Artists & Projects Directory
Cross Performance/Ralph Lemon
(the efflorescence of) Walter is a continually developing mixed-media exhibition
created by Ralph Lemon and composed of drawings, text, sculptural elements, projected
videos and animations. The installations form an unpredictable and eerily
poetic narrative that references sources as diverse as the writer James
Baldwin, conceptual artist Bruce Nauman, African-American folktale character
Br'er Rabbit, and Lemon's own collection of 45rpm records. The central figure
of Walter Carter ties these threads together, raising questions about memory,
memorialization and transcendence.
The first version, exhibited at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in
March-June 2006, included video from Lemon and Carter's work together as well
as set pieces and animations from Lemon's performance work, Come home
Charley Patton.
The second version, curated by Anthony Allen and Claire Tancons,
was exhibited at The Kitchen in New
York City in May-June 2007. That show included video
chapters of Walter at work and play, as well as animations, sound, drawings and
sculptural/set elements created by Lemon. In addition, Lemon commissioned
Carter's son, Warren Carter and a neighbor, Lloyd Williams, to build a
spaceship for The Kitchen exhibit from backyard debris. The process of building and moving the
spaceship to New York City
was a performative aspect of the installation.
The most recent incarnation of (the efflorescence of) Walter, also
curated by Anthony Allen and Claire Tancons, was installed at the Contemporary
Art Center in New Orleans in January-March 2008, where the work also took
on new meaning in relationship to the complex cultural memory and present of
post-Katrina New Orleans.