Exhibition drawn from the annual artists' submissions to The Soap Factory, with surreal and irrational sculpture, found objects, bizarre transformations and fantasy landscapes. Artists from Minnesota, Chicago, Iowa, Wisconsin and New Jersey.
This Mango is now an iPod. It expresses an almost limitless and therefore ridiculous set of dualisms: the thing that is juicy, sensual, visceral, sexual must be, instead, a clean white box. When we eat a mango, we participate in a universal experience; an iPod is a deliberate act of exclusion, a homemade fantasy world. If we eat an iPod, we break our teeth. Mangos are dirty, iPods are clean. Mangos are sex, iPods are fetish. It is the humor of repetition, a word-game repeated to the point of insensibility. It’s the comedian’s catchphrase, initially interesting, yet ultimately useless. Like art, it’s a machine for thinking about stuff. It’s funny because it’s true.
This Mango is Now an iPod was curated by The Soap Factory’s Executive Director Ben Heywood, drawing from the annual artists’ submissions to The Soap Factory. Our galleries, transformed from their former state as a soap factory, are a perfect backdrop for this exhibition of surreal and irrational sculpture, found objects, bizarre transformations and fantasy landscapes.
The sculptural work in This Mango is Now an iPod shows several sides of the ambivalent relationship between the practical and the sensual. BA Harrington’s handcrafted colonial and early American furniture are made non-functional as Harrington is more interested in the meaning of the furniture than the use. Molly Roth’s sculptures allude to many hours’ manual labor while being as aesthetically captivating they are functionally useless. Nina Lola Bachhuber’s sculptures are juxtapositions of monkey skulls, wigs, and yarn, dealing with the tension between rationality and mystery in the context of the internal and the external body. Robin Cotton’s sculpture made entirely out of a consumer-grade product, straws, eludes to the humor between form and functionality.
Exhibiting Artists:
Nina Lola Bachhuber (NJ), Nick Conbere (MN), Robin Cotton (MN), Lydia Diemer (IA), Andy Ducett (MN), Nicole Gordon (IL), BA Harrington (WI), Bethany Kalk and Emily Smith (MN), Molly Roth (MN).
Video Rooms:
Zombie Lands by Jillian McDonald (NY)
Opening Night Performance:
Ghost in The Water 9pm
Click on an Artists name to watch an interview segment from SFG4
Special Events
Marcy Arts Gala April 13, 6-11pm
Fundraiser, live and silent auction to aid arts projects at Marcy Open School.
VitaMN Design Fiesta April 21, 12-6pm
Modeled after Tokyo's Design Showcase, the 2nd Annual Design Fiesta is presented by Vita.mn. Sprawled throughout the Soap Factory, you'll find prints, posters, custom and vintage fashions, accesories, photographs, handmade paper and cards, illustrations, paintings, sculpture and more. Whether you want to buy, sell or just peruse, you won't find a more eclectic mix of artists anywhere. Sponsored by Sound Unseen and the Mpls College of Art and Design.
DJ's Plain Ole' Bill, Paper Tiger, Sarah White, Jimmy 2 Times, Nikoless, and DJ Bach to play tunes all day to keep you going. Free and open to the public.
This Mango is Now and iPod - Artist Talk April, 29 2pm
Embedded With Mangoes In The Garden Of Dueling Delights - A TalkingImageConnection Reading June 2, 8pm
Watch words collide with spoken artwork re-colored by choreographers when TalkingImageConnection and the Soap Factory present "Embedded With Mangoes in the Garden of Dueling Delights.” a reading transformed. Reading by Shá Cage, Carla Hagen, Julia Klatt-Singer, Haley Lasché, Sam Osterhout, Annette Schiebout, and special guests, Three Dances. This event is free and open to the public more info about TalkingImageConnection
The Outdoor Movie Series
Thursday, May 24 One, Two, Three
Thursday, May 31 Groundhog Day
Thursday, June 7 Pi
Tuesday, June 12 Rock and Roll High School
All movies are screened on the back (Main Street) side of the building starting at 9:15pm
Presented by The Soap Factory and Take-up Productions