Condom Amulet Zine Transformed...Baltimore

We opened the car doors--his and mine.  Whack!  It was 105 degrees downtown in downtown Charm City last Saturday afternoon.  Walls of heat marked an earlier, 20th century entry into Baltimore not far from here...in another car, August 1969.  I was eight months pregnant and the faucets and toilets in our rented place only delivered hot water.  To be fair, the city has lovely seasons--crisp Fall and glorious floral Spring. 

Twelve years ago, the children gone, work done, never fully integrated into this southern city, we returned to  Manhattan.  We returned to see how  Lisa Anne Auerbach, an artist known to me through knitting, had transformed my "Knit a Condom Amulet" zine to become part of her installation, The Tract House.

She collected  a sizeable group of "lifestyle tracts" from others like me who had  something important they wanted to say to the world.   Located in a storefront on 123 Saratoga Street, it is a few blocks away from the larger exhibit at the  Contemporary Museum, "Cottage Industries." 

While we looked over the tracts, collected them as everyone is encouraged to do, a young couple walked in.  They were students from the nearby culinary school, were quite taken with the full table--ranging from a high school student's  anguished, "I  Hate Baltimore" to   "You No  Longer  Have  To  Throw Your Holey Garments  Away!"  to "Save the Beans."  And so much more including Lisa's own D.D.I.Y. manifesto arguing, "Don't Do It Yourself."  You have  until August 24 to see for yourself (open Wednesdays through Saturdays).

Lisa Anne's intricate machine knitting on the wall highlighted the titles of many of the tracts and added to the obsessiveness of the entire storefront operation. 

All that was needed: a sweaty person in formal wear out front demanding the passerby to "Step up...See what we have for you inside (voice drops) to read." 

We did our part.  I enacted my true self by collecting one of every tract, then reading them all that night in my motel bed.  You can do something like that by going to The Tract House link where all are artfully arranged and available for careful reading.  Let me know your favorites.

In Federal Hill, another part of downtown,  I'd belonged to Resurgam, a co-op  gallery, had my first show in 1989.  Discovered it's no longer there; probably closed sometime in last three years.  We drove by the house we'd lived in for  25 years...large and unwanted after the riots of 1968 and discovered it had been sold again and was being expanded.  It's the American way even as what we really need to do is contract.

I am always ambivalent about Baltimore, the city's  low-rise scale becomes more appealing the longer it's behind me.  Would there have been another place to be a feminist therapist in just the way I wanted...to raise children with lots of green space around them...morph into my own art?

Comments

[sahara]

Wow! I'm a HUGE fan of Lisa's! I often wonder how she makes works of that size; it's getting harder to get tech info on machine knitting.

I'm ambivalent about Baltimore too. I have friends there; I love them, but it's hard to be there. Bad family memories.

[sweetea]

I hear you on your thoughts concerning your old neighborhood. I have moved many times and every time I return to visit a place I had lived and loved (or not-loved)I find myself reconsidering why I left. I suppose we can find community anywhere, it just looks different depending on the situation.

Love reading your blog, as always. xo

[Lydia]

Such an interesting post! You and your life truly interest me. Wish I was close enough to visit this exhibit.

[Kay Dennison]

I understand your feelings about Baltimore. I had a few of them myself when I drove through Toledo on my way to Motown. I saw the exit for Ottawa River Road and shouted, "Home!" as our house was a couple blocks off that road. That I reacted that way was weird because I was rather young when I left Toledo and have been here in NE Ohio for most of my life. Funny but this place doesn't feel like home. And I think I feel a need to find one.

[Martha]

Hi Naomi,

It's been a while since I checked in with you. Lisa and I (and Neil) all went to the same college. I didn't really know her though.

Hope you are well. Balto always has a warm spot in my heart. I used to visit my sister who went to the art institute and lived there for a number of years. I don't know what it's like to live there though.

xo,
Martha

[Kay]

Another name for the exhibit could be The Naomi Place. Seriously!

I have a picture for you from a beer hall in Munich. Sending now before I forget!