State of the Arts Category Archive: Sculpture

"Strange Victory" challenges expectations

Posted at 2:54 PM on October 2, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture

Photograph by Matthew Bakkom

Artist Matthew Bakkom isn't one to lay it all out for his public.

"We're a really highly educated audience now," he said in conversation earlier this week at Chambers Hotel in Minneapolis, "and we don't suffer lightly being told what to think."

Chambers' Burnet Gallery is presenting an installation Bakkom designed specifically for the space. It mixes together pieces from previous his bodies of work, along with new material, to create a setting that's both elegant and unsettling. The installation is called "Strange Victory."

Photograph by Matthew Bakkom

The inspiration for the installation comes in part from a 1961 surreal French film called "Last Year at Marianbad," but you wouldn't necessarily pick that up from walking through the room. The biggest clue comes from a panel on which is written a summary of the film's plot.

Bakkom says he thinks there's a constant tension at play between an artist, the artist's audience, and each of their own expectations about what art should be. Bakkom says he's a follower of DuChamp in that he believes he only does half the work when he creates a piece of art - it's up to the viewer to do the rest.

The room is dotted with images of a baroque chair, a slide of an old painting, and hand gestures. They're each quite suggestive, but suggestive of what? Curator Jennifer Phelps says of Bakkom's work:

I am drawn to work that is composed of various levels... that does not reveal itself to the viewer at first glance. Work that twists and surprises me. I feel Matthew's show does all of this for me. I want to spend time in the gallery trying to absorb his stories and the stories that are generated within me by his artwork. I also find his images quite serene, though they involve a scanner and gestures and information that can not be clearly deciphered.

Photograph by Matthew Bakkom

Bakkom says he has many ideas, trains of thought, and sources of inspiration that go into his work, but ultimately that background information shouldn't be necessary for the viewer to enjoy the work. What is necessary is an open mind, and a willingness to explore some foreign terrain. The story you come up with will be all your own.

"Strange Victory" will be on display at the Burnet Gallery through November 8th - the opening reception is tonight from 6-9pm.

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Art, straw, and a daughter for inspiration

Posted at 2:36 PM on September 25, 2009 by Euan Kerr (12 Comments)
Filed under: People, Sculpture

There is a 12 foot straw camel in Brian Sobaski's yard. The neighbors must be getting used to it. There was a huge horse a couple years back, and an elephant last year.

Sobaski says there's now a regular stream of SUV's and other vehicles past the house as people seek out his Falcon Heights home.

The camel is the result of his artistic training and interest - and the Halloween desires of his young daughter. She wanted to be a Chinese princess a couple years ago, and when they visited the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and saw the terra cotta figures in the Chinese collection.

Sobaski says he thought, "I could do that."

He's got an interest in Bricolage, making art from materials at hand, and he's been making scenery for Hollywood for years. He also likes the idea of green, recyclable sculpture.

So a huge horse soon appeared in his yard made from a wooden armature and straw.

The next year his daughter wanted to be an Indian princess, so an elephant was in order. He admits that the camel this year was his pick. He wanted to make something where he could work to give the animal more of a sense of movement. Another step forward was his discovery that landscaping cloth makes a fine-looking stomach.

Another innovation this year was to send out fliers to orchards, corn mazes and other autumnal businesses offering his services, and suddenly Brian Sobaski is very busy. He's been doing three to four pieces a week: bears, pirates, scarecrows, a woolly mammoth, and even a Buddha. Each takes a day, or a day and a half, to finish.

He's got several more to do in coming weeks and he's having a lot of fun.

"On top of that I get an awesome photograph with my daughter on top," he says. You can see more pictures of his creations at his website

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This big rabbit won't eat your garden veggies

Posted at 8:06 AM on August 31, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Public Art, Sculpture

Photo courtesy of Christine Podas Larson

This weekend families visiting Western Sculpture Park in St. Paul got to enjoy wildlife of a different sort. Artist Mary Johnson created a 14' rabbit out of rebar, lath and cement. Working with children from the neighborhood, Johnson created mosaic medallions from found objects that were embedded into the rabbits "hide." She used the hub caps from a '58 Ford for the bunny's eyes. His name? Max Rabbitat.

The dedication of the new addition to the sculpture park featured carrot cupcakes and a bunny hop.

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Examining our animal nature

Posted at 12:39 PM on August 28, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Museums, Sculpture

Hoodie, 2009

Minnesota artist Roxanne Jackson is interested in the blurry line between human and animal behavior. Her latest show "We Believe in Some Thing" opens today at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

In it Jackson documents the many ways in which cultures express our hybrid nature. Whether it's Native American folklore, or cult films about vampires and werewolves, Jackson takes our fascination with our animal cousins and pushes the exploration even further.

In popular entertainment, animalistic traits are often used to portray a character as either an outcast, or possessed of an untamed aggressive nature. But Jackson's images almost beg the question "aren't we the real animals?"

Devouring Mother, 2009

Jackson also looks at how combining human and animal form carries with it a spriitual power in many cultures, both for good and evil. Whether it's a sphynx (a lion with a human head), a harpie (half woman, half bird), or a centaur (half man, half horse) we either fear or revere these creatures that are "more than human."

Looking at Jackson's sculptures makes me wonder if we're not just a little bit jealous of our animal counterparts. The freedom from the constraints of modern civilization, the physical power, the heightened senses... is it no wonder we love watching movies about a man named "Wolverine?"

Roxanne Jackson's "We Believe in Some Thing" runs through November 1 at the MIA.

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Slant/Light/Volume

Posted at 6:13 PM on August 14, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Design, Museums, Sculpture

(MPR photo by Euan Kerr. Click on image to enlarge.)

If you are passing through the Walker Art Center anytime soon, set aside a few minutes to see "Slant/Light/Volume." There's just one piece in the show, an untitled work by Robert Irwin.

It's quite simple: a huge piece of fabric stretched across an entire gallery at an angle, lit from behind. Seen in person, it is stunning, a glowing plane hanging among the faint echoes bouncing through the Walker's chambered galleries.

The piece was designed for the opening of what was then the Walker's new building in 1971. It hasn't been displayed for 20 years, and it's definately worth experiencing now.

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How do you clean a sunburst?

Posted at 1:14 PM on July 30, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Museums, Sculpture

Many years ago I watched a crew from the Dale Chihuly studio hang the hundreds of blown glass spirals which make up the sunburst which hangs high above the entrance hall at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

As a result I have always had a soft spot for the piece, even though given its weight and fragility I have always found it a little scary too.

So it was a delight to see the MIA posted pictures of the annual sunburst cleaning. You can find it here, but here is a sample:

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A State of the Arts Mystery: can anyone explain?

Posted at 3:50 PM on July 24, 2009 by Euan Kerr (16 Comments)
Filed under: Sculpture

Some one must know what this means, and so it's time to turn to State of the Arts readers for suggestions.

First here's the set-up.

The other morning I walked down Lyndale Avenue from where I had parked my car to do an interview a few blocks away at the Jungle Theater.

Just after crossing the bridge over the Greenway, I passed a young man who seemed engrossed in the wonders of a chain link fence surrounding a recently cleared site on the west side of the street.

I noticed he was carefully counting the links on the fence with one hand, while carefully holding a length of yellow yarn in the other.

He didn't pay any attention to me. I walked past him in a matter of seconds, regarding him as one of the many people you see in the great gentle circus we call south Minneapolis.

Fast forward an hour and as I was returning to my car, I saw the young man was gone. He had however left a certain amount of yarn.

It was clear there was a pattern to the work, but because of the way the yarn blended in with the fence against the sky and the rough terrain behind, it was really hard to see what it was.

For a few moments I moved back and forth trying to find the right place from which to look.

It was a little tough because there was no sidewalk, and to get some distance from the fence it was necessary to step back into the street, which is always an adventure in the Mill City, even on side roads.

The artist clearly had some objective in mind, but he didn't make it easy. Sometimes you have to struggle a little for art.

Finally, after much wandering to and fro, and a certain amount of crouching, I found the perfect viewing spot.

This is what I saw.

So the question is: what is it? Clearly there is a message here, but what does it mean?

And this is where you come in. If you have any thoughts about what this signifies, or, even better, some deep inside knowledge of the young man and his yarn, (in both senses of the word,) please feel free to share them below.

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Art Hounds: Mixing it up

Posted at 9:17 AM on July 23, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Art Hounds, Culture, Events, Film, Museums, Music, Sculpture, Theater

One of the delights of the late summer is that it's time when local arts folks mix it up a little.

Take tonight at IFP Minnesota's Fresh Fete at the Varsity Theater. As the local organization devoted to independent film it will of course be showing films, but blending some chat and a lot of music too. The film comes from local writer director Emily Haddad who won IFP Mn's Fresh Film grant last year and used it to make "Egg Timer" which will premier at 6.30. There will be a conversation between Mystery Science Theater 3000's Bill Corbett and local playwright and screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher. The evening will be rounded out by local icon Willie Murphy and the Angel Headed Hipsters and pianist John Sims.

If you haven't seen the Walker Art Center's examination of conceptual art "The Quick and the Dead" - or even if you have - it's worth a visit. There are some 90 pieces by 53 artists, some of which are designed to change over time, hence the value in returning. Take for example Claes von Oldenburg's "The Garden" which involved burying 100 objects and then exhuming and displaying one item per day. He didn't specify what the object should be, but the Walker staff chose lemons, and you can see the results in jars in the Center's lower lobby.

After sell out shows last week the Trylon Microcinema returns with another Buster Keaton film "The Navigator." Live accompaniment is supplied by the Dreamland Faces, complete with singing saws.

If you are considering a little road trip this weekend, there is the final weekend of the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, and the always whacky Free Range Film Festival in Webster, about half an our south of Duluth. Movie shorts in a barn, how can you miss?

And for the truly dedicated sports fan the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis is presenting live coverage on the big screen of the Tour de France. You can watch the cyclists sweat while sitting in the finest art deco movie house the Twin Cities has to offer. Admission is free, although they are collecting non-perishable goods for local food shelves, or a $2 donation.

And of course there is all the great stuff ferreted out by the Art Hounds Want to be one of them? Sign up!

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Listening to the sounds we can't hear

Posted at 10:32 AM on July 22, 2009 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sculpture, Technology

If you have ever wondered about the sounds of an insect eating a leaf, or even the mist condensing on a window, you are not alone.

These are the kind of sounds which sonic artist Diane Willow hopes to collect with a new microphone she will use for her work "Listening to the Silent Landscape of the Everyday."

Willow, who teaches at the University of Minnesota will gather sounds with a highly sensitive contact microphone which allows her to listen in the tiny sounds all around us which are beyond the sensitivity of normal human hearing.

Willow, who came to the U from MIT, has used other recordings in sculptures and other works. She will develop interactive pieces from the new recordings.

You can see at video of "Serenade," a piece she did in Beijing here

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We Art Minnesota: Franconia Sculpture Park

Posted at 7:06 AM on June 30, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Sculpture, We Art Minnesota

Susannah Schouweiler knows her art; she's an editor for mnartists.org. She writes about Franconia Sculpture Park:

I've been a fan of Franconia Sculpture Park for a while now, but I really fell in love with the place last September at Franconia's Art & Artists Festival and Celebration when we took our son, George, with us. Seeing our three-year-old explore the park, watching him scramble over, around, and on top of the sculptures to get at all their textures and small hiding places was instructive: Franconia, unlike traditional gallery spaces or museums, invites you to engage the work directly, to touch the pieces, to step right up and play with the art like a kid.

When you stop by, you're treated a bit like visiting family; the artists who live and work at Franconia (many of whom are there on two-year Jerome Foundation artist-in-residence fellowships) are likely milling around the park with you, happy to take a break in what they're doing to chat for a minute.

Most of the 75 or so pieces on view at the park rotate through after a couple of years of exhibition time, so there's usually something new to see. At the same time, pieces are around for a relatively long time; so, if you visit a couple of times a year, you'll see bunches of old favorites each time, too. It's such a pleasure to see the sculptures weather over time as they make their peace with the elements and earn a bit of patina.

I suppose my very favorite aspect of Franconia, though, is the ubiquitous evidence of human handiwork behind the grandeur and whimsy of the finished pieces - heavy equipment to haul and fabricate stuff, artists with tools and brushes touching up their pieces, people milling around the communal house. My son calls it an "art farm;" I think that captures the gist of Franconia's appeal beautifully.

You can find out more about Franconia Sculpture Park, its fall arts celebration and its sculpture-building workshops for kids here.

Have a favorite piece of art that belongs to Minnesota (i.e. public art, a cool building, or a piece of art that belongs to a Minnesota museum)? Let us know.

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