event descriptions:

First Thursday Opening Celebration
Thursday 4th, 4-7p

Join us in celebrating the opening of this cool temporary space! Look at the art! Support local makers! Chat with new/old friends!

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Sculpture Installation by Iram
Thursday 4th - Saturday 6th

An installation by Iram Asghar. “I make tumorous growths out of found and discarded textiles. I refer to them as my babies as they are primarily hand sewn, start with umbilical cords and take long periods of time to complete (to be born). My sculptures are an extension and by-product of my nomadic lifestyle and spiritual journey. They are how I process the world around me and contain bits and pieces of the places and people I interact with as I digest life.
By virtue of them being hand sewn, they are also a huge part of my meditative practice. As I sew I allow myself to drop into my body as much as I can and also notice my mind’s chatter. While sewing I often embroider some of the words that really stick out when I am in meditation. In these works I dive into my personal challenges with mental health, trauma, ancestry, poverty and suffering. They are vulnerable and tactile explorations of difficult emotions. An externalized internal journey documented in 3-dimentional form.”

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The Importance of Lore
Friday 5th, 5:30-7p

An artist talk by @ruuneverse “regarding fishing through the historical history of one’s own discography to assemble new creative narrative for future work.
Presentation will go over the techniques involved in their new untitled WIP musical-world building project, and how it is influenced by the themes of: making music & art outside of capitalism, rediscovering Jewish heritage, reclaiming the act of “searching for something” after current music industry models work to tear that environment down, personal fashion as gender and spirit identity, and using spiritual connections to latitude, longitude, and chaos as a conduit to the inner collaborator.
The Presentation will be followed by a Ritual performance of one song from “the work”, involving audiences from both the physical and digital realm created within the WIP, which is both a musical album and an interactive video game.”
r.u.u.n.e is a genderqueer performer, writer, and witch living locally and doing whatever they can whenever it’s possible."

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Exquisite Beast: collaborative monster drawing
Saturday 6th, 4-7pm *sign-up required.

A workshop with A.B (@v_a_l_l_e_y) “Throughout art history, monsters and mythic beasts have taken on every imaginable form. So how do we invent new monsters? In this workshop we will play and experiment with strategies for creating our own fantastical hybrid creatures. First, we’ll brainstorm a chart of body parts, adjectives, behaviors, and habitats. Whenever someone is stumped, they can reference this chart for inspiration. I’ll also bring some books for inspiration, but our objective is to generate drawings from our own imaginations, without relying on reference materials. “Exquisite Corpse” is a game popularized by the Surrealists and DaDaists, in which each participant takes turns drawing on a sheet of paper, folds it to conceal their contribution, and then passes it to the next player for a further contribution. We will play a round or two of this game as a warm up to get our creative juices flowing and to practice creating collaborative compositions. Next, we will work together to create one giant beast. We will assign teams to body parts, and invoke chance strategy to decide what kind of monster to co-create by cutting up the remaining descriptors in the chart, tossing them into hats, and selecting one word at random from each pile——this gives us a subject to keep in mind as we all draw separately. Each team draws their respective body part(s) on cardboard. After a pre-determined amount of time, teams switch parts with other teams to complete the drawings. Then we will cut out each part, creating a pile of body parts to collage together, and assemble the beast (or beasts if we have a surplus of parts) together as a group. If there’s time, we can add color and texture by painting it together.”

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Whisper
Sunday 7th - Tuesday 9th

An installation by Chuck Farts (@fartingchuck) “I love to play with fantasy and color with my art. My creatures are my friends. Whisper is a cloud bat who grew up in a bubble surrounded by endless other cloud bat bubbles. They dream only of shifting colors, shapes, and vibrational sounds (maybe like a baby). Whisper eventually decides to break out of their bubble and is transported through big space to silly lil earth. They kinda of look like a blue cat with big cloud wings but I promise he is 100% cloud bat. And we are so lucky to have em here on earth for as long as they allow !”

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HTML (hundred thousand million labyrinths) writing workshop
Sunday 7th, 11am-1pm

“HTML (hundred thousand million labyrinths) is a constraint-based writing group, dedicated to exploration of surrational, lexiconspiratorial and algorithmic schemes for developing new writing. Different sorts of 'constraints' or 'recipes' for approaches to writing are introduced, tried out, read back, and then more are explored. "Write the antonynm of every word," or "use the number and the sequence of letters in the word chimaera to structure a poem about chimaeras," etc. Low-key, and lots of fun! Inspired by the "potential literature" of creative writing groups including Oulipo and The Writhing Society, and the "potential comics" popularized by folks like Matt Madden and Jessica Abel. In the spirit of the chimaera, participants in HTML activities are literally recombining language to construct new ways of puzzling bodies (of knowledge). With rigid recipes, participants conspire compelling non-obvious assemblages of poetry, prose, pictures and comics——generative mutation and playful alchemy emergent from a creative contestation of constraints.”

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“Mall Rats and Other Creatures” : A mutation of the physical and mythical worlds of digital art and drag
Sunday 7th, 2:30-4pm

A drag show hosted by Demetrius Darling and The Eggboy, featuring drag performances and digital projection. Ya won’t wanna miss this!

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ADAM’S SONG
Wednesday 10th, 2p

“As a closeted teenager fumbling for identity, I expressed and defined myself through the pop culture that spoke to me. Stores at the mall like Hot Topic & FYE held the keys to the community I wanted for myself, even though I didn’t yet understand that all the piercings, tattoos, music, and clothes I wanted to cloak myself in were not only markers of my aversion to the mainstream society that ostracized me, but signifiers of my belonging to an entirely different culture hiding in plain sight- queerness. In this performance “ADAM’S SONG,” I return to my teenage closet to transform myself, using disparate pop punk artifacts to divine inspiration and guide my process. Magazine pages become tarot cards, song lyrics and liner notes become prophecies, my computer screen becomes a crystal ball- anything can become a tool of transfiguration. With a sharpie wand, I start with my shoes, then work up my jeans to my flannel and my shirt. I cut my hair, I consult my CD binder, and I quietly sing along, reciting spells. Finally, I trade the sharpie for a tattoo machine, permanently changing myself into something new. My goal is to embody the strange beast I once dreamt of being: the chimaera I am today, a mythical beast in its own right.”

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Butoh performance(s)
May 11th, 1-2p; May 12 3:30-4:30p; May 15, 2:30-3:30p

“a short live butoh performance that is inspired by dreamstates & hypnogogia // flowers in states of blossoming & decay // sky as sea ~ sea as sky (moments of transition/slow transformation) a practice in presence and internal listening // a practice in acceptance of where one is and where one is going // to be a vehicle for change // ofanim vibes // the wheel tarot card vibes”

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Movie + Drawing Hangout with Chuck Farts
May 12th, 5-7pm

Chuck will be screening a movie they love! We’ll all be drawing! Bring your own supplies/materials or use ours!

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Morph Knitwear Pop-Up
Saturday 13th

A daylong popup with Morph Knitwear (@morphknitwear) with “one of a kind knitted garments, focusing on the use of scraps and left-overs to make each one. They'll range from oversized t-shirts, to mini dresses, micro tops, loose-knit hoodies; pieces to wear in the transition of seasons and layer in many ways. I like to think that out of the infinity of possibilities a ball of yarn faces, the way I create wearable things out of essentially lengths of string is an embodiment of the spirit of chimaera.”

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A Parliament of Neighbors
Saturday 13th, 3-5p

An interactive speculative design exhibit with Ron Bronson, “where we'll contemplate what it means to be a neighbor & what we'd do with a city as a blank canvas.”

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Inspire Me: interactive live painting with Nina
Sunday 14th, 2-5pm

“semi-interactive live drawing/painting/multimedia sessions where visitors would be welcome to put subject matter and themes in a hat that I would pick from randomly, then I would make small pieces of art using those mystery suggestions. Some of the art may be more representational and some may be more abstract, I have a tenancy to go back and forth in my own practice but I always seem to have a dreamy quality in my work.”

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Department of Public Dance party
Sunday 14th, 3-4pm

“Department of Public Dance is an ongoing socially engaged work that makes use of the current state of our local half-empty mall by activating its potential as a public community space, where participation is just as common as consumption. The mall has always been a site for social interaction, unexpected encounters, crisscrossing of personalities, and group gathering. By calling attention to the physical and relational resources that Lloyd Mall provides, our public dance happenings carve new imaginative pathways for how this site-in-flux can not only serve the community, but cultivate and fortify it.”

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Magic Duality: a fashion show
May 15th, 4-7pm

Designs by Cosmo + Keek$! More info tba but you won’t wanna miss it!

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Weird Shift microtalks
Tuesday May 16th, 5-7pm

“With a whiff of Pecha-Kucha, and a penchant for sideline knowledge areas, Weird Shift welcomes short-form presentations, inspiring rants, marginalia studies and image-laden screeds of roughly 10-20 minutes. Expect (and/or become part of) an eclectic array of offerings from local and regional artists, writers, concept engineers, cranks and independent researchers. Every microtalk session is different, created from the combining of unique people who give a talk, and those who listen. We always marvel at how a continuity develops between the talks as they jump from subject to subject without any prior planning, and the audience finds ways of connecting them together via questions and comments.”

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walk work: mall
May 17th

“A guided audio walk blurring the lines between performer, audience and everyday life.” (From artist Erin Boberg. Start in our window.)

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Hitch’s Music Videos
May 18th, 5-7p

“Double exposure video collages. The videos mostly focus on lighting, shadows, nature, and faces.”

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We’re Still Out Here: a Rural Trans Teen Art Show & Fundraiser
May 19th, 4-7p

Come celebrate rural trans youth!! “Politics has been making life for rural trans kids a lot harder. The t4t art collective invites you to the We’re Still Out Here: Rural Trans Teen Art Show Fundraiser. All sales go back to the artists”. This event is organized by t4t art collective who say: “Our art collective's goal is to get trans art on the walls, period. The trans community IS a chimæra, I'd say by every definition of the word.”

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indie smartphone game arcade
ongoing

Ruune has curated a rad selection of indie-made games you can play on your smartphone! Come chill and play a few! We have a couch!

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sticker trades
ongoing

Prolific local sticker artists RX Skulls, notcool, and mstoofache have set up a trade box for stickers! Come leave a few and take a few!

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open art hangout
ongoing

We’ll have art supplies in the space for folks who want to come in and hang out and work on something! <3

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