When Brooke Tomiello - curator of Lane Meyer Projects -the art gallery stationed inside of a Denver bar called Pon Pon- told me that Eric, who owns and started the spaces in that building, was from Boston, I was psyched. The first time I went to Pon Pon 2 years ago, I told my friends it weirdly reminded me of Boston. Then Eric told me it was inspired by Delux in the South End! Both of our favorite bar in beantown.
Eric wanted to keep a bit of New England and the ocean with him so he named it “Pon Pon” which is seafarers code for “man overboard”. Y’all probably know that I’m a member of the Boston Rowing Center which is sponsored by the Hull Lifesaving Museum. We row very old school life saving boats out in the ocean, not the river, in the style of coastal folks who used to self organize and save people from sinking ships in the Mass Bay
I am a fledgling seafarer myself but who knows, maybe in a past life I got to save drowning people and shout “man overboard”. Or maybe the boat I row now served that purpose. But the nautical flag system, used by boats to communicate from a distance, is pretty new to me. I’ve always admired their aesthetic (and store my tarot cards in a scarf with this printed motif!) but i recently learned that there is one flag for every letter of the alphabet
I ended up incorporating Nautical flag coding and imagery into the ramp, accompanied by a motif I call Wavelength, which I evolved from the classic quilting pattern “Drunkard’s Path”. It was super tricky to draw at an angle like this
I loved this opportunity to incorporate my own love for the ocean into a new community of friends and artists I’ve made. I imagine a funny abstract narrative where a stowaway walks out of the bar, down “Drunkard’s Path”, falls into the tumultuous Wavelength currents and we all shout “Pon Pon!” and arrange a rescue via nautical flags
