Lori Gordon | news: 01.05

Upon this my dreams are depending...

Come hang out this Thursday at Cafe Royale!

Lori Gordon will create a succession of lists on a bi-weekly basis, starting them on-site and allowing the audience to complete each piece. By establishing this collaborative and archival process, she is exploring the occurrence and consequence of a phenomenological process, through a shared public interaction between herself and the viewer. Despite her physical absence, she is attempting to have these written lists become a surrogate for her body as well as her desire to connect with others. Not only is the audience able to live vicariously through her words, they are also able to question their own desires and fantasies.

January oh January

I couldn't think of a better title. The well has run dry...

I had my review this week, and prepared for the new exhibition I am hanging tomorrow. It's been a busy few weeks, working crazy hours and seeing Max very little. Here is a photo-docu-drama of the past week's highlights.

Squeezed in some time at Cafe Royale to see Tomo Nakayama from the band Asahi.

This obviously included hanging out with the usual gang. Melissa, Erik, my brother and his new beard.

After Max was kind enough to shlep me to SAN BRUNO! for chalkboard paint, I treated him to breakfast at IHOP.

Saw this somewhere during the week, and it made me laugh.

An Improv Theatre workshop in my Humor as a Subversive Tool class.

Seeing one of my favorite professors and his baby in the grad office, I had to stay and chat a little.

Snippets of Winter

Winter is so mild in San Francisco, it's almost not worth talking about. And I ain't complainin'... Max just sent me all these pics from his cellphone. Most of which were taken in the Winter a few months ago. And yes - I do like them. After all they're blurry!

Storefront of penguins, and me...

The likeness is uncanny, I know!

Seasonal penguin socks.

Hug Piece

In December I did a collaborative project with Ginny. My idea was for us to hug for an hour. This piece deals with ideas of intimacy and connection. Can two people ever really know each other? Can two people ever really be intimate? We performed this endurance piece at the Powell Street Station. There will be more of these in different locations.

For more, link here: I like who I am when Im with you
There's also an update of the Knitting Sitting project. [new images of the knitted goods one year later]

Out of focus and blurry.

Even with a digital camera, your pictures are sometimes not what they seem until you look at them on a computer. Max always teases me that if it's out of focus or blurry, I'll love it. I can't explain why I like images like that so much, but they are always my favorite. I pulled out a few from the collection to share...

All or nothing

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a very extreme person. It's all or nothing. I've received some sad remarks lately, reminding me how little I have done with the blog the last few months. I am sorry. It's a small pie chart of reasons: working hard at school, exhaustion, lack of motivation, all-or-nothingness-syndrome. I will make a serious attempt to devote more time. Pinky promise!

In the meantime, I am happy to report that the 1st day of my last semester in grad school was great. John Rubin's Humor Class seemed very interesting, and I hung out with some buddies at the Wattis video show opening.

I have made some serious additions to the website, including artwork I've made in the last few months.

Painting: Crying Script (my life without me), Untitled [Blocked Alley] Untitled [Brown UFO], Untitled [Brown UFO Crowd], Untitled [Brown UFO Crowd 2].
Sculpture: Animals and Humans Are Connected.
Sociological: Ask Your Body, I Am You - You Are Me.

There are plans for a few guest spots on this blog, as well as a more heartfelt attempt at continuing this as the daily journal it was supposed to be. That's all for now.

[detail] Animals and Humans are Connected

Painting my friend Erik gave to me.
Awesome portrait of my childhood picture.

San Jo, You Know!

Today my friend Susan took me on the long awaited tour of San Jose. She grew up there, and we have talked about a tour for months now. It was an awesome time, and truly reminded me that anything can be fun with the right attitude. I kept my eyes open and took so many amazing photos. I have always been more interested in the journey than the destination, and this road trip through a generic NoCal town conjured up lots of good feelings about what this country means to me. At a time when I am finding it really hard to see America as beautiful or resonant with my own views, I encountered so many friendly and interesting people throughout the day. It was also good to just hang with buddies and enjoy the day, ignoring all the worries of what school brings when it starts up again next week.

Highlights included:

Lou's Living Donut Museum
A large plastic horse
The Winchester Mystery House Gift Shop
Susan's mother's orange trees

Münchner Freiheit (Munich Freedom)

We are back in Munich, staying in the Münchner Freiheit neighborhood after having traveled around quite a bit. After leaving Hof, we hit a few cities: Bad Neustadt, Bamberg and Forchheim. The last stop was for a friend's 40th birthday. This was an awesome celebration with lots of amazing food, including this incredible sour cream cake and tea.

I've met a lot of people on this visit, and it's been hard to try and use the German I've been studying. I realized I have a long way to go before I can casually converse. I am still very much dependent on the books and assignments. I would probably have to live here to pick things up quickly. So I will just have to keep taking classes at the Goethe Institute and practice every week.

New Year's Eve was a lot of fun, and we walked home from Max's friend Anne at around 4am. There was so much broken glass and firework remnants and trash in the streets. This shocked me, in a country that is so clean and prideful about recycling. The next day of course there was no evidence of all this waste, but it was interesting to see in the moment. There were loads of people awake and walking around when we were heading back to the apartment, and I saw a guy pound another guy into the street. I get very nervous when people get drunk and belligerent, but it's probably a good thing that I walk with someone 6'5" on my arm.

We are still relaxing a lot, sleeping late and eating good food. I have been knitting a new scarf for myself and reading some of the books I brought with me. Tomorrow we head out to see some art exhibitions, and to find me some new glasses. Look out Dolce and Gabbana - here comes Gordon Auffhammer!