Stef Allespach

Squaring the Circle is a project organized and curated by Craftswomen House  and Hinterculture. Several artists, dancers, musicians and historians gathered at the ruins for this Llano del Rio pilgrimage, on May 3, 2014 to square the circle. 

 

Make Camp is a site-specific project organized by Stef Allespach with the L.A. Art Girls for the Squaring the Circle event. Each L.A.A.G. participant contributed to the configuration of the camp, including workshops and installations.  Make Camp is inspired by architect, designer, city planner, radical feminist Alice Constance Austin. Her most ambitious project is Llano del Rio, the most important non-religion utopian colony in the history of the United States. Lawyer, politician and socialist Job Harriman hired Austin to help realize his city, a cooperative community in Palmdale, California. Austin’s feminist concepts greatly complemented Harriman's socialist ideals by questioning the patriarchal history of social status. Launched in 1914, the circular city plan included administrative buildings, restaurants, churches, schools and markets.

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Make Camp pays homage to Alice Austin's efforts in building a new kind of community, in particular her use of design as a means of questioning the status quo. Austin's concept of kitchenless homes and communal spaces helped promote actions of shared domestic labor. For Make Camp food production becomes an important element, with each camper contributing a dish to the collective meals. The food preparation takes into consideration ideas relating to the Slow Food movement, which links the pleasures of the table with a commitment to protect the community, culture and environment.