Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« Two of the Best Novels of the Year,… | Because It's Wednesday Morning... »

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Visual Art When You See a Lady Hugging a Telephone Pole, She's Not Crazy, She's Just an Artist

Posted by Jen Graves on Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 8:32 AM

Mimi Allin is the Seattle artist who prostrated herself all over Mount Rainier last summer.

Now she is going to be roaming up and down Greenwood Avenue embracing telephone poles between 65th and 87th streets, for two hours a day during morning or evening rush hour, three to five times a week for five weeks, starting Friday. (Friday is the day of PhinneyWood Summer Streets: recommended.)

She won't just hug the poles (yeah, I typed that), she'll wrap them in blue sheepskin "to make them more embraceable, hinting at those fur-covered surrogates used to 'mother' orphaned animals in zoos," the artist writes. "After the appropriate amount of time with each pole, the artist will compose a handwritten letter and post it on the pole. Real relationships, thwarted relationships, imagined relationships, internet relationships, fantasies, even characters in books—will allow her to love."

The "performance-installation" is called Surrogate. From her statement:

This work highlights the artist's need to give and receive. It highlights the artist's need for an audience and the result of not connecting with one. It takes our obsession with communication (often expressed alone, in a car or an office, using e-mail, Facebook or cell phone texting) and makes of it an absurd performance.

What becomes of us when we are unable to express ourselves dimensionally, unable to give ourselves and receive? The artist's unspent love is on display that it might spark a dialog about where and when we meet. Passersby will be invited to revisit their own real or imagined relationships and discuss the need to connect.

Goofy! In a good way? You decide. Go talk to the artist yourself. At 6 pm on Friday, she'll be hugging the pole on the southwest corner of Greenwood and 78th.

FacebookShare

Comments (11) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

I'll come with my dog to piss on her leg. The dog that is.

Posted by Another useless MFA... Mutha fucking artist on August 8, 2012 at 8:57 AM

Those aren't mutually exclusive.

Posted by doceb on August 8, 2012 at 9:16 AM

Lordy....

Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay

on August 8, 2012 at 10:28 AM

Bring back the poster ban.

Posted by DOUG.

on August 8, 2012 at 10:51 AM

I guess our economy can't be that bad if people still have the time and money for things like this.

Posted by giffy on August 8, 2012 at 10:52 AM

Being an artist does not mean she isn't crazy. I can cite many people who exemplify the overlap.

Let's begin with Mimi Allin.

Posted by Allyn on August 8, 2012 at 10:53 AM

If you remove the art context this just seems like a very friendly form of a mental problem.

Posted by The CHZA on August 8, 2012 at 12:28 PM

There is a woman who wanders around Greenwood screaming abuse at people day and night. Wonder how their encounters will go...

Posted by -ink on August 8, 2012 at 1:49 PM

You all seem pretty desperate to prove the jaded, black wearing, Too-cool-for-school "hipster" stereotype of the Stranger's target demographic is true...sad. Go, Mimi, share that love!

Posted by AdamTS13 on August 9, 2012 at 12:38 PM

It shows the low level of intelligence operative in this culture that artists are contextualized in relation to so-called mental illness. it's becoming more & more evident that humans operating within the terms of USA consumer culture are the ones who may be discussed in terms of mental illness. Mental illness is a breakdown in communication, said Milton Erickson. Seems that Ms. Allin is engaging in various connections in communication. Tho I don't expect American hipster commodity consumption culture to be able to comprehend.

Posted by mickeyo on August 9, 2012 at 12:52 PM

Mimi is wonderful, making space for play in this way.

Posted by Ingrid Lahti on August 24, 2012 at 2:14 PM