The Indianapolis Museum of Art is issuing a call for proposals for a summer 2012 six-week residency on Andrea Zittel’s Indianapolis Island within the IMA’s 100 Acres. Graduate and undergraduate students, as well as emerging professionals in the fields of art, design, architecture and performing arts are encouraged to apply to customize and reside on the Island.

Anchored in the 35-acre lake within 100 Acres, Indianapolis Island is a habitable “off-the-grid” structure accessible by rowboat. The 2012 residency will be the third to take place there. During the artwork’s inaugural summer in 2010, Herron School of Art and Design students Jessica Dunn and Michael Runge activated the installation with their project Give and Take, which consisted of a series of visitor interactions based on a system of exchange. The 2011 island resident was Katherine Ball, a student of Portland State University’s Art + Social Practice MFA program. Over the course of her residency, titled No Swimming, Ball initiated a series of ecological interventions in the lake and engaged a local audience through a series of public programs centered on the topic of water.

At about twenty feet in diameter, the Island serves as an experimental living structure that examines the daily needs of contemporary human beings. Residents collaborate with Zittel by adapting and modifying the structure according to their individual needs. The project blends elements of environmental art, sculpture, design and performance in a unique way, offering a challenging and experimental forum for exploring ideas about individualism and self-sufficiency.

If you’d like to be the 2012 Indianapolis Island resident, visit www.imamuseum.org/islandresidency for more information, including photos and renderings of the structure and to learn how to apply. Proposals are due Friday, January 13, 2012.

If you’d feel more at ease watching the residency unfold from the 100 Acres lake shore or online, stay tuned to the IMA’s blog in spring 2012 to find out who will be the next person to call Indianapolis Island home.

My first weeks at the museum have been filled with introductions.  In addition to meeting new coworkers, there were plenty of new places to get to know as part of the job.  Work-related travel has included a day trip to the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana to examine furniture in storage, condition checking the Mary Miss installation FLOW: Can You See The River? in 100 Acres, and a behind-the-scenes tour of the historic Oldfields-Lilly House and Gardens.

My introduction to the museum’s collection of African Art, however, is proving to be the most complicated. One of my main responsibilities at the IMA is to help prepare that collection for reinstallation early next year. This will involve months of surveying, testing and treating objects in that collection, as well as consulting on matters of storage and display. To begin to tackle this project, I wanted to assemble a list of the objects in the IMA’s collection of African Art, in order to ensure that my survey is thorough.

That practical, seemingly simple, request led me straight into questions of how African Art is defined at the IMA. If the answer seems apparent–that African Art is defined as art that comes from Africa–then consider the following example. The IMA owns two works by the living artist El Anatsui, who was born in Ghana and currently works in Nigeria. One work, Sacred Comb, is on display in the Eiteljorg suite of African Art. However, the other piece, Duvor (Communal Cloth) is displayed in the museum’s Contemporary Art galleries.

Which artwork by El Anatsui is classified as African Art at the IMA?

Because these two curatorial departments use different criteria to define their collections (geography vs. time period), both can claim either work.  Furthermore, the IMA’s department of Textiles and Fashion Arts uses still different parameters for defining their collection–those of medium and use.  As a work that references traditional West African strip-woven textiles, Duvor (Communal Cloth) is actually catalogued as part of the Textiles and Fashion Arts collection.

Does it matter for the objects that the IMA holds Egungun masker’s garments in both Textiles and Fashion Arts and in African Art?  Or that wooden masks, which are also used as part of the Egungun masquerade, are only held in the African Art collection and not associated with Textiles and Fashion Arts?

The context of the collection certainly shapes how the objects are discussed in wall texts and displayed in the galleries, with different emphasis on the aesthetic or functional qualities of the works.

During my internship, only works held in the collection of African Art will be surveyed.  Therefore, these African pieces will receive different treatment than those in other collections. For example, as a first step in the reinstallation, pre-program intern Nicole Peters, and I have been conducting x-ray fluorescence testing (XRF) on objects in the African galleries.

IMA intern Nicole Peters and IMA fellow Kristen Adsit conduct XRF testing of a face mask from the We culture in the Eiteljorg suite of African Art.

This analytical method reveals the elemental composition of the surface tested. We have been using it to look for traces of inorganic pesticides, which may have been applied historically to objects in the African collection, including remnants of toxic heavy metal compounds. Though African works held in the Textiles and Fashion Arts collections may also have been treated with these compounds, they are not included in this survey and will not be tested at this time.

Classifications can also help identify historical treatment of an object, since works in the same collection are likely to share a certain amount of history.  In contrast to the African and Textiles collections, it is unlikely that contemporary works by African artists would have been treated with heavy metal pesticides, as they have been made after such compounds have been widely replaced with organic ones.

The IMA is among many major art museums grappling with these issues.  Far from theoretical, how collections are defined at an institution raises practical questions that must be addressed thoughtfully as part of our daily work.

Flight:  This is the first project you see as you enter the museum and the last project to be installed in the galleries. It was a hair-puller.  As you may or may not know, my business, Indianapolis Fabrications, built the sculptural works in my exhibition, as well as built and installed the Mary Miss Flow project, which opened to the public two weeks after my opening. If building two monumental exhibitions wasn’t bad enough, my business partner, Randy Domeck, had a wedding to attend that kept him out of the shop the two weeks before my opening. Add to that, my teaching contract at Herron School of Art and Design also started around that same time. Most of my work was installed by this point, but I was in a panic trying to manage everything going on. Luckily, we have responsible employees at iFab and Randy found time to handle some management of the business projects remotely.  He arrived in Indianapolis the day before my opening and we installed Flight in one day – the Wednesday before the preview and artist talk.  Phew!

Space Suits:  I had every intention of making these suits myself, but the scope of the exhibition quickly made me realize that in order to complete the work on time, I needed more help. Kyle Perry and Adam Buente of PROJECTiONE offered to help make a model of the space helmet. They found a 3D model of the space suit on the NASA website and were able to use that file to CNC cut the foam model, making my helmets very accurate reproductions of the original. Once I had the model, I made the mold and cast the helmets. Patrick Fitzpatrick had been a graduate student of mine at the School at the Art Institute of Chicago and he CNC cut a form for vacuum forming the visors. Meanwhile, I wasn’t home enough to do the sewing and knew that many of the parents at my son Angus’ school (IPS #84 CFI) were gifted craftspeople, so Donna and I started asking around if anyone would want to take on the project of sewing the suits.  Thank goodness Beth Hannan stepped up and said she could do it. I gave her my reference material and she did the rest in awesome detail.

Phoom: I built this project while at Sculpture Space in Utica, NY. Once I made the sculpture and it was ready to be painted, I was nervous about getting a finish that approximated flesh as closely as I wanted, never having airbrushed something like this before (this was also my first figurative sculpture).  The administration at Sculpture Space suggested that I go to the Golden Paints headquarters, which was only 45 minutes away in New Berlin, NY.  At Golden, Michael Townsend spent the afternoon training me to use Golden products and instructing me on using an airbrush. The other thing I needed help with was hair.  Yvonne at Yvonne’s Hair Designs in Whitesboro, NY makes custom wigs for cancer patients and was game to help get my sculpture wigged. It was a pretty funny moment to haul the sculpture into a typical hair salon for its first and only haircut. I often get curious looks when making my work.

Altered Self-Portraits: My wife Donna hates these. They were early in the process of developing the exhibition – even pivotal.  There was a point when she was stomping around the house yelling at me, insisting that “They are not art!” She thought I was insane to think of exhibiting them in the museum. I often talk to my students about artists whose work was met with contempt, or who were discouraged when they did something that was outside of the establishment of the time, and then somehow managed to persevere with an idea. I don’t especially imagine myself as that radical, but sometimes I gauge the value of an idea by how much my wife doesn’t like it.  Shhh – don’t let her know.

Brian McCutcheon "Capsule," 2011. Commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art Courtesy of the Artist .

Capsule: Now that I think about it, this project really came together without much drama. It did have two important moments. The first was the chair. Randy (my business partner) has a tendency to order 20 parts when we need one.  That same attitude had us building two lawn chairs instead of one for Splashdown as a back-up in case something unexpected happened to the finished work. To determine the floor height in the capsule, we put in a lawn chair that was used as a reference for the aluminum one.  That is when it occurred to me that it should be a lawn chair in the capsule, which would help tie it to the backyard and to Splashdown in the final room of the exhibition. The other moment was painting the back panel. There was some argument in the shop about how that might be painted (or let’s call it discussion since ultimately it was my work). The decision to paint the alternating stripes came at 3am, right when they were going into the booth. I am a little resistant to tell this, but earlier in the week I followed a fire truck down College Avenue and was amazed by the striped design on the back that was made from different colored reflectors.  That is where the pattern came from.

Donut:  Everyone asks – so here are the answers. Yes, we did more than one take. I think we did six takes. I limited it to two donuts per outing – there are only so many donuts that should be given to an eight year old at a sitting. No one got nauseous. I did the filming – I have a small travel tripod that I held in place by stuffing Zone: Fragments for a History of the Human Body Part Two along with a couple other art texts in between the dash and windshield of my 1963 Ford Falcon Ranchero. I ended up using the first take. I bought an audio recorder and captured the sound separately and Daniel Beyer did my editing.

 Orbit:  Imagine completing the sculpture, pristine and freshly painted, and then having an eight year old climb into it in a space suit, also just completed and flawless, and start to shake and hop it around the shop to simulate liftoff. A priceless moment. The space suits have many aluminum parts including cuffs, so we had to tape up anything that might rub between the suits and the capsule. We just happened to have green tape. Angus really took on each “role” with great focus. I had the camera screen flipped so he could see himself and told him to keep his helmet centered in the image and stop us if he saw any green parts in the frame. As I watched him reenact the flight through a crack in the door, he was flipping imaginary switches and who knows what, stopping us once because he noticed there was green in the frame. Daniel dropped the green from the video so it really ended up not being a concern. Also, we could only do short takes so our helmets didn’t fog and I found myself holding my breath for most of the take. Try to look natural, but don’t breathe….

Probe:  Mike Lyons at !WowHuh? CNC cut one pie section of the dish, then made the mold and cast 16 parts to make the dish form. And it all fit. The other thing that is pretty cool is that Colors, Inc. anodized the aluminum in grey tones to simulate black and white TV. Mostly people question the film clip. It is an excerpt of a 1938 Clark Gable film called Test Pilot. In the clip, Myrna Loy is at her wit’s end as each of Clark Gable’s flights become more and more dangerous.  She chants “still living” which I looped to mimic a clock ticking (I considered “tic tock” as a title). The film is about recklessness and risk taking to achieve new standards in flight – but maybe it is more about irrationally pursuing an idea at the cost of normal human relationships (a parallel to art practice should not be lost here).  The probe is based on the Pioneer probe, which was the first manmade vehicle to leave the solar system and is still traveling in deep space. Pioneer carries a message from humankind, including a plaque designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake and prepared by Sagan’s wife Linda Salzman Sagan.  My project straddles several generations because it is digitally produced, handmade, includes an early film reference, and the video runs mechanically, not digitally.  If you spend a little time with the project the “still living” chant will sync and un-sync because the dvd players do not run at the same exact rate.

Brian McCutcheon, "Splashdown," 2011. Commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Courtesy of the Artist.

Splashdown:  Mike also did the casting for the balloons. This was the first big project to be completed and I think of it as something I did single-handedly, though that isn’t exactly the case. I had a student, Heather Mathes, ask if she could work for me when I first started fabrication on the museum projects. Once the parts were prepped and glued, it took us eight months of sanding 40 balloons multiple times to get them to the standard I wanted them at before painting began. As it turns out, Heather had a natural gift for sanding a continuous surface – something I wouldn’t have thought I could let someone else help me with. A friend, John DeFosse, jumped in to help sand, too.  I did not see this project assembled until it was in the museum. It transformed when I added the strings and looked as though the concept drawing had come to life.

Brian McCutcheon, "Alien Landscape Series," 2011. Commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art Courtesy of the Artist.

Landscapes: Every one of these was pretty comic – we were quite a spectacle out in the world in our suits – but all in a normal day for Angus and I. Gabe Mass took the photos. He stood in the passenger seat of a Miata, top down, at 65 MPH to take the Cruise photo out on 74W.  Angus hit him several times when he made contact with the wiffle ball in Play.  And it is still a mystery to us all what Angus was doing at the La-Z-Boy store. Maybe the best story is this – after we wrapped shooting the Shop photo, Angus and I were not far from Lisa Freiman‘s home. Angus is close to Lisa’s daughters so we decided to surprise them in our suits. It was humorous to see the flummoxed look on the neighbors’ faces as Lisa, Ed and I chatted on the front porch, me and Angus fully suited up, with Angus and the girls running around the yard as if nothing unusual was going on.

I hope that this might give you some insight into the work, and stories that you might not know unless you were there.

Now that it’s spring, we’re days away from a concert of another sort: Grammy-award winning contemporary music ensemble eighth blackbird will perform at The Toby Saturday, March 26 in a concert co-sponsored by Ensemble Music Society and the IMA. So what’s the connection besides the truism that spring always follows winter?

One striking aspect of that wintry afternoon was the spectacular contemporary art everywhere in the home.  Wherever we glanced were paintings and sculptures by well-known artists. The collection was fabulous. So the guests were listening to a great collection of early 19^th century music while enjoying paintings and sculpture from 150-175 years later.

What would you think if the contrasting periods were switched?  Does the art you enjoy at the IMA or have on your walls at home match your “art for ears?”  Are you willing to go to a concert and be as surprised and challenged as you are when you enter the fourth floor galleries at the IMA?

I remember thinking once I was quite sophisticated and knowledgeable about modern music, so I expounded to a friend, “John Adams and Philip Glass—how pointlessly simpleminded.”  Then I went to a conference in LA where we heard excerpts from Adams’ then somewhat new opera Nixon in China. That evening changed my perspective on an entire group of modern composers and deepened my belief that music loses so much when it’s recorded.

When eighth blackbird first came to Indianapolis almost three years ago, I experienced a tinge of anxiety before the concert because this group included extensive percussion and used video projectors with amplification in the program, again extending my personal boundaries of “classical” music, and as well as for many in the audience.  The audience reaction by people of all ages was enthusiastic.  You have to be willing to jump in and try it out.

So look beyond the dozens of recordings of Vivaldi or Pachelbel on iTunes and come to The Toby on March 26.  Be open to change and discover exciting music by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Missy Mazzoli and others.

This is the second TAP tour we’ve done for an exhibition, and another major accomplishment for the Nugget Factory. NF FTW! As with any project, the second go-around always seems a little smoother. We certainly couldn’t have done it without the collaborative spirit of the contemporary department. Also, big ups to our applications team for some slick interface modifications to the TAP software. Did I mention the entire software development, content production and implementation was done entirely in-house?

Another difference you’ll notice if you took the Sacred Spain tour last winter is that this tour focuses more on the visitor’s interpretation and experience and offers many different perspectives.

You’ll hear voices from curatorial, design, education, and conservation at the IMA. One of those voices is IMA’s Phil Lynam, Manager of Art and Design Education. We hope this sample stop will entice you to TAP into Tara Donovan:Untitled at the IMA. Listen below:

Stay tuned for more exciting news about TAP!

One of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of my job is researching, planning and finally, mounting an exhibition. I liken it to what a performer or musician must feel when they step onto stage after months of practice. One of the nuances of this feeling though, is each exhibition has a personality. Moreover, getting to know that personality is at times a joy, or a challenge, or both. Some exhibitions are straightforward and others will throw you for a loop. Nevertheless, these quirks are what propel an exhibition team forward – together. And… like any great performance or concert, it takes a group of people utilizing their aptitude in a variety of ways. Every exhibition at the IMA is supported by a team, made up of members representing different departments, each responsible for an aspect of its’ planning and execution. The upcoming fashion arts exhibition, Body Unbound, Contemporary Couture from the IMA’s Collection, is no different.

Body Unbound, explores the varied approaches modern fashion designers use to manipulate materials and experiment with construction; producing garments that liberate the female body while maintaining a desired aesthetic. Due in part to the emphasis on the body, this exhibit offered us an opportunity to reconsider how we wanted to show the pieces.

Fashion in Bloom deinstall. Notice the stark white mannequins. We use the carts in the foreground to transport mannequins around the museum

This focus on the body is what led our Chief Exhibition Designer to propose a unique suggestion for our mannequins. His idea is to present the mannequins in such a way that the concept of flesh is readily apparent, but executed so that the “skin color” represented is of no one real person. Traditionally in a museum setting, mannequins remain neutral or are painted to tie into the overall design of the space. Done so, frankly, because mannequins are not people and while they represent the physical qualities of a person, it is only because the attributes of the objects, clothing, require specific support. Think of it this way, mannequins are like frames or pedestals, complimenting an artwork or providing a base. Therefore, as if you might choose an appropriate mat color or frame for a photograph, we choose individual mannequins and their colors.

Curator of Textile and Fashion Arts, Chief Designer, Textile Conservator and me picking out colors for mannequins based on the garments

Concurrently, because we chose precise colors for particular objects we needed to be sure that those pieces fit on specific mannequins. Mannequins are primarily chosen for their ability to provide the best support. The second criterion is the appropriate stance or pose. Now, for all you fashion historians who also mount exhibitions, you know how time consuming and challenging mounting clothing can be. (Look for a later post on dressing and undressing mannequins). Most people (myself included, before working with fashion and textiles) think that all one has to do is drape a piece on a form and walk away.

This is not the case.

Bare in mind, these garments were made for people, real people – with short torsos, long arms or wide hips. For that reason, we pad out, slim down, or adjust each mannequin in a way to best fill and support the object. Concerning most, we can manipulate the forms by building upon an existing mannequin using archival materials to create the desired “body.”

Background: Mannequin with reset arm to better display a garment) (Foreground: Mannequin had breasts cut off and filled with Marvelseal® 360 and Ethafoam® 220

However, in other instances, we have to take measures that are more drastic. Such was the case for one of our Rudi Gernreich dresses from 1961, included in the exhibition because of its cutout sides. The dress fit perfectly on a slender mannequin with protruding hips, great for the style of the dress, but sad because her bust was too low. The mannequin had a natural (lower) bust line, more appropriate to exhibit pieces from the 1970s, not the high “bullet” silhouette popular in the 1950s and early 1960s. The decision was made to give the mannequin a reduction.

We called upon on our exhibition preparator, who specializes in mount building. The preparator worked closely with our textile conservator to adjust the body of the mannequin so that it can be used again and so the adjustment is not harmful to the garment when it is exhibited.

Mannequin with sides cut out to accommodate a dress with 22.5-inch waist

Mannequin is the same as above, but here you can see Ethafoam® 220 inserts

After selecting all the mannequins and paint colors, the mannequins were painted individually, in advance, to allow time for off gassing. “Off gassing” is the term used by conservators to describe the release of volatile compounds emitted by the paint as it dries completely over time.” (Thanks Kathleen and Richard!) Thus, each mannequin must sit and dry for at least two weeks before any objects come near them.

Mannequins freshly painted, off gassing

After all the mannequins “off-gas,” we will dress each accordingly. Stay tuned for the second installment of this discussion on exhibition preparation and mounting.

In the meantime, mark your calendars for Body Unbound, Contemporary Couture from the IMA’s Collection, opening April 10.

It’s gonna be a good one!

Where did this love story begin? A swim teacher danced and suggested that I try classes for the coordination, recognition of rhythm and self-confidence it instilled. It was also one of the few activities available during the fall and winter months in a small town. I should mention that I was obsessed with Angelina Ballerina books. I met two of best friends in Creative Dance and find it impossible to forget my lilac butterfly costume from the first recital. From there, it was a whirlwind of performances from The Wizard of Oz to The Nutcracker until I was old enough to become a member of the Wabash Valley Dance Theater Company.

When I spotted an announcement about a new professional ballet company possibly starting in Indy, I broke into a set of grand battement (that’s large kicks for you non-dancers).

Indianapolis City Ballet seeks to unite and strengthen the ballet, dance, and arts community. Founded with a philosophy that more dance is good for everyone — be it professional, amateur or scholastic, contemporary, classical, jazz, ballroom or tap — Indianapolis City Ballet offers links to dance-related resources.

The Indianapolis City Ballet hopes to establish a 12 person professional company in Indianapolis (as opposed to a larger regional company) under the artistic direction of John Meehan, maintaining a performance regime of both classical and contemporary ballet. You can listen to an interview with Meehan on WFYI “The Art of the Matter”: WFYI “The Art of the Matter” To gauge and raise community support, the City Ballet is holding a gala performance this Saturday at the Murat Theatre with dancers from around the world. This probably isn’t news to you. The gala is getting quite a bit of publicity. You can meet the dancers in this Indianapolis Star article, or get a glimpse into the lives of a married couple from the American Ballet Theatre who will be performing at the gala in Glamour magazine. The story of the City Ballet is also featured in the latest issue of Dance Magazine, Indianapolis Monthly, and NUVO.

As much as I hope the company is successful and the gala is a sell-out, I am not sure that Indianapolis is ready to support this venture. It has some major supporters and sponsors behind it, including both individual donors and companies like Saks and Tiffany & Co. But is the Midwestern ballet audience ready to be revived? I had friends in Ballet Internationale when it went under four years ago and that history makes me nervous. City Ballet includes its background online, but makes no mention of focus groups or surveys conducted to test the market, although they imply that the gala is the actual test. Also, I wonder if Indy has an audience with an eye for classical ballet? Dance Kaleidoscope is a contemporary company and often draws large audiences because of the approachability of modern dance. It seems the City Ballet recognizes they have to do more than classical ballet to draw people in — their ad in the Indy Star reads “A one-of-a-kind performance featuring acclaimed dancers from major international companies; neo-classical and contemporary ballets; fog machines, strobe lights and a cow in a pink tutu!”

In addition to a substantial amount of press, the City Ballet is doing an nice job stating their cause through tranparency on its Web site. The site also contains an educational section with theatre and ballet terms for newcomers, and the City Ballet is on Facebook with more than 230 fans.

Consider trying something new this Saturday night and supporting the Indianapolis City Ballet at An Evening with the Stars. It may be the beginning of your love story. Or share your thoughts — is Indianapolis ready for a new professional ballet company? I am.

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

What first drew you to working in video?
When my daughter, Elia, was born I was still an undergraduate art student in Israel. I realized I could not spend much time in a studio anymore, with the demands of work, studies and fatherhood. I decided to work from home and include my cohabitants in my plans. To get a child involved with immediate video magic was quicker than working with marble and much cleaner than painting at home. Besides, for the narratives I started to be interested in, video seemed to me the best tool. I needed things that unfold in time.

In collaborating with your family on videos, how do you negotiate the roles of artist and father?
At the time, I worked hard to conclude that both are one and the same role – so I did not have to negotiate too much.

Your works in Adaptation take inspiration from Melville’s novel Moby-Dick and Truffaut’s film L’enfant sauvage (The Wild Child). Why did you choose to engage with these particular sources?
Moby-Dick was part of a few “sea adventure” narratives I was interested in at the time, partly for the escape they offer (you sail away, leaving the family behind) and partly for the Western mythology they take part in as creators. Truffaut’s movie interested me because I understood it not as a wild-child’s story but as a director’s account of what it means to direct a child actor – an act that can never be fully justified or moral. So I will not call them inspirations but rather tools that helped me tell my own stories in a fictional disguise. I used them rather than being inspired by them. But maybe that is the same thing?

For Wild Boy, you built a large-scale installation that echoes the set you created in your home where you filmed the work. How do you feel that this installation changes the experience of the video for the viewer?
It is comfortable. It suggests to you, the viewer, to lie down, relax and take your time – that’s it. I am usually not very found of video installations, and I can live with Wild Boy detached from the installation very peacefully. (View an excerpt from Ben-Ner’s single-channel video Wild Boy, 2004)

Can you tell us about the projects you are currently working on?
My next movie is being shot with the kind help of the people at Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), where I will open a show [on May 23]. All I can tell you now is that it will involve a light airplane, a car, a double bicycle and two people. I hope that sounds intriguing enough.

If you visited the IMA’s permanent galleries more than once this year, it is likely you did not see the same works of art. Each month the IMA rotates different works of art in an effort to display the breadth of the Museum’s collection. The scheduled rotation is determined through a collaboration between curators and conservators. Curators decide which works are displayed and their display time frame, while the conservators regulate the exposure time of certain sensitive artworks. Below are just a handful of the hundreds of works newly displayed in the IMA’s galleries in 2008:

For a look at all the works that went on view in 2008, visit the IMA’s Dashboard.

In celebration of the IMA’s 125th anniversary, the Museum also sought to acquire 125 new gifts to add to its collection this year. Stay tuned for a complete recap of this project.

Indianapolis has a newly installed resident along the banks of the White River. Donald Lipski’s new installation “The Tent” is a nice surprise for those who frequent the White River State Park’s plaza. The installation is playfully reminiscent of the Indianapolis Speedway’s checkered flag. The silver structure is unobtrusive against city skyline from the pedestrian bridge leading to the zoo.

The work is a gift from the 500 Festival, a not-for-profit volunteer organization created to organize civic events celebrating the greatest race in the world, as part of the 50th Anniversary Legacy Art Project.

“I recalled seeing a video of the 500 Festival’s Mini-Marathon with the colors of the runners’ shirts bobbing up and down,” said Lipski in a press release from the 500 Festival. “I feel that ‘The Tent’, a symbol of community and coming together, captures the movement and excitement of all the Festival’s events.”

Seven Spades by Donald Lipski

Another Lipski work entitled “Seven Spades” can be found a few miles up the river at the IMA. Made of 100 small objects, each object is a separate sculpture created by combining everyday things. I spotted conglomerations of phone cord, birthday candles, spades playing cards, plastic rulers, a branch, Lipski’s American Express card, electric wire, bike reflectors, drinking straws and address labels from the Herron Gallery in Indianapolis. The work is a fine example of assemblage art and reminds me of discovering unknown tools in my grandfather’s barn as a child in northern Indiana.

Text referring to the piece reads: “In some combinations the impulse seems to be to destroy the object’s former use. In others the inspiration is joining similar forms.”

Both of Lipski’s works are site-specific and add an eclectic intimacy to the city’s riverside art collections.