Featured on 25 independent public sites around the Bay Area, including Montalvo’s public park and the entry foyer of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, lone some includes works by Lucas Artists Fellow Chloë Bass, Modesto Covarrubias, Jane Chang Mi, Leena Joshi, Susan O’Malley (1976-2015), and Alyson Provax. Each artist created work considering the theme of isolation and loneliness in the ever-changing landscape of our urban areas.
Explore the interactive map below to learn more about the works included in lone some.
In 2019 we launched the thematic program SOCIAL: Rethinking Loneliness Together. This initiative grew out of our concern about the global rise of loneliness and social isolation, a phenomenon many, including the 19th US Surgeon General, Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, have called an epidemic. It also grew out of our understanding that the arts have an extraordinary ability to help us feel more connected to one another. With mounting evidence that the quality of people’s relationships is the single clearest predictor of their physical health, longevity and quality of life, we intended to start a public conversation that would use the lens of the arts to investigate such questions as: How can we nourish social engagement? and How can we build a future based on true connections and meaningful communities?
Through 2019, we convened important conversations with leading thought leaders like Dennis Boyle—one of the founding team members of the design firm IDEO and a leader of its Design for Health Studio in San Francisco—who helped us think through the role loneliness plays in our health and wellbeing and explore strategies to reduce its effects. We organized exhibitions featuring the work of internationally significant artists like Taiwanese-American Lee Mingwei, whose interactive installation The Mending Project brought strangers together in the shared social acts of repairing and embellishing garments and storytelling and conversation. San Francisco Bay Area artist and educator Kija Lucas, in contrast, invited us to consider the role our sentimental objects and memories can play in alleviating feelings of social isolation in her exhibition The Museum of Sentimental Taxonomy. While the group outdoor exhibition and related festival, Threads, asked us to think about how we weave together a social fabric that is resilient and inclusive.
But in 2019, we had little inkling of what lay around the corner. The onset of a global pandemic and directive to physically isolate in spring 2020 gave our thematic new meaning. The beginning of the pandemic was accompanied by concerns that it would lead to a social recession—a fraying of social bonds that would unravel the longer we went without human interaction. Into this moment, we launched lone some, a public art billboard project featuring new and existing works by six artists all of whom were seeking to inspire and provoke questions about loneliness. As museums, art centers and galleries shuttered their doors and began the work of figuring out how to reach their audiences, serendipitously lone some was an exhibition that could be experienced in isolation either on foot on by transit. Like many other arts institutions, we launched a series of virtual conversation with the participating artists where they discussed such themes as the relationship between isolation, colonization, and sustainability, and how poetry can build connection. These virtual gatherings convened around a shared exploration of loneliness in the time of the coronavirus were restorative; they demonstrate how we can find ways to connect even amid quarantine. The pandemic has made us more aware and appreciative of the relationships that sustain us, and we have adapted and found ways to maintain social connection despite the circumstances. Perhaps more importantly, we now have a shared sense of solidarity that ‘we are all in this together’ and a deeper understanding of the essential work that artists do in strengthening our bonds with one another.
Meet the Artists
Conversation Series
| Aug 6 2020 | LONE SOME CONVERSATIONS Meeting Where We Are Join lone some participant Alyson Provax in conversation with Christina Amini, steward of the Susan O’Malley estate and longtime collaborator of the artist, as they discuss text based art in public space and meeting the people where they are. Watch Here >> |
| July 30 2020 | LONE SOME CONVERSATIONS How much of sight is invention? Join lone some participant Chloë Bass in conversation with photographer, Jules Allen as they discuss the power of image construction for public presentation and the secrets they hold. Watch Here >> |
| July 23 2020 | LONE SOME CONVERSATIONS What’s goin’ on? Join lone some participant Modesto Covarrubias in conversation with Chris Evans, Ernest Jolly, and Constance Lewis as they discuss their practice, their projects, and coping in times of isolation, cultural shifts, and social pivot. Watch Here >> |
| July 16 2020 | LONE SOME CONVERSATIONS Island Join lone some participant Jane Chang Mi in conversation with artist Ulrik Lopez as they discuss isolation, sustainability, colonization, and islands of the ocean. Watch Here >> |
| July 1 2020 | LONE SOME CONVERSATIONS Poetry of Connection Join lone some participant Leena Joshi, along with Imani Elizabeth Jackson and Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta, for an hour of poetry reading and conversation around themes of loneliness, isolation, and connection in today’s world. Watch Here >> |