The Contemporary’s new shows open tomorrow night (Friday, January 22, 7-9pm) and things are busy around here! The artists have been in town all week, working closely with our installation crew to hang the show. We got a staff preview today and it is looking really great. The rest of the museum staff and interns are hard at work preparing for tomorrow’s Opening Night Reception…making welcome signs, arranging for photography and valet, printing and folding the gallery guides, and all of the other little things it takes to get the Contemporary ready to welcome the thousand people who will visit us tomorrow night.

I hope you will join us at the Opening and bring a friend. These exhibitions feature photographs, drawings, watercolors, videos, paintings, music, and even some literature, blurring the boundaries between artist, author, and musician. Both artists use all materials at their disposal to express themselves and create their artworks. Even though the exhibitions are separate solo shows featuring artists who have distinct and unique processes, we’ve observed some parallel concepts running through both. I encourage you to visit the museum to explore these exhibitions for yourself and respond to this blog post. What parallels do you see?

And remember, The Front Room is back! Xavier Cha and Torbjørn Rødland present their work in this fluid space dedicated to creative experimentation. Cha’s work is performance based so be sure to come on Opening Night to experience her performances first hand.

Click here to read an article that was featured in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

What’s all the excitement? On Sunday, January 3, the CAM hosted the Piñata Closing Party for the end of the exhibition, For the blind man… For my first event with the CAM, I was intrigued to discover the large community involvement and the amazing amount of excitement that unfolded. People of all ages came out to take a swing and enjoy complimentary appetizers. After an hour of blindfolded people at bat, the piñata busted and kids, teens, and parents rushed to gather the hidden goodies. With tons of energy and laughter filling the museum, this was truly a great way to begin my internship.

After the cleanup and all the goodbyes, I gathered with Cole and a few others to start the removal of the exhibition. The prep work, organization, and the art removal itself, all has to be done with such intricate details. We started section by section, removing pieces and collecting evidence for the condition reports. Handling the art in such an intimate, delicate fashion gave me the chance to interpret each piece on an individual basis. Though I didn’t have a chance to stay to help finish up that evening, the next experience will be just as interesting and exciting.

Tabitha Schnurbusch is an intern in the Exhibitions Department

The Museum is closed for installation until January 22 which is Opening Night of Sean Landers: 1991-1994, Improbable History and Stephen Prina: Modern Movie Popin the Main Galleries and Xavier Cha in The Front Room. You can stay connected to the Contemporary by visiting this blog, social networking sites, and the Museum’s website. Click here for all the ways to stay connected while we are closed.

Read the blog posted on saintlouisartmap.org. Find out about the Piñata Closing Party, the event to mark the end of the exhibition For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there.

Mariana Castillo Deball / Tessa Rehkop

Mariana Castillo Deball was born in 1975 in Mexico City, and she currently lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin. Her Klein Bottle Piñata (2009) is being presented as part of the current exhibition For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there. The gigantic, blue, Klein bottle-shaped piñata hangs over the Contemporary’s performance space allowing viewers to examine the curious object. It is made out of paper máché and is larger than life. A Klein bottle is a non-orientable surface, meaning the inside and outside cannot be distinguished. This is similar to a Mobious strip, except that a Klein bottle has no boundary. What’s inside the Piñata is a mystery and will be revealed the last day of the show at the Piñata Closing Party held at the Contemporary on Sunday, January 3 from 4:00 – 6:00 pm. Guests will be allowed to take swings at the piñata to break it open!

Falke Pisano / Tessa Rehkop

Falke Pisano was born in 1978 in Amsterdam, where she currently lives and works. Her work, Chillida (Forms and Feelings) (2006), is being shown as part of the current exhibition For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there. It consists of a video projection of the artist looking through a book photographs. These photographs are of sculptures by Eduardo Chillida captured by amateur photographer David Finn, who travels all over the world to find them. He eventually publishes the sculptures in a book in the late 1990’s. Using two separate projections, Pisano flips through Finn’s book of photographs while providing her commentary. The artist believed it was important to describe what she felt the moment she first looked at the photographs and their descriptions. Some of the sculptures Pisano views with appreciation because they are what she describes as “strong and natural” just as she herself would like to be. Pisano begins to draw lines and create her own shapes using images of the sculptures, so the viewer doesn’t just hear her interpretation but can now see it also. Click here for the gallery guide.

For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there is on view for only a short time longer. It closes on Sunday, January 3, 2010. You can read a review of this major group show that was published in the December issue of Art in America here!

Rachel Harrison / Tessa Rehkop

Rachel Harrison was born in 1966 in New York City, where she currently lives and works. Her work, Voyage of the Beagle, is named after a journal by Charles Darwin and is currently being displayed as part of the current exhibition For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there. It consists of fifty-eight photographs of a wide variety of characters. Lining the length of two entire walls, Harrison’s images range from 5000-year old stone figures to a Barbie doll to a figure of Elvis. The series seems to be a playful, humorous way to represent gaps in culture from the past and present but also holes that exist between cultures even today. Along with these images Harrison presents three abstract sculptures that are coated with the artist’s signature pearlescent paint.

The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis wishes you a very happy holiday season and a very happy winter!

One week from today is the winter solstice, which means that every day from December 21 until June 21 will be a little longer than the day before. What an exciting feeling! 

However, your days left to see For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there, are getting shorter and shorter! We encourage you to show your out-of-town guests a little bit of St. Louis art and culture and bring them by the Contemporary to view the exhibition. Remember the museum is always free on Wednesday and Saturday and Contemporary memberships include four or more guest passes each year.

If you are in a bind for some last minute holiday gifts, consider the gift of art. You can purchase a gift membership online quickly and easily! Or, come to the Museum to spend some time exploring our Flat Files which holds a sample of works by a variety of St Louis artists. The Flat Files also contains contact information to get in touch with the artists, view additional works and make a purchase! While you are here, stop by MUSE, the Contemporary’s gift shop for exciting, unique gifts! Have a wonderful and safe holiday! We hope to see you at the Contemporary soon!

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Jimmy Raskin / Tessa Rehkop

Jimmy Raskin was born in 1970 in Los Angeles where he currently lives and works.  Since 1989, the artist has been studying, through various mediums, the idea of a universe split between the Poet and the Philosopher. Focusing on the Prologue of Nietzsche’s philosophical novel, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-85), Raskin interprets Zarathustra’s understanding of how to move forward as the New Being –the merging of the philosopher and the poet into the Philosopher-Poet. His latest multi-media sculpture and video installation, The Annunciation, is part of the current exhibition For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there. In what the artist calls a “fighting sculpture”, Raskin continues his dual mode of expression between the Philosopher-Poet and the Poet with a battle scene represented by black vinyl silhouettes of an eagle-serpent and a donkey reflecting how the artist struggles with art as a form of critical thought while still trying to be poetic. In the past, Raskin has represented this duality through a series of lectures, audio-visual performances, publishing a book entitled The Poet, The Poltergeist & The Hollow Tree, and producing countless texts, drawings, diagrams, sculptures and cartoons.  His research seems to be seeking truth by combining the thinking of the Philosopher and the Poet-in-Part in order to have more than just faith in meaning.