The Walker Art Center’s Target Free Thursday Nights in March are highlighted by a Drawn Here design talk with architect Sean Griffiths (March 6, 7 pm), of the firm FAT (Fashion.Architecture.Taste), whose quirky, allusive work challenges the profession’s notions of acceptable taste and operates from the premise that architecture is a form of communication that should speak the language of its users. Also featured in March are screenings of films from the Walker’s annual series of works by women filmmakers, Women with Vision, including Nina Davenport’s documentary Operation Filmmaker (March 20, 7 pm), which follows American actor/director Liev Schreiber’s attempt to bring an Iraqi film student to Prague to intern on a Hollywood film he is making. Director Naomi Kawase introduces a screening of her film The Mourning Forest (Mogari No Mori) on March 27 at 7 pm, preceded by a screening of her film Birth/Mother (Tarachime) at 5:30 pm. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes 2007, The Mourning Forest pairs an elderly man whose dementia confines him to a nursing home and the young nurse who befriends him. On March 13 at 7 pm, join musician and new media artist Steina Vasulka and interactive installation artist Amy Youngs for a panel discussion focusing on the use of moving images in their work, and the ways in which they leverage ever-changing technologies to serve their creative processes.
Target Free Thursday Nights sponsored by Target.
Target Free Thursday Nights
March 6, 13, 20, 27
Galleries open 5–9; special events follow.
Free
Thursday, March 6
Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes Tour, 6 pm
Drawn Here: Sean Griffiths, FAT (Fashion.Architecture.Taste), 7 pm
Cinema
FAT (Fashion.Architecture.Taste), as its name implies, pushes for a more inclusive architecture that is responsive to contemporary culture. FAT’s quirky, allusive work challenges the profession’s notions of acceptable taste and operates from the premise that architecture is a form of communication that should speak the language of its users. London-based FAT has developed a reputation for making buildings, installations, and interiors that are memorable, engaging, and embrace a more populist sensibility, which is manifest in easily recognizable forms, the use of decoration and ornament, and a vibrant palette of color and material. The now-iconic Blue House (London, 2002), with its billboardlike expression of the building’s home and office components, exemplifies this approach. Established in 1995, FAT’s innovative building and urban design projects range from the creation of a new “summer village and hobby park” in a suburb of Rotterdam (on view in Worlds Away) to the transformation of a former Gothic church into the offices for advertising firm Kassels Kramer in Amsterdam, to designs for trailer homes for artists in northern Scotland.
FAT’s design for the Sint Lucas Art Academy (Boxtel, the Netherlands, 2006) received the prestigious European Award from the Royal Institute of British Architects and was also nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award. In 2003, FAT was unanimously chosen by the future inhabitants of Woodward Place Social Housing (New Islington, Manchester) in a competition sponsored by the Royal Institute of British Architects, and its proposal for refurbishment and expansion of a 1960s high-rise housing block was selected in a competition sponsored by the London Borough of Newham. The firm was awarded second place in Building Design’s Architect of the Year program in 2003 and was included in the Architects’ Journal’s 40 Under 40 exhibition in 2005.
Thursday, March 13
Gallery Tour, 6 pm
Panel: Moving the Moving Image, 7 pm
In the late 1960s, when artists were beginning to use emerging media technology to push the boundaries of contemporary art, film, and video, women were already on the forefront of the movement, pioneering the connections between art and technology. Join musician and new media artist Steina Vasulka and interactive installation artist Amy Youngs for a discussion focusing on the use of moving images in their work, and the ways in which they leverage ever-changing technologies to serve their creative processes. Moderated by art historian Jane Blocker. Presented as part of the University of Minnesota’s symposium Wonder Women: Art and Technology, 1968 to 2008.
Presented as part of the film series Women with Vision 2008: Past/Present.
Thursday, March 20
Gallery Tour, 6 pm
Film: Operation Filmmaker, 7 pm
Directed by Nina Davenport
In the wake of Operation Iraqi Freedom, American actor Liev Schreiber had an idealistic thought: rescue an Iraqi film student from the rubble of his country and bring him to Prague to work as an intern on a Hollywood movie he is directing (Everything Is Illuminated). What promises to be a heartwarming tale quickly becomes a mirror of the complex intercultural realities that have plagued the United States’ war in Iraq. Director Nina Davenport sets out to document Schreiber’s charitable effort, but soon finds herself embroiled in an escalating power struggle between herself as filmmaker and her young Iraqi subject. 2007, U.S., video, 92 minutes.
Presented as part of the film series Women with Vision 2008: Past/Present.
Thursday, March 27
Present Tense: Photographs by JoAnn Verburg Tour, 6 pm
Film: The Mourning Forest (Mogari No Mori), 7 pm
Introduced by director Naomi Kawase
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes 2007, this film pairs an elderly man whose dementia confines him to a nursing home and the young nurse who befriends him. On this unexpected journey of discovery, an eloquent story unfolds against the lush and tranquil setting of western Japan, where Kawase’s natural touch as a filmmaker creates an inner geography of emotion. 2007, Japan/France, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles, 97 minutes.
Preceded by a free screening of Birth/Mother (Tarachime) at 5:30 pm. A documentary by the filmmaker on the birth of her son in the traditional Japanese way, and her relationship with her 90-year-old great aunt. 2006, in Japanese with English subtitles, 43 minutes.
Presented as part of the film series Women with Vision 2008: Past/Present.
