CK: You mentioned Orgone Cinema in Pittsburgh. Could you talk more about Orgone, and could you discuss some other models of alternative spaces that may have encouraged you to open your own?

AL: They were the only model; I just didn’t know that much about the history of alternative spaces. Their events were fun and had a DIY feel to them and I liked that. I definitely made Cornershop up as I went along. So, Orgone was Greg Pierce, Alica Dix, and Michael Johnsen. Once a month at the Silver Eye Photography Gallery in Pittsburgh’s South Side they would put on screenings of obscure experimental films, and they would either curate something or have someone come and show their films. There were always about 20 to 60 people, and they’d organize it all on their own. It was great. They would do raffles and they had a letter print press—and that was a big part of it; they’d make these amazing posters for all the events. Orgone had a homemade aesthetic, and they would make stickers and buttons. I did a lot of that at Cornershop, totally because of their influence. But I was into computers.

CK: Cornershop and Orgone: they have in common the DIY ethos—a trait of the 1980s punk American movement. Could you talk about the significance of the do-it-yourself stance towards making things happen?

AL: I think it’s a very American attitude. Well that’s not true at all but it was for my context – I guess in the US its mixed in with the odd American work ethic so things have a different feel in Europe. People our age are one generation young for all the funding – it had all dried up with Regan and Bush senior ; so, we witnessed a lot of organizations dying and there was just nothing. It seemed really important not to rely on those kinds of things [external support] and not to be institutionalized in that manner. If you wanted to do something and had the energy, that was the advantage of a place like Buffalo, you just did it. People were into it.

CK: What are your thoughts about the artist-curator?

AL: I haven’t really gotten that down yet, but you know, Cornershop was the project and that’s why I never felt the need to show my own work there, —because I felt like it was one of the projects I did and that it connected to my own arts practice (it was educating me and I was looking at lots of art). And all the physicality of dealing with the space was very important to me. Though I had critical ideas about the diversity of work I wanted to show and the energy of the space , basically my curatorial measurement was, “Do I feel like mopping the floor for you when you’re done?” “Yes”—then sure. But if I knew the person and I thought “No way!” then it was “No, you can’t come” and that was fine; it was my place and I could make a decision based on that if I wanted to. I could be eccentric. And of course sometimes I just offered the space and other people organised the event.

CK: How did Cornershop resonate with more established arts spaces in Buffalo?

AL: Really well; they were cool about it. I wanted to pay everybody, so I started to figure out ways how to get money through the university and also the other arts organizations— Each semester 'Id make a small budget up for the poetics chairs (Charles Bernstein and Robert Creeley) and it really was shoestring stuff but it got everyone paid and supplies paid for. Than I would call another organization and say, “Oh, this person is coming, do you want to co-sponsor the event at my place?” and they always did. And Just Buffalo was regularly sponsoring the Scratch and Dent series first organized by Taylor Brady and than Graham Foust. Squeaky wheel and CEPA also co-sponsored events. I think that was special about Buffalo—that there wasn’t a lot of competition; more like: “We need a scene and anything that can contribute to it will help.”

CK: Cornershop hosted over 50 events and existed for a span of 3 years. You’ve already talked about how you started with no guaranteed funding whatsoever, asking for donations at the door perhaps, and then eventually you did get some funding from various sources. Can you talk more about the reality of Cornershop’s specific timing—and if you feel that there are any particular politics to the idea of temporariness?

AL: The idea of the temporary is really important . I’ve thought a lot about it, because I’m very interested in de Certeau’s concepts of tactics and strategics. “Tactics” is this temporary thing that comes out of powerless spaces, spaces with no propers that aren’t “places”, and “strategies” is something that comes out of an actual place. A position of power and presence. I think that Cornershop was something in-between: a very tactical experience that also had a very strategic location. I remember when I left there was a lot of pressure from people asking, “Who’s going to take it over, what are you going to do?” and I was completely uninterested in that. I absolutely wanted it to die, because I thought that the energy of what happened would go somewhere else, and I think it did—lots of other things popped up and I felt no need for it to stay in the place it was. So, that was fine to me that it would just disappear. I never had a huge plan for it; I just needed it to run on energy, on the energy of getting things going and that was how things worked, —and, of course, I started to plan a little bit more as I got better at it. But the funding: one day Charles Bernstein said, “Maybe, you should have some chairs.” I said, “OK, cool!” So, the poetics program bought some chairs for Cornershop and that was the first big thing that happened: people didn’t have to sit on the floor.

CK: Do you have an opinion on the future—and the roles played by artists—of the predominant culture of individualism v. the collectivism characteristic of Cornershop? You already talked about how Cornershop was part of your practice as an artist. It is the exceptional practitioner who devotes such huge amounts of energy and time to creating a communal atmosphere for everybody to reap the benefits of. What could encourage others to take on more collectivist projects?

AL: I’ll start in the opposite track: since moving here [to England], I’ve met a lot of people who are doing similar things, like Kristen Lavers with The Taxi Gallery (www.taxigallery.co.uk) , where she’s got this taxi that is a gallery in the front yard. It’s been a 3-year project. Her part of the project is, she’s created this space that’s part of the community where she lives— a totally residential area. She’s given others the opportunity to use this very interesting space. Another example is Steven Eastwood with OMSK (www.omsk.org.uk) . Encouraging students to make opportunities for each other and not to wait for a system to give them opportunity should be a part of every arts education. People can critique and recreate the art system while at the same time that they might be part of it,. I don’t know. On one level, I think it’s just personality; some people have a personality like that – to organize and energise - and some people don’t—and it’s not that much about politics or anything.
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CK: Do you think that they’re intricately intertwined: the personality of being energetic and do-it-yourself and wanting something to happen, so you make it happen?
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AL: Yes, I do and I change what I just said - it is a politic. It is really political, that’s true, in a way of not artificially splitting art and life categories. But it’s also some people’s way of experiencing the social—because for me it was a way for a kind of shy person to have a very social experience.

CK: Could you describe—as a shy person—typically how you might feel during the run of an evening’s event?
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AL: For example, it was really important for me to be the bartender and to run everything. I absolutely despise trying to just plain socialize, to do the talking thing, so it was much easier for me to be this person who was doing all these jobs during the event. I wouldn’t have felt so comfortable just kind of being there.

CK: You staged events featuring established poets and artists and filmmakers, but then you also provided opportunity to the not so established. Can you cite an example of the latter?
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AL: I thought Michael Dietz was amazing. I mean, I liked most of the work that showed at C-shop , but I remember that that was a really great show.

CK: Could you describe it?

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