Walker Art Center

Ralph Lemon: Scaffold Room
September 16–24, 2014
Burnet Gallery

Scaffold Room, Ralph Lemon’s bold new “lecture-performance-musical,” refracts ideas and images of the female artist in American pop and contemporary art culture. Riveting performances by Okwui Okpokwasili and April Matthis—who take up iconic figures from popular entertainment, science fiction, and history including Beyoncé, Moms Mabley, Amy Winehouse, Kathy Acker, Adele, Ben Webster, and Samuel Delaney—evolve alongside video images of a rural Mississippi Delta community. The performance collapses past, present, and future, calling up the dreams of outer-space travel from fiction and film of the previous century. Sound score created live by composer Marina Rosenfeld.

For his first major gallery-based performance work, Ralph Lemon has created distinct versions of Scaffold Room, which invite a deeper examination of the performance experience. On Thursday, September 25 from 5 to 9 pm, he presents Scaffold Room Refraction, an unpredictable and durational mix of live music and charged parallel performances layered across the entire evening. Refractions continue in the afternoons on Saturday and Sunday, September 27 and 28.

Note: performance contains explicit language and adult subject matter.

Exhibition Opening Kickoff: Scaffold Room Refraction
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Join us on Target Free Thursday Night for the official opening of Ralph Lemon's Scaffold Room public activities.

Performances
September 26–28
Friday, 7 and 9:30 pm; Saturday, 8 pm; Sunday, 7 pm
$25 ($22 Walker members)
Tickets: 612.375.7600 or walkerart.org/tickets

Open Rehearsals
September 16–24, during gallery hours
The public is invited to observe Scaffold Room during installation and rehearsals in the Burnet Gallery.

Artists on Site

Open Rehearsals

The public is invited to observe Scaffold Room during installation and rehearsals when the galleries are open.

Refraction

Enjoy free parallel performance events by the Scaffold Room artists. Cash bar available in the Cargill Lounge.

Thu, Sep 25, 5–9 pm

Scaffold Room

Live and video performers play within imagery collapsing past, present, and future during these evening performances.

Meditation

Ralph Lemon and Jim Findlay's immersive sound and moving-image experience will be on view in the McGuire Theater.

Audience Discussion

SpeakEasy

Have a question about Scaffold Room? Join this informal discussion hosted by guest artist-facilitators to learn more.

Thu, Sep 25, 7–9 pm

Artist Discussion

Gallery Talk

Ralph Lemon, Okwui Okpokwasili, and April Matthis join artist Gabrielle Civil for an insightful conversation about Scaffold Room.

Sat, Sep 27, 1 pm

Scaffold Room is a production of Cross Performance and MAPP International Productions. The work is commissioned by the Walker Art Center with support provided by the William and Nadine McGuire Commissioning Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding support is provided by the Surdna Foundation, the Doris Duke Performing Arts Award Audience Development program, the MAP Fund (a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), the MetLife Foundation, the New England Foundation for the Arts’ Production Residency for Dance Program, the James E. Robison Foundation, and the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation. The work is co-commissioned by Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University, Bard College/The Fisher Center for Performing Arts, and the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), and was developed in part through a residency at the Park Avenue Armory.

Photos: Scaffold Room ©Ralph Lemon

Forward • Manage Subscription • Unsubscribe

Walker Art Center • 1750 Hennepin Ave • Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403