Author Archives: alysha

This was a performance intervention in one of Santa Fe’s dog parks: I built a nest, and slept in it: Built another nest of sorts: I transformed a tiny room in a haunted barracks into a weird rendition of a heart. I lay under the pile of lights and leaves and fabric for the threeContinue reading “Old Performances and Installations”

Recuerdium was an interactive installation and performance created by James Longmire and me in 2008. We connected contact microphones run through various types of distortion pedals to objects in the installation, and the lighting was run through a color sound, which regulated the flow of electricity to what it was connected to based on decibelContinue reading “Recuerdium”

FLASH FLOOD was a collaborative aerial art action I coordinated as a volunteer for the Santa Fe Art Institute. It was one of a number of aerial artworks that was created around the world on the same day as part of a global climate change art show 350.org organized in advance of a major climateContinue reading “FLASH FLOOD”

This project is probably my favorite intervention into a political venue as an artist. After being disillusioned by the processes of politics as usual and the inhumane ways in which people treat each other in these spaces, an unexpected idea to read tarot cards at the New Mexico State Legislature during the legislative session cameContinue reading “Enchanting Political Consultations”

Finding Home was a publication and event I created with Jenny Luna in 2011 for Open Engagement. The publication featured interviews we conducted with eight people whose lives were deeply enmeshed in the community of Americans who perform, study, and teach Balkan folk music and dancing. We released the publication at an Open Engagement eventContinue reading “Finding Home”

Letters to the Art World is a very slow and faulty letter service that was initiated in 2011 at the After Hours Alliance Festival of Progressive Arts. I invited visitors to my booth to write a letter to anyone or any institution in the art world, dead or alive, and display the letters in myContinue reading “Letters to the Art World”

Pro tip: if you are doing a public art project, and don’t make it very clear to your collaborator that it is an art project, it might not turn out to be a very good art project, but it might be a good lesson. Houston Johansen’s 2012 campaign for Santa Fe City Council could haveContinue reading “Houston for Santa Fe”

Among my (perhaps misguided) efforts to insert myself as an artist within government and politics, I convinced the mayor of Santa Fe at the time, David Coss, to let me conduct an unpaid artist residency within Santa Fe’s City Hall. I spent a summer in a vacant office adjacent to the City Manager’s office learningContinue reading “Santa Fe City Hall Artist Residency”

I have never touched a Ouija board since this project in 2013. The Portland State University Art and Social Practice MFA program held an annual event called Shine A Light at the Portland Art Museum that entailed the MFA students creating socially-engaged works that were responsive to the art. A couple thousand people regularly attendedContinue reading “Dead Artists Salon”