Febuary 12th, 2014
Dear burglar/curator,
I couldn’t help but notice your delightful taste in the objects that you chose to pay special attention to in my humble abode. I have, without your permission, decided to follow your lead, your unconscious curatorial gesture. I hope this amplification of the shape of your actions isn’t a conflict for your practice. It isn’t my intention to steal your ideas or your methods, but to merely find inspiration in the diligence of your action, to incorporate it into my own research, so to speak, and perhaps, humbly, begin where you left off.
Sincerely,
Elena Rose Ailes
owner of ziplock bag of personal ephemera, artist.
February 27th, 2014
Dear burglar/confessor,
I have begun by spreading out the bits and pieces from the torn plastic bag in my studio, and have organized them neatly but intuitively, not actively adhering to chronological order or size, color, etc. It’s been a little weird to have some of these images, especially the ones where I’m clearly in love and also maybe a little naked, out in my studio. There is already a fairly keen awareness of my being a woman in the sculpture department; men outnumber women 2 to 1 in the Sculpture MFA studios, even in 2014. But anyway, that’s not the point.
The reason I’m writing is that I’m a little worried about what I’ve begun… As I’ve been going through this process I’m starting to feel like I’m walking a fine line, one between using the act of archiving, making public, organizing, preserving, looking and touching etc. as a place to start building a framework to… to, uh. Well. To admit that all I know is me, but I keep thinking about you too. Your circumstances are unknown to me, but I have certain details. The size of your foot. Your path through my life. Your inefficiency. Panic feels tangible, a certain amount of anger, maybe. Or maybe something else.
Am I raising a glass to how we are all in it together, that there is connection between people, places, time and matter? Or am I just raising a glass to the fact that I think I’m a good lay? The real worry: That I’ve gathering this evidence of my existence, of my interactions, and instead of using this subject-object switcheroo to dismantle a system where I don’t think anything is particularly working, objectively, for either your or I, instead, I’m wandering down the path where ‘”ethnographic self-fashioning” becomes the practice of philosophical narcissism.” (Foster, 1995 pg. 304) Ugh. Fuck.
I guess the only way out is through, either way.
Sincerely,
Elena Ailes
Artist, Knoller, and, apparently, flâneur
1. Black and white photo booth strip. N. Mahlman and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2005
2. Black and white photo booth strip. N. Mahlman and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2005
Niles is picking his nose, then, a frame later, trying to put his booger in my nose. This pretty much encompasses the sexual make up of our seven-year relationship. We grew up together, but we didn’t grow up together. We grew apart together.
3. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Hartery and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2006
4. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Hartery and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2006
5. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Hartery and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2006
6. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Hartery and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2006
7. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Hartery and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2006
8. Color photo booth strip. N. Toll, J. Hartery and E. Ailes. Burning Man, NV Aug 2007
I am not the only asshole in this situation.
9. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Boyd and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2008
10. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Boyd and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2008
11. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Boyd and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2008
12. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Boyd and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2008
13. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Boyd and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2008
14. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Boyd and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2008
15. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Boyd and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2009
16. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Boyd and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2009
17. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Boyd and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2009
18. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Boyd and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2010
19. Black and white photo booth strip. J. Boyd and E. Ailes, NM State Fair, Sept 2010
20. Digital photo booth strip, Ray and E. Ailes, New York City, Jan 2011
I have no idea what Rey’s last name is.
21. Envelope, tan paper, ‘Elena Rose xmas 2010’, in smudged blue ink on the front. From J. Boyd, 2011
22. Envelope, tan paper, ‘E. Ailes 714 Felipe St, Santa Fe, NM’ in hand-lettered Gothic script. From J. Jordan, 2008
23. Toast Porn, pink ink on paper. Date Unknown.
24. Ink on graph paper, sketch of Lunar Rae (as a puppy), 2004
25. Color Polaroid, L. Adams and E. Ailes, Santa Fe, 2005
26. Color Polaroid, S. Simons-Ailes and E. Ailes, Harry Potter Book Launch Party, Virginia, July 2005
27. Color Polaroid, S. Simons-Ailes and E. Ailes, Juarez, Mexico. Christmas Day, 2005
28. Notecard, a list of tarot cards. Tarot Reading at the St. Francis Hotel, 2007
1) DAUGHTER
2) Mother Swords (spelling?)
3) Father Pents (?)
4) Emperor 4
5) Universe 21 (maybe, not sure…)
6) Mother Swords
7) Daughter Mother Swords
8) 10 Swords R
9) Ace Swords R
10) 2 Swords R
29. Ink drawing of a deer ‘with love’ on the front. Letter art from J. Jordan, 2008
30. Envelope, ‘Elena Ailes 714 Felipe St, Santa Fe, NM’ in hand-lettered Gothic script. From J. Jordan, January 8, 2008
31. Postcard, holographic horses, sent by G. Springer, November 30, 1990
32. Mica
33. Daguerreotype in leather case. Unknown woman, but a relative of E. Ailes, unknown date.
34. Envelope, white paper, ‘E. Ailes 714 Felipe St, Santa Fe, NM’ in hand-lettered Gothic script. From J. Jordan. November 31, 2007
35. ‘I miss you. We all miss you.’ Letter art from J. Jordan, 2007
36. Postcard, ‘Elena Rosebud Shimmermuffin’ in hand lettering, N. Toll, June 2007
37. Black and white photograph (torn) of R. Ailes, in Hawaiian shirt. D. Patterson Roth, 1988
38. Black and white photo, wood piles, Ashville, NC, 2005
39. Fuji instant Film photograph, A. Todaro and E. Ailes, Chicago, IL Aug 2013
40. Handwritten letter from A. Todaro, Aug 2013
41. Handwritten letter from J. Boyd, Aug 2013
42. Pen and ink portrait of E. Ailes, with the text ‘thank you for your hospitality and your compassion. Should you ever need a favor or a friend, I will be here’ hand lettered in bubble letters, J. Williams, 2006
43. Toned photograph, C. Levick and P. Groetizinger wedding invitation, Summer 2013
44. Photo etching print, ink on paper, M. Simons and her sister, H. Zigob, printed 2003.
45. Postcard of ‘cattle punching on a jackrabbit’, unknown date
46. Black and white photograph, torn and stained, H. Ailes, D. Patterson Roth, 1988
47. Black and white photograph, Ailes family portrait, D. Patterson Roth, 1985/86
48. Black and white photograph, Ailes family portrait, D. Patterson Roth, 1985/86
49. Black and white photograph, Ailes family portrait, D. Patterson Roth, 1985/86
50. Cyanotype print, Penland Mountain School of Craft, NC, 2004
51. Watercolor on square paper, R. Ailes, 2012
52. Portrait of E. Ailes on a bar napkin, blue and pink highlighter. R. Cantil, 2006
53. Tarot card, Thoth Deck, Aleister Crowley, 8 of Wands, aka Swiftness. Burning Man 2007
54. Exhibition postcard, 2010
55. Envelope
56. Color photograph of E. Ailes, D. Patterson Roth, 1997
57. Liquid silver halide emulsion photogram on graph paper, E. Ailes, 2004
58. Leather and cloth cover of daguerreotype (Item 33) Unknown Date
59. Photograph of a crescent moon, through a handmade telescope, D. Simons, February 1978
60. Photograph of a crescent moon, through a handmade telescope, D. Simons, February 1978
61. Photograph of a crescent moon, through a handmade telescope, D. Simons, February 1978
62. Used vintage racist postcard, purchased for E. Ailes by J Hartery, Santa Fe, NM 2005
63. Black and white photograph, Penland Mountain School of Craft, NC, 2004
64. Unused Shooting Star #H028860 paper from Fairway Grounds, NM Sate Fair, Sept 2006
65. Black and white photograph, E. Ailes, Albuquerque, NM 2003
66. Black and white photograph, E. Ailes, Albuquerque, NM 2003
67. Black and white photograph, E. Ailes, Albuquerque, NM 2003
68. Toned black and white photograph of a totem pole, Penland Mountain School of Craft, NM, 2004
69. Toned black and white photograph of a dead fish, by ? Cavanaugh, unknown date
70. Postcard, addressed to ‘Lainey’ aka E. Ailes, Albuquerque, NM, 2002
71. Black and white photograph of S. Simons-Ailes, H. Ailes and E. Ailes, D. Patterson Roth, 1984/85.
Sweater Vests.
