Artcetera

Walker's Summer Music & Movies series returns with road flicks, rocker chicks

Posted by: Chris Riemenschneider Updated: May 21, 2013 - 2:38 PM

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Walker Art Center's Summer Music & Movies series returns to Loring Park starting July 29. / Star Tribune file

After taking a very unwelcome year off two summers ago, Walker Art Center’s beloved Summer Music & Movies series will return July 29 to Loring Park for the second straight year.

Scheduled again for four Mondays in a row, the lineup -- centered around the theme “Roadways”-- was announced today with Prissy Clerks, Charlie Parr, Zoo Animal, Aby Wolf, the Roe Family Singers and this summer’s It Band, the Chalice, all slated for the musical halves of the shows. Alas, the Walker did not commission a live score like the one Brute Heart created last year, but many of the aforementioned acts are cinematic enough in the first place.

The movies were all selected by Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas, whose exhibit “The Autoconstrucción Suites” recently opened at the Walker. Save for one obvious choice, the road films he picked are all pretty obscure to Western audiences – as one would expect in the case of this. Here’s the schedule:

MUSIC BEGINS AT 7 PM; MOVIES BEGIN AT DUSK (APPROXIMATELY 8:45 PM)

Monday, July 29
Music: Prissy Clerks
Movie: "The Hawks and the Sparrows" ("Uccellacci E Uccellini")

Monday, Aug. 5
Music: Roe Family Singers + Charlie Parr
Movie: "Cochochi"

Lizzo and Sophia Eris of the Chalice / Leslie Plesser, Star Tribune

Monday, Aug. 12
Music: The Chalice
Movie: "In the Pit (En el Hoyo)"

Monday, Aug. 19
Music: Zoo Animal + Aby Wolf + Grant Cutler
Movie: "Pee Wee’s Big Adventure"

Pretty much the same format as the Walker's series, but a little more populist in nature, Vita.mn's Music & Movies series will take place around the same time. That lineup was announced last month, with highlights including a pairing of Now, Now with "Adventures in Babysitting" and John Mark Nelson with "The Goonies."

Elevator Repair Service at the Walker

Posted by: Graydon Royce Updated: May 17, 2013 - 10:42 AM

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A scene from "Fondly, Collette Richland" by Elevator Repair Service /photo by Jim R. Moore.

A friend cautioned me not to "give away the story" as I left the Elevator Repair Service's "Fondly, Collette Richland" on Thursday night. Jolly joker. The work, written by Sibyl Kempson and shaped by ERS, is intentionally a diffuse dreamscape that throws out images and ideas with little narrative structure.

The performances this weekend at the Walker are previews, giving Kempson and ERS artistic director John Collins a first chance to see how this experimental work looks on its feet, in front of an audience. As such, it is not being reviewed by critics.

So, in that spirit, here are a few observations from one audience member. The piece is about two hours and 15 minutes without intermission, likely intended to serve the piece's unity as a stretch of fantasy. There are two distinct settings -- a modest kitchen in a small northeastern U.S. town and a resort hotel in the Alps. Characters mundane and bizarre inhabit these worlds, each with his or her own agenda. Kempson has written types and details rather than a story.

It's not wrong to be baffled by the work. It's also not wrong to appreciate the inventive staging and the dense rush of ideas and physical juxtapositions. Kempson borrowed a quote from Russian formalist Victor Shkolvsky in her program notes. It says in part: "Browse through our works, look for a point of view, and if you can find it, then there is your unity. I was unable to find it."

I would love to be a fly on the wall as Collins, Kempson and the rest of the ERS crew do their post mortem on the Walker performances. Those should be interesting conversations. Collins has said they'll let "Collette" rest for some time -- gestate -- as they move on to other projects. But Collins said the plan is to get a New York opening.

"Fondly, Collette Richland" continues Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Walker.

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden gets new website and free mobile app

Posted by: Mary Abbe Updated: May 16, 2013 - 12:53 PM

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Walker Art Center's design and "New Media Initiatives" departments have produced a new website for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden along with a free mobile app. The web app enables visitors to tour the garden using GPS location technology, to view audio and video information about the sculptures, check up on the Garden's history, and hear short interviews with artists and local luminaries including Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak. The MSG, which opened 25 years ago, is a joint project of the city of Minneapolis, which owns the land, and Walker, which owns the sculpture displayed there.

Minneapolis hosts summer art galas

Posted by: Mary Abbe Updated: May 14, 2013 - 3:18 PM

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Hundreds partied at the American Swedish Institute on April 30. Star Tribune photo by Jeff Wheeler

Hundreds partied at the American Swedish Institute this spring. Star Tribune photo by Jeff Wheeler.

Everyone loves a party, especially arty types eager to celebrate in style. Three of Minneapolis' leading arts organizations are staging galas this summer either as fund-raisers or to celebrate their heritage.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts leads off June 1 with a simple "summer party" theme to raise money. It promises "sunset cocktails" followed by a "celebration of the Minneapolis music scene" with Doomtree and Morris Day and the Time. Pick your price range: General tickets: $85 per person for nibbles, 1 drink, 2 tickets to the special exhibition "More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness." VIP tickets: $175 per person including all of the above plus valet parking and more drinks. Gala tickets: $750 and up for 6 p.m. dinner, etc. (8:30 p.m. to midnight, June 1. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 3rd Av. S., Mpls. 612-870-6323 or www.artsmia.org)

Next up on June 15 is the American Swedish Institute with a traditional, day-long Swedish Midsommar Festival. The family-friendly event includes singing, dancing, fiddling, "flower head-wreath making," glass-blowing, a flea market and a mini-golf course. Yep, just when Walker Art Center seemed to have a lock on mini-golf with its artist-designed course, the Swedes try to muscle in. The glass blowers will be giving demos in conjunction with the opening of ASI's new "Kingdom of Crystal," exhibition of Swedish glass art. Be advised that the festival food will include pickled herring as well as the usual hot dogs, ice cream and lemonade. (10 a.m. to 5 p.m., June 15, $7 adults. American Swedish Institute, 2600 Park Av. S., Mpls. www.ASImn.org)

Walker Art Center will round out the season September 21 with its annual fund raising gala in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Dubbed "Avant Garden," the event promises music, art, gourmet food, specialty cocktails, an auction and dancing. How long you can stay depends on what you pay: Silver Key, 8:30 to 11 p.m., $100. Gold Key, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., $500. (6 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Walker Art Center, 175 Hennepin Av., Mpls. 612-375-7600 or www.walkerart.org)

Walker Art Center honors former director with bell sculpture

Posted by: Mary Abbe Updated: May 2, 2013 - 4:01 PM

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Former Walker Art Center director Martin Friedman was never shy in talking about art with museum visitors, on the radio, during interviews, in the board room or anywhere else. Always well informed, witty and self-deprecating, Friedman was a champion promoter of the new and the avant garde throughout his 30 year tenure at the helm of the Walker. His voice was never silent.

So it's no surprise that the institution is honoring him in June with a new sculpture on the 25th anniversary of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, whose design and construction he oversaw.

But why a silent, voiceless bell? The sculpture, by Belgian artist Kris Martin, consists of a large clapper-less bronze bell suspended from a 16 ft. tall steel saw horse. Originally cast for the tower of a German church, the bell in the sculpture will be "swinging continuously without emitting a sound," according to a Walker statement.

It's name "For Whom" alludes to English poet John Donne's famous celebration of human fellowship and mourning: "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

In the Walker's interpretation a tolling bell "alludes to the preciousness of life and its endless cycles from birth to death," but because the bell-sculpture is silent, "all of these associations come to life in the viewer's imagination."

So maybe they just wanted to keep peace in the neighborhood and avoid antagonizing nearby residents with a potentially noisy sculpture that teenagers and other art enthusiasts could ring at all hours?

"For Whom," will be the second bell sculpture in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, joining Barry Flanagan's 1983 "Hare on Bell," which consists of a lanky bronze hare leaping over a big bronze bell.