real world wisdom, from Palmer Fishman to you

Palmer Fishman, known worldwide for her boutique cathartic performances, her designs, and her fashion revolution, is branching out.


"I've always been a keen observer of human behavior and culture," she said breezily one afternoon at the YMCA cafe, "and several editors approached me about writing op-ed columns for their publications."


She eventually agreed to placate them, but with an exclusive feed to her own blog.  You can say you read it here first.

On airline travel
      Airline passengers have a stubborn inability to accept the limited volume of the overhead bin, or of their proportional share thereof. 

¨No, no I´m SURE it will fit,¨ the slight man says, desperately shoving and heaving a bag the size of a baby elephant into a space meant for a daypack.  

And the flight attendants are often so damn polite about it.

      ¨Let´s see, I´m sure we´ll find a place for that...¨  

    as the bag goes bumping down the aisle, nearly taking out a small child and an elderly woman's elbow.

Why don´t they just cut to the chase?

 ¨Look, dummy, it won´t fit. Now, you either let me check it or you both go out on the tarmac."

"Hey, you want to get a drink when we get out of here?"

Check your baby elephants or leave them at home.

This wisdom brought to you by Palmer Fishman.

Palmer Fishman Industries at Art Around Adams

Palmer Fishman Industries, the artist collaborative made up of Otto Castillo and Jessica Hirst, presented Palmer Fishman's Recycled Lounge at the Art Around Adams Festival held in San Diego on June 6, 2009. The artists installed the equivalent of a living room with two seating areas on the ball field in front of the main stage. All of the pieces were reconstructions of discards left on the curb, mostly around Pacific Beach. Castillo and Hirst have become known for their imaginative transformations of everyday and found objects, with past projects including a jewelry collection made from bottle caps, corks, seeds and other ephemera, all in collaboration with dump-dwellers in Managua. The motto of Palmer Fishman Industries, "so much more than just trash," is just this side of twee cheekiness, appropriating the cadence of corporate shininess while attempting to subvert its mercantile motives.

Visitors to the Lounge were invited to choose from a variety of seating options, including a LaZBoy loveseat stripped down to its skeleton, then polished and painted a shiny red, with somewhat disconcerting cushions made of clear vinyl stuffed with bubble wrap. The coffee table was a celebration of kitsch, its surface upholstered with turquoise longhair fake fur, and a centerpiece titled "In Case of Emergency Break Plastic". Inside one could see a copy of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, a bottle of antidepressants, an R2D2 figure, and magnetic refrigerator letters spelling out "Om".

Palmer Fishman Industries crosses boundaries of design, installation, sculpture, participatory durational performance, and good taste. Not all of their experiments yielded attractive or indeed fully functional results, but their interactions with visitors were worthy of documentation and study. Several people spoke about loneliness, depression, and frustration with work, within five minutes of sitting down. Instead of prescribing pills, Palmer Fishman Industries offered one-word talismans in keeping with their re-use, transform philosophy: plastic bottle caps inlaid with computer keys reading "Shift...." "Home..." "Control..." and "Option". By removing these words from their daily context, the artists recapture alternative meanings, and in so doing challenge viewers (or clients?) to renew their perceptual possibilities.

Mason Beatriz, critic at large