
Lesbian Space Commune, June 2023 at the Retzlaff Gallery at Southern Oregon University

Wall text:
"In the early twentieth century, there was a frenzied effort to turn Ashland into a first-of-its-kind only-in-the-world destination healing water city. Ashland’s Lithia springs were known of pre-colonization and by those that lived on this land for centuries. The specific potential this water holds was realized in 1907 when it was revealed to have some of the highest Lithium content in the world. Today, Lithium is desired and sought after for the utopic technological future and environmentally sound energy it promises.
Lesbian Space Commune is a speculation of what Ashland might look like today if all of this vision had come to fruition. Here, the Lesbians don’t mind the stink of the springs. They live in blissful Lithiumed harmony. But, somehow still, the Lesbian’s spaceship never took off and the springs are beginning to run dry."

SPACESHIP PEEPSHOW
Repurposed blast shield (earthbound) with video monitors looping lesbians playing cards on ‘Pony in a Pit’ and racing around ‘Something Burning High Up in the Air’

STINKY SPRINGS
Acrylic painting on found mattress cover of the mouth of a theoretical Lithia springs
I FEEL LIKE A FOX
Acrylic painting on found mattress cover of a handful of Lithia water with visible particulates
TWIN PLUNGES
Acrylic painting on found mattress cover depicting blissed out lesbians soaking in a Lithiumed bath house

TIEHM’S BUCKWHEAT FLOWERING
Ceramic sculptures glazed with pure Lithium Carbonate based on an endangered wildflower endemic to Silver Peak Range, Nevada, the site of a contested Lithium extraction project

Documentation of the opening night performance involving 25 blushing "lesbians"

PILE OF WHAT
Acrylic painting on found mattress cover of a Lithium salt pyramid emerging from an evaporation pool

THE SPRINGS HAVE COME
Lithia salt dough (Lithia water, salt, flour) song lyrics (written in the 1940s about Lithia Springs) mounted on a found topographic map of Oregon with welded supports