The holidays are finally over. The cookies have been eaten, the waistlines expanded, the champaigne bottles are in the recycling, the tree is down, and the kids are back in school. But curiously, some relatives may still be hanging around your house expecting meals and entertainment. Well, take them to the Walker for Target Free Thursday Nights! We have plenty to do and your guests from out of town will be intellectually stimulated as well as in shape from walking up and down all the stairs we have in the building!
The fun starts this Thursday with our first art lab related to the Text/Messages: Books by Artists show. The workshop is being led by local artist Sam Hoolihan. He is a performer, musician, and book artist. You can catch his latest creation at this years Art Shanty projects out on Medicine Lake. Below is a great interview with him about his process as an artist and what we can expect tomorrow.
The fun starts at 5pm when gallery admission is free until 9pm. See the Text/Messages show first, grab a coffee, and then head on dow to the art lab! C U L8R!
What kind of experience can we expect in the art lab on Thursday?
A very open and collaborative environment with ideas being mixed, thrown, passed, cut and pasted between all the participants. There will be a few different stations set up in the lab for generating images and txt msgs, and I’m excited to see what people come up with. I hope the project grows and feeds off the energy everyone brings into the room.
What do you think artist books are and why do you think people make them?
Anything that takes the traditional structure and idea of a book and re-invents it, pushes it, gives it a new life and perspective. I think artists will always be drawn to the physicality and the warmth of books. They are excellent vehicles for sharing information and ideas.
What are some of the things that stand out in the Text/Messages show?
I am repeatedly drawn to the Ed Ruscha section. I love it when artists utilize large commercial printing techniques in a new and creative way, the idea of taking a banal process and performing alchemy with it. I’m also really glad there is a spot to sit and hold books in the gallery, it’s such an important part of the experience for me.
I understand that you, when making things like artist books for example, like to impose limits on yourself. Like, the kind of materials you can use. Tell me what that process is like and why do you do it? What is the result?
I find when I have too many options in front of me I get paralyzed.S etting limitations on myself with the kind of materials I can use forces me to think more creatively, and the results usually end up being more sincere and exciting.
In addition to being a visual artist, you’re also a photographer, performer and musician. Can you tell me about some of the projects you’ve worked on and what they involved?
Well, I’m about to set up the Snap Shot Shanty for the second year in a row at the Art Shanty Projects on Medicine Lake. I’m working with a great group of artists and we are excited to take our portrait studio/performance space to the next level this year on the ice! It’s basically a big ‘softbox’ that utilizes all the natural light reflecting off the snow to illuminate the inside of the shanty for photos and performances. I’m also playing with a local band called Switzerlind, and we’ve been experimenting lately with only allowing ourselves to use typewriters and office supplies for our percussion section. We’ve had one performance with that set up so far, and we are planning to do it again inside the Snap Shot Shanty.
Hope to see you at the Walker Art Lab, and at the Art Shanty Projects!