Photo: Franconia
This is an artist’s replica of a motel sign in Memphis that memorializes the assasination of MLK in 1968.
If you’re looking for an easy entry into St. Croix Valley’s rich art scene, you’re going to want to check out the Franconia Sculpture Park. This local landmark has lots of promising work.
A replica of the Lorraine Motel sign in Memphis, Tenn., (where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated) now stands in the park; St. Paul artist Chris Larson uses it to further the discussion of race, inequality and violence in the United States.
Other attractions include Asia Ward’s Solar Tree, a 28-foot solar-powered steel oak tree that visitors can walk through, and the late Michael Richards’ Are You Down, a sculpture of three men surrounding a target representing Tuskegee Airmen.
For those with more of an interest in performance art, Jordan Rosenow’s We Still Move is “looking to deeper explore the ways in which bodies and objects share an expression that is informed by the language surrounding posture, straight [or] bent,” she says.
One of the furthest-traveling pieces is from Brooklyn artist Zaq Landsberg: Peshmerga Fighting Vehicle is a replica of a vehicle operating in Iraq and Syria with military forces against ISIS.
