Painter
Painter
Walker
Art Center
Minneapolis, Minnesota
02 Feb – 27 Oct, 2013
Part 1: the process
Painter Painter has the potential of being both theoretically progressive
and informative in terms of content (the works and artists displayed), and I
was privileged to be attendance as Michelle Grabner, Jan Verwoert and Bruce Hainley led participating artists
and the Center’s members in presentations and group discussion of the meaning
behind the show.
For me, it was my first time in the new
Walker Auditorium. The room was cozy,
intimate and perfectly theatrical – we could easily have been in any one of
thousands of commercial theatre venues across America – only then we would have
had sodas, popcorn and even more cushy seats.
This thought was to stay with me throughout the event – an interfering
static. The discussion resembled a
business conference or trades meeting in a busy airport, complete with
schedules, overhead announcements and stewardesses (my apologies to the
volunteer ushers).
The students and audience were
professionally engaged and polite (and non-native), and we could leave the
event with mandatory cookies and cocoa and a receipt for having attended a
continuing ed seminar. We were re-assured that our city has made its mark on the visual arts scene without forcing us to accept any major influence on our own more pedestrian life-styles.
