Mission Loc@l: I just walked by and saw you sitting in the window, and was curious about what you were doing.
Angela Simione: I’m knitting apples. I taught myself how to make them yesterday, with a free pattern that I found online.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them yet. I may put them on a dining table.
ML: What’s this particular show about?
AS: The title of the show is “Temple of Flora.” The artist Freya Prowe came up with it. She’s the person who secured this spot.
The show is about that time when people discovered that flowers really do have sex organs. Which complicated notions of femininity. It’s about…exploring what’s feminine. What’s a woman. What’s that gender situation all about. But every artist here has taken that idea and gone off in their own direction.
ML: How did she do that? I remember when this place was X-21. It was so filled with stainless steel furniture that you could hardly see the walls or the ceiling or the floor.
AS: I have no idea. The space was empty when we set up here.
We have no idea how long we’ll be here. We may not be here next month. We’re not paying any rent. It’s being lent to us by the owner. It’s a total act of philanthropy. But people keep on stopping by and telling us how glad they are that someone is in the space while it’s empty. It’s good for the neighborhood, and it’s good for the community.
ML: And what’s the story with that? (points to enormous plinth of flowers squatting on top of a blue tarp in the center of the gallery)
AS: That’s Freya’s.
ML: That’s a lot of flowers. It looks like it was very, very expensive to make.
AS: Well, in Freya’s other life, she is a florist. So she was able to get all of those plants and flowers wholesale.
It used to be much bigger. You couldn’t even see the tarp. The night the show opened it was amazing. The perfume of the flowers filled the entire gallery.
Since then, it’s decaying. We pick off the rotting flowers and let it recede. Now the succulents are pretty much all that’s left.
ML: I’ve had this question for a while, and maybe you can help answer it. Why do you think things that are handmade are so popular right now?
AS: Personally? I think that it’s because of the distance between people. Things that are made by hand signify a personal connection that people just get lonely for. I think it’s timely, and I think it’s useful.
And why now? I came of age during the divorce epidemic of the mid-to-late ’80s. My parents got divorced in 1988, and it was shocking — I was the only kid in my class with divorced parents. By the end of the year, half the kids in that class had divorcing parents.
Living through something like that….hmm….It makes you want to embrace things like flaw and chance. Instead of being repelled by it.
Visit the Slingshot Gallery at 890 Valencia (@20th). Information about upcoming shows here.