Second Annual Winter Carnival

February 11, 2012 - 10:00am - 4:00pm

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Free to members or with admission to the sculpture garden. Family passes are $15 in advance (call 414.446.8794) or $20 at the door.

Lynden welcomes winter with a day of outdoor art-making, studio activities, tours and tree-walks, and whatever winter activities the weather permits. Sara Caron (last year’s You Snow Grand Prize winner) and Ashley Janke are planning a garden-wide Capture the Flag tournament, with artist-made flags and artist-run checkpoints, and they have invited Mexico City-based artist Gitte Bog to create a new food-based, site-responsive project for the tournament’s tailgate. The art studio will be open for Valentine-making in the morning and candle-making in the afternoon, and we’ll be painting the pond again! Watch or participate on foot, skis, snowshoes or skates (bring your own).

We’re beginning to fill in the details, and will continue to add information below.

Schedule

(Red indicates a drop-in activity.)

10 am-4 pm Tailgate with Gitte Bog
10 am-1 pm French Fold Valentines
11 am-3 pm Join the Capture the Flag Tournament
11 am Docent-led tour of the sculpture garden
11:30 am-12:30 pm Checkpoint Project with Neil Gasparka
1 pm Trees in the Landscape: Linda Stehman introduces Lynden's trees
1 pm-3 pm The Pond is Our Canvas
1:30-2:30 pm Checkpoint Project with Richard Galling
1 pm-4 pm Dip Candles
3:30 pm Tournament trophies awarded

We will also be screening Gitte Bog's Birds (2008) throughout the day in the conference room.

Winter Carnival Guest Artist Gitte Bog

Gitte Bog is a Danish artist who lives and works in Mexico City. Her social art practice is site- and context-responsive and participatory in nature, and she thinks of it as a platform for dialogue. Bog is interested in the poetic possibilities in everyday materials, activities and places. Inspired by traditional work methods, hobbies and celebrations, she explores identity, memory, history, cultural differences (and similarities) and language. Singing, dancing, knitting, cooking, talking, walking and planting seeds have all found their way into her work, which takes different forms: live art, video, audio and installation. Bog finds some everyday activities simultaneously fascinating and frustrating; by resetting their rules or creating rituals of her own, she questions the authoritarian presence that often masks these benign activities. Fusion and chance are central elements in her work.

For her project at Lynden, Bog invited people to participate in two simple online surveys that allowed her to learn more about Milwaukee, its food, and its citizens. She will respond to this data with two hot soups (one that represents Milwaukee as it is, the other redolent of our desires) and bread wrapped in messages. We took the surveys down Wednesday night to give Bog time to digest their contents.

Bog obtained her degrees in visual arts in London, where she lived for more than ten years. She has been awarded several residencies and commissions and her work is shown in galleries in Europe and the Americas. She is the co-founder of two organizations in Mexico City that offer local communities free art workshops and other cultural activities. More info: www.gb09.com/

Capture the Flag Tournament & Checkpoint Projects


According to Sara Caron and Ashley Janke, who had to explain the game to Gitte Bog, Capture the Flag originated with the Boy Scouts. Here’s how they explained it:

Typically, the game consists of two teams. Each has a flag and a designated territory. The goal is to sneak over to the other team's territory to steal their flag. If a member of one team catches a player from the other team on their territory, they can tag them and that player then has to wait in a designated jail area until they are rescued by being tagged by one of their own teammates.

Our goal in organizing the game is to blur the definition of art a bit, to take something familiar--in this case a game one might have played as a child--and to recontextualize it as an art event. We’d like participants to have fun, but also to recognize the creative potential of their daily life.

For our tournament, we’ve added a few wrinkles to broaden the experience. The two core teams will consist of local artists, and each team will have multiple flags that they have designed. We will designate a playing area across the garden, and divide it between the teams. Visitors will be assigned to teams as they arrive, and in addition to (or instead of) participating in the game, they can earn points for their team by taking part in the scheduled activities (tours, studio activities, painting the pond, Gitte’s project) and in artist-designed Checkpoint Projects.

Team captains announced! The two teams will be headed up by Elisabeth Albeck (The Deertrappers) and Cody Frei (another You Snow participant; he has named his team after Geronimo, the Chiricahua Apache leader). The participating artists are Richard Galling, Katie Batten, John Riepenhoff, Neil Gasparka, Karl Saffran and Alec Regan.

Checkpoint Projects


Richard Galling, another winner in last year’s You Snow competition, offers the opportunity to make a plein air painting in 15 minutes at his checkpoint. Bring your fingerless gloves—we supply the easels, paints, brushes and canvas boards.

Neil Gasparka is building a Tivoli Ice Slide for his checkpoint project. Make, modify and race small objects on this roller-coaster-like course!

Trees in the Landscape


Join Master Gardener Volunteer Linda Stehman for a talk and tour that focuses on trees in the winter landscape. The tour will begin on the patio, where your guide will lead you on a walk that loops around the lake where you will identify some of the unusual trees at Lynden (Shagbark Hickory, European Beech, Amelanchier or serviceberry, Bald Cypress, Dawn Redwood and more) while discussing how the texture, color and forms of trees can enhance the landscape in the winter months. Bring your questions for the tree expert!

The Pond Is Our Canvas


Artists of all ages are invited to participate in this collaborative project. Using non-toxic food coloring, we will be making a large-scale painting on the little pond.

Studio Art Activities


These activities are designed as drop-ins and are open to all ages (young children may need parental assistance).

10 am–1 pm: French Fold Valentines
Create a pop-up Valentine by decorating a piece of paper and then artfully cutting and folding. 2D-Valentine makers also welcome!

1-4 pm: Dip Candles
Make candles the old-fashioned way, by dipping a string in wax.


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