Alison Bergblom Johnson, Multidisciplinary Artist

On the Men of Craigslist

2014-2023

I've presented this work on stages, as stories as part of cabarets, in installations alongside studio crawls, and bits of it have found its way into essays. It got a bunch of great press. See particularly Alicia Eler's 2018 Star Tribune article, and Andy Steiner's 2018 piece for MinnPost.

When I arranged my first hookup using the personals section of Craigslist way back in 2009 when I was 28 I had no idea sex with strangers would become a years-long obsession - both as a habit and topic for storytelling. I didn’t know then that I been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or that I was experiencing mania. I had no idea that one of the symptoms of mania was hypersexuality. For me, mania was a glittery high where I felt so beautiful, so competent, and so invincible.

I hope this is work I will come back to, tho for now it is on hiatus.