All photos by Robert Chase Heishman

Artist Interview

Hali Palombo: Nothing to Write Home About

I work almost entirely in lost and found media. That is the modus operandi for almost every piece of art I make. This doesn't necessarily mean field recordings or literal found objects, but rather ideas and places and people that have slipped between the cracks of time. Some of them could be hidden in plain sight but treaded past over and over again with no consideration (like an abandoned rest stop or fire hydrant). Others could be throwaway conversations, that when expanded upon can take on a shocking depth that the speaker may not even have known was there. Or a cough on a subway car that had a bizarre, uncanny timbre, never to be heard again, and perhaps never noticed in the first place. Or a child laughing at something outside the train window that was seen by nobody but her. When I refer to "lost media", this is what I mean: literal lost or ignored instances in human history that simply disappear like a single lit firecracker that bursts and crumbles into ash. It is there. And then it is gone. 

The mediums I work in are generally audio, drawing and video. Currently, my primary focuses are filmmaking and drawing. My drawings - the majority of what will be on display at Elastic - are of "liminal spaces". Liminal space, at least the way I am choosing to apply it, has gained popularity especially within the past twenty years. They are locales that feel in-between: a place that a person is supposed to walk through, spend a brief bit of time there, and then advance to the next phase of being. A good example is the waiting room of a dentist or a hotel swimming pool. My drawings run the gamut from abandoned radio stations, big empty fields punctuated by cows, abandoned car dealerships, and dilapidated shacks in the woods. 

What I am currently excited by is what I had mentioned above - liminal space. Liminal space is a concept that takes up a great deal of real estate in my head, so to speak. The theme can be applied to film, music, art, drawings and photographs.The idea of an "in between" place allows for so much personal interpretation. Since sometimes the encounterer has never seen the space before, they can only speculate or fantasize what the purpose of it was.

Growing up, I spent a whole lot of time by myself driving my car around. I lived in a very boring part of the state and honestly, the only thing to do was drive around. I would find myself fascinated by these empty strip malls, the parking lots in front of them, the weird terrraformed hills and man-made lakes. I always wondered why they needed to exist at all, and I decided it was likely to make the people living in the town feel more comfortable. Since there were no mountain ranges or breathtaking natural beauty, we needed something to stand in the place of where the natural beauty would. It's a trick of the eye. 

Nothing To Write Home About is a series of drawings of either places I have seen in real life in my hometown of Naperville, IL, or places that are imaginary. I made them as simple as possible to not draw any attention from the almost comical nothingness they portray. 

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Hali Palombo

January 2022

halipalombo.com

Related Programming

OPENING PARTY

Friday January 21, 2022
*Hali performed an audio piece for 16-channels as part of our CLEAT Listening and Performance Series.

CLOSING RECEPTION 

Saturday March 19, 2022