"Beacons" (Part 2) by Alison Limtavemongkol and Matt Allison in Support of: Serve the City Berlin
Very excited to share the story behind a piece from the Beacons series that Alison and I collaborated on for the exhibition “triangulieren” at Axel Obiger in Berlin, as part of the B•LA•M art exchange.
After being invited by Alison to participate in the show, I decided to create an outdoor intervention that would be a companion piece to the prints she had decided to show. One of the logistical concerns was everything headed to Berlin had to fit in a suitcase. I had been experimenting with the idea of "surrogates" - studio pieces that shared a sort of spiritual kinship to the outdoor flashlight activations, but didn't try to mimic or reproduce them.
Surrogates, Battery operated flashlights, plastic storage containers. 2021
I proposed the project to Alison with an open-ended prompt during a logistics email: This piece can be installed in any dark space of your choosing (the gallery, the city, restaurant bathroom 😆) and would function as a small collaboration between you and I. In response, Alison proposed we each write a statement after the show describing our experience collaborating together, and she would share it through the gallery's media outlets.
Alison describing her experience:
“I placed the objects Matt gave me at a park near my hotel in Berlin. It was 9:30pm, and the summer sun was still shedding its light. I adjusted the shutter on my iPhone camera to enhance the blue glow and began to take several photos. As I was leaving, I looked back and saw a man approach the installation, probably curious about what I was photographing so intensely… I had to catch an early flight back to LA the next morning, so I didn’t have a chance to check on it again before I left. I wonder how long it stayed there…”
My statement:
“I was going through some pretty heavy ‘life stuff’ when I made the Beacon series, and there’s a sense of loneliness that pervades the work. The fact that the series has become so collaborative is truly a gift - Thanks to Open Mind Art Space and Axel Obiger Gallery for the support, and to Alison for bringing her friendship to what otherwise would’ve been a very solitary endeavor. Getting an idea out of my tangled up mind and into the world is always a very personally cathartic experience... To see that idea realized via another artist’s point of view makes the whole process feel profoundly connected on a much larger scale.”
After re-reading our two statements, there are a few things that stick out to me. First is Alison's acknowledgement that this work seems to generate more questions than it does answers. Doesn't matter if you are the person viewing it, or an active participant in it's making- everyone's kind of left wondering... It's a sentiment echoed by NNH's resident poodle loving, witchy creative in the comments of last week's post. What is the experience of these pieces after we leave them?
Then while braving the abyss that's the "work in progress" folder on my laptop, I found a bit of unfinished business written while I was still making the original interventions in 2021. The question is there again, although wrapped up in my concern about the audience:
...The audience is split into two groups - Those who interact with the actual intervention, and those who view it’s documentation. I find this interesting in a couple of ways: The first audience may or may not be thinking what they’re seeing was once considered artwork by its maker. Their interaction is most likely a matter of utilitarianism - The objects that make up each piece we’re specifically chosen because they could be useful to unhoused people. Whether or not they recognize any poetic or aesthetic value is OK with me - Objects live many lives, often at the same time...
Maybe not a definitive answer; but it was cool to be reintroduced to a past version of myself who was (and definitely still is) trying to work it all out. Then came the fact I had to acknowledge where that person was at the time. In our collaborative text with Alison, I referred to it as "pretty heavy life stuff" - which in retrospect means I was living with bilateral avascular necrosis of both my femoral heads. Which is medical speak for my hips were crumbling inside my body.
The 2021 Beacons series was the last time I was able to incorporate walking into my art practice until the wildflower bloom of Spring 2023. It felt like an incredibly lonely and isolating time, even though I was showered with love and support from my partner, family, friends and collaborators. And it's why the work is now so permeated with a sense of gratitude. Turns out it was only a moment in time; not a permanent state of being. My friends and family are still with me. The pain is not. The questions also remain; and I'm cool with that. There's still plenty of work to be done. We'll figure it out together.
Serve the City is a global movement of volunteers showing kindness in practical ways to people in need. We partner with homeless shelters, refugee centers, orphanages, and other associations offering help and support. Serve the City creates events that mobilize many volunteers to serve in simple ways – sports, music, arts and crafts, meals, friendship and more.
We are the connection between the good intentions and talents of people who could volunteer and a meaningful opportunity to get involved. And that’s where it starts. We cross the line from where we are and serve. But that’s just the beginning. The dream of Serve the City is everyone serving. As soon as possible we invite those we have met while serving to join us, because what we really want is to cross the line together.
This is part of an ongoing series that celebrates my friendship and collaborations with Alison Limtavemongkol. You can part 1 here and part 2 here.
Next week we dive back into a simpler and more gentle time of social distancing protocols and drive through art shows. ✌️🧡
Need a boost? Listen to Nina Simone's 1964 civil-rights era masterpiece Mississippi Goddam, then immediately follow it with research on what's being called the "Mississippi Miracle."
A call to action, commonly known by the initialism CTA, is a strategic marketing tool designed to spur an immediate response from an audience, guiding them toward a specific action.
A call to action, commonly known by the initialism CTA, is a strategic marketing tool designed to spur an immediate response from an audience, guiding them toward a specific action.
NNH began with the (perhaps naive) hope that it could be of service to folks who needed it. I wasn't exactly sure who that meant- Was it the potential readership? The Mutual Aid groups that would be featured in each post? Or other creative types (equally fed up with the constant "me at the center" paradigm required by our Tech Overlords) looking for a place to get weird and do some good.
SO, if you're out there- whomever you may be- Let me know. Leave a comment. Click a link. Tell a friend. Pitch an idea. Do anything to feel less alone in the world.
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