My original plan was to go and listen to music on September 12th, 2024. It was a music and light show and sounded wonderful. I’d been wanting to check out the sculpture park and what better time to do that then at night.
As always, my adventures seem to never fall into place easily.
I’d been working on creating the Rum River Camera Club and because some things still do fall into place for me, I recently worked to make my new camera club part of the Twin Cities Area Council of Camera Clubs. Of course, tonight, September 12th, was the first meeting to which I was invited to express my interest in joining. Murphey’s Law.
The meeting was great! I met some really wonderful people and they are really excited about a new camera club up here north of the Metro.
Theoretically there as still time to go to the magical evening of art and music, featuring a performance by More Light and projections by Franconia’s Prairie Artist-in-Residence Torey Erin. It was supposed to last until 10pm and it was only 8:30pm. Christy came over and we headed out.
Here comes Murphey again! The concert had ended just before we got there. I honestly had been looking forward to hearing the music and seeing the light.
“More Light is an ambient soundscape project started by Minneapolis based musicians Al Church, Don House, Lars Larson, Eamonn McLain, and Dave Simonett. The project grew out of an idea to explore sonic spaces, and is entirely improvised. New additions to the group are Torey Erin whose projections help deepen the overall atmospheric quality of the work and Sarah Elstran who is known for her beautiful use of vocal looping. Members of the band play in a multitude of projects including Derecho, the Nunnery, Trampled by Turtles, and Jack Klatt.”
But it was not meant to be. Christy and I went inside anyway and I told them how bummed I was. They too were surprised that it had ended early. I took the opportunity to mention that the Northern Lights might make an appearance and how we’d love to get some photos of that, if it happened, and the gentleman behind the desk said we could go for it!
Yay!!
We grabbed our equipment and went exploring.
One of the largest points of interest is Peter Lundberg’s iconic sculpture Skallagrim, so we headed that way first. It is the largest, after all. We didn’t see any auroras yet, but we set up anyway to try some test shots.
I did get this really cool pic of an airplane seemingly to fly between the arms of the concrete statue, which you can see above.
There was still no auroras so we decided to explore. I had grabbed a map and we started wandering around. Even she admitted that the sculpture park is cooler (literally and figuratively) at night.
We headed over to the Lorraine Motel Sign. It is “a replica of the Lorraine Motel sign was relocated from Memphis, TN to Franconia, MN. This continues my investigation in reproducing objects outside of their original contexts by emphasizing the transformations that architecture undergoes in a new setting. The replica of the Lorraine Motel Sign, repositioned in northern Minnesota on the side of highway 8, could be mistaken for a possible new development or past site of a motel. The motel in Memphis, now the National Civil Rights Museum, which is the location of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Reverend King was an influential voice for the nation and his powerful words continue to inspire future generations. This new Lorraine Motel Sign continues a conversation of growth, emphasizing the connection of this historical moment to the contemporary discussion of race, inequality and violence in the south and the north.”
We couldn’t get very close though. Supposedly it gets damaged.
Then we wandered over to the Portal Circle.
Sadly, the Solar Tree didn’t work.. it didn’t glow at all. It is described on the Franconia website as
“Solar tree is a stylized version of an oak tree that absorbs energy from the sun using photovoltaic in order to light up at night. Solar tree was built in the same diorama like fashion as my landscape sculptures, which use a series of separated planes in order to give an illusion of depth. Empty space between the planes are essential in the rounding out of the layers, allowing the visitor to fill in the gaps, completing the piece. A visitor can walk through Solar Tree, between the layers, and look up into the layers above. The colors and shapes were inspired by water lilies.”
I then discovered what I thought was the best piece in the park. I know it’s not how the artist wants it to be seen, but I instantly thought of it as a barn in a tornado and I happily started taking photos.
As I was taking photos, I started noticing some colors. OMG! Lady Aurora started dancing for us! She was muted but delightful. The way I look at it, she enhanced the photos of the sculptures instead of overwhelming them. You can see my favorite images below.
I suppose my adventures are fun and unique so I have something to write about, but I’m glad we made it to the Franconia Sculpture Park and I’m even more glad that we had some Northern Lights to enhance the evening.
I’ll take the win!