project Building Batteries. Her projects have been included in Art Journal, Utne Magazine, Oregon Humanities Magazine and the catalogues for Core Sample: Portland Art Now and The Group Group Show. Katy and collaborator Rudy Speerschneider, recently showed work at The Pomona Museum College of Art (Pomona, CA) as part of suddenly, a series of publications, exhibitions, and other public events concerning the new shape of cities.

Links:

www.katyasher.blogspot.com
www.mostlandia.com
www.suddenly.org

May 11, 2009

More organization pics

Mostlandian Ambassadorial Uniforms

My apologies for being a quiet blogger recently. Most of my time is being spent in the non-cyber world as the installation date for my show draws nearer and nearer...

Opening Date: Monday, May 18

Here are some pictures of my more recent organizational efforts.

Paper files accumulated by members of The M.O.S.T., indexed by project and owner.

April 12, 2009

Making the most of it

I'm on a roll with my graduate project - an archival display of The M.O.S.T.'s work from 2003-2008.
Right now, I'm using an extra room in my house to collect and sort through all of the ephemera from Rudy, Jen, Khris and my closets, drawers, boxes, basements, and filing cabinets.
It looks kind of like this:

February 27, 2009

MISSING in L.A.

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.

Spot Portal Maintenance

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.

January 22, 2009

Mostlandian Citizens Travel to LA

Rudy and I are traveling to Claremont, CA this weekend for the opening of suddenly at the Pomona College Museum of Art. We'll be at the walkthrough and reception on Saturday, and will present our explorations of life post-MOST at The Mandrake Sunday afternoon.

If by any chance you are someone who reads my blog and lives in the LA area, come say hello!

Saturday, January 24, 4 pm
Pomona College Museum of Art
330 N. College Avenue, Claremont, CA.
suddenly exhibition curator Stephanie Snyder will lead a walkthrough of the new exhibition with participating artists. Followed by an opening reception held at the Museum from 5:00-7:00 p.m. (Free)

Sunday, January 25, 2 pm - 3am
The Mandrake
2692 S. La Cienega Blvd, Culver City, CA
suddenly Public Speakers: 13 lectures or something “like a lecture” in 12 hours with: Andrew Berardini; Marc Joseph Berg; Zoe Crosher; Michael Damm; Molly Dilworth; Michael Hebb; Michael Orion McManus; Mostlandian Citizens Lady O. and Junior Ambassador; Stephanie Snyder, Matthew Stadler; Storm Tharp, Oscar Tuazon; and Zwischenspiel Puppet Opera Company. Drinks, food, fun, exhaustion. (Free)

Seeking: Cartographers of Any Skill Level

SEEKING: CARTOGRAPHERS OF ANY SKILL LEVEL to assist in locating a sense of place. Curiosity, open eyes and ears, and sense of humor a plus. Open to maps on paper as well as movement, music, narrative and video. Please send a draft of how you "map out" your experiences, discoveries and psychogeographical landscapes to: mostlandia@gmail.com. Willing to barter with homemade ice cream. Sincere inquiries only.

January 5, 2009

Golden Beets

I am having a love affair with golden beets at the moment. I made some on New Year's Day and can't seem to get enough. This may seem unrelated to my studies, however, I've found that after eating a serving of beets each day of the new year, I've been able to finally start accomplishing some things I hadn't been able to do over the past few months - including post updates on this blog, respond to some lingering emails, organize some of the neglected cabinets/storage places in my house, etc. My chinese medicine doctor would say that this decisiveness has to do with the beet's positive influence on the chi of my gall bladder. I say, whatever it is, feed me more beets.

My current affair was inspired by two christmas gifts: Michal Pollan's In Defense of Food and The Greens Cookbook. I am intrigued with Pollan's instructions to eat food, mostly vegetables and less of it, and the Winter Vegetables with Mustard Tarragon Vinaigrette seemed like the perfect place to start. It was!

Since then, I've also discovered a couple of tasty ways to prepare beet greens here and here.

Collecting Information

I'm working on a project with Ariana Jacob and Amber Bell that aims to make a vending cart of maps made by people from Portland.

I came across a link to the projects being created by Art House Co-op of Atlanta, that I think run parallel to our idea in the way that we both are attempting to make collections of subjective information. Art House is collecting and displaying items from their audience such as 10,000 interpretations of one word, or 20,000 objects that relate to keeping time. I don't think that I'm as interested in reaching certain numerical goals, but a collection of time-keeping objects seem pretty interesting.

With Love from Haha: Essays and Notes on Collective Practice

I've been finding inspiration in this book, the final project by the members of the art group Haha, Wendy Jacob, Laurie Palmer, and John Ploof. I wasn't aware of Haha's work until reading about them in Group Work last spring, and have been surprised to learn that their group interest focused around collective conceptions of place and space, among other things.

I am reading and re-reading "Haha as a Catalyst for Collective Memory" by Doug Ashford and "Getting Lost and the Localized Mind" by Franco La Cecla. Each of these essays is expanding my vocabulary for describing shared social memory and how that shared memory relates to place.

December 13, 2008

Rumball 2008

Just catching up on some posts. Here is the image from the card Junior Ambassador and I sent out this year celebrating our first Rumball Season as Mostlandian Citizens.

Inspiration:

November 10, 2008

The Way It Is

Hi Katy -
I found this poem by William Stafford, amongst my files...don't remember where it came from..but, here to share...
-- Rudy

The Way It Is

There's a thread you follow.

It goes among things that change.

But it doesn't change.

People wonder about what you are pursuing.

You have to explain about the thread.

But it is hard for others to see.

While you hold it you can't get lost.

Tragedies happen, people get hurt or die, and you suffer and get old.

Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.

You don't ever let go of the thread.

November 3, 2008

Oregon Council for the Humanities: Relating Through Art:

This article in Oregon Humanities Magazine profiles several social practice artists working in Portland, and includes some words I had to say about my work with the The M.O.S.T.

October 1, 2008

Generosity and Greed

Here's an interesting article by Douglas Rushkoff regarding current events in the US economy. He describes our monetary system as ..."a shell game, with losers built into the very rules" and makes an appeal for the creation of alternative economies based on generosity vs. greed.
I agree that a person has to borrow money to do anything real in this world, but am finding that I am more and more interested in the wiggle room created by creative acts of sharing and gift giving. I think this concept is tied closely to the Prisoner's Dilemma I learned about during my negotiation class last spring. What if I can structure situations wherein people are given chances to be generous and are rewarded for even the smallest amounts of generosity?
Personal Advisor worked in that way. Ariana and I introduced strangers to the concept that they have valuable insight just by virtue of being human, and then facilitated the exchange of those insights.
The Committee is working towards a project that would help artists make a living, and I would like our strategies to head in that direction as well.

September 26, 2008

Ode to Summer

Oregon State Fair, Salem, Oregon

Today is orientation for year two of the PSU MFA program.
I made a concerted effort this summer to go to warm places and soak up the heat. Here's a little repository of summer warmth for the cold dark days ahead. Remember relaxation. Remember being unbearably hot.

Warren Dunes, Michigan

Incubate, Chicago, Illinois

Mt. Evans, Colorado

Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness, Oregon

September 20, 2008

Passage 1: A Wake

On August 11, Rudy Speerschneider (the former T of the MOST) and I hosted the first of four passages we intend to make as we move from being portals to Mostlandia to being bonafied citizens of Mostlandia.

This Passage, titled "A Wake", was an effort on our behalf to recognize Mostlandian Citizens for making the past 5 years such an interesting adventure and to celebrate and bring closure to all of the work and achievements of The MOST.

We flew Jen (the S) up from San Francisco, and spent an entire day preparing a panwich bar (much like a salad bar but with pancake for bread) as well as a special 4-layer ice cream with each layer representing one of The MOST. (vodka berry, vanilla lime, glowing orb, and peanut butter chocolate)

After dinner, The MOST toasted the Citizens, and received toasts in return.

Citizen Winter presented us all with a surprise batch of rumballs, and true to form, many people made the pained surprised look of having their first Winter Rumball.

Chris Hudson and her friend David Kyle prepared a beautiful sonic eulogy wherein everyone present were invited to take one turn breathing in for 4 counts and out for 4 counts (one count for each member of the m.o.s.t.) before passing the microphone to the next participant. the breathing was recorded and looped, combined and played back amplified. This piece can be both seen and watched at Chris's website here.

We ended the evening by performing a set of instructions put forth to us by DAMP, our artist friends from Melbourne. The instructions read:

The M.O.S.T Eulogy

1. Press play on portable CD player (please note: no previewing of audio track allowed)
2. Turn up volume (max if possible)
3. Find a rooftop (or go outside)
4. Each wake participant should each take a sheet of reinforced loosefleaf

5. Fold into an aerodynamic flying module *
6. Simultaneously (on the count of three) ignite flying module with naked flame
7. Launch phoenix into the outer stratosphere
8. In synchronicity, vocalise the following:

M.O.S.T is Dead Viva la M.O.S.T

9. Consume champagne ice-cream
* Flying module refers to a paper aeroplane
-----
The MOST finished by becoming ghosts, something we've been familiar with since we died for the first time in 2003.

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