Chapters Exhibition

Chapters: A Mni Sota / Minnesota Experience

History is a deeply personal thing. And despite the dusty tomes weighing down backpacks on first days of school, a deeply alive thing. It shifts and changes with its tellers, its audience, and through our curiosity.

Chapters began as the conversation of life in a small prairie town, as had by someone who has grown up there and a newcomer figuring out the intricacies of this place and its people. This landscape-rooted dialogue materialized in “chapters”; each an exploration of what collaboration between two artists of different crafts – and histories – can look like.

Now each new home of the exhibit births a new Chapter exploring that place, and the whole beast grows, evolves, and weaves new connections, feeds roots already seeded.

Red Wing welcomes a new chapter of Chapters – launching a year-long state tour with new voices, waters, and collaboration.

About the Artists

It began with food… as most good things do.

Two artists with very different backgrounds and working in very different mediums came together to do a show in 2021. They had a lot of late nights, early mornings, and multilingual arguments… er, debates. Every meeting involved a meal.

They’re still working together under the moniker Iron & Iris.

IRON: Talon Cavender-Wilson is an Artisanal Journeyman Blacksmith with some additional knowledge of traditional woodworking.

With his roots in the Upper Sioux Community near Granite Falls Mni Sota (USA), his goal is to find the meeting place of the skills and knowledge he gained in Scandinavia studying and exploring this ancient craft, and traditional Dakota design and artwork. He hopes his forge offers a place for that meeting.

IRIS: Dani Prados was born in Washington DC and originally destined to be a marine biologist. Instead, she fell enthralled to the power of story, and has designed, directed, production managed, devised, and produced theatre, narrative and experimental film, short form content, multi-sensory art installations, immersive performances and transmedia for almost fifteen years in locations across the USA and Great Britain. She has been honored to collaborate with and facilitate projects for a wide range of artists, including Laurie Anderson, Anohni, New York Magazine, The Kitchen NYC, Silas Reiner & Rashaun Mitchell, XI.ME.NA, the Women’s March, Violet Machine, the Poetry Society of America, and Frances Cone.

At the heart of her work is an evolving quest to harness art for community empathy and action; her 2016 film And, Apart (which made the US festival circuit) inspired an ongoing filmic, gallery, and interactive series exploring the human facets, history, and societal impact of loss – and was a turning point in her practice.

About the Venue

Anderson Center Galleries are free to the public (donations welcome). The galleries are open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Gallery One is on the lower level of the main building and is accessed via stairs or an elevator. This exhibition contains elements including sculptures, moving images, sound, and scents. If you have questions about the accessibility of Anderson Center facilities or programs, please contact us! info@andersoncenter.org or 651-388-2009.

Free admission to the Anderson Center galleries is made possible in part through support from the Xcel Energy Foundation.

This exhibit is also made possible by the voters of Minnesota through an Operating Support grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.