Benjamin and Gaston gave a talk at the Museum after the install, where they showcased both their knowledge of architecture and commitment to their process as well as their wicked senses of humor. In case you missed it, here is the lecture. And if you haven’t seen Gravity’s Loom, get to the Museum as soon as you can!

Eden II

On Friday morning, November 20, I stood hard-hatted and slack-jawed beneath Tea Mäkipää’s ship, Eden II, as it hung from a crane far above 100 Acres, and couldn’t help but marvel at the process that turns conversations, emails, and artist’s renderings into an actual, physical, 47-foot, 8-ton object.

This rare pleasure is experienced by those involved with object– and place-making everywhere, but it was felt most distinctly by the crowd gathered for the ship launch in 100 Acres, a park first envisioned in an IMA strategic plan in 1996. While Eden II began its journey via two cranes, one barge, and one motorboat from the park’s central meadow to its resting place in the southwest corner of the lake, one could also see crews at work building the walls of Alfredo Jaar’s Park of the Laments, hear the nearby construction of Marlon Blackwell’s visitor’s center, and observe the assembly of Andrea Zittel’s fiberglass floating island by LA-based fabricators The Barnacle Brothers. At long last, 100 Acres is really happening.

I came to the IMA in summer of 2007 and to Finnish artist Tea Mäkipää’s project in early 2009, after former IMA curator (and friend!) Rebecca Uchill left Indianapolis to pursue a PhD. Mäkipää had first travelled to Indianapolis in July of 2007 to conduct research for her commission, and the idea of developing a boat-based project surfaced early on. Having come across a warship when traveling in the United Arab Emirates earlier that year, Mäkipää was interested in thinking about the waterway system in Indianapolis and, in particular, the canal, river, and lake in and around 100 Acres. We had provided Mäkipää with information about the historic and ecological development of these waterways, and local volunteers took the artist on boat trips along the canal via pontoon boat.

She came to the museum with a proposal for a ship, Eden II, seemingly packed with emigrants from an unknown homeland and mysteriously present in the 100 Acres lake. Much research ensued over the possibility of finding a functional boat and transporting it to the park site, as Mäkipää had originally hoped to procure a ship in Europe and sail it to the United States as an extension of her recent project, 10 Commandments for the 21st Century, whose first rule is: “Do not fly.”

Although the voyage would have been a stunning artwork of its own, unfortunately cost, liability, and timing prevented this plan from proceeding. After searching high and low for suitable ships in the US that would fit the scale and needs of the project (thanks former IMA intern Lindsay Clark!), it became clear that a functioning boat would not only have unnecessary parts for our purposes (an engine), but would also be prohibitively expensive to purchase and transport. In the summer of 2008, the artist submitted a revised proposal to construct “a floating structure that resembles a ship”, and with her we embarked on the mission of devising a building plan.

In July of 2009, Icelandic artist Halldor Ulfarsson arrived at the IMA to work as Mäkipää’s assistant and begin construction of the skeleton of Eden II. The kind folks over at the Herron School of Art and Design, most notably Eric Nordgulen and Greg Hull, agreed to lend us their magnificent sculpture studio for a few weeks to accomplish some of the primary metal work for the project. Ulfarsson worked with IMA staffers, including Mike Bir, Brad Dilger, and Brose Partington, to finalize plans for the ship and construct its primary structure. In August, that structure was transported via truck to the central meadow of 100 Acres, and in September, Mäkipää arrived to begin the work of skinning and detailing the ship with Ulfarsson and noble IMAers Scott Shoultz, TJ Lemanski, and Toni Hook.

Herron students also joined the project: Jason Bord, Ava Larkin, Shi-Fen Liu, Wes French fabricated a menacing-looking harpoon and gun, and Amanda York and Kathryn Armstrong assembled a net of rubbish that hangs from the ship’s deck. All the while, a plan was taking shape for Eden II’s eventual launch into the 100 Acres lake, which would also entail the construction of a pontoon system, a keel with considerable ballast, and anchors that would be set in the bottom of the lake.

This narrative glosses over many details (you may now anxiously await my novel: East of Eden II), but we finally arrived at launch day in late November. After a week of waiting for rainy weather to clear, Mike Bir and much of the IMA’s installation crew assembled in the park early Friday morning with a tightly choreographed plan of action.

A smaller crane lifted the ship from the meadow (it stayed together!) and brought it to the shore of the lake (expertly navigating a grove of trees!). I winced as the crane tunneled enormous tracks into the park ground—under the watchful eyes of many from the Horticulture & Grounds crew who will no doubt have to address said tracks—but comforted myself by repeating my mantra for the day: Better now than a week before the park opens. After the ship was placed near the shore, we gathered for a quick group picture, which included the crew as well as the project’s engineers, crane operators, mighty 100 Acres project manager Dave Hunt, park director Lisa Freiman,

and IMA director Maxwell Anderson. In the absence of the artist, who sadly had to miss the event, and with Mike Bir’s support, I then said a silent prayer and broke a bottle of champagne (ok, ok, it was Prosecco) on the ship’s hull. Then, back to business: a second, enormous crane lifted the ship high enough so that the team could attach the keel and ballast, and the whole contraption was gingerly extended over the lake and placed gently in the water. A barge was then attached to the side of the ship, and it was ferried by motor boat over to its final location, where anchors attached by cable to buoys waiting to be attached. Enter Brad Dilger, IMA Multi-Media Designer and certified scuba diver, who helped set the keel and attach the anchors to Eden II.

By the day’s end, the ship was resting peacefully in its intended spot. There is still much work to be done to complete the stabilization of the ship. And there is still a guard shack to be constructed on the shore of the lake, which will house audiovisual components affording visitors views of what is supposedly transpiring aboard the mysterious vessel. However, my spirit is (forgive me) buoyed enormously by the success of Friday’s launch. Last I checked, museums aren’t in the business of building ships, or even independently floating sculptures that resemble ships. I’m awfully proud of what Tea Mäkipää has accomplished at the IMA, and it couldn’t have happened without the herculean efforts of the IMA staff and the Indianapolis community at large. Thanks, everyone.

First up was the Armory Show, which brought quite a few folks to New York last week. Like many, I have a conflicted relationship with art fairs. I continue to go to them, although the experience is a manic exercise in ambivalence: one is alternately perturbed by crowds of art socialites, happy to run into people one knows (which causes one to worry whether one is posing as an art socialite), worried the art might be decent but that the context is spoiling it, and elated and relieved when encountering a few strong artworks that stand out from the huddled thousands on display. I came away with the impression that much of the art presented at the Armory was decorative and generally uninspiring, although there were a few notable exceptions. I’m a fan of David Shrigley’s work, and there were a few good pieces on display at Anton Kern’s booth, including a most clever projected animation entitled Lightswitch (2007). Ronald Feldman Fine Arts played host to a witty boutique-within-a-boutique with Christine Hill’s The Volksboutique Armory Apothecary, for which the artist worked from behind a counter to dispense personalized remedies to the sundry ailments of visitors. I also had the pleasure of seeing my friend and accomplished video artist Lida Abdul, whose work was on view at the booth of Giorgio Persano Gallery.

Of the handful of satellite fairs also going on, I made it to Pulse and Volta (whose names sound rather ridiculous next to one another) and enjoyed poking around the booths with my most esteemed colleagues Lisa Freiman and Allison Unruh.

Much less fussy than the Armory, these fairs can be a great way to see good art by emerging and mid-career artists in a setting much less likely to induce the mixed emotions described above. At Pulse, the Parsons MFA Fine Arts program put curator Eva Diaz to the task of organizing the smartest of mini-exhibitions, in which she elected to show all program artists instead of a juried few. Small-scale artworks were displayed thoughtfully in an artist-built structure alongside the books the students were reading at the moment.

A most entertaining curiosity cabinet-cum-reading room. What I value most about going to fairs and seeing such a high volume of art at once is how helpful it can be in expanding nascent exhibition ideas. Say I’m interested in doing a comprehensive group show about pencil drawing since the 1980s, then I can learn of Paul Chiappe‘s minute recreations of photographs through Madder 139 at Pulse and see excellent works on paper in The Drawing Center’s current exhibition Apparently Invisible by Michaela Frühwirth and Anne Lindberg.

On Thursday I met up with Danish artist Tue Greenfort, who lives in Berlin but is currently in residence in New York to work on a project for Creative Time. His work is currently on view at Peter Blum Gallery, and he and I are beginning to speak about the potential for a project in Indianapolis. Stay tuned for news of his visit to the IMA this Spring, which I am anticipating greatly. Lisa and I also had the pleasure of visiting Tara Donovan in her studio/home in Brooklyn (sorry no pictures! I got distracted and forgot), where we saw several stunning works on paper that are in development for an upcoming gallery show. We discussed with Tara an exhibition of her work here in Indianapolis in 2010 (hooray!) and spoke about all of the possibilities surrounding such a project.

Last, but not least, I visited the place that has been mentioned to me every time I talk to someone in New York about 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: SoHo’s restaurant Hundred Acres.

I mean, it’s delicious and all, but it’s just not as pretty—or as full of innovative art installations—as our developing project. And we come by our name fairly, legitimately covering 100 acres of woodlands, wetlands, meadows and a 35-acre lake, which I must admit I was happy to return to at the end of my trip.