The Bell Museum of Natural History

This week, we returned to the University of Minnesota to explore a wonderful but often overlooked place, the Bell Museum of Natural History.

The Bell Museum is mainly focused on taxidermy and fantastic dioramas, both centering on the native plants and wildlife of the Minnesota area. The dioramas are fantastic replications of the native plants, animals, and landscape. Habitat dioramas came about in the late 1800s, fueled by concerns that are even more pressing today - ongoing development resulting in the eradication of the plants and animals that are native to the land. Dioramas came about as a way to preserve and display these vanishing habitats. Dioramas are even more important today, as the endless march of development has led to the disappearance of native plants and animals, and has drastically changed the landscape on which they thrived. I learned about animals I never knew had ever existed in Minnesota before! For some of the dioramas, the Bell also had a picture of the very place depicted, as it is today. It was stunning to see how drastically some had changed. Dioramas also display the myriad of environments that were once found in Minnesota, from prairies to forests, from wetlands to rocky bluffs.

There is also an interesting section, titled "Behind the Diorama", that centers on the artists that created the habitats and taxidermied animals. The displays showed all the steps involved in taxidermy and the work that goes into creating lifelike replicas of the animals. The techniques are extensive and involve creating several different frames and molds to get to the one that serves as the base for the animal. The section also included information about the diorama artists that went to the natural locations to paint backdrops and to perfectly replicate them.

On the upper level there was a display of nature paintings, most of which were for sale as a fundraiser. Many different artists, mostly from Minnesota, contributed their work to be displayed. A wealth of scenes from all around Minnesota were found, some paintings of larger habitats, and some that focused on individual birds or animals. The skill of the artists was evident, as many of the painings seemed more lifelike than representational.

Overall, the displays at the Bell Museum were breathtaking in their detail, their extensiveness, and the wonderful artistry that catches the animals and their surroundings in a snapshot of life. The displays are well organized and thorough, including almost every fish, bird, or mammal that was once in Minnesota, and documenting all of the plant and land that surrounded them.
The Bell Museum is often overlooked, but is striking in its relevance today, when animal and habitats are being distroyed and disappearing at an increasing rate. It is imperitive to have such realistic documentation of how the places and creatures were before the destructive hand of humans, to be able to see the glory of nature that was once here.

The Augsburg College Art Galleries

This week, we found ourselves at Augsburg College, exploring the art galleries to be found there. We were treated to two very different exhibitions.

First was the exhibition at the Christensen Center Gallery, titled "Pixel & Pen" and explaining itself as "an exhibit of digital art and process". This exhibit has a broad theme in that all the pieces were created by using digital elements. The featured works are a very eclectic collection and showcased the vastly different ways that digital and traditional artistry can blend together.

One work that I found in the exhibit at first did not appear to be digital art in any way. It is "Herbarium (Maidenhair Fern)" by Linda Gammell. It centered on what looked like a pressing or exceptional rendering of a flattened fern frond, and around the stem and behind the leaves were drawn circular designs, like mandalas. It reminded me of ancient scientific compendiums of plant life. Upon reading her artist statement, I learned that she had created this work while staying in the North Woods with a group of scientists and accompanying them on their excursions. The amazing detail is because the main image is from scanning a fern frond with a color scanner, and the results are amazing.

Another work that I really liked was "Portrait of Kitty" by Q. Cassetti. It is a very simple, yet very striking and poignant portrait. On a matte black background is layered a white silhouette of her hair and shirt, and the only color used is on her arms, casually crossed, and on her face, which stands out as simply but perfectly detailed with only the use of skin color, shadows, and eye color. Her gaze is direct and arresting, holding you softly. The farther away things are from her eyes, the less detail is involved; though the arms have color, they are also one-tonal silhouette images. The artist statement had some interesting anecdotes on the process in finding a individual "voice" or style in digital media, and how the person in the portrain was the artist's teenage daughter.

For more information about "Pixel & Pen", click here.


A little further down the street, we found the Gage Family Art Gallery, which is currently housing an installation, "Lucia Hwang: What's Up?". The exhibition is a four-part installation, including a chalk outline of a body, cordoned off by cones and police tape, that is clutching a purse and filled in with a designer motif; a wall of egg crates filled with eggs and outlined by moss, the egg crates featuring the same designer motif, and in front of it all, a rooster with sunglasses and a tiny designer purse slung around its body; a sparkling white toilet, behind which there is a pegboard with rolls of toilet paper attached, and on the floor, piled up and surrounding the toilet, are countless more rolls of toilet paper, and all the rolls are covered in the designer motif; and then a large plastic trash can, knocked over on its side with debris spilling out, the entire can covered in the same designer motif.

Lucia Hwang's message pertains to the relationship between the inner personal world and the outer, mass produced, materialistic world. She explores the conflict between one's inner emotions and individuality, and the material world, constantly assaulting what we hold inside. She terms the conflict in phrases of acceptance and rejection - how we accept that which comforts us and is in tune with our inner selves, and we reject the harsh material things that are forced upon us. Her installations probe the line between the two, and ideas about what happens when the line is blurred, when the two are melded and one cannot accept or reject.

I found the exhibition to be quite interesting. It was interesting to see how she illustrated her point with the objects she chose, and the installation fit in with the gallery space quite nicely. I would have personally used different objects to represent comfort and the inner world, but that really is one thing that changes from person to person.

To find out more about "What's Up?", click here.

Thank you for being my dear readers,
Catherine

Cargill Hall at the Minneapolis Public Library

This week, we explored the sparkly modern Minneapolis Central Library in downtown Minneapolis. The Library itself is something to behold, we'll get to that later. On the second level is the Cargill Gallery, which currently houses an interesting little exhibition called The Precious Object.

The Precious Object focuses on the handmade, the DIY crafting, the painstakingly slow and tedious processes of creating something strong and lasting using your hands and some materials. The materials used here vary greatly - from paint and canvas, paper, metal, to snake carcasses, band-aids, and tiny figurines. The overarching theme is the connection between people and objects. These artists use objects to communicate a feeling, tell the story of an experience, replicate a special place. In one way, these become precious objects because of what they represent. In a different way, they are inherently precious objects because of their intimate relationship with their person. The Precious Object is an artistic reflection behind the DIY movement - reconnecting people with the objects in their lives; removing the mass produced and creating the individual and handmade; bringing together the material, production, and product into one person; using one's hands to express creativity and artistry in the everyday objects.

One of the works that really struck me was by Ginny Maki, and created mostly out of felt and thread. From far away, the work looked like a tangled jumble hanging in the air, but on closer inspection, one was able to make out three groupings of buildings, their architectural details embroidered on the felt constructions by dark thread, with tangles and jumbles of thread erupting from various points, all suspended in midair by the same thread. This work is part of Maki's "Small Towns Project." The description at the gallery explained that Maki asked different people from the same small town to draw maps of the town and include and buildings that they have a personal connection with. Maki then translates those maps into the felt-and thread representations. I really liked the idea behind the work, creating a representation of a place based on personal connections and experiences, and setting them up together makes for an interesting comparison. I was able to find certain buildings that were in common in all the different maps, and it was interesting to compare how people were connected to those and the buildings around them. To see some pictures of the Small Towns Project, click here. To read more about Ginny Maki's work in general, click here.

Nearby was another work that I thought was great - the work of Alison Hiltner. Using giant fake flowers, clay, and other mediums, Hiltner gives us a glimpse of what it would be like if big flowers (and small) suddenly sprouted tentacle like legs, erupted from the earth, and started overrunning our world. The result is fantastical half plant, half boundless creature beings, spilling down a column and scurrying across the floor. Her work was impressive to the point that the flowerbeings felt lifelike and real, and I somewhat expected to feel one scuttling across my foot. They brought me joy and wonder. To see images of the work, click here, and to find out more about Alison Hiltner and her other work, click here or here.

The paintings by Margaret Wall-Romana astounded me. Her images depict a natural, botanical fantasy land in soft pastels, but with such amazing detail and lifelike replication that you almost feel a tactile sensation. The plants, flowers, and leaves in her paintings are so true to life, they seem like fresh pressings. Though painted in the soft, bright greens of life, the wilted, brown, withered and dead plants also have center stage. Her paintings have a fantastical side to them as well, the plant life in sharp focus is accented by monumental backgrounds, small pockets of waterfall scenes, and boats made of walnut shells and leaves, which in her statement at the gallery she states as connecting her back to her childhood, when she would race walnut boats with her siblings. To see the paintings, click here and here, and to find out more about her, click here.

Another work that I liked stretches from the gallery space and into the library itself, bounding through glass and above the stacks of books. It is the work of Liz Miller, who takes the spirit of the paper chains of our childhood and brings them to maturity in riots of color, massive spans of paper cut into intricate and overlapping designs, running through a space and doubling back. It is set up in such a way that you can stand somewhat in the work, in between layers of paper, so that your entire vision is filled with them. Doing so, I could see the designs cut into the paper distinctly, and how different colored paper is intwined to create layers of design. I was astounded when considering the amount of time and work it must take to create such massive installations, and what vision one must have to be able to translate a design idea to certain cuts in certain places and come up right. I had a hard enough time cutting snowflakes into folded-up coffee filters as a kid, so hats off to Liz Miller. To see pictures of her work, and for more from her, click here.

In all, The Precious Object is an eclectic and interesting exhibition showcasing the many different ways to express related concepts. There are many more artists in the exhibition, and ARTmn has been recording artist interviews and holding panel discussions, and for more info about all that having to do with The Precious Object, click here or here!

The exhibition itself is held in a small gallery (Cargill Hall) in the Minneapolis Central Library. The library itself is a modern wonder of glass and metal.

The open center area that goes then length of the building and reaches to the very top, combined with a very liberal use of glass, provides an open, flowing feeling.

The library is large, and feels like it is, but the materials used in the construction keep it from being overpowering, and let light shine in all corners. Gone are the days of dark and dusty research, in the Minneapolis Central Library, the sun shines in!


Til next week,
Catherine

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts

This was a monumental week here at Paint the Town(s), as we had a day-long excursion to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which could be called the greatest place for art in these fair Twin Cities.


I brought along none other than my wonderful Grandma, as we have a long history of mischief at the MIA, and it just wouldn't feel right without her.


The MIA is a gigantic museum, spanning an entire city block, with 3 levels, multiple wings, numerous galleries, and housing art that spans millenia.

To cover all of the wondrous art at the MIA in one day would be impossible, so we'll cover some highlights: selected pieces of art from five different periods/areas, the Dia de los Muertos ofrendas, the Michael Graves exhibit, and some other special exhibitions currently at the MIA.

The MIA is home to collections of art from a vast amount of different time periods and ethnicities, and attempting to cover an adquate cross section in a blog post is almost impossible, but we'll start with an artifact from the Asmat peoples of Papua, New Guinea, called a "Bis Pole".

I chose this piece for a couple of different reasons, the first being the beautiful wood it is constructed of, and the wonderful craftsmanship shown in the carving of the wood. The Bis Pole is tall, more than twice my height, and is carved to represent three human figures, standing on top of one another, with the topmost holding a section of wood carved into an intricate design.
The second reason why I chose this piece was the description. Bis Poles come from the Asmat tradition of needing to avenge the deaths of important members so that their spirits will rest. The Asmat then conduct a ceremony wherein they symbolically hunt down and kill a mangrove tree, which is then carved to represent the lost members, and another ceremony, this one of a battle, is performed to release the spirits. During our visit, we encountered multiple pieces of art that are created to address death among different cultures, and this one was definitely interesting. To see and read more about the Bis Pole, click here.

Moving on, we travel (in spirit) to West Africa, to the former Kingdom of Benin. In the African collection, we found an amazing carved ivory tusk, called "Tusk". The Tusk is fantastic - I don't think that I had ever seen a whole elephant tusk in person before. It is quite big, and covered in carvings, depicting a number of different characters. I liked it because of the size and carvings (I apparently liked carved things), but also because of the texture. I always imagine ivory as impeccably smooth and white, but the tusk is very old and weathered, the color is more of a grayish-beige, and the surface is covered in tiny cracks throughout, giving it a texture almost like weathered wood, and a very interesting depth. The carvings are also quite interesting. The entire surface is covered with figures of differing types, and I couldn't help but wonder at the time and skill it took to carve such figures into an entire tusk. The tusk itself is a relic from an ancestral shrine of an Oba, a ruler of Benin, or an Ezomo, a high-ranking noble in Benin. The different figures represent certain people or groups of people, and the entire carving depicts a historical event. It gives an interesting glance into a society from long ago. To see it, or read more about the carvings, click here.

One of my favorite pieces at the MIA is a piece of Tibetan art, a "Yamantaka Sand Mandala", by the Monks of the Gyuto Tantric University. I love Tibetan Sand Mandalas, they are powerful and delicate, full of vibrant color and elaborate designs, and pulsing with densely packed energy and meaning. The ceremony of construction - and subsequent destruction - of a sand mandala is incredibly moving. Tibetan sand mandalas are handmade by Tibetan Buddhist Monks over an intense period of prayer, meditation, and construction, and then are swept away, symbolizing the fleeting quality of life.
Anyways, this Mandala is fantastic. It is huge, spanning an entire wall, a riot of color and design. Due to the tradition of destroying sand mandalas after they have been created means that this is the first I have seen in person, and it certainly awe-inspiring. Thanks to the kindness of the Gyuto Monks and the science of 3M, we are able to experience this one. According to the MIA, "With the consent of the monks, who created the work onsite, 3M scientists formulated fade-resistant colored silicates and a special adhesive, thereby preserving the work for centuries to come." Every mandala signifies many things, this one included. To see a picture of the Yamantaka Sand Mandala, and to read all about all the symbols, click here.

Art takes many forms, and one of the greatest art forms to come out of the Islamic culture is incredibly beautiful calligraphy. For a large part of Islamic tradition, artistic representations of graven images, or anything created by God or Allah, were against religious guidelines, and so a wonderful cultural tradition of art in calligraphy and design was cultivated. This is especially true in the artistic calligraphy found in the Koran (Qur'an), and can be seen in the Islamic art collection, especially in the piece titled "Page from the Koran in Kufic Script", from Persia (now Iran), created during the 10th century Abbasid dynasty. I liked the style of the calligraphy. The Kufic script is more stiff and angular than other Islamic styles, and I really appreciate the asthetic of it. Also, it was impressive how different colors that edge the lines of the calligraphy are used to denote different linguistic and reading or verse meanings. Visually speaking, the piece showed exemplary craftmanship, and the accents of color and symbols highlighting the script were beautiful. To see the page, and to read about the meanings of the calligraphy, click here.

Another form art can take is one I really appreciate, that of functional art. We will cover more examples from the Michael Graves exhibit, but the MIA has a fantastic collection of Prairie School arts and design, and many pieces from the Prairie School combine both. I am personally a huge lover of the Prairie School (and prairies in general). It was borne from an idea of authentic and functional American design and architecture that incorporated both beauty and the needs of modern Americans. The MIA's Prairie School collection houses many examples of this style of design, including decorative panels, fireplaces, dining tables, chairs, windows and skylights, lights, even a section of a house and models of others. In fact, the MIA owns a Prairie School house in Minneapolis that is open for tours (If anyone wants to go check it out with me, I'm game!). I think everything there is great, but I focused on a Dining Chair, made by George Grant Elmslie for Purcell and Feick, Prairie School architects. The Prairie School placed great emphasis on natural products, and great design emphasis on organic-inspired abstract ornaments and motif. This chair (and the corrosponding dining set) combines these essentials, using a sawed-wood technique to display organic design, to stunning effect. It is a beautiful piece that combines both aesthetic and function. To see the set, and read more about the history behind it, click here.

Moving on, on the first level of the museum, past the cafe and down a hallway, lies the education corridor, which currently houses Dia de los Muertos ofrendas. I have to pause here, just to say that I love Dia de los Muertos, the celebration, the meaning, the decorations, everything about it. Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday to celebrate and revisit the dead. The main focal point in decorations are ofrendas, or offerings, usually in an altar, to the dead, and celebrating their life. These ofrendas are special, as they were created by students of El Colegio, in wooden crates, meant to represent the Latio immigrant lives. These ofrendas were handmade and personalized by the individual students and their experiences. They are a unique form of artistic expression, as one must use all their creative powers to represent the essence of a person and a life that once was. To find out more about the ofrendas, see videos of their creation, and pictures, click here.

Next, we trekked across the courtyard to the Target Wing to explore the Michael Graves exhibit, where I learned that the Target Wing itself was designed by Graves.

The exhibition is "From Towers to Teakettles: Michael Graves Architecture and Design", and showcases the all-encompassing works of Michael Graves. Graves is a reknowned designer, and his work has covered everything, well, as the exhibition says, from towers to teakettles. He is well-known for his partnership with Target stores, and some of his products, including kettles, toasters, and a chess set from his Target line are featured. In addition to household products, the exhibit also features jewelry and accessibility products for the disabled, and the products of his architectural design firm. Graves was born in 1934, and his career has covered more than 40 years. Most of the works featured here is from the last few decades. All of his work has a distinct look to it, a certain aura of whimsy, yet influenced by the German Bauhaus initiative, to improve design of everyday objects by way of simplification and abstraction. His household objects, while quite whimisical and abstract looking, have an uncomplicated design and straightforward operation. His buildings have the same look and feel, yet on a much larger scale. Graves has an understanding of architecture as a cultural continum, of not being buildings that are fixed in time and design, but something to be built onto and transformed over the years. His large-scale, corporate, governmental, and civic buildings can be found all across the world. In his home design, I think, is where it all comes together. Graves envisioned a complete and encompassing design, that not only shapes the house but the things inside it. His designs were based on domesticity, and encompassed planning, architecture, interior design, and product design all in one. To read more about his work and to see pictures, click here.

There are many exhibitions currently running at the MIA, and it's so difficult to fit them all in. Thanks to my Grandma, we did explore The Louvre and the Masterpiece exhibit, even with an audio tour! However, that's a whole other post. Ask me about it sometime.

One exhibit that I was impressed by was the "iAfrica: Connecting with Sub-Saharan Art" exhibition in the Cargill Gallery. It featured an array of objects from many places in Africa, some decorative, some functional, some spiritual. I have to admit, I was first drawn to the exhibit by the impressive and extensive "Power Figure" (click here) displayed at the entrance. However, the exhibition was intriguing, as it is a different, more modern type of art experience. Instead of being a removed viewer, one is encouraged to become engaged with the objects from different perspectives, and is guided by questions: What makes it beautiful? How was it used? How does it feel, sound, smell? How old is it? How did it get here? In addition to all this, the exhibit also featured different types of interactive media. The pieces were fascinating, beautiful, interesting, and more, but the form of the exhibition took the experience to a much more engaged level. Seeing a handmade tribal instrument is interesting, but seeing it and then watching and listening to a video of it being played in a tribal celebration is an impressive way to engage with the art. To learn more about the iAfrica exhibition, and to see pictures, click here or here.

The MIA is an impressive work of art in itself. It is a traditional monumental art museum, filled with impressive soaring celings and open spaces, beautiful and stately. It is vast and unending, housing a collection it would take a week to view. This size and scope allows the museum to have works from cultures all around the world, and to range through time periods of thousands of years. I've always loved the MIA for many reasons, but it truly is amazing to have a place that holds such an extensive representation of the cultures and histories of the world. The monumental works fit into the monumental space perfectly, giving them room to be taken in without clutter or crowding, and the curation is so fantastic, every piece seems to be fit into the perfect space for it.

I also love the lions.

-Catherine