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Flaten Museum presents unique artistic experience

By David Gonnerman '90
March 9, 2007

The Flaten Art Museum at St. Olaf College will host a unique experience with New York-based artist Sandy Winters next week as Winters creates a large work in the museum over the course of four days. Museum patrons will have the opportunity to view Winters while she creates, changes and expands upon her piece, and watch a video of her creating the core elements in her studio.

View the webcam that shows Winters in action.

WintersArt
Stacie Theobald '10 (left) helps Curator Jill Ewald assemble the core pieces Winters will work from to create a larger piece of work that will fill the museum. "The [tends] to look organic, mechanical and arbitrary all at once," writes a reviewer.
Special events for the show (all free and open to the public) include viewings of Winters "in action" March 5-6 and 8-9 (10 a.m.-noon, 1-4 p.m.), plus three talks by Winters about her work in Flaten on March 7: 9:05-10 a.m., 10:45-11:30 a.m. and 2-2:55 p.m. As part of the Arnold Flaten Memorial Lecture Series, Winters will talk about her life as an artist March 8 at 7 p.m. in Dittmann 305. A party to celebrate Winters' creation will take place in the museum March 9, 5-7 p.m. The show will be on display through April 25.

Dionysian theory
The idea for such an exhibit came to Winters while she was creating a large installation in a large New York City loft that gradually grew to cover three walls over the course of two months. A number of people stopped by regularly to witness the project?s evolution. "They got to see all the moves made along the way, all the searching and choosing, adding and deleting," she says. "I began to realize this was a way of experiencing my work that was at least as valid as any other.

"The idea is it's a metaphor for the artist's life and for the creative process. Some of the most vital things happen in the studio, so I want the viewer to see the process," explains Winters, who has created similar installations across the country.

Winters, whose art one reviewer has called "feral," capitalizes on the Dionysian theory for her work: "If you cut back a grape vine, it forks the next spring and gives you two stems. This gives a better harvest. If you kill off an idea or lose it in the studio and have to reinvent it or change it, it becomes more creative."

Museum hours are MTWF 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Th 10 a.m.-8 p.m., SSu 2-5 p.m. Parking is available in the nearby Buntrock Commons lot.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.