
Because suburbia occupies a dominant presence in so many lives—a place of not only residence but also of work, commerce, worship, education, and leisure—it has become a focal point for competing interests and viewpoints. The suburbs have always been a fertile space for imagining both the best and the worst of modern social life. more
Drawn Here: Sean Griffiths of FAT
Target Free Thursday Nights
Thursday, March 6 7:00 pm
Escape to the Suburbs!
Free First Saturday
Saturday, April 5 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
Next Exit: The Shifting Landscape of Suburbia
Target Free Thursday Nights
Thursday, April 24 7:00 pm

All essays are originally from the companion book for this exhibition, Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes. Some essays appear in excerpted form where noted.

American, b. 1954, Munich, Germany; lives and works in Montclair, New Jersey
For years, Stefanie Nagorka has created work with readymade materials such as concrete masonry units and prefabricated bricks purchased from home-supply stores, but it wasn’t until 2002 that she began using the store itself as her studio. In these artistic actions, she creates sculptures directly on the warehouse loor or in garden-center aisles that are made from pavers, concrete blocks, and patio stones. Working without of icial permission, she photographs the resulting works before they are dismantled. By substituting her artist’s studio for potentially any Home Depot or Lowe’s store, Nagorka has adroitly expanded her artistic practice using the vernacular materials of suburbia while converting the retail site of consumption into her own productive venue. She has traveled the country, visiting stores in more than twenty-seven states as part of her Aisle Studio Project. Her temporary sculptures and performative actions question the status of the art object, raising issues of value and temporality. Nagorka’s work is included in the collections of institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum; the Drawing Center, New York; the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut; and the Fields Sculpture Park, Ghent, New York.
We asked people to make a video telling us about the suburbs and put it on YouTube. Selected videos are showing in the gallery at the Walker Art Center during the run of the exhibition.
Do you live in a suburb? Do you work or go to school in one? What is your experience of the “burbs? ”…
Whether you love them or hate them we’re interested in your thoughts on the phenomenon of the American suburb. We invite you to make a 5-minute video about strip malls, cul-de-sacs, office parks, and green lawns or whatever suburbia means to you. A select number of videos will be chosen to screen as part of the exhibition Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes in the Target Gallery from February 15 to May 18, 2008.
To participate, upload your video to YouTube and add the tag “walkerworldsaway” or post it as a response to our video above. We’ll feature all videos on the Walker’s YouTube page. To be considered for gallery screening, entries must be 5 minutes or less and be online by January 18, 2008.