The Walker Art Center’s newest exhibit “I Am You You Are Too” opened on Sep. 7 and will be closing Oct. 27, 2019. The exhibit focuses mainly on the concept of borders.
The exhibit came at the perfect time. With tension and uncertainty throughout the world, the Walker aimed to point out the similarities between everyone and the importance of universal love.
The collection explores timely social themes such as borders, citizenship, the right to love and what shapes a person. The contemporary pieces focus on various borders throughout the world, both physical and social, and take a strong stand on the current world.
Many of the pieces are quite simple; one is just two identical white robes hanging on the wall. One of the robes is embroidered with “Us” and the other with “Them.” The artist Gary Simmons shows that borders and boundaries have the power to either unify or separate communities.
“I have seen and been to the exhibit three times and think it is very powerful,” senior Ellie Burr said, “My favorite art piece is this big ball that looks almost like a hot air balloon. The detail on it is amazing.”
The piece Burr mentioned is “Postcommodity” by Raven Chocan, Cristobal Martinez and Kade L. Twist. The artists created 26 large balloons each The balloons were part of a land art piece which is when art is built into the earth and is then typically photographed to be displayed in a gallery. The balloons were placed in the center of the US-Mexican border.
The amount of detail that has been placed into this exhibit is impeccable. The pieces work perfectly together to put an emphasis on boundaries.
The Walker has a board of student artist who work closely with the exhibit and promoting it. One of the things they do is examine and interpret art into a way that everyone can understand One of the board members is senior Ryan Paul. As a member of the board he also finds different way to bring people into the exhibits one of the ways they do that is through social media and hosting different events.
“My favorite piece in the exhibit is ‘Hypothesis Situation 6’ by Adrian Piper because it’s very conceptual and more subtle of an art piece than the others in the exhibit,” Paul said.
“Hypothesis Situation 6” is a study of human consciousness relating to space-time intervals. It consist of a series of graphs, pictures and writings; making the viewer think about what is being studied and why it is important.
“The whole exhibit is about the borders that separate us both physically and metaphorically. That is extremely relevant to the current world situation and how people from other places interact with one another,” Paul said, “It’s a powerful exhibit that everyone should come see.”
