The Walker Art Center’s Target Free Thursday Nights in February are highlighted by a screening/discussion of the award-winning documentary Lost Boys of Sudan, February 23, at 7 pm. On the same night at 7:30 pm, Warhol Remix: Teen Multimedia Battle features two groups of teens engaged in an audio/video battle using media amassed during their five-week workshop with the Revolutionary Party, a collective of artist/activists who combine sound, video mixing, and live performance. Other highlights in February include gallery tours, the Walker’s book club The Artist’s Bookshelf (February 2, 7 pm), a Gallery Talk with punk rock turned alt-country legend Jon Langford (February 9, 7 pm), a screening of the film Girls Town, starring Lili Taylor (February 9, 7:30 pm), a Drawn Here: Contemporary Design in Conversation with prefab architects Charlie Lazor and Geoffrey Warner (February 16, 7 pm), a Free Verse with author Kenneth Goldsmith (February 23, 7:30 pm), and Absolutely Pre-Fabulous, an Art Lab activity inspired by the exhibition Some Assembly Required: Contemporary Prefabricated Houses (February 2, 9, 16, 23, 6–9 pm).
Target Free Thursday Nights are made possible by Target. Additional support provided by The Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Target Free Thursday Nights
February 2, 9, 16, 23
Galleries open 5–9 pm; special events follow.
Free
Thursday, February 2
ANDY WARHOL/SUPERNOVA: Stars, Deaths, and Disasters, 1962–1964 tour, 6 pm
Art Activity: Absolutely Pre-Fabulous
Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab, 6–9 pm
A built environment is a type of framework in which people function and dwell. Examine the structure on display in the exhibition Some Assembly Required: Contemporary Prefabricated Houses and create art with Helen Stringfellow.
The Artist’s Bookshelf: The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa by Michael Kimmelman
Conference Room, 7 pm
Free, but reservations required; call 612.375.7600.
What is art? Noted New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman takes it on in his book The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa. His wide and inclusive definition of “art” goes far beyond the walls of the museum. Supported by both quirky anecdotes and scholarly wisdom, his thesis provides plenty of food for thought as well as an enticing springboard for discussion. Books are available in the Walker Shop and at the Minneapolis Public Library (www.mplib.org). Presented in partnership with the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library.
Thursday, February 9
Architecture tour, 6 pm
Art Activity: Absolutely Pre-Fabulous
Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab, 6–9 pm
See above description.
Gallery Talk: Jon Langford
Bazinet Garden Lobby, 7 pm
Follow along as punk rock turned alt-country legend Jon Langford gives his two cents on the artworks in the galleries, accompanied by curator Elizabeth Carpenter. Also a painter and comic-book artist, Langford discusses influences on his work and muses on ways that his current performance piece The Executioner’s Last Songs stares down the age-old issue of violence and the law.
Film: Lili Taylor: Independent Spirit
Girls Town, 7:30 pm
Directed by Jim McKay
Three tough outsiders come to terms with a friend’s death. “A welcome little gust of teenage realism. In celebrating the solidarity of high school girls who refuse to live and die according to the Beverly Hills ideal, the movie raises a hoarse cheer for candor and spunky self-determination” (New York Times). Taylor helped create her dialogue through group improvisations. 1996, U.S., color, 35mm, 90 minutes.
Thursday, February 16
Some Assembly Required: Contemporary Prefabricated Houses tour, 6 pm
Art Activity: Absolutely Pre-Fabulous
Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab, 6–9 pm
See above description.
Drawn Here: Contemporary Design in Conversation
Minnesota Modern: Prefab in Process
Cinema, 7 pm
Free, but ticket required; available after 6 pm at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk.
Drawn Here: Contemporary Design in Conversation is a series that explores the depth and breadth of the state’s acclaimed and vibrant design community. Join Walker design director and curator Andrew Blauvelt for a discussion with Charlie Lazor, founder of Minneapolis–based Lazor Office and designer of Lazor FlatPak, and Geoffrey Warner, founder of St. Paul–based Alchemy Architects, creators of the weeHouse, about the potential and pitfalls of making prefab a buildable reality. This event will be webcast live and archived at channel.walkerart.org.
Thursday, February 23
Architecture tour, 6 pm
Art Activity: Absolutely Pre-Fabulous
Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab, 6–9 pm
See above description.
Film/Discussion: Lost Boys of Sudan
Directed by Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk; introduced by Megan Mylan
Cinema, 7 pm
Free, but ticket required; available after 6 pm at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk.
This award-winning documentary follows two Sudanese refugees on an extraordinary journey from Africa to the United States. Orphaned in one of Africa’s cruelest civil wars, the boys reach a refugee camp in Kenya and there, remarkably, were chosen to come to America. A world away from home, they find themselves confronted with the abundance and alienation of contemporary American suburbia. Join a post-screening conversation with director Megan Mylan and Santino Majok Chuor, one of the subjects of the film. 2004, 35mm, in English and Dinka with English subtitles, 87 minutes.
Matinee Screenings: Lost Boys of Sudan
Thursday–Friday, February 23–24
Cinema, 9:30 am FREE
Matinee screenings are open to all audiences and are ideal for students in grades 9–12. To schedule a group of 10 or more, e-mail education.resources@walkerart.org or call 612.375.7609. Classroom resources: www.lostboysfilm.com/learn.html.
This program, part of the Walker Art Center’s Civic Engagement Initiative to encourage dialogue around topics of importance to the community, is made possible in part by generous support from the Bush Foundation.
Warhol Remix: Teen Multimedia Battle
McGuire Theater, 7:30 pm
What are the parallels between Kanye West and Elvis? Chairman Mao and George Bush? The Birmingham civil rights march and the World Trade Organization protests? For five weeks, teens from around the metro examined contemporary pop culture using the lens of Andy Warhol’s 1977 autobiography The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again). For this event, two groups will have an audio/video battle using media amassed during their five-week workshop with the Revolutionary Party, a collective of artist/activists who combine sound, video mixing, and live performance.
Teen Programs are made possible by generous support from the Surdna Foundation and Best Buy Children’s Foundation.
Free Verse: Kenneth Goldsmith
Lecture Room, 7:30 pm
Free, but ticket required; available after 6 pm at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk.
With the simple act of transcription, Kenneth Goldsmith critiques the cherished values of creativity and originality in writing. Following the traditions of Marcel Duchamp’s readymades, Andy Warhol’s borrowed images, and sampling in contemporary music, Goldsmith investigates appropriation as a valid literary practice via this proposition: “If Cage claimed that any sound can be music, then properly framed, any language can be poetry.” The author of eight volumes of poetry, founding editor of the online archive UbuWeb (ubu.com), and editor of the book I’ll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews, Goldsmith also hosts a weekly radio show on New York’s WFMU.
Free Verse is cosponsored by Rain Taxi Review of Books.