I first went into the desert at the turn of the century as Harriet Chalmers. I stayed and wandered around and eventually found a home in the steppe. My home is calm and round and covered with felt. I heat my home with animal dung. I sit to the right of the door waiting to [...]
At the China-Mongolia Border Via Burma, via the Irrawaddy and Yangtze Rivers, I have come. My ship is in irons. I stand now at the edge of the Gobi, 1000 miles wide, 600 miles long, prepared to step into my homeland, Mongolia. I have a few hundred miles of dry sea still to sail before [...]
Last show this Friday evening at 7PM. See what happens when there is no hold, when white walls surround Mimi. Tickets $10 (donation). Reservations requested: projectspaceavailable@gmail.com. PROJECT: Space Available is in the heart of Capitol Hill at 1417-10th Ave, thru the door labeled Sweatbox Yoga. Parking can be a challenge so give yourself plenty of [...]
AhG. I’ve arrived! After 53 days of eating, sleeping and drinking HAM, it is done. I am a Ham, a Technician Class Radio Operator, listed in the FCC database with the call sign KF7KHP or Kilo Foxtrot Seven Kilo Hotel Papa. I found out tonight, of all nights, my last in the hold. I am [...]
A K Mimi Allin, the current artist-in-residence at Project: Space Available on Capitol Hill in Seattle (1 April–31 May 2010), presents HAM–Hold, All Movement on Friday 21 May, Sunday 23 May and Friday 28 May. Come see the ship’s hold she’s been living in (an 8×11′ floating space made of bamboo, plywood and 160′ of [...]
I spent yesterday evening watching and recoding myself making facial gestures. I worked a bit on my hands and legs too and then on full body gestures. It’s exhausting work, I think, because it draws on the emotions even when it’s an empty-seeming emotion. Eventually, my shoulder and neck muscles got tense, I got a [...]
RADIO ART I have been working on one form of radio art, the kind that focuses on incoming signals and turning them into gestures. I feel certain there are many other forms. Two months is scant time to develop something profound in the field. I’d like to push this study even further and continue what [...]
LIGHT As I leave studio dee, the studio in which I am working–a dim, unaired, windowless, electricity-sustained space–I walk a narrow dog-leg corridor to a glass door which gives to the world. Sometimes as late as 5pm, I see my first light. My eyes tighten and close. The light penetrates my pores. Smells whisk around [...]
A. K. Mimi Allin | HAM or Hold, All Movement | Project: Space Available Artist #2
GESTURE Gesture is a form of non-verbal communication made with a part of the body, used instead of or in combination with verbal communication. Speech and gesture are closely coordinated and are processed in the same areas of the brain. Adam Kendon is the foremost researcher in the field of gesture study today and has [...]