By Mollee Francisco
Though the suburbs have traditionally played the part of the picture-perfect neighborhood, they have not been the stuff of art.
Until now.
Saturday, the Walker Art Center will unveil a new design exhibit entitled “Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes.” The show features more than 75 pieces of art and architecture all garnering inspiration from the ’burbs.
Andrew Blauvelt is the design director and co-curator of the exhibit. When thinking of a suburb-centered exhibit, he wondered how artists would respond to the rarely-explored subject matter.
Blauvelt noted that when most people think of suburbia, they think of something from the mid-20th century. But he had a challenge for artists.
“What does suburbia look like now?” he asked.
Laura Migliorino is one of the artists attempting to answer Blauvelt’s question. The Minneapolis resident has been commuting to Coon Rapids for the last 18 years and has witnessed the growth and evolution of the suburb with her own eyes.
“As a committed city dweller, I found myself making broad assumptions of suburbanites and set out on this journey of discovery,” she stated in an e-mail.
Migliorino discovery is documented in her collection of images titled, “The Hidden Suburbs: A Portrait.” In her works, Migliorino has constructed composite images of layered photographs. It’s a technique that allows her to express multiple ideas and symbols and makes her idea stronger, she believes.
The result is images like “Chicago Avenue,” where an Indian woman, dressed in traditional garb, stands in her driveway in the middle of her subdivision and “Egret Street,” where an African family poses proudly in front of their suburban garage.
“I want to reveal the diversity that exists in the suburbs to dispel the myth that the suburbs are exclusively white, straight, Republican and Christian,” said Migliorino. “On a broader, more conceptual level, I want viewers to challenge their own stereotypes in general.”
Migliorino admits that despite the project, her feelings about the suburbs are still mixed.
“On one hand, the suburbs still represent the ideal ‘American Dream,’” she said. “A house in the suburbs is a true mark of achievement for most Americans. That is a part of our history, culture and connection to our colonial roots. The English tradition of land, tranquility and countryside is important to the American identity.
“The flip side is the negative impact that urban sprawl is having on the environment. The further people live from the urban center, the more depleted the natural resources are. The more we remove trees and green spaces in favor of pavement, the warmer the planet will become. The more people drive and sit in traffic and consume gas, the (more) critical our environmental issues become.”
Blauvelt said that much of art in the exhibit leans toward the critical or at least neutral as it examines what a suburb is.
Big box
Worlds Away is arranged in three sections – the home, the retail zone and the infrastructure. Architecture and planning play a large role as artists envision the suburbs of the future.
“It’s a huge environment, but not a lot of architecture goes on there,” said Blauvelt.
Some artists looked at how future subdivisions might reflect more of their ethnic diversity while other artists looked at repurposing options for the suburbs of the future – mainly the repurposing of big box retail buildings. – wondering as K-marts close and Wal-Marts abandon their locations to build Wal-Mart Superstores, what are suburbs to do with the huge empty spaces left behind?
Blauvelt said in addition to creating churches, schools and museums in the spaces, artists looked at how to integrate a living experience into these “dead malls”
“How do you build condos on top of it?”
In that sense, Blauvelt sees suburbs taking some example from cities in their desire to integrate retail and housing. Suburbs trying to create an identity for themselves with the development of clearly-defined “downtowns” also borrow from traditional city planning models.
Conversely, cities have taken to incorporating some suburban detailing into their downtowns. Blauvelt points to Target’s downtown store as a good example of this.
“It’s kind of a messy thing,” he said. “I like to think of suburbia as a state of mind.”
Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes
When: Feb. 16-Aug. 17
Admission: $10, adults; $8, seniors; $6 student/teen
Where: Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis
More info: www.walkerart.org/worldsaway or (612 [1]) 375-7600