This weekend, the Indianapolis arts group Primary Colours transforms a vacant lot at Michigan Street and College Avenue into Installation Nation — a two-day event featuring seven installation/gallery spaces inside metal shipping containers.
Julie Cifuentes and Brent Aldrich created one of the standout installations — called “The Pines” — in last year’s debut of Installation Nation. Their multisensory experience took visitors from the city and into a pine forest at twilight, just by stepping into a boxcar.
This year, the two Indianapolis artists and Herron graduates are collaborating on a new project that again brings nature to Installation Nation’s most unnatural of settings. This time, they’ll use living things, photos, drawings and “everything in between” to get people to focus on what’s inside the 8-foot wide, 8-foot high, and 20-foot long metal box.
“Brent and I both make work that deals with an examination of our surroundings in nature,” Cifuentes said. “Last year was a recreation of a place. This year, we are delving more into the ways we examine small things in nature.”
Six other artists or teams of artists from around the Midwest also will show their work from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. June 4 and from 5 to 11 p.m. June 5. Cost is $8; kids 12 and younger get in free. You can also enjoy some beer from Sun King and listen to some live, local music that includes Slothpop and Kate Lamont playing on June 5.
The whole thing works, in part, thanks to the Efroymson Family Fund, which allowed Primary Colours to give $750 to seven participating artists or artist teams. More info: www.primarycolours.org.
Jim Walker is director of Second Story and community art coordinator at Big Car. E-mail him at jim@bigcar.org.
