SOUVENIRS: Montalvo Historical Fabrications & Souvenirs
2012
Carved linoleum blocks, prints, and packaging
These custom postcards depicted the California Island, the Double-bear flag, the Leaves of Three (Poison Oak), and the Banana Slug. All of the linoleum blocks were carved on site and printed on a make-shift-vise press.
For two months we activated the gallery space, working four days a week on new products labeled with re-examined stories.
Located at the Montalvo Arts Center, a historical site at Villa Montalvo, California, this project presents to the public a souvenir shop that is a "front" for re-examining the complex issues of commerce, empire, and the repackaging of historical narrative. Rough-hewn display tables hold an array of strange and contradictory products such as bottled water ("Hetch-Hetchy Elixir"), false precious stones ("Genuine Faux Fool's Gold"), as well as salvaged remnants of other artists artworks. Viewers are able to peer through and walk around the lattice-like sales counter made of recycled pallets, to see the production space where everything is explicitly made.