all or nothing #47 - what are your intentions?
table of contents
1.events 2.words 3.missed connections 4.horoscope 5.listen
»current
ÁLAMO by Lívia Sá - /virtu.all
the earth moves with intention, perpetually spinning while maintaining a neat orbit around the sun. shifting seasons, raising tides, and casting shadows in the process. nothing is an accident and nothing is forever yet from the right perspective, any single moment can bleed into infinity. Lívia Sá’s ÁLAMO explores the relationship between movement and environment. investigating the boundaries of human and celestial bodies in the titillating tango of life. brewing a rich stew of metaphors with a focus on animate forms interacting with slowness and time, ÁLAMO invites the viewer into a trance-like state to further consider the state of all being. her work ÁLAMO is currently on view at our /virtu.all viewing room for the month of july.
words
+how to unsuccessfully find meaning+
i offered my hand and he cringed. it was subtle, but i noticed. out of fear of being rude, he fished his clenched right fist out of his pocket and extended it towards me. our hands met for an awkwardly gentle handshake, neither of us feeling particularly confident in what was about to take place. his palms were damp, slick with a film of warm liquid that was certainly sweat. my face slightly contorted as i felt the wetness on his skin. he nervously claimed the bathroom was out of paper towels. i had just gone in five minutes before he arrived. it wasn’t. the conversation did the opposite of flow. thesaurus.com offers “trickle” as an antonym for flow and that is an extremely apt way to describe the odd interaction. the conversation trickled on for far too long: a series of meaningless exchanges followed by a volley of useless and disjointed statements being made in succession. we spoke out of social obligation but by no means were we actually communicating. our words flew by one another without ever being heard. the number of “yeahs” said throughout the thirty-minute meeting was sickening. moronic head nodding punctuated our unsettling postures, hunched over our coffees as if we were trying to squirm our way into the small paper cups that we timidly sipped from. every moment of silence found us diving headfirst into our beverages that served equally as safety blankets and pacifiers excusing us from needing to open our mouths and maintain conversation. i found no escape gazing into the swirling abyss of overpriced coffee i compulsively pretended to drink. time moved excruciatingly slowly. politeness only went so far as robotic gestures and empty words. eye contact was rarely made. giving any false sense of recognition or understanding would have been far too intimate. when our eyes did accidentally meet after trying to look everywhere other than directly across the table, it was like a race of who could look away faster. there were no winners in this silently agreed-upon competition, though, for it was rather obvious we were both complete and utter losers. the clock continued to tick, extending our shared purgatory, hovering between the despair of remaining in this conversation and the bliss of being free from ever needing to speak to another human again. after a great deal of foot dragging and meandering around the point, we finally found the courage to directly address the meaning of this meeting. he spoke, stumbling over his words with a nightmarish stew of umms and likes, to which i responded with a soliloquy littered with ear-bleeding stutters and schizophrenic fermatas that made the cadence of speech seem like i was having a stroke. despite speaking in two completely different forms of anxiety-induced, bastardized english, we eventually found meaning in the depths of our familiarly unfamiliar utterance of sounds. when he purchased the piece, apparently the liquor had gotten to him, so he wasn’t in his right mind, and now that the piece was already delivered, hung, and paid for, he needed to return it. but it’s not ‘cause he can’t afford it. it’s not about the money. he made sure to assure me that he wasn’t broke or a scammer or anything like that. he just no longer thought it was a good fit. i had a lot of questions, but i only asked one: “why?” and his answer was simple: “because i realized i don’t understand it.”
missed connections
+6.19 juneteenth
you: the embodiment of thunder
me: captain all-ears
description:
if summer storms couldn’t keep us apart, do you really think anonymity can?
+6.27 speak friend @ the cherry lane theater
you: in the third row, stage left
me: watching from afar
description:
your gaze planted the seeds of love in my frontal lobes. meet by the cherry blossoms in central to see what could grow between us.
horoscopes
+Aries+
if you always carry an umbrella, then one day you will use it.
+Taurus+
if the wind from the flapping of a butterfly’s wing can cause a hurricane a million miles away, then just imagine what a big fart can do. so remember, there’s a vast amount of power in your body.
+Gemini+
that troubled gemini prophesied, “i can see your agendas and your intent,” which implies he has great vision, but even those with 20/20 sometimes can’t see themselves.
+Cancer+
don’t be the first one to fall asleep at the slumber party. tired is a choice.
+Leo+
F1 was pretty good. you should see it in IMAX.
+Virgo+
a hole in your pocket is bad for accruing riches, but it’s great for close-up magic.
+Libra+
next time you see a penny, pick it up.
+Scorpio+
on 77th st between 3rd and 2nd on the upper east side, i left you a letter. the letter holds everything you need to know. all of the words i wish i had said to you. maybe it means nothing to you at this point, but maybe it means everything. the secrets of the universe, one might say. but there’s something guarding the letter. something fierce. something big. something nasty. something evil. it’s that thing you’ve been running from all your life. knowing this, would you still like to proceed? do you intend on vanquishing this mysterious foe, or perhaps attempting to barter, or just give up altogether? i can’t make that decision for you. i won’t make that decision for you. but if i was you, i know exactly what i’d do. but that’s the thing. i’m not you. and you’re not me. we’re not one big happy family. so you don’t know what’s in that letter, and i don’t know what you’re willing to do to read that letter. would u sell the pinky on your off-hand? would you do the macarena in front of your first crush? would you name your firstborn child after my favorite beverage company? would you sell government secrets? these are just questions. hypotheticals. potential scenarios. but maybe they’re not. maybe all of these things have already happened and will continue to happen. over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. until the wheels fall off and the ozone layer thins to the point that our air is no longer breathable. so with that said, move forward with the heart of a dragon, the eyes of a snow leopard, the appetite of a vampire, the courage of a toddler, and the reading comprehension of a silica gel packet. because guess what? you already know every letter in the alphabet, so everything you’ve ever read you’ve already seen.
+Sagittarius+
every breath made with intention for true enlightenment can only come when you stifle all involuntary reflexes.
+Capricorn+
they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, so by the reflexive property, the only way to get to heaven is with bad intentions.
+Aquarius+
if you always think before doing, then you will always sink before doing.
+Pisces+
if you want to be better, then be better.
playlist
+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+
image credits
images by Lívia Sá, from ÁLAMO, which is currently featured on our /virtu.all viewing room curated by Betti Grace Smith.