The Walker Art Center

This is the final week of this blog. I don't know that I will be updating it after this, but if I am out and I see something really neat, I just may.

This week we visited the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. This is a very large building that looks like a piece of tinfoil that has been molded into some cubed shapes. When you are on the inside you can see these strange angles in the ceiling. Sometimes they come down so low that you could bump your head on them if you were not careful.

There were many things to see at the Walker, as it is seven stories tall and has a different exhibit on each floor. While I was there I needed to see several of these different shows. These were Benches and Binoculars, Even Horizon, Haegue Yang: Integrity of the Insider, Elemental and Dan Graham:Beyond. It was a lot to take in and took me a few hours to get through. When you are at the Walker it is best to just walk slowly and look at things for a few minutes. Sometimes you need to read what the show is about so that you can really understand the artists intent.

The first show I went into was Benches and Binoculars. This was relatively small and contained in just one large, high ceiling room. When you walk in you are over whelmed. Almost all areas of the walls are covered in paintings. They are all of different sizes and shapes. Its hard to know what to look at, so you just stand and stare. Look at one, turn head slightly, look at another. This was an interesting way for art to be displayed and maybe not the best. It took away from each piece as your eyes were always being distracted to the next piece. There was one though that really stood out to me. this was called The vagaries of painting by Jim Dine. It was the biggest painting in this room and looked like a painters desk. Bottles of colors were all over the desk but there were also body part models here and there. A skull, a hand, and a female figure with no arms. Makes you think that the artist is probably looking at these while painting.

Next I walked into Event Horizon. This was a very large exhibit that holds art which pushes the outer limits and portrays the events in life as episodes. I saw four pieces in this area that I really liked. First was 6th Light by Paul Chan, made in 2007. This was a video image aimed at the floor in the shape of a window. Every so often you would see the silhouette of items falling across the window. These represented an alternate version of our universe being created in seven days. Instead he was showing how we have become industrialized and just how dependent we are on all the items in our everyday lives, such as cell phones.
Second I looked at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, by Gerhard Richter, from 1992. This was a painting showing Lake Shore Drive with Lake Michigan in the background. There were many cars on the road. I like it a lot because it reminded me of my few trips to Chicago. It's a beautiful part of the city. Hopefully I can make it down there again soon.
Third piece I liked was very unique. It's called Upside Down City by Claes Oldenburg, from 1962. He took very large pieces of cloth, tye dyed them, and sewed them into shapes of large buildings. Then he hung them upside down from the ceiling. This was an interesting affect, as you would never see this usually. Made me think about how you normally see the normal side of things and never the crazy side. If things are flipped upside down you see the crazy side rather than the normal side.
The last piece I saw in Even Horizon was untitled. It was a video by Ann Hamilton of a mouth with stones inside of it. The stones were moving around and it hardly looked human. I wasn't really sure what the point of this one was, but it just really caught my eye.
This whole area was interesting to walk through. It was very large and was housed on two different floors of the museum. Being in such a large space you were really able to look at each piece and develop an opinion of it.

Next I walked over to the Hague Yang: Integrity of the Insider. This was interesting because the items being used were things you could find anywhere. My favorite thing in there was called Yearning Melancholy Red from 2008. This was an entire room filled with red light. And hanging from the ceiling were a lot of mini blinds. The red light was shining through them and making lines on the wall that looks like the sunset. Another interesting thing is this room was a drum set in the back corner. This is meant for people to play. As you are playing the red lights flash to the beat of the drum. So this is a form of artistic expression because you never know what rhythm is going to be played on that drum set.

The last area that I needed to visit was called Elemental. This area holds works by many different artists that do minimalist types of art. What is really neat about minimalist art is that they use such basic things to make an impact. For example in this showing there were boxes drawn in the corners of the room that looked three dimensional. However they are not. So you could touch the wall, but think you were going to touch a box. This is probably my favorite type of art to look at because you never know what you are going to see. The people who create these works are so creative to turn nothing into something wonderful.

When I was on my way out I wondered through another exhibit that was interesting. This was Dan Graham: Beyond. The thing I was most interested in was a room with two TV's in it, and two mirrors on either end of the room. This was one of those optical illusions where you think you are seeing yourself repeated over and over again in the reflection. The thing with the TV's was that there was a video camera that would record what you were doing. It was on a six second delay, so you could run over to the other TV and watch yourself. This was neat because you could make art on your own.

This was my long trip through the Walker Art Center. I enjoyed it a lot and will probably be going back there soon. Every Thursday night they stay open late, until nine o'clock, and it is also free. This allows all the people who can't usually go to experience the best museum this area has to offer. It was a great place to close out this class with.