Target Free Thursday Nights in June at the Walker Art Center celebrate the arrival of summer with a series of outdoor concerts and workshops designed to get visitors discovering, questioning, and creating art outdoors.
Target Free Thursday Nights: Summer Edition
kicks off on June 4 with the first of two
Skyspace/Soundspace
concerts merging music and sculpture. Local bands venture out of the club for performances inside and around James Turrell’s meditative Sky Pesher, 2005 chamber in the greenspace on the west side of the Walker. From tango to zydeco, electro to pop, these exclusive, one-night-only sets feature some of the area’s hottest music-makers in experimental concerts unlike any other. Minneapolis-based indie popsters Holly Muñoz, Justin Hartke, and Kyle Larson, as Aviette, appear June 4. Sound collage artists Bianca Pettis and Jacob Aaron Roske of Beatrix*JAR perform June 18. Seating capacity inside the Turrell sculpture is limited; please call the box office at 612.375.7600 to reserve a space. Patrons are welcome to bring a blanket and listen to the sweet sounds drift out onto the Walker’s grassy hillside. Refreshments available at the outdoor cash bar, located on the greenspace near the Angus Fairhurst gorilla sculpture.
Remake, Revamp
, a workshop series harnessing the creative talents of some of the Twin Cities’ most creative, forward-thinking fashion designers, takes place in the FlatPak House on June 11, from 6–9 pm. Participants will give fresh new life to t-shirts, pants, tote bags, and pillowcases as instructors Luci Kandler and Ashley Wokasch offer a tutorial in screenprinting and design. Using geometric shapes inspired by the Walker’s building design participants will create unique patterns and prints to transfer to items salvaged from the recycling pile. Kandler and Wokasch return on June 25 to lead a workshop devoted to designs that reflect personal emblems of summer.
Two free film screenings are part of the series
Queer Takes: Standing Out
and
In & Out of Fashion: The Films of William Klein
. Three of Klein’s short films screen on June 4 at 7:30 pm. Queer Takes entry Fig Trees, directed by John Greyson, screens at 7:30 pm on June 25, to be preceded by Jenni Olson’s short 575 Castro Street.
Sound Bites gallery talks are offered throughout the month on select Thursday evenings at 6:30 and 7 pm. Sound Bites illuminate an artist or work of art from the Walker’s world-class collection or one of its special exhibitions. This month’s talks examine Elizabeth Peyton’s Princess Kurt (June 4), Dan Graham’s Two-way Mirror Punched Steel Hedge Labyrinth (June 18), and James Turrell’s Sky Pesher, 2005.
Target Free Thursday Nights: Summer Editiion
June 4, 11, 18, 25
Galleries open 5–9; special events follow.
Free
Thursday, June 4
Skyspace/Soundspace: Aviette, 8:30 pm
James Turrell’s Sky Pesher, 2005 and Walker greenspace
Minneapolis-based indie popsters Holly Muñoz, Justin Hartke, and Kyle Larson as Aviette weave catchy hooks inspired by the likes of the Cure and Aimee Mann.
Sound Bites: Elizabeth Peyton’s Princess Kurt, 6:30 and 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby
Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker tour guides. Each highlights selected artworks, artists, or themes that serve as topics for illuminating discussions.
Short Films by William Klein, 7:30 pm
Walker Cinema
Broadway by Light
An experimental meditation on Times Square marquees and iconic advertising, Klein’s first film captures the concurrently seedy and dazzling aspects of New York’s Great White Way. Illustrative of Klein’s transition from photographer to filmmaker, Broadway by Light was declared by Orson Welles to be “the first film I’ve seen in which color was absolutely necessary.” 1958, 35mm, 12 minutes.
Far from Vietnam (Loin du Vietnam)
Seven directors (Klein, Alain Resnais, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Claude Lelouch, Joris Ivens, and Chris Marker) present a searing indictment of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. In his segment, Klein featured Norman Morrison, the Quaker activist who, inspired by Vietnamese Buddhist monks, set himself ablaze to protest the war. 1967, 35mm, 20-minute excerpt.
Contacts
Klein dissects the contact sheet from one recent roll of film, deconstructing his editing technique and injecting a brutally honest assessment of his art. As the New York Times put it, “Half a century of work can add up to two blinks of an eye.” 1983, 35mm, 15 minutes.
Music: John Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP, 7 pm
Basilica of Saint Mary, 18 North 17th Street, Minneapolis
As part of the exhibition The Quick and the Dead, Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP will be performed by Christopher Stroh, principal organist at the Basilica.
Thursday, June 11
Remake, Revamp, 6–9 pm
FlatPak House
Give T-shirts, pants, tote bags, and pillowcases a fresh new life through the magic of screenprinting. Luci Kandler and Ashley Wokasch use hand-drawn prints and elaborate stories to create their Calpurnia Peach clothing. Focusing on geometric shapes from the Walker’s architecture as inspiration, participants will work with the designers to create unique patterns and prints to transfer on items salvaged from the recycling pile. Bring along additional used or gently worn clean clothes to donate to Kulture Klub Collaborative, a nonprofit arts organization that works with homeless teens.
Sound Bites: Dan Graham’s Two-way Mirror Punched Steel Hedge Labyrinth, 6:30 and 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby
Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker tour guides. Each highlights selected artworks, artists, or themes that serve as topics for illuminating discussions.
Music: John Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP, 7 pm
Basilica of Saint Mary, 18 North 17th Street, Minneapolis
As part of the exhibition The Quick and the Dead, Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP will be performed by Christopher Stroh, principal organist at the Basilica.
Thursday, June 18
Sound Bites: James Turrell’s Sky Pesher, 2005, 6:30 and 7 pm
Meet in the Bazinet Garden Lobby
Contemporary art and artists are the focus of these 15-minute gallery conversations led by Walker tour guides. Each highlights selected artworks, artists, or themes that serve as topics for illuminating discussions.
Skyspace/Soundspace: Beatrix*JAR, 8:30 pm
James Turrell’s Sky Pesher, 2005 and Walker greenspace
Bianca Pettis (Beatrix) and Jacob Aaron Roske (JAR) create fuzzy sound collages with glitch beatboxes, rewired toys, circuit-bent keyboards, and other mutant sound machines.
Music: John Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP, 7 pm
Basilica of Saint Mary, 18 North 17th Street, Minneapolis
As part of the exhibition The Quick and the Dead, Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP will be performed by Christopher Stroh, principal organist at the Basilica.
Thursday, June 25
Remake, Revamp, 6–9 pm
FlatPak House
Flowers, bikes, fireflies, lake cabins—what do you associate with a Minnesota summer? Calpurnia Peach helps participants to design a personal emblem of summery good times and screenprint it on clothing brought from home. Bring along additional used or gently worn clean clothes to donate to Kulture Klub Collaborative, a nonprofit arts organization that works with homeless teens.
Film Screenings: Queer Takes, 7:30 pm
Walker Cinema
Fig Trees
Directed by John Greyson
An audacious, multilayered work with an arresting visual sensibility (much like Greyson’s Zero Patience and Lilies), the genre-defying Fig Trees deals with the campaigns of AIDS activists Tim McCaskell (Toronto) and Zackie Achmat (Capetown), who refused treatment for the disease until drugs could be made accessible to all South Africans. Backed by a pop music–laden score, the film disregards conventional storytelling, fragmenting time as Gertrude Stein and St. Teresa of Ávila weigh in on the ethics of medicine and the power of activism. Winner of the 2009 Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film at the Berlin Film Festival. 2009, video, 104 minutes.
Preceded by
575 Castro Street
Directed by Jenni Olson
Olson’s images, shot on the set of Gus Van Sant’s Milk, are paired with taped audio presciently recorded by the real Harvey Milk to be played in the event of his assassination. 2008, video, 7 minutes.
Both films screen as part of the series Queer Takes: Standing Out.
Music: John Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP, 7 pm
Basilica of Saint Mary, 18 North 17th Street, Minneapolis
As part of the exhibition The Quick and the Dead, Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP will be performed by Christopher Stroh, principal organist at the Basilica.
