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Lee Bul
CYBORG BLUE
1997-1998
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From Cindy Sherman's seminal
series Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980) to Piotr Uklánski's
disco dance floor, many pieces investigate and challenge the role that popular
media and amusements have played in our lives. Also included are episodes
of the cable television programs Andy Warhol's TV (1981) and Andy
Warhol's Fifteen Minutes (1987) that feature 1980s celebrities ranging
from Divine to Debbie Harry, and a pioneering video work by Dara Birnbaum,
Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman (1978-1979), which manipulates
and reinterprets clips from the popular television series.
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Carlos
Amorales
AMORALES INTERIM
1997
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During the past 25 years, artists
have explored entertainment icons as emblems of voluptuous abandon or subtle
melancholy. On view in the exhibition are Jeff Koons' polychromed wood Buster
Keaton (1988), which turns a film icon into a sorrowful and kitsch artwork,
and Takashi Murakami's colorful life-size sculptures that combine the aesthetic
of Japanese comics and animation with universal themes of spiritual and
erotic ecstasy.
Jeff Koons
BUSTER KEATON
1988
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Exploring "entertainment" in
the broadest sense, this exhibition includes Maurizio Cattelan's interactive
22-player foosball table Stadio (Stadium) (1991, reconstructed 2000),
which explores the world of sports as a site of identity formation and ambivalence,
while Damien Hirst appropriates a common child's activity as a mode of artistic
production with his two oversized spin paintings. A sound track by avant-garde
composer David Shea enhances the entire exhibition--his sonic alchemist's
vision of entertainment includes sounds at once familiar and strange, featuring
audio bites from movies, cartoons, popular dance music, ambient everyday
noise, and easy listening classics. Many works, like Peter Friedl's playful
animal costumes and Mathieu Briand's video glasses (which give wearers views
from cameras mounted in their own or others people's glasses), invite active
participation within the galleries. In total, this exhibition takes a look
at art practices from the late 1970s to the present, from appropriation
and sampling to painting, sculpture, filmmaking, and photography.
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Duane Hanson
BODY BUILDER
1990
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Let's Entertain
also launches Art Entertainment Network, a Web site curated by Walker
New Media Initiatives Director Steve Dietz. The site features digital artworks
by an international roster of artists, including Vivian Selbo and Natalie
Bookchin, who are forging new artistic ground in the virtual realm. The
physical world meets the virtual in an innovative, interactive Web portal
in the gallery.
The artists in Let's Entertain challenge us not to simply renounce
notions of entertainment and pleasure per se, but to understand how such
strategies can be used to tell a different kind of story. The tale that
unfolds is sweet, amusing, and, like a fairy tale, sometimes cruel.
PLEASE NOTE: CRITICALLY EXAMINING THE WAYS IN WHICH MODERN
MEDIA EXPLOITS SEXUALITY, SEVERAL WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION CONTAIN IMAGES
OF NUDITY.
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RELATED EVENTS
POP GOES THE WORLD PANEL DISCUSSION
POPULAR CULTURE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
THURDSAY, MARCH 23, 6:30 PM
This panel discussion examines the history and context of popular culture around the world and its role in shaping contemporary life.
FEBRUARY RELATED EVENTS
FREE
GALLERY TALK
THURDSAY, FEBRUARY 10, 6:30 PM
Let's Entertain artists discuss the exhibition Global Conceptualism:
Points of Origin, 1950s-1980s.
FREE ART LAB
ALEXANDRE PÉRIGOT'S FANCLUBBING
THURDSAY, FEBRUARY 10, 5-9 PM
An interactive art activity
in which participants are invited to reproduce celebrity images and signatures.
PREVIEW PARTY + WALKER AFTER HOURS: LET'S ENTERTAIN
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 9 PM-12:30 AM
Enter the endless loop of spectacle when you join us for Walker After
Hours and the opening night of Let's Entertain.
OPENING-DAY TALK WITH NORMAN M. KLEIN
INDUSTRIALIZATION
OF DESIRE: SCRIPTING A CIVILIZATION OF GUILTY PLEASURES
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2 PM
Cultural critic-historian Norman Klein addresses ways that our deepest thoughts, our unconscious, have become public domain.
EXHIBITION
ORIENTATION FOR TEACHERS
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 4-6 PM
Preview the exhibition Let's Entertain, an exploration of pleasure
and art.
FREE
CURATOR'S TOUR
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 6:30 PM
Join Walker visual arts curator Philippe Vergne for a tour of the Let's
Entertain exhibition.
LET'S ENTERTAIN ON THE WEB
WWW.WALKERART.ORG/VA/LETSENTERTAIN
The Let's Entertain Web site features excerpts of essays from the
new book Let's Entertain: Life's Guilty Pleasures, including images
of the work, artists' biographies, and a conversation between curators
Philippe Vergne and Olukemi Ilesanmi about the exhibition's genesis.
 IN
THE WALKER ART CENTER SHOPS
More an exploration in cultural studies than an exhibition catalogue,
Let's Entertain: Life's Guilty Pleasures provides a larger sociocultural
context for the issues raised by the exhibition. Featuring essays by Greil
Marcus, Neil Postman, and others, this Walker-produced book addresses
subjects from the philosophy of pleasure to retail architecture, from
cyberculture to body modification to contemporary American politics. Also
included are interviews with designers, architects, and writers, artist
profiles, and more than 150 full-color and halftone illustrations. Softcover:
$29.95 ($22.46 Walker members).
TOUR
SCHEDULE:
WALKER ART CENTER
FEBRUARY 12-APRIL 30, 2000
PORTLAND ART MUSEUM, OREGON
JULY 7-SEPTEMBER 17, 2000
LE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU, PARIS
NOVEMBER 15-DECEMBER 18, 2000
MUSEO RUFINO TAMAYO, MEXICO CITY
JUNE 6-AUGUST 8, 2001
MIAMI ART MUSEUM
SEPTEMBER 14-NOVEMBER 18, 2001
LET'S ENTERTAIN IS COPRODUCED BY THE CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU,
MUSÉE NATIONAL D'ART MODERNE, PARIS, AND MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROUS
SUPPORT FROM THE BUSH FOUNDATION; THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL
ARTS; GARY AND JOANN FINK; PRO HELVETIA ARTS COUNCIL OF SWITZERLAND; THE
ASIAN CULTURAL COUNCIL; ÉTANT DONNÉS, THE FRENCH-AMERICAN
FUND FOR CONTEMPORARY ART; SAMGOODY.COM; GALLERY SHIMADA; THE BRITISH
COUNCIL; MONDRIAAN FOUNDATION AMSTERDAM FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE VISUAL
ARTS, DESIGN, AND MUSEUMS; AND TATE ACCESS FLOORS, INC. ART ENTERTAINMENT
NETWORK IS MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM AVEUS.
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