The teens were out in full-force on October 6 for Sketchy: 2005 Walker Art Center Student Open House. WACTAC – the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council – put together quite a show, including an Art Swap; three art workshops looking at portraiture, drawing techniques, and graf art; DJ Jennifer of KFAI’s Groove Garden; Sadie Benning films, and registration for mnartists.org.
My favorite spot for the night was the Sadie Benning films. Our Film/Video department describes them thusly: “ Using a Fisher-Price toy Pixelvision camera, Sadie Benning created a series of intimate, sexually frank videos tracking her coming out and rising queer consciousness in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.” I love the proximity in Sadie’s films. Not in the way people will say, “ It was so real. I felt like I was right there!” I mean the actual physical distance between Sadie and the camera; between the camera and the objects Sadie filmed. It’s more like your best friend pulling you in close to whisper secrets and truths to you. I love the grainy quality to the film and the way it makes the geography of each object more interesting. Sadie also uses costume and make-up in a way that reminds me of photographer Cindy Sherman. These films will be shown during gallery hours through the end October.
At one point during the night I looked over to the DJ and noticed she was thumbing through a recent issue of Fig. 12, a WACTAC-authored/edited/published work about contemporary art.
I missed the teens while the Walker was closed. I was never so well-dressed in high school.
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