SUMMARY

The project is for 18 artists to collaborate on one piece with multiple sections installed throughout the Soap Factory. Sometimes parts of the whole will physically trail from one to the other…at other times there will just be clear visual links. There will be areas that are bold and obvious and some parts will be so subtle that the viewer will need to look carefully to find them. Media will vary throughout the collaboration: installation, sculptural objects, painting, drawing, animation, sound, photography and video. Most often the works will be mixed media and site-specific. The theme is meander. Meander has two main definitions:

1. To follow a winding and turning or indirect course

2. To move aimlessly and idly without fixed direction

This theme relates to the way the actual art will behave in the building and the way in which we will work (back and forth between works). The dominant color is red; ranging from warm to cold and tints to shades. All these artists have lived in Minneapolis at one time or another – though some lived in various areas of the States and 2 live in Germany. At least eleven of the artists have already collaborated with one or more of the artists on the list. Artists will sometimes work as themselves…and other times we may use each other’s typical media or imitate another.

At times we will simply add to another’s work. Sometimes we will work directly together or give each other art direction. Although specific artist personalities and styles will be evident – this will be a true effort to work together on the parts of the whole; perhaps either having a starting point of one’s own work based on another’s piece, or making work in reaction to another’s work.We will actually begin the collaborations months before the install. Those of us who live in the same vicinity will work on small parts of the whole. And those of us who are out of town – can still begin conversing and collaborating online. We will be posting works online – videos, drawings, photos, paintings and sketches or ideas for installations. For example, if someone posts a video done in reaction to the theme/color, someone can then react to it by drawing from a still, adding new footage or making another scene, or re-editing it. We will then post the new files online…and then others can work with it and so on.