Mike Venso, the director of Communications at Laumeier Sculpture Park, interviews Kim Humphries, Director of Exhibitions and Collections, and Mark Newport about Newport’s art in the exhibition Self-Made Man.
Alex Elmestad, a graduate research assistant from University of Missouri–St. Louis, describes new media he’s working on at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.
Here on Saint Louis Art Map, we’re launching a video series, “Catching up with ______,” in which I visit St. Louis Art Map spaces and ask people there, “What have you been working on?”
Let us begin with words from Nicholas Kania, an intern at Boots Contemporary Art Space.
http://www.vimeo.com/8084947Nicholas Kania, an intern at Boots Contemporary Art Space, describes recent art shows he’s worked on at Boots.
One of the most asked questions by visitors of the Contemporary is, “is there anything upstairs?” The answer is YES! Here is what you will find: After your hike up the massive concrete stairs (or the journey up the elevator), you are greeted with a long hallway/catwalk ahead of you, administrative offices to your left, as well as two orange chairs that you will not be able to resist touching…go ahead, I would guess about 90% of the people who walk by either touch them, sit in them, or at least comment on them. As you walk down the hallway, tall mesh walls are on your left, and a view of the Contemporary’s performance space and high ceilings are on the right. Then you’ve made it. You have finally to the answer of the most asked question…you are viewing what is upstairs, the Exhibition Lab.
The Exhibition Lab, as defined by Tuan, Museum Educator, is: a lounge area where you’re invited to stay and relax, and learn more about the current exhibition, watch exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews, and discover different ways of accessing the exhibition through hands on activities and a library of contemporary art books.
More specifically the Exhibition Lab includes the following:
“The Lounge”
On the screen: behind-the-scenes information about the current exhibition provided by artists, Curators, and more.
On the table: hands-on, exhibition-related activities…games including chess, fortune telling cards, and visual design games to encourage different forms of play (yes, you can come to the museum and play these games!); and a glass Klein bottle model, so you can see what Marianna Castillo DeBall’s giant sculpture, which is in the current exhibition, looks like internally.
On the computers: archived interviews from past exhibitions including Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes and Gedi Sibony: My Arms Are Tied Behind My Other Arms; Artist-related videos (including the scientific explanation of the Klein bottle shape (mentioned above).
“The Flat Files”
Walk up to what looks like a giant metal filing cabinet (which essentially is what this is), pull out the one of the drawers, and violà, you have access to the work of many area artists! How cool is that?
“The Library”
Browse through hundreds of contemporary art books! There are hard to find books on individual artists, as well as books on art movements and critical theory. You can also get a more in-depth look of art produced by artists in For the blind man… by reading artist interviews and viewing surveys of their larger bodies of work.
“The Gallery”
Yes! There is art upstairs too (the answer to another popular question). This gallery showcases the artwork made by New Art in the Neighborhood students.
And that folks, is what is upstairs!
This week, I’ve been able to visit with artist Roberley Bell as she installs her exhibition at Laumeier. Along with our curatorial crew - Robert Goetz and Nick Lang - and intern Adrienne Sandusky, Bell has been assembling, mounting, and positioning a dizzying array of blobs, wonders, flowers, butterflies, insects and glass orbs. Her subject matter and her color choices are undoubtedly arresting - but the larger question about man’s quest for “control” of nature is equally intriguing to me.
Visiting Laumeier is largely an outdoor experience and one with varying degrees of human-manipulated nature. Between the manicured lawns and the landscaped plantings you can clearly see the nature of man’s desire. While exploring the wooded trails, you can take a few steps into the thick brush and gain a sense of the landscape of two centuries ago. The geographical distance between those two is not great, but the metaphorical expanse is large enough for artists like Bell to roam and explore the question. How do we define nature? Are we controlling the natural world or is it controlling us? Why do we surround our increasingly indoor lives with real and artificial nature?
Come to Laumeier and step inside for a whimsical look at the outside from the inside out.
Roberley Bell: Inside Out
Opening reception: October 9, 6-8:00 p.m.
Laumeier Sculpture Park, 12580 Rott Road
www.laumeier.org
As my friend Courtney said the other day of Ideal (Dis-) Placements, stick a fork in it. It’s done. St. Sebastian has peered down from his post in the Entrance Gallery for nearly a full year, and in one month, he’ll journey back to Harvard Art Museum, as the other masterworks return to their respective dwellings.
We have another show to look forward to—Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark. As the title suggests, this exhibition will focus on how Gordon Matta-Clark, an artist in New York in the 1970s, transformed what was labeled useless–mainly abandoned buildings–into enchanting elements. One piece to be in Urban Alchemy is Garbage Wall, which will be of course a wall made from garbage. Might it be more than that, though?
The original Garbage Wall (Matta-Clark made three) was built in 1970 at Manhattan’s St. Mark’s Church. Celebrating the first Earth Day, Matta-Clark orchestrated its construction over three days by inviting passers-by to dump urban refuse into a mould with tar and plaster. For our 2009 re-creation, the Pulitzer is also asking the community to partake.
Our garbage collection is led by Jenny Murphy, a freelance “Garbage Specialist.” Yesterday, she went to two neighborhood schools to call for contributions, leaving behind cardboard bins. She’ll visit two more to again talk about Matta-Clark and the possibilities of art classes working on their own garbage sculpture; similar to what happened for last year’s Community Light Project, when students were invited to make light pieces during The Light Project.
To prevent the Pulitzer from becoming a landfill, we’re mostly taking donations from those specific schools at the moment. In addition, Jenny, and sometimes I, will make garbage runs. (Bulk trash days are coming up.) Jenny is also organizing a neighborhood trash clean-up with Big Brothers Big Sisters and Washington University Undergrads. You can get updates about these excursions on 2buildings1blog.
If you’d like the chance to play with urban waste, come by the Pulitzer’s booth during Earthways Green Home Festival on September 26. Jenny will be there crafting kites, seed starter cups, and handmade paper out of old newspapers with anyone who would like to join her. A tall Plexiglas box, trash, and gloves will be available for people to simulate their own garbage wall. We’ll also be taking public donations there–nothing perishable please.
While in India, Juan William Chávez, the director of Boots, had the chance to visit an amazing space, the Appejay Media Gallery. Its mission is to “showcase high quality, experimental work in new media and emerging technologies from India and abroad.” Even though it is currently undergoing restoration, Juan was given a private tour of the space. Appejay projects new media onto unique surfaces; they range from projections on basic video screens, to intricate projections on the glass facade of the building and on hanging tarps in the outside courtyard. One past exhibiting artist at Appejay is Shilpa Gupta, who, interestingly enough, also recently exhibited at the New Museum when I saw the The Generational: Younger than Jesus exhibition. Click here to check out Appejay’s website.
Changing light bulbs
The director of Boots, Juan William Chávez, just came back from his trip to New Delhi, India. Invited by past exhibiting artist Asma Kazmi, whose exhibition Relation-Chute II: Meditation on My Slaughter opened at Boots in early 2009, Juan went to take a sneak peek at Kazmi’s current project with the hijra community. He explored the vibrancy of Delhi, from its colorful markets and bustling streets of Old Delhi as well as researched the New Delhi contemporary art scene, which has had a Flash Art focus in the recent years. Click here to check out highlights of contemporary Indian art.
Rishikesh and the Ganges River
Delhi, as the capital of India, is an important city in the large subcontinent. With a population of around 16 million residents, Delhi’s primary spoken language is Hindi. Some famous sites around Delhi include the Red Fort; largest mosque in the India, Jama Masjid; and of course, the Taj Mahal, located in Agra, a few hours away by train from Delhi.
Stay tuned for more blog entries on Boots‘ trip to India.
Bustling Streets of Delhi
As Web Communications Assistant for the Pulitzer, yes, I’m on Facebook a lot, and for the last couple of weeks, I’ve been getting daily updates, invites, and reminders from artists and spaces on one of the most anticipated art events in St. Louis, Open Studios. Even electronically, the excitement is palpable.
When Mad Art founder Ron Buechele wrote in his Facebook status “getting ready for open studio,” I messaged him to find out what getting ready entailed as well as what he thinks the artists’ weekend show-and-tell does for St. Louis.
He replied, “The greatest effect is that the event has the potential to expose an underexposed artist. That, and it humanizes the artists to the general public and takes a little of the mystery out of what we do. I completely revamped my studio from top to bottom, so it has a whole new look and feel, although I am the only one that will know that. I hope that the event draws a large and eager crowd, and personally, that it brings some people to Mad Art who have never been here before.”
To learn more about Open Studios, on Wednesday afternoon, I actually got off the computer and walked next door to our neighbor/the presenter of City-Wide Open Studios, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and spoke with its Assistant Curator, Laura Fried, and curatorial intern Brittni Zotos. Fried plays a major role in organizing the event, including communicating with the hundred-plus artists involved. She explains some details behind Open Studios in this video I took that afternoon:
Zotos talks about her important role in Open Studios:
http://www.vimeo.com/5749039As Laura Fried mentioned, Open Studios gives people the opportunity to glimpse artists in their natural habitats, and it also can take people to parts of St. Louis they might not have seen otherwise. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it to all the studios this weekend, but I have a few mapped out. Currently, I have a soft spot for a St. Louis art sub-community off of Broadway on Ohio, where you can find a cluster of artists participating in Open Studios–Arcadia studios (Sarah Paulsen, Emily Hemeyer), Gary Passanise, and Floating Laboratories, near a vegetable factory on the Mississippi River.
Wednesday night, I went to the the recently founded Floating Laboratories, the studio of Kevin Harris, to see what was happening there in preparation for the big event. Harris said he might sweep the floor, but really what people will be getting is what his studio would look like with or without a tour of people coming through–just like the Discovery Channel. None of Harris’ work is sampled in CAMSTL’s preview show, because it’s all too big. If you’d like an idea of what you might find there, watch this video of Harris working on his “Snuffleupagus,” with a base of wood and bubble wrap:
http://www.vimeo.com/5748777From the Kemper Art Museum:
June 17, 2009: Remember that date. It’s the day that the staff of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum beat-down their colleagues at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, in the first annual cross-town museum bowling championship. It was an epic experience for all involved.
This friendly cross-town rivalry was inspired by all of the Twitter trash talk about an early summer softball game between the Brooklyn Museum and the Met. Rachel, official Tweeter @thepulitzer, and I (@kemperartmuseum) thought this sounded like great fun, a good excuse to meet some of our arts colleagues in town and call each other names at the same time.
We did come to one early consensus: that softball maybe wasn’t the best fit for our outing. Believe it or not, art museum work doesn’t seem to attract hordes of über-athletes, and so we brainstormed about some alternative competitions. We tossed around the idea of a bake-off, LACMA-style - but that really seemed like a leap almost too far on the other end of the competition spectrum. We also considered kickball in Tower Grove park - inspired by this article from The Onion - but gosh it is awfully hot outside these days, and none of us had the apparently requisite stripey knee socks on hand. So eventually we landed on bowling: an appropriately Midwestern activity that can be played by all pretty much regardless of athletic ability. It even involves the big extra bonus of being bar-adjacent.
And, of course, the Kemper brought the heat and came away victorious. Complete and utter domination. Don’t believe the rumors, we trounced those Pulitzer folk on all counts-picture our Eliasson smashing right through Joe. It was like that. And we did not even have a certain Bowling Hall of Famer on our staff “show up late” and end up pinch-bowling for some of our strike-challenged players, unlike SOME museums I might be familiar with. (Cheaters never win, ya’ll!) No, we took home this title fair and square. Special kudos to Ron and Eileen, the Kemper staff members whose individual scores nearing 200 really made it happen for us. (And whatever the opposite of kudos is to me-last place among the Mildreds, as predicted… I believe my end result was in the neighborhood of a 72…)
Next year perhaps some of our friends at other Art Map locales would like to join us and make it a tourney- at the Kemper we’ll have to come up with some kind of catchy slogan (”Eat our Lanes” maybe? hmm, needs work). And maybe t-shirts. And a trophy!
From the Pulitzer:
Oh, June 17th was memorable alright. The aforementioned bowling showdown was a success - what we lacked in skill, we made up for in trash talking (Kimberly’s score is high compared to what mine was…). It all culminated in a friendly potluck at Francesca’s, our senior curator, home right around the corner from the bowling alley. It was at said potluck that the name of the showdown’s winner was heard: “The Pulitzer won, right?” was on everyone’s lips. I mean, who am I to argue with that? The adding up of the scores could’ve been wrong - we did ask someone from the Kemper to do it. And we did bring in QUITE the ringer, our security guard Silas who actually is in the Bowling Hall of Fame! I wish I had a video of him walking up for the first time, kissing the ball, and getting a strike. Amazing. Here he is, showing off his championship ring:
So he might’ve helped a few of our staff members out. I wouldn’t call that cheating! He got off work late, and really wanted to play. What were we supposed to do?
However next time, we’ll make sure he’s a full-time member of our team, we’ll be wearing t-shirts (or maybe blue shirts, black shorts?) and we’ll BRING IT. We’re working on some ideas for trophies too - what about a painting of a bowling ball?
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