Off Center

Off Center’s dear old friend Paul Schmelzer wrote a series of posts on his own blog, eyeteeth, about The Miss Rockaway Armada back in 2006. Paul hung out with the collective when the group of artists, performers, and adventurers were congregating in Minneapolis to begin their journey down the Mississippi river on homemade rafts. A traveling community, the artists perform, give workshops, and create spectacles along the journey.

In April, MASS MoCA opened an installation and interactive exhibition by the collective: Being Here Is Better Than Wishing We'd Stayed. There are bunches more images of the installation on the Armada’s blog, including the one below.

From the river: Miss Armada flickr pool

And here’s a clip of the ferris wheel in action (pictured at top, photo via Flickr user tchandler.)

Molly Priesmeyer’s MinnPost post turned me onto Phil Hansen, who is capturing international attention–one click at a time–for the self-made YouTube videos documenting his artistic process. Hansen recasts existing works of art (or pop art) from a pallet of paint, chalk, pencil and clever wit. He renders Chuck Close’s Big Self-Portrait with thousands of stick figures chalked onto blacktop asphalt, paints a mural of Bruce Lee by karate chopping paint onto a wall and uses matchsticks tipped in red, white and black for a portrait of Jimi Hendrix. More than 1.1 million people have viewed Hansen creating the Hendrix piece and then setting it on fire. Watch these and dozens of others on Hansen’s YouTube channel.

In light of my new obsession with a certain bacon meme (Did you know there were buttons?), I wanted to post this response to the New Museum’s Ugo Rondinone.

Via Paul and Wooster.

Yesterday while using the facilities, I happened upon this intervention when I dried my hands:

As a longtime vegetarian, I wasn’t exactly hoping that meat would pour out…but I also have to admit that it took me a minute to realize why the label makes perfect sense. It’s a dark bathroom, so the image above is hard to see, but the wavy lines in the icon are suspiciously bacon-shaped.

It’s the Hennepin lobby women’s bathroom for you intrepid bacon-seekers (sorry dudes).

This shot, found on Flickr, reminds me of the “LUSH” tear-off sign I found in Minneapolis’ Uptown awhile back.

A fellow Walkerite pointed this video out to me, and as YouTube poster maryhobrien puts it, it’s “kinda kitchy” [sic]. Most of the filming takes place in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, and looks to have been shot on a beautiful morning a week or two ago when the trees were frosted white. Mary sums it up right:

Though all the photos contain nativity scenes, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, etc., it’s all the same to me. Stay groovy in the New Year and Happy Holidays. Peace.

There are a couple of Walker related things to keep in mind over the holiday week:

• There are Brits tickets still available, but going fast.
• Our galleries are open more next week, but closed for the actual holidays. See the hours page for full details. Believe it or not, there are times when we’re not actually “Closed Mondays“.
• If you’re bored at grandma’s house after the festivities, you might want to spend some time making a movie about your suburb, or working on your mini-golf design.

Devon Fox of Wheat Ridge, Colo., appears qualified for any number of jobs — travel agent, the director of an upper Midwestern tourism bureau, or perhaps he’ll be the focus of a bidding war between the Walker and Guthrie Theater to land his services as a publicist. Devon has time to make his decision — he’s 10 years old. Our assessment of his career prospects comes after his fan letter reached us by email, courtesy of his father (we leave his grammar and punctuation intact):

“I’ve been to many vacation spots. So far, I’ve been to Hawaii, Illinois, New York, San Francisco, New Jersey, South Dakota, Estes Park, Arizona, Utah, Washington D.C., Montana, Wyoming, Texas, and Mexico, but there are three reasons Minnesota is the best vacation spot.

The first reason that the best vacation spot in the world is Minnesota is because they have the Mall of America! At the Mall of America, they have game stores, grocery stories, clothing stores, jewelry shops, restaurants, and movie theatres. Also they have the famous Lego land! And towering over everything, is the amusement park inside the mall!!!!!!

The second reason that Minnesota is totally awesome is because of their amazing sculpture collection at Minnesota’s Sculpture Garden. My favorite sculpture is the ‘Cherry on a Spoon.’ The variety stretches from sculptures of life-sized people to gigantic (by gigantic I mean at least 20 feet high!) sculptures of fish. Their sculptures are placed in so many different places. One sculpture could be in a corner, and another could be stretched across a small lake.

The third reason that Minnesota is the best vacation spot is because of their theatre. Their theatre is the Guthrie Theatre. The architecture is simply amazing: they have windows jutting out of the wall and the building looks like 4 boxes stacked unevenly on top of one another. But the best part about the Guthrie Theatre is their restaurant Cue. Cue has the most well prepared, perfectly cooked, exquisite meal I have ever tasted. I had the lamb chops and they were succulent and delicious!

Although there are many special places to visit, Minnesota is by far one of my favorites. I do, however, look forward to exploring many new places I have yet to see.”

– Devon R. Fox, 10 years old

Tyler Green breaks news this morning on his Modern Art News blog that the Art Institute of Chicago has concluded that a Paul Gauguin sculpture in the museum’s collection, The Faun (c1888), isn’t from Gauguin at all, but from the so-called Greenhalgh Forgery Gang (aka The Bolton Forgers) — apparently fine art’s equivalent to the Legion of Doom.

What I find most striking is that anyone would go through the trouble of forging stone sculpture. Stone isn’t a very forgiving medium, and you’d think someone with the skill to create a detailed knockoff of a centaur in repose would have the goods to come up with something original (of course, faux Gauguin can probably fetch much more at the Sotheby’s or, failing that, the Uptown Art Fair). Then again, the mere act of copying a masterwork isn’t different, in concept, than a bar band covering Foreigner (masterwork? somebody must think so) — that is, until it’s marketed as an original (the Greenhalghs are serving time).

This reminds me of the deliciously subversive work of Improv Everywhere, which not long ago jumped on a case of mistaken identity to impersonate Ben Folds Five. The real Ben Folds thought the act was hilarious and invited the fake Ben Folds to take the stage in a choreographed opening of a real Ben Folds Five concert.

… which brings me to a closing thought: What would Gauguin, who would turn 160 next year, do?