Andrew Schroeder

Something shocking is happening in Minneapolis. A group of artists are undertaking a project to make art on the facades of unused buildings in the city. I was a bit skeptical when I saw the slickly printed, well designed signs for this type of work (I prefer guerilla style or ephemeral projects in public space). Intersecting artistic/private aesthetic interests with public space rarely works… but the Save Canvas project presented by Overproof Design Studio actually succeeds in its aims. It has been a pleasure to watch the empty structure along Nicollet avenue be turned into a work of art. Especially since this is the site of the unrealized Nicollet condo project (a 60 floor glass high-rise that never materialized thanks to the economic downturn).

Definitely check out their work.

On another note, I am reminded of something distinctly beautiful about the public sphere in Montreal. The city seemed to be predisposed to giving up automobile traffic for pedestrianized streets. In Minneapolis we have the “National Night Out” every year, during which certain blocks are closed to vehicular traffic. It takes a special event here to get people onto the street and walking around. In stark contrast, the above posters in Montreal indicate that the pedestrian is almost synonymous with the urban experience.

I couldn’t agree more.

Every city has its flavor. For some reason, the savory tastes of Minneapolis have been accentuated by extreme amounts of furniture strewn about. Not really abandoned. Not really for sale. Not free either… but… molested and abused. Please take these photos as an example… I found this much crap on the street while walking from my house to a friends, 3 blocks away. (more…)

PROTOPURGE

As I was dragging my rather sorry ass to work this morning with a pharmaceutical and red wine hangover, I finally had the chance to whip out a camera and photograph. It has been quite some time since I’ve been able to see something + have a camera around to document it. I’m not sure if any other photographers out there have this question from time to time: Which is better: to experience and not create or to create and therefore lose your first-person experience of a place/object/subject? (more…)

My friend and librarian Steve Liska sent me the link to Rosenof/Lucas Landscape Design. There is some incredibly impressive and local work there… I especially like the work they did for Andrew Blauvelt.

LINK

Munich Metro via Tobi_2008 (Flickr)

Living in Minneapolis entails certain annoyances – one of which is the terrible mass transit. The 20th Century has proven to us that buses make horrible means of moving a lot of people. In Minneapolis/St. Paul, they’ve taken this to the extreme. (more…)

From The Gateway Reconstruction Project

I’ve been thinking a great deal about how one can actually inhabit a place. With the economy sliding into oblivion and funding in the art-world drying up, I realized that I am going to be in Minneapolis for a couple more years. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing… but… the entire time I was in graduate school, the general pressure was to move (to NYC or Europe) and live the life of an artist-in-residence/panhandler. Not exactly the ideal situation for someone who likes to work on perfecting his banana-bread recipe late at night, in the confines of his small, but rather delightful apartment.

Anyway. Back to the point.

One of the ways that I believe humans inhabit a place is through research into its history. My personal obsession right now is wandering around the Gateway District in downtown MPLS and wondering how amazing it could have been… had they not built a modernist dystopia on top of it. This website has a great overview and tons of photographs that depict the Gateway in its heyday… very impressive.

BASE QUESTIONS: Its early in the morning and I’m trying to piece together why I’m suddenly so pissed off about image culture, our sad little art world, and what not.  Here is where I’m starting:

1. Why do I keep seeing the same work over and over again?
2. Is that just artistic production coming under the reigns of late-capitalism’s “image is everything”, focus-on-the-marketability-of-your-practice shtick?
3. Or to be more constructive: How can an artist strike balance between going it alone, ignoring the art world, focusing on work -and/or- playing the game, making the connections, conforming to the dynamics of the community, exhibiting, selling, and gaining report?

*****

While having dinner with a friend/ colleague who is also blessed/cursed with the ability to be critical, I learned of the recent contractions that have been occurring in the Minneapolis art world. I know that Minneapolis is a very small place. Everyone knows everyone, and the art community (like my love-life) proves this adage to be exceptionally true.

Artists here bank on the gravy train of knowing someone at the gallery/museum/venue as a personal friend (usually someone known since kindergarten). That is just the social world of Minnesota colliding with the professional world. I’m not any exception to this -as- I know all too well how hard it is to get into a show unless you already have your foot in the door with someone who knows you, your work, and your history.

I feel this couldn’t be better reflected than in the highly abbreviated range of work that is exhibited and, in turn, which exhibitions are well attended. The last round of exhibitions was an immense disappointment to me. I’ve been idling and watching the Walker take on a seemingly endless stream of “block buster” big-name shows, instead of more experimental work (Brave New Worlds being the exception, I guess?).  An opening at the Walker is more like a night’s party that ends up on someone’s Facebook than an art event (about art).  The “alternative” galleries that are supposed to form an option to the 800 pound Walker/MIA gorilla in the corner have come to indicate only equally predictable presentations of work.
Overwhelmingly, I am able to predict exactly what type of work I am going to see. Comic abstraction. Crappy Polaroids. OCD art. Spectacular performances. Mapping for the sake of mapping. Those seem to be the genres of art being made, right now, that the art community has deemed acceptable to show. Not much else is getting through. Is this type of insipidity really indicative of a healthy art world? Shouldn’t we artists, educated in many different ways of seeing ourselves and the world around us, be capable of greater diversity?