Pieces of the moon - woven necklaces and a myth
Weaving story with performance artist MILO
It’s our first post on store.front! A front for a store that wants to be more. I thought to shed light on the inner workings and unfolding of a recent project. Not often do we get a glimpse into the mind of an artwork, or a curation pov from a concept store like ours. I hope to share more of it here. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to read from us in the future. —CC
This series of woven necklaces titled HAG: MILO’S MYTH will debut at Two Two later this month, presented by San Francisco-based performance artist MILO. This coincides with the release of her iterative newsprint publication, An Ode to Performance Art.
Initially a personal creation, I hope HAG: MILO’S MYTH and its lore will expand in multitudes, starting here.
How I met MILO
It was a couple years back at a dinner party. I recall MILO and I talking about Asheville, where I was headed for the first time for a ceramic course at Penland, a craft school. She had strong ties to Tennessee and told me about the Appalachians, of bluegrass buskers in the South, and we talked about her performance art and my upcoming store opening. We became friends and then collaborators soon after.
With time, our projects became an asynchronous dance of creative reciprocity. I would design printed things for her performance archive. She brought a sense of embodiment to the articles of clothing and accessories featured at Two Two.
Though these woven necklaces would be the first time she’s created original pieces for Two Two.
How I first encountered the necklace
In late May, we met over Zoom to discuss the design process for her zine, An Ode to Performance Art (AOP). I had the privilege of building the 12-page spread based on her direction. A creative ‘IOU’ from a video I produced that she modeled/performed in weeks prior. Above-the-shoulders is all we get (and give) on Zoom typically, so I wasn’t prepared to be awestruck when she first appeared on screen.
It was a singular seashell, suspended on MILO’s neck, atop a wide woven band resembling bouclé. For a brief moment, her head and shoulders all but disappeared on Zoom.
MILO explained she had made it herself. She talked of hag stones. Stones with a naturally occurring hole believed to have magic and mystical properties - like healing snake bites, warding off witches, and act as portals to focus your energy on a single thought.
She proceeded to tell me of a beautiful woman and child she encountered on the beach in Bolinas who referred to the pierced shell on her neck by another name.
They called it a piece of the moon.
So this was how HAG came to be.
Beyond the necklaces’ aesthetic beauty, this encounter with the “Moon Lady” and hag stones solidified my decision to ask MILO if she would weave a few pieces for our store, adorned with precious hag shells. She agreed and we commenced a parallel project alongside our other ones.
Our various projects intertwined—jumping around in a way that only we could actually comprehend where one project veered off and the other merged in.
At one point, MILO reveals the underside of the chokers. And I thought of the bundles of scrap leather I recently acquired for another project. There were some colored ones that I wasn’t able to use. So we’re using it here.
The Moon Lady story is still taking shape and MILO, as conduit, is working to convey it through canvas, photography, and performance.
Can you see yourself wearing HAG or carrying MILO’S MYTH?
