Collection: Take A Look

About the exhibition

"This unique, interdisciplinary collaboration between Cow Tipping Press and Interact has allowed the participating artists to undertake the unique challenge of interpreting prose pieces and turning them into visual artworks. Later, these artworks took on another life in yet another medium, as they were turned into animations. This project has sparked deep discussions and yielded insights for the artists who delved deep into the written pieces to discover aspects to accentuate and bring to life in their artworks. Our conversations allowed for an opportunity to engage in literary analysis as a group during early workshops. After having some time to reflect on multiple meanings, the process of translation into the visual medium began. 

These works reflect a number of themes expressed in the written pieces, including longing for freedom in the face of authority figures, mourning, daydreaming, past loves, and finding green spaces in an urban environment. Many of the artists were able to relate these themes to their own experiences, which informed their translations of written works into the visual art medium. Several of them expressed that they enjoyed the challenge that this commission presented them with. Some shared that this process allowed them to discover new tools to add to their artmaking practice, and others expressed a desire to take on similar projects in the future. 

This project yielded insights, humor, delight, connection and allowed new relationships to form, during a time when all of us are longing for more human connection. This longing carries through in these artworks, along with a persistent sense of wonder."

Jonas Specktor, Interact Studio Instructor and collaboration facilitator

Corresponding projects and programs

• Best of Cow Tipping Vol. 3, a book published by Cow Tipping Press, incorporates the visual art from this exhibition alongside the poems by Cow Tipping authors. You can find it here.
• Cow Tipping Press also produced a series of digital audiobooks that animate each poet's text where it appears in the artist's work, which you can find on Cow Tipping Press's Facebook page here.
• Neurodiverse Literature & Art, an online panel hosted by the Minnesota Humanities Center, will feature Interact artists Davida Kilgore and Virginia Townsend alongside Cow Tipping Authors Jason Larimore and Joseph Allen. The panel is open to the public and will be held on Wednesday, March 17, from 6:30-8 p.m. Learn more here.

Take A Look is made possible by the generous support of Cow Tipping Press and Minnesota Humanities Center.