Bethel University Galleries

I have attended Bethel University in Saint Paul, MN for two years and have never know that they have two art galleries. But somewhat in my defense I am only there once a week for night classes. There are two small galleries there that are about the same size in when our class went to the Ausburg Galleries. I liked the Lee Walton exhibit more, so I would like to describe some interesting artworks I discovered there.

Lee Walton named his exhibitMomentary Performances and Things That Last Longer. The first piece I checked out was, "Twin Cities Momentary Performances, 2009. During September 18-December 13, 2009 Walton choose seven different places to hold a "momentary performance". For example, for Momentary Performance #1, one week prior to the performance at Cuzzy's Grill and Bar in Minneapolis he painted on the blue building, "Friday, September 25th at 6:00pm, 2009 Person wearing a white hat pushing a bicycle stops to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich". Walton's intentions are to "highlight the subtleties and beauties of everyday people and actions. Considering these mundane micro-gestures as spectacular" (Bethel brochure, 2009). At first I thought this was really weird, but now I am kind of disapointed I missed out on one of the performances. It would be fun to see a bunch of people together, exited and expecting this ordinary task. I like how Walton's art literally goes out into the community.

Another interesting installment piece was called "Fluctuating Floor Sculpture Determined by Rounds of Golf". Walton made a list of instructions for someone else to follow to make the piece that reflected Walton's score in a series of golf rounds. The objects had to be bought at Target, total less then $100, be on the floor away from the wall, not exceed a 5' by 5' square...So in Walton's first round he scored 5, so fived slippers were vertically lined up heal to toe on the floor. In the next round he scored 7, so 7 Dorito bags were vertically lined up next to the slippers. This went on for 18 rows. I thought the piece was comical and fun to have set rules, but still the art piece was all up in the air depending on chance and skill in a game of golf.

Lastly, I liked the "F-book" (Facebook) video. "Using Facebook status updates of his friends and family as scripts, the artist creates daily videos depicting scenarios that are taken to absurdly literal extremes" (Bethel brocure, 2009). One example is, first, it will say, "Billy Lanch is playing fetch with the dog while trying to study". Then it showed a man reading a physics book at the table while with one hand throwing a stick, then it it thrown back up on the table as if the dog is throwing it up there. I personally found this comical because I think some people's facebook status's are just odd or I don't care who is "driving home from work". I like how Walton took these status to the extreme.

Check out information on Lee Walton here: www.leewalton.com