In the mid-1990’s, the owners of the Seven Seas Building refused an above market-rate offer from the Four Seasons Hotel. About to begin construction on a new multi-million dollar, five star hotel, they wished to secure more real estate and capitalize on the expansive views of Elliot Bay and greater Puget Sound. It wasn’t the first time that the family had turned down a generous offer, but after continued conversation, they did agree to an unusual deal – for $800,000.00 the Four Seasons Hotel purchased the air rights above the building – insuring that no future high-rise would obstruct their sweeping views to the south. The Four Seasons effectively purchased the air rights ten feet above the roof of their neighbor.
When renovating the Seven Seas Building for W3 operations, it was impossible not to view the 4,000 square foot tar roof as a brilliant outdoor space brimming with potential. Just so long as we didn’t breach the 10 foot easement, our new cargo elevator could open out onto this envisioned roof deck. Would it be a sculpture park, host summer parties, support a ‘living roof’, a zip line to Alki Beach?
What we had not envisioned was a 47 foot wooden Chris Craft yacht pointed towards the sound and housing an artist-residency program.
Seattle art collectors Elli and Dan Hansen have been avid supporters of Walden Three, and from the very beginning had offered their Lake Union yacht as a place for visiting W3 artists to stay. The boat, aptly called The Tranquilizer, rarely left its moorage, but proved to be a generous, and truly functional place to house artists. It was an adventure to sleep aboard, and with three staterooms, it comfortably slept six, with two bathrooms, a full kitchen and spacious living quarters… it was just about perfect.
I don’t want to give a bottle of Blanton’s bourbon full credit, but by the time it was drained (along with a case of red wine, a fifth of tequila and numerous other spirits), Dan, Alan Maskin, Sierra Stinson, Sarah Bergman, Ben Beres, Amanda Manatach, DK Pan and myself had imagined The Tranquilizer on the roof of Walden Three, plumbed into W3’s utilities and serving as a year-round artist-residency program. It was indeed a late-night drunken dream, and while more absurd things had been realized, I think our collective hang over washed away our enthusiasm and chalked up the night as another lively engagement.
The conversation seemed to be quickly forgotten to everyone except Elli and Dan Hansen.
While we were busy filming and producing exhibits at W3, Elli and Dan were on a mission – talking with Ness Cranes, Turner Construction, Olson Kundig Architects and The Four Seasons (the flybridge of The Tranquilizer would rest 14′-4″ above the roofline) and last week we were formally gifted The Tranquilizer. Yes, there will be a yacht on the roof. A. Yacht. On. The. Roof. (How do you scream excitement with a keyboard?) The twin diesel engines will be removed, a section of the hull cut away and retrofitted for stability, and the natural gas, water and sewage will route into our existing utilities.
The Tranquilizer is on schedule to be crane-lifted onto its perch in late February 2014. We cannot thank Elli and Dan enough, but we will do our very best to make their family yacht one of the most dynamic artist-residency programs in the world, and with Sierra Stinson at the helm of the project, it is sure to be a coveted destination for artists, writers, musicians and all who care to dream with us.
Happy holidays, and thank you for helping us imagine a greater city.
-GL
The Peppermint show has been open for a couple of weeks now, garnering its share of kudos from art literati, protests from the Seattle Archdiocese, and endless bickering from the blogosphere. The educational staff here at Walden 3 stand firm in our belief that the best way to address the questions from this controversial show is to ask you, the concerned public, to weigh in, live, next Thursday, as part of our continuing lecture series. Since it’s all about judgment, we will be turning the steps of the Denny School of Art into an ersatz courtroom, over which will preside the Honorable Sandra Jackson-Dumont, from the Seattle Art Museum. On trial will be the works of four men versus their bodies of work, in an attempt to find consensus on how the art stands up to the artists’ various ignominious behaviors.
CASE 1: the soul-enlivening musical canon of “the Hardest-working Man in Show Business” vs. infamous spouse abuser and drug addict James Brown
CASE 2: the high craft, deft meta-irony of one of the NW’s premier ceramic masters vs. Nazi-sympathizer and Holocaust downplayer Charles Krafft
CASE 3: the quirky, earnest folk art paintings of a late-blooming romantic vs. the corrupt, dunder-headed political nightmare of George W. Bush
CASE 4: the curious oeuvre of therapeutic peppermint paintings vs. the show’s headlining artist, Thomas Henkelsen.
For each case, the audience will be invited to act as both prosecutors and defendants, microphones will be used for testimony, claims and evidence will be fact-checked by the staff at W3, opinions will be passionately given, debate fostered, civility will be expected, but argument will be encouraged. Judge Jackson-Dumont will mediate when necessary, and all four men’s cases will be decided by the jury of all present with a formal vote. Matters will be settled thereafter at the Dial, where discussion is likely to carry on until closing time. We hope you can come with compelling testimonies and enjoy an evening of inspired judgment.
JD
Friday night marked the opening of Thomas Henkelsen’s controversial retrospective Peppermint, in the Dearborn Gallery. At first glance, one wouldn’t imagine the show to ruffle any feathers – the 110 paintings and collages on display span an art career from 1959 to 2013 and arc from outsider/amateur artist to photorealist to abstract expressionist – all referencing an obsession with peppermint ice cream. At first glance, the viewer can watch the evolution of an artist – a flip book of progress and deconstruction – and think “what’s not to love?” But it is the life of Mr. Henkelsen that disturbs and throws into question almost every aspect of his art-making career. It is by far the most polarizing and controversial show yet exhibited at W3, and from the protesters on the street to the heated conversations in the gallery above, Peppermint asks a plethora of questions about the relationship between artist and their works, and the challenges of celebrating, or even liking work made by individuals with bad ideas and unpardonable crimes.
In an attempt to diversify the voice and work exhibited at Walden Three, we work with a rotating cast of leading guest curators – art dealers, museum curators and risk-taking art producers from British Columbia to Eugene, Oregon. Of the 20+ yearly exhibitions we host at Walden Three, only a handful are selected by our staff. We would like to think that we have a few good ideas of our own, and receiving more than a hundred unsolicited proposals and artist inquires a month, there is no shortage of work to consider. Peppermint was one of these unsolicited letters of interest, and as controversial as it may be, it was just too rich a territory to ignore.
Thomas Henkelsen was a priest in Yakima, Washington from 1955 to 1988. Maybe you’ve heard of him. He is currently serving 178 years in Walla Walla State Penitentiary on 57 counts of child molestation. It was a big story when it broke in the early 1990s, but like much of the news (or news of that sort) we forget about it and move along to the next tragedy or war or snip of celebrity gossip. Thomas Henkelsen is 21 years into his sentence, and strangely, amazingly, he has become an exceptional, and exceptionally complex painter.
Henkelsen was brought to our attention by a tri-cities artist named Bobby Grutt. He is no angel himself (serving time in the 1980s-90s for drug possession, forgery and armed robbery), but has been volunteering and teaching art therapy within the penal system for the past decade. Mr. Henkelsen was a prolific student of Mr. Grutt’s, and as Mr. Grutt wrote in his introductory letter, “a raw, troubled talent that cannot be ignored or eclipsed by the crimes of his past.” His letter and CD of Mr. Henkelsen’s 1,254 works became a pebble in our shoe – we couldn’t get it out of our mind, and in the fall of 2011, drove east to visit Bobby Grutt and the incarcerated Henkelsen. Never before have we approached an exhibition with as much caution, legal counsel, trepidation and community outreach, but driving back to Seattle after that first meeting, we could not deny the emotional complexity of his work and the importance of the conflict it presented. We want to exhibit shows that made people struggle and argue and cry and recalibrtate their understanding of art and the world at large. Peppermint fell squarely within that mission, despite the black eyes and moral conflicts it has inflicted.
What makes his paintings, and motivations rather sinister is that peppermint ice cream is what he would give to his young victims after molesting them. It was his way of “making things right” and “making the kids happy” (his words). In some way, his hundreds of paintings of peppermint ice cream cones are offered to the world – or anyone that will give them the time – in an effort to make up for the bad he has done. In a very real way, 100% of the sales from this exhibition at Walden Three will go towards the victims and their families. Thomas Henkelsen will not receive a penny from this exhibition, though W3 did honor his singular request – that all visiting guests be given a single scoop of peppermint ice-cream.
Somewhere within the trajectory of Mr. Henkelsen’s incarceration, his mouthwatering ice-cream paintings lost their seduction. His forms twisted and melted, became diseased, abstract and often repulsive. His color palate remained primarily pink and white, but the shapes and forms mutated, corrupted, and decayed like a promise broken. They are by far his most compelling work, but they are not the images that little boys reach for. To see the arc of his work, you can’t help but suspect a sense of guilt, of recognition, of remorse.
Should galleries and museums be showing the work of a confessed child molester? Should galleries and museums (and libraries and record shops) exhibit or sell works by artists that have committed crimes, propagated bad ideas or were ‘bad people’ in their time? Is it an immoral act in itself? Sure we are raising money to give to his victims, but will it be viewed as celebrating him, forgiving him, validating him as an artist? As David Lister observed in the catalog, “Artistic creations must be used and judged in their own vacuum, free from their creators’ weaknesses, moral failings, even criminal acts. It is not that long of a road from boycotting paintings to burning books.”
The opening reception was a packed and somber affair. There were ex-cons and religious groups, relatives of the victims (to our knowledge none of Mr. Henkelsen’s victims were in attendance) and twenty-something girls dressed in plaid schoolgirl uniforms. The Dial posted record drink sales (the most common response being “I need a drink!”) 23 ice cream cones littered the gallery floor (and three hit the gallery wall) but when the dust settled and the doors were finally locked, we had raised over $175,000.00. There was no after hours celebration, no high fives – the show still feels like a pebble in our shoe. As it should – it is a complex and disturbing and bitter pill to swallow.
Oscar Wilde wrote, “There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.” But what do we do with the immoral artist – is contemporary culture qualified to make those distinctions, and can we separate the artist from the art? Is there a place in the world for brilliant painters, designers, writers, etc. who commit crimes, propagate hatred, or are just bad people? Can we forgive, can we love the art and hate its creator? Is buying, exhibiting or endorsing the art in some way forgiving its creator? Making us an accomplice to their crime? These are the conversations that ran hot and contentious and unresolved – in the gallery, on the street and into the homes and workplaces of all that witnessed it.
Join us next week in the Denny School of Art as instructor Jed Dunkerley navigates Peppermint and the uncertain waters of censorship and morality in art. Guillermo Vargas, James Brown, George Michael, John Galliano, Authur Koestler, Fatty Arbuckle and Seattle’s own Charles Krafft to be discussed.
-GL
In conjunction with Dylan Neuwirth’s ground-breaking show IDOL THREAT in the Mercer Gallery, the Denny School of Art at Walden 3 is excited to present a lecture by NYU art historian Mark Kunstler about the ground already broken in the field of augmented reality (AR). Best Augmentations: A Survey of Noteworthy Geo-located Virtual Art will feature a slideshow of screen-shots of dozens of pieces in their geo-located habitats, as well as Kunstler’s insight into the politics, legal implications, and future of the burgeoning field. The presentation will also include real-time video interviews between Kunstler and four prominent figures in AR. Leslie Ngo, CEO and founder of RadicalEyes, a viewer app that has edged out pioneers AugmentIt and Overlair as the premier virtual real estate broker for artists, will discuss how she approached the Smithsonian regarding virtual posting rights to their exhibition spaces in D.C. There will be a live demonstration of RadicalEyes’ innovations in proximity sensing using mesh networks that give installations an accuracy to within an inch of true space. Other interviews will involve artists Cesar Enriquez (whose digital overlay of full-body nudes atop the entire collection of the National Portrait Gallery got his name on the cover of ArtForum), French sculptor Amina Moussa (whose virtual superimposition of the Muslim Kaaba on the glass pyramid at the Louvre fomented right wing anti-immigration protests in Paris), and New York animator Paul Goldblatt (whose 3D recreation of the falling man from Richard Drew’s famous photo of the 9/11 tragedy at the exact triangulated elevation of its moment of capture presents a sublime monument of the horrific event, viewable from the windows of the newly opened “Freedom Tower” at the site of the World Trade Center). It promises to be an evening of exquisite archival footage, vanguard insights, and elucidating discussion. Not to be missed.
JD