Sad Lemon, by Todd Balthazor

The sad lemon was drawn by Todd Balthazor, a student at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul and a guard at the Walker.

The work itself is made of an iridescent foil material provided to Saraceno by 3M and is constructed in a manner similar to Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes, allowing solar panels to be suspended inside the balloon. The balloon is anchored to the top of the Barnes tower and the ground along Hennepin Avenue. Saraceno’s work was first seen at the Walker in Brave New Worlds in 2007, and in 2008 he brought Museo aero solar to the Twin Cities.

Iridescent Planet is being installed for the opening of Tomás Saraceno: Lighter than Air, happening Thursday May 14, and will be re-installed, weather permitting, for Rock the Garden as well as the Free First Saturdays in June, July, and August.

Both videos have been shot in high definition, and you can grab the highest quality video from The Quick and the Dead page in iTunes U. Additionally, we’ve produced a number of audio tracks to help contextualize the exhibition, available in iTunes U and Art on Call.

I caught up with Ellie McKinney who was tasked with digging up the first lemon:

Beginning to dig.

Found, about a foot down.

The object (lemon) in a jar.

The lemon on display in the Bazinet Garden Lobby.

Several days later, there are more lemons, and the first unearthed are beginning to mold:

A lemon rotting.

Lemons removed so far, with space for 95 more.

There is a lot of meaning you could assign to the various elements and acts of the work: burial and unearthing, decay and display, and the passage of time are all rich in metaphors and crossover. There is also an interesting connection between the grid on/in the ground and the grid that is being re-created on the lobby wall, re-representing time in different ways. The computer scientist in me can’t help but see a relationship between a grid of pixels, waiting to be turned on or off and a timeline, waiting to have the playhead moved along.

On a purely pragmatic level, Any work that changes over time and breathes extra life into an often static gallery space is welcome energy. Regardless, I am curious and will check in on the work as it progresses over time.

All your last week’s desires by Tobias Rehberger
Click here to view the embedded video.

Timekeeper by Pierre Huyghe
Click here to view the embedded video.

Both videos have been shot in high definition, and you can grab the highest quality video from The Quick and the Dead page in iTunes U. Additionally, we’ve produced a number of audio tracks to help contextualize the exhibition, available in iTunes U and Art on Call.

We’re sweetening the deal this time. If you take the survey, you can enter your name into the pool and we’ll select one person to win a 1GB iPod Shuffle.

Take the survey.

Photo by bluetsunami.

Nobody takes a good idea and makes it his own like Richard Prince, who has carved his place in contemporary art by recycling, reflecting, and reframing the imagery of others. His unique art of appropriation–from biker culture to car culture, comedians to cowboys, pinups to pulp fiction–redefined the creative process for a generation of artists.

Organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Richard Prince: Spiritual America opens next week in galleries 4, 5, and 6. Tickets for the After Hours preview party on Friday, March 21 are still available.

Installation photo by Cameron Wittig

Brave New Worlds opens tomorrow, and many of the artists have been in the Walker installing their work. Photographer Gene Pittman captured some images of the installation in process. There are a few more images on flickr, too.

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