ASYNCHRONOUS READING
Continuing: Multitalented novelist Louise Erdrich makes her debut as a visual artist and performer whose found-object sculptures, paintings and collage boxes often come with text — bits of poetry or fragments of stories. Some texts are attached to the sculptures, others placed in cases or written on sheets of birchbark. She performs some bits on "poem-phones," old-fashioned telephones on which gallery visitors will encounter characters in mid-conversation, musing about strange encounters, mysterious happenings, life in general. In abstract paintings she sticks to a palette of indigo and crimson, resonant colors that recur in columnar sculptures and assemblage boxes reminiscent of Joseph Cornell's poetic compositions. Her "Blue Woman (self portrait)" is shown here. Daughters Aza and Pallas Erdrich have contributed to the show, which was curated by Heid E. Erdrich, the novelist's sister. A rare moment in local culture, this is a not-to-be-missed event. (Noon-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. through April 18. Bockley Gallery, 2123 W. 21st St., Mpls. Free. 612-377-4669 or www.bockleygallery.com)
