Andy Messerschmidt has been at the Walker all week installing Friend Me/Follow Me: Graze Anatomy (2012), a mixed-media installation inside the main entrance. The work uses the Ely, Minn.–based artist’s trademark layering technique in which imagery from various religious traditions, pop cultural references, and ornamentation styles are overlaid in often symmetrical patterns. The piece is the second–following Elizabeth Simonson’s bead-based Instar, installed in late 2011–commissioned for “the oculus,” the notch in the ceiling between the Walker Shop and Gather, the Walker’s second-floor restaurant. Overseen by curator Elizabeth Carpenter and commissioned with support from the McKnight Foundation, the installation took four days, during which Messerschmidt wrangled 63 plastic Nativity scene sheep lamps, a projected animation, Christmas wrapping paper, plastic shepherd’s crooks, and an audio piece (featuring equally layered samples, with sources ranging from Indonesian bird calls and audio of an exorcism to music from the 11th Century). Look for more on the project in coming weeks on the Walker homepage, or view the just-completed project during regular Walker hours.
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