SuttonBeresCuller: Big Top Grand Stand

The circus becomes sculptural

NORTH ADAMS, MASSACHUSETTS — Inspired by the dazzling color, breathtaking spectacle, bustling environment, and transitory landscapes synonymous with the circus, fairs, and festivals, Seattle-based collective SuttonBeresCuller brings Big Top Grand Stand, a larger-than-life—yet outwardly mobile—installation, to MASS MoCA on June 26, 2015. This monument to the circus will be located in MASS MoCA’s Courtyard A, serving as a perfect entryway to Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival of music and arts, held at MASS MoCA on June 26-28.

Atop a 16′ flatbed trailer, four unique structures neatly nest within each other as the sculpture is transported. Once expanded, the structures telescope skyward, merging the midway experience and a stacked sculpture in the lineage of Brancusi’s Endless Column. Adorned with flashing lights, vibrant flags, and reflective surfaces, this flamboyant homage has turned the concession stand into pure sculptural form.

In Big Top Grand Stand, SuttonBeresCuller explores the aesthetics of an environment that is both ephemera and spectacle; vying for attention among the crowds, these transitory structures rely on brilliant lighting, color, and height to stand out and entice.

Big Top Grand Stand was originally commissioned by Toronto’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, a dusk-to-dawn arts festival that takes place throughout the city of Toronto and attracts more than one million visitors to its hundreds of projects, events, and exhibitions. For the 2014 edition of the festival, MASS MoCA curator Denise Markonish curated the project The Night Circus. The exhibition of ten artists took as its inspiration the 2001 novel The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, in which Morgenstern describes a night circus that opens at dusk and closes at dawn. This is not your average circus with only clowns and tightrope-walkers; instead it is an epic magical contest — turning an ordinary circus into a display of magic and wits. Big Top Grand Stand became a perfect beacon for The Night Circus, and likewise is an apropos welcome to Solid Sound.

About the Artists
SuttonBeresCuller is a Seattle-based trio of artists who have worked collaboratively since 2000. Together they are known for a humorous, provocative take on public art designed to engage viewers in unconventional ways both within and without traditional gallery spaces. With a focus on the spectacular transformation of everyday objects, their projects range from interactive sculptures such as mobile parks, a performance that involves an unsuspecting audience, and site-specific installations that invite participation when least expected.

Image Credit
SuttonBeresCuller, Big Top Grand Stand, 2014, courtesy of the artists; photo by Sam Javanrouh.

About MASS MoCA
MASS MoCA is one of the world’s liveliest (and largest) centers for making and enjoying today’s most important art, music, dance, theater, film, and video. Hundreds of works of visual and performing art have been created on its 19^th-century factory campus during fabrication and rehearsal residencies, making MASS MoCA among the most productive sites in the country for the creation and presentation of new art. More platform than box, MASS MoCA strives to bring to its audiences art experiences that are fresh, engaging, and transformative.

MASS MoCA’s galleries are open 11am to 5pm every day except Tuesdays. The Hall Art Foundation’s Anselm Kiefer exhibition reopens on April 18, 2015. Gallery admission is $18 for adults, $16 for veterans and seniors, $12 for students, $8 for children 6 to 16, and free for children 5 and under. Members are admitted free year-round. For additional information, call 413.662.2111 x1 or visit massmoca.org.
Download the SuttonBeresCuller: Big Top Grand Stand press release