Card Catalogue

By Dante Carlos

Card Catalogue is an evolving publication produced in association with the exhibition Event Horizon and a series of temporary shows that draw heavily from the Walker Art Center’s multidisciplinary holdings. Animated with installations that change over time, Event Horizon explores ways that personal, cultural, and political events shape the making of art and influence our [...]

Card Catalogue is an evolving publication produced in association with the exhibition Event Horizon and a series of temporary shows that draw heavily from the Walker Art Center’s multidisciplinary holdings. Animated with installations that change over time, Event Horizon explores ways that personal, cultural, and political events shape the making of art and influence our subsequent experience and understanding of its many forms.

Card Catalogue is its own kind of event. Throughout the galleries during the next three years, visitors will find new cards with information on artists, exhibition themes, specific works, and a wealth of facts and artifacts from the Walker’s archives. Many authors and voices are slated to contribute to this project, and additional cards will be created as artworks, films, and performances are rotated in the gallery spaces. With a gradual accumulation of data, theories, ideas, and stories, Card Catalogue provides an expanded and amplified history of the Walker and of contemporary art in general. Visitors are encouraged to use these binders to assemble their own set of cards over the next three years.

Here are a selection of cards, some of which are currently in the galleries right now:

Pick up a binder at the Walker Shop and start collecting!

Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio

By Emmet Byrne

Photo: Jackie Mockbee This is already posted on our Walker Education and Community Programs blog but I thought we should mention it here as well: We’re showing the Samuel Mockbee movie! And it’s free. Thursday, July 1, at 7 pm. Check out Ashley’s post for more information and an interview with the director.

: Photo: Jackie Mockbee

This is already posted on our Walker Education and Community Programs blog but I thought we should mention it here as well:
We’re showing the Samuel Mockbee movie! And it’s free. Thursday, July 1, at 7 pm.
Check out Ashley’s post for more information and an interview with the director.

Flat Files #11: Performing Arts

By Emmet Byrne

Here’s another image dump from the archives: selected postcards and brochures for our Performing Arts programs. Every year, a season brochure is produced followed by individual marketing pieces for each performance. Through the years there have been a number of trends, but the most dominating influence on these designs is the fact that these performances are usually accompanied by fascinating imagery. The pieces below that are purely typographic most likely represent the performances that didn’t have good documentation. Either way you can get a sense of the fantastic diversity of performing arts programming at the Walker.

Walker Postscript

By Dante Carlos

Walker Postscript (Walker PS)—the Walker Art Center’s new print-on-demand publishing imprint—presents short and focused texts that delve more deeply, or broadly, into the rich concepts that animate the institution’s diverse artistic programs. From exhibitions, lectures, and educational initiatives to film screenings and performances, Walker PS will offer a range of titles in short, concise formats [...]

Our first Postscript publication is a series of texts that discuss the ideas surrounding the exhibition Abstract Resistance. On view here at the Walker this spring, it questioned institutional notions of abstraction as an art-making technique as well as explored it as a medium for political expression beyond a formalist exercise. Yasmil Raymond, curator of the show, provides an overview of the thematic material and artwork in the exhibition; art historian Simon Baier traces the origins and development of nonobjective art through the writings of critics such as Charles Baudelaire and Meyer Schapiro; and philosopher Marcus Steinweg draws on the ideas of Theodor Adorno and others to provide a theoretical framework for artistic resistance. Punctuated with artist texts by Gedi Sibony, Cathy Wilkes and Thomas Hirschhorn, Abstract Resistance present responses to these issues from multiple viewpoints: curatorially, historically, philosophically, and from the artists’ vantage point.

Abstract Resistance is $9.99, and available through the Walker Shop and on lulu.com.

Designing Obama (Part 2)

By Matthew Rezac

On May 12, 2009 Sol Sender and Scott Thomas gave a presentation at the Walker about their experiences working on the design of (and for) President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. Later that year, on September 16, Scott Thomas announced a book project surrounding that same topic through Kickstarter.com. I found out about the project in November [...]

On May 12, 2009 Sol Sender and Scott Thomas gave a presentation at the Walker about their experiences working on the design of (and for) President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Later that year, on September 16, Scott Thomas announced a book project surrounding that same topic through Kickstarter.com.

I found out about the project in November and promptly signed up as a $50 “backer.” Since then it has been interesting to watch their process unfold through Scott’s e-mail updates and the dialog taking place on the Kickstarter comment board (which covered the entire spectrum: from supportive praise to the numerous “where’s my book!!??” inquiries).

The book arrived in my mailbox on June 15, 2010 — and seeing the 360 page volume now I’m shocked that they were able to produce the book as quickly as they did.

Their fund-raising approach to self-publishing has obvious parallels to the success of Obama’s grassroots-oriented campaign, which in the end allowed for a more substantial volume (as opposed to the many print-on-demand options available these days) without relying on the involvement of a traditional book publisher.

As of writing this, it looks as though copies are still available at the Designing Obama site.

About the book (from designing-obama.com):
The Design Director of the Obama campaign, Scott Thomas, has collaborated with artists and designers to create Designing Obama, a chronicle of the art from the historic campaign. Get the inside story on how design was used by the campaign, and scope out the pieces, created unofficially, by grassroots supporters.

The 360-page book is full-color and hardbound, highly crafted with an embossed sleeve. Forewords written by Steven Heller and Michael Bierut.

JOBSTOPPER BLOB TOPPER: Self-interview by Annie Larson

By Andrea Hyde

Annie Larson is a Minneapolis-based fashion designer who specializes in knitwear. She recently took part in the New Land of Milk and Honey, a collaborative project exhibited at the Soap Factory. Even more recently, she launched an online store and knitwear label, ALL, featuring sweaters in a variety of colors and patterns, made-to-order on her [...]

Annie Larson is a Minneapolis-based fashion designer who specializes in knitwear. She recently took part in the New Land of Milk and Honey, a collaborative project exhibited at the Soap Factory. Even more recently, she launched an online store and knitwear label, ALL, featuring sweaters in a variety of colors and patterns, made-to-order on her Brother KH-950 Electroknit knitting machine. Annie was able to get a hold of herself to answer a few of her own questions to post here.

[flyer for New Land of Milk and Honey by Eric Carlson

What have you been doing for the past five years?
I worked at Al’s Breakfast in Dinkytown for just over a year near the end of my undergrad. I loved Al’s more than any job I ever had–it will always be one of my special places in Minneapolis. After a second summer there, I applied for an internship at Target. Skip over the next three years where I end up taking a full-time design position, a real job, to last August when I made the decision to resign. Taking advice from a friend, I started a journal about quitting my job. The journal was called, “Quit Your Job,” and I wrote it in for four consecutive days. Here we are…

08 30 2009
Today I decided to quit my job. It’s funny how my attitude immediately changed, I feel different. I went out to see friends that I hadn’t seen in awhile and putzed around on my bike for a few hours. I told everyone I saw about my decision, hoping that my friends would weigh in. I stopped to get a coffee and talk to Matthew, something I hadn’t done freely in a long time, maybe a few years. I was relieved he was there, I needed to spill my news to an adult. His response was positive, which was the boost I needed. I came home happy.

08 31 2009
Monday at work, the absolute pits. I’m already checked out. I saw Fletcher later in the evening. His presence reminded me that I can do whatever I want.

09 01 2009
I practiced being unemployed today by calling in sick. I love these days. I spent all day transposing patterns and knitting. I thought about not having a job.

09 02 2009
I looked at jobs today on the Internet. There are jobs out there, just in case.

Since then, I have been focusing most of my energy on opening an online sweater shop, which I was finally able to do at the end of April. I knit from home every day to send knit goods to people in places like San Diego, Portland, New York, London, Los Angeles, Seattle, Australia, and so on.

Why?
Machine knitting is blowing my mind.

What’s the deal with the Internet?
Communication and expression on the Internet is important to me.

What do you think about fashion?
The fashion world is really interesting to me. One thing that has recently captured my attention is the influence of fashion and style bloggers, and how their work effects the role of editors and magazines. I’m also intrigued by what the Internet has to do with all of this, how designers are using it to propel their labels, and the online identities that are created in the process. I gawk over runway images from high profile shows, because fashion is such a spectacle! It just tickles me to know that presentation is still valued in this industry, that designers showcase their work in outlandish ways because they can.

What’s been on your mind lately?
I have been thinking a lot about moving. I’ll hear Lou Reed sing about New York, and I’ll want to move there. Then I’ll hear Randy Newman sing about Los Angeles, and I’ll want to go there instead. I’ve been working on a couple different schemes to get out of the country, and if that happens I think I’ll be temporarily relieved.

Another thing that has been on my mind is the importance of dialogue and critique in fashion design. There is this class of young designers (myself included) that exist outside the realm of fashion writers and critics, so there are fewer critical dialogues about our work. Is a person who appreciates fashion qualified to critique it?

What are you going to do this summer?
I’m looking forward to a trip to New York.

Is Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons your favorite designer?
Yes.

Do you really only have one favorite?
No! It’s hard to have one favorite. Norma Kamali, Mary Quant, Alexander Wang, Andres Courreges, Prada, Marc Jacobs, Pierre Cardin, Ashish, Karen Walker, Jim Drain, Balenciaga, Hussein Chalayan, Bernhard Willhelm, Issey Miyake, Henrik Vibskov, and Betsey Johnson have all been my favorite at some point. I believe there is a time and place for everything, even Donna Karan!

Tell us an embarrassing story!
I stepped on Brett Smith’s art in The Austerity Cookbook last fall at the Soap Factory. I stepped on the barricade. Everybody saw, and I didn’t know if I should try to put the pieces back together. I didn’t, but I found out later that I probably should have.

What characterizes your work?
The use of color has always been the primary quality that defines my work, even before I started designing knitwear. I was never interested in making couture gowns. I was only interested in designing garment shapes that allow me to curate palettes of color and pattern and exist within those boundaries. The garment shapes then become building blocks for transforming the body, and the final impact relies on the interaction of color. Even when my job at Target was to sort thirty-six colors of a pique polo, I would heavily consider the way the colors would look next to each other in the store presentation. The presentation style would often dictate the final assortment. Sometimes, I would wake up in the middle of the night wondering if I should have chosen Soft Lime instead of Lime Peel.

Humor and optimism have been other prevalent factors in the way my work is created, presented, and perceived. The overdone, bubbly sense of YAY! in my design and presentation is not fake, and if you know me as a human, you know it’s true.

Flat Files #10: Random Images from the Archives

By Emmet Byrne

We were doing a little housecleaning and came across some images of our work that Greg Beckel took for the Studio Culture book. So pristine.

Re: 1 (. . . or modalities of completion via the work of Anne Collier and Marina Abramović, along with some notes by Umberto Eco).

By Gene Pittman

. . . The Hermetic Or The Hermeneutic Anne Collier acknowledges the gap between her understanding of a pair of photographs of seascapes as “quasi-portraits” of her parents and the viewer’s understanding. In Reflection she positions herself in the image as a way of introducing the viewer to her history, moving from the hermetic to [...]

. . .

Umberto Eco's The Open Work

The Hermetic

The Hermeneutic

Anne Collier. 8 x 10 (Lynda). 2007

Anne Collier. 8 x 10 (Jim). 2007

Anne Collier acknowledges the gap between her understanding of a pair of photographs of seascapes as “quasi-portraits” of her parents and the viewer’s understanding. In Reflection she positions herself in the image as a way of introducing the viewer to her history, moving from the hermetic to hermeneutic.

Anne Collier.Reflection. 2003

Below is an except from a conversation between Bob Nickas and Anne Collier regarding these works.

The Artist is Present
Or
I’ll Be Your Mirror

Marina Abramović and Ulay. Nightsea Crossing.

Similarly, Marina Abramović presents another mirror device in The Artist is Present.
In this performance, Abramović sits in a chair for the duration of gallery hours. Opposite her is an empty chair. This empty chair can be viewed as the ellipsis.

What is clear is that the possibility of sitting with Marina has ignited in the public imagination the idea that one can do more than passively experience works of art, that one can be part of a work of art for as long as one is willing or able.

I have been told that museum visitors in general stand in front of art works for an average of 30 seconds. At MoMA, some have chosen to sit across from Marina for hours; one young woman sat for the entire length of a day’s performance, frustrating many others waiting their turn in line. Others have returned to sit multiple times. By rough estimate, visitors sit for an average of 20 minutes. (Arthur Danto)

Completion
Or
That Which is Opposite the Ellipsis

A wonderful addition to Abramović’s work are Marco Anelli’s portraits of each person as they sit before the artist, in essence completing the work. These serve as one of the better descriptions I have seen of this work.