Allora & Calzadilla: Chalk at Walker Art Center

Allora & Calzadilla, Chalk, 1998/2019. Photo: courtesy the artists.

Based in Puerto Rico, collaborators Jennifer Allora (b. 1974) and Guillermo Calzadilla (b. 1971) have been working together since 1995, creating works that reach across sculpture, video, performance, and photography. Chalk (1998) is an ongoing art project in which the artists place human-size sticks of chalk—each piece measuring 64 inches in length and weighing approximately 120 pounds—in public spaces for passers-by to use as they choose. Previously installed in cities around the world, the work takes on a new personal and political identity in each location.

The exhibition will be presented in the Walker’s Gallery 7, a space adjacent to the museum’s outdoor terraces, which are a hub for seasonal programming. Treated with a special chalk-friendly paint, the gallery will serve as a center of activity for audiences of all ages. Visitors will be invited to draw or write with the chalk on the gallery’s floor and walls, transforming the space into an immersive site for self-expression.

View of the exhibition Allora & Calzadilla: Chalk, 2019. Photo: Pierre Ware for Walker Art Center

View of the exhibition Allora & Calzadilla: Chalk, 2019. Photo: Pierre Ware for Walker Art Center

View of the exhibition Allora & Calzadilla: Chalk, 2019. Photo: Pierre Ware for Walker Art Center.

Chalk provides a physical forum for participants to exchange ideas, evolving into a social and political portrait of the community. Express yourself and see what others have added to this ever-changing space for all ages.

Allora & Calzadilla: Chalk will be on view through February 2, 2020.

Curator: Victoria Sung, Assistant Curator, Visual Arts

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla’s Charcoal Dance Floor—a highly detailed floor drawing of young clubgoers that slowly disappeared as the shoes of gallery visitors scuffed it—was featured in the Walker’s 2003 exhibition How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age. Since then, they’ve visited twice more as artists-in-residence in 2003 and 2004 to develop with the Walker’s Teen Arts Council “Radio Re-Volt: One Person .ooOne Watt,” a project in which they imagined a network of micro-radio stations across the Twin Cities and hosted transmitter-building workshops to help realize it.

The pair has exhibited their work worldwide through solo shows in Zurich, Munich, Indianapolis, and more; group shows like documenta 13; and high-profile honors, including representing the United States at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011 (their five-installation work Gloria included, among other elements, a flipped-over 52-ton army tank on top of which was mounted a treadmill complete with an Olympic runner).

$15 adults; $13 seniors (62+); $10 students (with ID) Free to Walker members and ages 18 and under. Free with a paid event ticket within six months of performance or screening. Free to all every Thursday evening (5–9 pm) and on the first Saturday of each month (10 am–6 pm). Enjoy free gallery admission on Thursday nights from 5 to 9 pm.

Walker Art Center 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis, MN 55403 (612) 375-7600