Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

Last Sunday, The Toby overflowed with thirsty fans lapping up the sounds of edgy string quartet Osso and Bloomington-based songster DM Stith, with his sweet voice and dark ideas. They also couldn’t stop watching The BQE, the first film by musician Sufjan Stevens, who jammed the screen with a triptych of imagery in homage to a crazy traffic artery in New York called the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. I had to be the one to stand at the Toby doors and turn people away for this sold-out show – I hated doing so and was very bad at it.

A full house (Photo by IMA Photography Dept.)

Osso (Photo by IMA Photography Dept.)

DM Stith and Osso (Photo by IMA Photography Dept.)

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At a recent dinner party, a friend expressed his fascination with provenance (Defined: the history of ownership of a valued object or work of art). He was astonished that if he bought something as a bona fide purchaser, or in good faith, that he may someday be required to return it without compensation if it was found to be a valuable cultural relic that was stolen, looted or untrue in record of ownership. I, on the other hand, was astonished that this concept seemed so unfamiliar to him.

And perhaps this is why we began a series of articles in the IMA’s magazine on the provenance of important works in the Museum’s collection, written by Annette Schlagenhauff. As the IMA’s Associate Curator for Research, Annette has spent years tracing the paths of works of art from the artists’ hands to the walls of the IMA. The stories are fascinating and not without moral ambiguities and missing pieces. Read the rest of this entry »

When is destruction gorgeous and true?  At the Marion County Fair Demolition Derby.  On a trip there earlier this month, I was awed by the performative aspects of the event.  You could say the derby was as spectacular as anything we’ve presented at the IMA, except perhaps the stunning 2008 Summer Solstice event featuring a Japanese Butoh dancer named Oguri who moved into the fountain on the Lilly House allee and emerged, steaming, in the rays of a powerful searchlight at the moment the sun dropped below the horizon.

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The Forefront exhibition Adaptation: Video Installations by Ben-Ner, Herrera, Sullivan and Sussman & The Rufus Corporation is being celebrated tomorrow night at the IMA with a talk with video artist Eve Sussman followed by a reception. Sussman is a leading figure in contemporary video art and has transformed the medium with her use of lavish production values and stylized methods of filming. If you are an emerging filmmaker, contemporary video art lover, or just curious, bring your questions. Tickets are free!

Guy Ben-Ner is another artist featured in the exhibition Adaptation. IMA Curatorial Associate of Contemporary Art Allison Unruh and I had the pleasure of asking Ben-Ner about his work earlier this year:

Interview with video artist Guy Ben-Ner
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Since boyhood, I’ve had a fascination with music and electronics. Unsurprisingly then, I’m also fascinated by electronic music and can remember waiting for nearly a day for ReBirth, a Roland 808 emulator, to download over a 28.8k modem. We all wanted to make classic rap beats at age 14, right?

Since then, I’ve ditched the dial-up modem for broadband and ReBirth for a full blown electronic music production suite called Reason. Needless to say, I’m still fascinated by electronic music. However, what is more fascinating to me is that electronic music production has gotten to the point where musicians can now be recognized for being able to play a laptop just as well as someone who can play a piano. Here’s a neat fact, an electronic instrument called a “Drumitar” has been used to win five Grammy Awards. Check out a video of it being played here. Read the rest of this entry »