When concept trumps carving

A "stereoscopic pumpkin polaroid camera." A chia pumpkin, sprouting grass, that's really an homage to a high-design chair. A Robert Gober-inspired pumpkin, mottled with terra cotta paint and violated by a sink drain. When my co-workers at the Walker Art Center carve pumpkins, they transcend mere carving. At Off Center, I just blogged on past entries into the staff pumpkin contest, which will be held again next Monday. The competition is fierce—desk nerds like me competing with people who know how to drywall and do electric wiring—and the results inevitably feature inside jokes, obscure art references, or examples of impressive construction work.

Two favorites:

The Registration department's Dance Floor Pumpkin (top) takes inspiration from Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla's Charcoal Dance Floor, a drawing of dancers whose images--and identies--blur as visitors pass over it (a critique of globalization, according to the artists).

Program Services created a pumpkin that took its cue from Robert Gober, fusing the type of sink drain seen in this untitled 1999 photograph with the Walker's terrazzo gallery floors (as seen in this 1997 Gober piece from the collection, which depicts a chair, a box of Kleenex, and a steel-plated drain).

For more, read the Off Center post, "The (conceptual) art of pumpkin carving."