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The Paula Lalala MVSEVM
The Paula Lalala MVSEVM is an immersive contemporary art installation and a large scale self portrait. There are elements of a historic home museum, an interactive art museum, and a host of community events. Occasionally there are shows of work by other artists. The building is a beautiful jewel box full of treasure. It is an institutional, domestic, and sacred type of space; a personal meditation on existence, engaged with the local community and the public at large. A long term and ongoing project, the MVSEVM officially opened in 2001. The collection contains hundreds of individual artifacts, nearly all of which have been created by Paula. Probing the grey areas between public and private experience, The Paula Lalala MVSEVM is one of the most intimate museums you’ll ever visit.
Open select weekends (refer to IG page), or by appointment
About the MVSEVM
The Paula Lalala MVSEVM is an experiment with relationships between the parts and the whole. It is an exploration of meaning and value. It is a domestic and sacred space rather than marketplace type of space.
The MVSEVM probes the grey areas between public and private experience. It engages with the local community and the public at large, yet like work by so many women artists, it is very personal. In terms of both time and space, the Paula Lalala MVSEVM is an immersive installation and a large scale self portrait. It is a life long work, many years in the making.
The MVSEVM’s collection contains hundreds of individual artifacts, nearly all of which were made by Paula Lalala. Attuned to the emotional and psychological effects of environment and geography, the context and location are important.
The Paula Lalala MVSEVM is currently housed in what was once the Cornwallville church hall, where plays and celebrations were held. The building’s mother Church, an eighteenth-century Methodist Church was moved to the Farmers Museum in Cooperstown in the 1960s. The MVSEVM has been visited over the years by a number of people who have spoken about their memories of the church hall, of being in a play, of attending the “Strawberry Social”, of a wedding, and of the “Good Will Offerings”, a.k.a. potluck dinners as a form of worship practiced there.
About Paula Lalala
Aside from a few childhood drawings of trees, horses, and bibles, Paula Lalala began making art in 1983 and has been working passionately ever since. The Paula Lalala MVSEVM evolved out of a body of deeply personal autobiographical work, which Paula could not bring herself to part with. The MVSEVM is one of many art projects by Paula Lalala.
Her work has been exhibited at numerous venues, and is in private, public, and corporate collections. Her only child, a son, is now grown. She and her partner, Jack, an author and musician, live in Brooklyn, New York.
Starting with the belief that vulnerability and openness are part of what weaves us together into families, groups, and societies; helping us become more humane and engendering understanding of one another. Paula chooses to work at the intersection of private life / public life. Much, if not all, of the content of the MVSEVM and Paula’s work in general is about transcending trauma and illness. Like so many people who have suffered from debilitating illness, she has devoted most of her available time and resources to pursuing healing. Art and daily life are intertwined as she continues to work toward this end.
