all or nothing #16 - what are you holding on to?
table of contents
1.events 2.words 3.missed connections 4.horoscope 5.listen
»looking forward
+where i lay opening reception+
A look inside the home is a look inside the mind. The exhibition, Where I lay, gives its viewers an inside look into Sylvie Harris and Natalya Kornblum-Laudi’s homes, upbringings, relationships, ancestry, and legacies. This two-person exhibition of photography, textiles, text embroidery, found object sculpture, and woodworking opens this Saturday, March 16, from 7 - 9 pm at 77 East Third Street. The show will be on view through April 14.
+inhale the exhaust open call+
New York means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So, tell us what the city means to you. We’re conducting an open call until April 1st for a month-long exhibition at our 3rd Street location. Submit here: google form
»looking back
+paper cuts exhibition+
Through masterfully cut holes, eager eyes peered into delicate worlds, hand crafted by the interdisciplinary artist Imani Guy Duckette. The wonders witnessed within the collaged paper-cut laceworks needed to be seen to be believed, sorry you missed out.
+let hair down exhibition+
The performance artist, Kanami Kusajima, moved through her solo exhibition with grace and ferocity, bookending the week with momentous performances that gathered the masses to witness her display of mixed media magic, blurring the lines of dance, painting, and music. Don’t fret, though, you can still catch her performing on any given day at Washington Square Park.
words
+ in spite of by casper+
There’s a scene in The Social Network that always stuck with me. At the end of the movie, Jesse Eisenberg (as Mark Zuckerberg) sits in a law office and compulsively refreshes his computer screen, waiting to see if “Erica Albright” accepted his friend request. Now, there’s a couple different readings of this scene. A sympathetic interpretation would see the Zuck as waiting to contact Erica to apologize for his boorish behavior. The chances of this scenario are pretty close to zero, though. Far more likely is that he is driven by spite. He either wants Erica to be impressed and in awe of his massive success, or feel like a moron that she missed out on dating the Facebook tycoon. Despite his massive success and the wealth he accrued, there was a vacancy in his life that was big enough to cause him to fixate on his relationship with this now stranger, and seek to leverage some sort of power over her. An unfortunate symptom of the human condition is an attachment to negative interactions and critique. A single bad experience or sharp comment can stick with someone for a lifetime, while positive affirmations and expressions of love can be forgotten without a second thought. Such dynamics feed into the development of what many define as trauma and emotional scarring or, alternatively, general personality quirks and preferences. In The Social Network, Mark was our main character; even though he has many glaring flaws, the viewer still sympathizes with him. Erica Albright didn’t wrong Mark yet he held onto their relationship as a foundational experience that provided inspiration and motivation. Inversely, if we followed Erica’s story instead of Mark’s, who knows what horrors she experienced from his initial harassment and subsequently witnessing his meteoric rise. Or, and just as likely, she didn’t care at all and never gave her relationship to Mark a second thought. Although I’m aware of it likely being an extremely unhealthy process, I personally use negative memories as motivation. I’m literally nobody; my slim accomplishments warrant no haters, but, like any other person, people have said some not-so-great things about me. Whether it was teachers who thought I was stupid, classmates that teased me for my creative pursuits, or a stranger yelling a slur at me from the safety of a speeding car, I remember it all. I don’t ever want to be in the same room with any of these people ever again, but the thought of them seeing my gross levels of imagined success and feeling regretful feels oh so satisfying. In reality, it's a total fantasy because there is no actual connection between those past encounters and the present. The perpetrators, as I perceive them, almost certainly have no memory or recollection of the past encounters that have stuck with me so deeply. Yet I’m still trying to remedy the past by reclaiming the future. It’s like in gym class when I dreaded the kickball unit because I sucked at the elementary school sport that everyone else seemed to excel at. In my head, I’d think, “Oh, just wait! Imma cook everyone when it’s basketball season.” And I did and I got my revenge, but then another unit rolled back around that I wasn’t good at, and the cycle continued with me feeling exposed and vulnerable then overcompensating once I had the upper hand again. Nothing changed, feelings of comfort would just slightly morph, ebbing and flowing between confidence and inferiority. As an adult, or at least in a stage of life where others perceive me as one, I’m trying to define what success actually means and what goals are worthwhile. Every time I achieve something that I’ve strived for, there is an intense emptiness that strikes as soon as the moment of success sinks in. Although I’ve come to recognize that success is an ever-changing illusion, I still compulsively try to keep striving. Otherwise, the detractors that exist only in my mind will win, and I’m real fucking spiteful.
missed connections
+figure drawing 3.5
You: a little picasso without all the problematic baggage
Me: an under-qualified critic taking out my lack of talent on the world
Description
Let me be your muse.
+paper cuts opening reception
You: slice through anything and everyone in your path
Me: now just a pile of pieces
Description:
Your eyes are razors. Your hands are saws. Your smile is a lawnmower. Your voice is an ax. Slice me, cut me, grate me, chop me. I am yours.
+let hair down closing performance
You: crank that soulja boy
Me: ready for war or a dance battle
Description:
It’s the classic enemies to lovers arc, but only one question persists: who will win in the battle for love?
horoscopes
+Aries+
Lovers come and go, friends will ebb and flow, but enemies will stab you in your freaking back if you don’t sleep with one eye open. So keep your friends close but your weapons closer.
+Taurus+
Sometimes, the greatest revenge is to do nothing at all.
+Gemini+
Watch your six, check your five, see your four, mind your three, see your two, be the one. Neo was resurrected last year, now it’s your turn. Not to rise from the grave, but to breathe life back into all those grudges you’ve been holding on to since elementary school. Find a pen and get a piece of paper. Break the pen in half and let the ink spill. Rub your fingers in it – – don’t be afraid to make a mess. Close your eyes and think of the person you hate most in the world and write their name with your ink covered hands. Open your eyes. Read the name aloud. Then scream it. Then say it exactly 81 times, using a different voice each time, and if you use some offensive accent,,s don’’t trip, we won’t tell. Now,, take the piece of paper and find the nearest water source, run the paper under the water until the ink runs from the paper,, or the paper dissolves entirely. Now clean your hands of the ink, wash gently and passionately, as if your fingers were a baby bird you found fallen from a nest. Once clean, gaze at yourself in the nearest mirror. Are you yourself, or just a reflection of what you hate?
+Cancer+
Once wronged, you may never feel right again. That’s it. That’s your horoscope for today.
+Leo+
In the past, we dueled. In the present, we unfollow. In the future, we do nothing because, unless we do something, fast mother earth will be getting revenge upon us all real soon.
+Virgo+
An eye for an eye is the only way to truly maintain eye contact and there’s no faster way to connect than through a staring contest. So look not at each other, but through each other.
+Libra+
True vengeance can only be achieved through forgiveness or death, but neither can undo what has already been done. Do what you need to do, but know that while you can’t take money to the grave, you can take love and– most importantly– hate too.
+Scorpio+
Would you rather have a heavy heart or a thick wallet? By the laws of thermodynamics and the associative property, mass can neither be created nor destroyed. OOnce you rid yourself of the weight on your shoulders,, that mass of pain muust move somewhere and we suggest sending it to your bank account;; wealth is of the heart and mind, and that’s the true power of mercy.
+Sagittarius+
Stop thinking about all that the Romans built and start thinking about what they stole. Similarly,, stop resting on your accomplishments and start fixating on what could have been yours, what should have been yours, and go out and take it.
+Capricorn+
Sleep is to death as stress is to spite, cousins shaking the family tree of life both impeding and propelling cycles of growth. They say stress is a silent killer, but spite is the engine of all great empires.
+Aquarius+
Hurt people hurt people not to feel evil but to feel equal, so recognize that only real people heal people while the worst people rhyme about it to make themselves feel better.
+Pisces+
Something’s coming for you and it’s not good.
playlist
bonus
+Send us your writing, ideas, notes, observations or anything you want to gallery@allstnyc.com to be considered for future editions of all or nothing+