While at Ristorante Olivio in Arlington we decided to discuss our upcoming exhibition and the collaboration of two art forms.
Robert: So we have a show coming up, a collaboration.
Ksenia: It is a collaboration. It was your idea to put a little stick of dynamite under my copious cheeks and say, “You are going to record another CD and this is what it’s going to be.”
Robert: Oh yes – I did that.
Ksenia: You did. I was good about it, then rotten, then was good about it and then rotten.
Robert: But you did it.
Ksenia: I did!
Robert: We postponed the show six months. We were going to do it in the Spring originally.
Ksenia: You postponed it for another reason.
Robert: Money.
Ksenia: Oh right – money! Let’s drink to that! (a clinking of wine glasses ensues)
Robert: So the collaboration of sight and sound…
Ksenia: After we decided to do this and we got it done, then we realized the project had a future fruition for us where it became a road trip in itself. Something came true about it. We put the idea there, made the sounds, and the sounds and the images are like a road trip.
Robert: Right – right. right.
Ksenia: It’s like going down this dirt road and all of a sudden it opens up and you’re on this really beautiful highway with no one else on it of course. It’s like time slows down, a change of pace as it opens up and the car moves faster. But seems slower. It’s like a soundtrack to our road trips which we started on our honeymoon.
Robert: While we were driving on our road trips and looking out our window we would be listening to music. In essence we are capturing that…
Ksenia: Yes we are.
Robert: …in a gallery. The other thing that’s really nice is that we are calling it “Lost across America” and for the first time we realize why we are calling it that after we called it that.
Ksenia: Oh. That was why? Give me a hint.
Robert: What was your lyric that uses “lost”?
Ksenia: Oh, “I forgot the thought I had”, no, “I just lost the thought I had” – well you can look it up! (laughs)
Robert: It was about a lost thought.
Ksenia: A lost thought across America. You get lost in thought when you do a road trip.
Robert: While you are driving and looking at the open space and listening to music you get lost in thought. So really “Lost across America” is just allowing your mind to get lost and wander and have fun. When you’re driving across miles and miles of grasslands or cornfields you tend to get lost and that’s a good thing.
Ksenia: You got lost in a tobacco field right before our wedding as a matter of fact.
Robert: We’re just finally capturing that.
Ksenia: The more we did road trips the less rules. We would know less and less about where we were going. Everything was up in the air. The ultimate road trip, last summer, had no plans at all.
Robert: Finally we encapsulate all of these road trips. It started with 8,000 miles on our honeymoon.
Ksenia: 8,500.
Robert: …and several since. We’ve been to every state.
Ksenia: Not necessarily together.
Robert: No, not necessarily together (waitress serves our food). But we finally get to share it with everyone.
The exhibition “Lost across America” opens November 5th and runs through December at Rolly-Michaux Gallery in Boston. An artist reception and CD release is being held on Friday, November 16th from 5 to 8 PM.
