Bug Mall

Bug Mall

12/11-31, 2022

Lamplight AVL/The Residency at 821 | Asheville, NC

For our December artist residency, we transformed the storefront gallery space at Lamplight AVL into “Bug Mall”. Drawing inspiration from utopian experiments both attempted and imagined, cooperative and adaptive behaviors observed across life forms, holiday light shows and the shopping mall itself, Bug Mall explores the ways we relate to our built environment, each other, and ourselves through the lens of contemplative socioentomology. The multimedia installation included works from over 30 artists and spanned a butterfly experience, puppet show, live musical performances, monorail, movie theater, fountain, escalator, elevator, funeral parlor, vending machine, arcade, high school art show, seed bank, volcano, claw machine, Zig Zag’s Roller Disco, Swannatopia Department Store, Wormhole!, a wormhole, chapel, food court, claw machine, carousel, and more. An original Bug Mall soundtrack, composed by New Psycho Actives (Avey Tare and Geologist of Animal Collective) played throughout the installation, and at 5:17pm during the opening reception, a Sunset Surprise lightshow was activated featuring projections by Abby Portner.