FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Please Love Me
Saturday September 9 through Friday October 13, 2006
At Walker's Point Center for the Arts
Opening Reception: Saturday September 9, 6-9pm
For the third time this year, an international collection of artists
will be exhibiting at Walker's Point Center for the Arts.
Argentinean-born artist Santiago Cucullu and artist and writer
Nicholas Frank will open "Please Love Me" on September 9th featuring
multimedia art from all over the world focusing on the possible
relationship between architecture and the love letter.Cucullu and Frank ask the viewer to envision ¡Ä "The supports of the
keg-laden back porch are rotted through from summers' past mold and
wear. It will fall, maybe not today, but surely soon after. No use
complaining, as there is no one who will take on the responsibility of
a large scale project or put up the money to pay a contractor... You
do what is most logical. You place the car-jack under the main beam
supporting your rotten keg-laden porch and crank. Take a step back,
admire your labor¡½you have pushed back the moment of inevitability."This attempt to maintain integrity against entropy inspired a
question: what is the relationship between architecture and the love
letter?As a response the two organized "Please Love Me," an exhibition at
Walker's Point Center for the Arts exhibiting September 9th through
October 13th, featuring 16 artists from Milwaukee and around the
world.Cucullu and co-organizer Nicholas Frank asked several artists to
respond to the question of whether any relationship between
architecture and the love letter is possible. "The answer lies in that
vacillation, whether there's a relationship or not," Cucullu said.
"The essence of the question slips back and forth, remaining evident
in the work presented.""I asked these artists to extend their practices as a specific
response to this show," Cucullu said. Rachel Breunlin (New Orleans)
sets the stage with a fanzine that acts as a neighborhood memoir while
Annie Killelea brings us up close and far tweaked as we ride shotgun
in search of a connection. Michael Bernstein (Brooklyn) examines the
possibility of the absurd in the way architecture relates to social
organization. Kyoung Ae Cho (Milwaukee) presents a dark iconic
sculpture which underlines the poetics of minimal construction with
the most personal aspects of the body. Jan Christensen (Berlin,
Germany), Jessica Jackson Hutchins (Portland) and Ester Partegas
(Brooklyn), expose an extreme personal vision in the encounter of
seminal architectonic intersections. Kuo I-Chen (Taiwan) simply places
a camera on a balloon, waving adieu as the viewer floats away from the
city. Mads Lynnerup (New York City) fosters a deep bond via a
televised entreaty of reality as a slide show, featuring demolished
sets set into an older model console television. Brent Steen
(Brooklyn) starkly asks "Maybe we could be us". Tyson Reeder
(Milwaukee) and Scott Reeder (Milwaukee) recreate the refuse of the
city in carefully detailed ceramic doubles. Adrian Procel (Monterey,
Mexico) poses the conflicts inherent in economic expansion as a simple
snap shot construction. Allison Wiese (San Diego) and Adam Pendleton
(New York City) both delve into the didactics of the lettered sign.
Anton Vidokle (New York City) reclaims modernist block housing in
Mexico City. Finally Mayra Silva (Monterey, Mexico) and Janek Simon
(Krakow, Poland) yet again push towards a romantic logic. On the one
hand a turn of the phrase and on the other a model house constructed
using a flawed system.According to the organizers, "The international scope of the show
reflects cities" in their mishmash of ethnicities, architectural
styles, and coexisting eras.Work will include video, film, sculpture, painting, installation art,
and photography. Subject matter includes cigarette butts, trash,
questions, plaintive sighs, forlorn sights, delicately woven hair,
flowers in bloom, and quixotic endeavors.
Photo opportunity: Saturday September 9, 6-9pm
For images and more information, visit our website at
www.wpca-milwaukee.org or contact Cody Litkey at
cody@wpca-milwaukee.org for specific requests.WALKER'S POINT CENTER FOR THE ARTS supports visual and performing arts
and learning in a multicultural environment. The center fosters
creativity in children through innovative education and encourages
audience development and artistic talent with a diverse blend of
programming.WPCA displays seven art exhibitions per year in its gallery, has
theater and multi-purpose space available to host events, and provides
art education for the community with various children's and adult
programs throughout the year.WPCA is supported by funds from the City of Milwaukee Public Schools,
an anonymous donor, the Herzfeld Foundation, Milwaukee Arts Board,
Wisconsin Arts Board, Mary L. Nohl Fund of the Greater Milwaukee
Foundation, CAMPAC, City of Milwaukee CDBG, Windhover Foundation, Lucy
and Jack Rosenberg Charitable Funds, Mortimer Charitable Lead Trust,
Thomas Holland, Woman's Club of Wisconsin Foundation, Heller
Foundation, John C. & Harriett Cleaver Fund, Christine Symchych,
Barbara Manger, Ruth De Young Kohler, Luz Mercado Arenas, Andrew
Herbach, Isabel Bader, and members of WPCA with additional support
from individuals, foundations, corporations, and government grants.