News and Updates

Spring 2016 News

| admin

1000 Little Things at Winona State UniversityI can’t believe it’s been 6 months since the exhibition of 1000 Little Things in Winona, but it has. In fall, I said that I’d post photos from the show, and you can find them here as well as a video highlighting the audio archive here. Eventually the work will be documented on this site as well.

Come see where I (sometimes) work!
If you are in the Twin Cities, you can see elements from 1000 Little Things and other work during Art-a-Whirl, May 20 through 22. My studiomate Jane Powers and I will have our space open for Northeast Minneapolis’ yearly studio tour on Friday from 5-10pm, Saturday from 12-8pm and Sunday from 12-5pm. She and I will be taking turns (wo)manning the space, so send me a message if you want to be sure to meet. We’re located in the Casket Arts Building at 681 17th Ave NE, Minneapolis in studio #4 on the Lower Level (fancy name for basement).

Research continues with my residency at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts in Fridley. I’ve interviewed a number of long-term and newer residents about their relationship to the city. Their experiences, while certainly individual, echo national trends about feelings of increased isolation and insularity in suburban living and a desire for more urban amenities. Right now I am connecting with groups in Fridley whose stories may not be as well represented to see how we can bring those stories to the public — BLCA just installed a programmable digital sign by its East River Road entrance, so that offers some intriguing possibilities.

The Free Speech Machine was also busy early this year. Audio from multiple events in January and February is up on the blog and we got a small mention in an article about Ready Go, a service that helps connect non-profits and other groups to artist-designed communication tools.

At the end of February this year, I attended a lettering workshop in Mazeppa, Minnesota with famed signpainter Mike Meyers. I’ve always been a sucker for good signs, but now my obsession has reached a whole new level – especially aided by the convenience of a cellphone camera. So I’ll leave you with a few recently spotted gems.

Morgan Camera Shop in LA
Hollywood
Beauty Shop sign in Baltimore
Baltimore
National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, Baltimore
National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, Baltimore
LA fabric district
LA fabric district
Shopping Center in LA
LA

Fall 2015 News

| admin

I’ve been meaning to send an update on what I’ve been doing since returning to the US. After taking some time to get settled, most of 2015 has been occupied with preparing for an exhibition that will finally be opening next month.

Post-WWII globe with Leipzig marked by a pinThe show, titled Das Fundbuero – 1000 Little Things, opens Wednesday, November 18th in the Paul Watkins Gallery on the campus of Winona State University in Winona, Minn. The opening begins with a public lecture from 4-5pm followed by a reception in the gallery.

I have really enjoyed developing the installation, as it’s given me the opportunity to process the experiences and information I collected in Weimar and Leipzig during six years of projects dealing with East German history. Watkins Hall is a mid-sixties modernist building with a terrazzo floor and glass doors that makes a great space for the installation, which combines objects and interviews collected while working on Das Fundbuero with contemporary objects from the US and newly built sculptural components.

I have been thinking a lot about the role of nostalgia and the desire for a simple historical narrative, as well as questions about documentation and presentation of participatory artwork after the fact. The installation lets me work with these ideas more directly than was possible sometimes in the participatory projects in Leipzig. I’m looking forward to seeing the complete installation, since my studio is only big enough to work on segments of it at a time. Even better, as I continue to work, I continue to have more ideas for how to interpret and present Das Fundbuero  – who knew making objects would continue to be part of my artistic process.

Minnesota Legacy Amendment Logo Minnesota State Arts Board LogoThe show is supported in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, or to make it all legal:  Monica Sheets is a fiscal year 2015 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Thank you Minnesota taxpayers!

In September, I began an 18-month residency with Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts in Fridley, Minn. The arts center is about 6 miles from my apartment in Minneapolis, but it’s location in Manomin Park at the confluence of Rice Creek and the Mississippi River makes it feel much farther away. One of my goals during the residency is to adapt and expand the sort of participative work I was doing in Germany. I am particularly interested in how Fridley lacks a clear civic “center”, though there are lots of beautiful parks and shopping centers with idiosyncratic tenants like an honorary Romanian Consulate and a great Bosnian supermarket. I am interested in how this de-centeredness affects people’s sense of community and identification with the city. The residency culminates in an exhibition at the arts center in early 2017.

I’ll be posting images of 1000 Little Things on facebook and my website after the opening. If you’re in the area, I hope you can visit the exhibition in Winona or come see me at Banfill-Locke.