There is a lot more to an art museum than what you see in the galleries, and in the case of the Walker, on the screen and stage. Behind every exhibition is a group of people that constructed the gallery walls, built the frames, hung the work, set the lights, figured out how to make the installation fit and on and on. This session took us to the basement of the Walker where this group of people, Program Services, or more affectionately, “the Crew” work their magic behind the scenes to ensure the successful completion of any artist’s work.

Standing around in the Carpentry shop, we listened to the members of the crew talk about the every-day tasks of their jobs, and in particular the little known role they often play in assisting artists (note: most of the crew are artists themselves). At the core of this work is problem-solving, which you could say comprises much of art making in the first place.

The example before us that afternoon was a work being made by Haegue with the assistance of Phil Docken, a master carpenter and painter. The materials for this piece range from a greeting card display rack to colorful lures and bobbers from the tackle shop–ound or purchased by Haegue, Phil, Andria, and seminar participant Joseph Imhauser in their explorations of Minneapolis. As Haegue determined how these elements fit together sculpturally, Phil has another very important task: weather proofing. After its completion, this piece will be installed outside on the terrace off of the Medtronic Gallery and will be up through the end of the exhibition in February. This means the work must be built to withstand wind, rain, snow and ice–an extreme environment that Haegue has not made this type of work in before. The piece has lights, so Phil showed us the weather-proof strategy he devised for the electrical wiring that keeps consistent with Haegue’s aesthetic of leaving all the cords and connectors exposed to the viewer. Titled Mill Town Dude (2009), this work has “sibling-like” relationship to another work in the exhibition, Hippie Dippie Oxnard (2008) which was made in Los Angeles from found objects in that city.

Here are some pictures of Haegue’s work space in the Walker carpentry shop. And also some photos taken of Haegue forging for fishing flies, and other foreign objects at Joe’s Sporting Goods in St. Paul…

(thank you Joseph!)

Through this example of seeing how ideas and objects come together to make forms, we also learned that the process of working with an artist to realize a work can be more like a collaboration than a service. The crew’s collective knowledge in all things technical, combined with their understanding of the impulses of contemporary art, bring more to art installation than hammers and nails. Their job is to suggest solutions that maintain the conceptual and structural integrity of a work (whether the artist is living or not), while making it safe for public display. In the words of department head Cam Zebrun, the crew are doing their best when “our work disappears,” leaving behind art installations with no visible evidence of the hours of planning that preceded them.

Stay tuned for more pictures of the final piece on the visual arts blog.