CNC cut 1/4” plywood waffle (clearcoated)
Hole 1, Warped Tour by Andy VanMater for CannonDesign (maker/sponsor) during construction.
1/2” bent plywood sides (clearcoated) Astroturf playing surface (3/4” plywood on 2x4s)
Hole 1, Warped Tour by Andy VanMater for CannonDesign (maker/sponsor).
“In addition, we reached out to architecture and design firms, museums, schools, university art and architecture programs and other art and architecture organizations to help us spread the word,” Lahs-Gonzales says. “Each winning design received a $1,000 materials stipend and a $500 honorarium this year. “There will also be a public contest over the summer to determine a winning hole. The winning hole, chosen by members of the public who play the course or visit the galleries, will receive $1,000.” “Golf the Galleries” includes everything from a bit of topological trickery reminiscent of the works of M.C. Escher, the 20th-century Dutch master of perceptual depravity, through a lie that under other circumstances could have graced Ringworld, Larry Niven’s much-lauded 1970 science fiction novel, to a salute to two classic children’s books visualized by Sir John Tenniel, the great 19thcentury English illustrator, graphic humorist and political cartoonist. The titles and creators of the exhibition’s individual holes follow: Hole 1, Warped Tour by Andy VanMater of CannonDesign; Hole 2, Distortion by Arcturis; Hole 3, Mate in Four by the World Chess Hall of Fame; Hole 4, Alice by Natalie Pinson; Hole 5, Over the Moonbow by Gray for Scale (Ashley Kaempf and Chris Goodin); Hole 6, Hole 4, Alice by Natalie Pinson. Serengeti Park by Justin King; Hole 7, The Gateway Green – A Hole-in-One for STL by Switch; Hole 8, There’s a Hole in the Anthropocene by B.J. Vogt; and Hole 9, Swimming With the Fishes by Charles Houska. Also, running concurrent with “Golf the Galleries” are two smaller second-floor exhibitions: “Mini Golf: Photographs,” photos of mini and “adventure” golf sites in the U.K. by British photographer Simon Martin, and “Mini-Mini Golf Holes,” shoeboxsized miniatures by fifth-grade math students from The Wilson School in Clayton. When asked to cite which of the nine holes in “Golf the Galleries” most
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intrigues her as an art aficionado, Lahs-Gonzales pauses thoughtfully. “Each has unique features that will be enjoyed by all,” she says. “There are several ‘immersive’ experiences, including Natalie Pinson’s Alice hole, based on [Lewis Carroll’s] Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Justin King’s Serengeti Park hole, with a group of really cool large, cardboard animals. Gray for Scale’s black-light hole, called Over the Moonbow, is sure to please and make players glow; B.J. Vogt’s There’s a Hole in the Anthropocene is probably the only one with an art/social message, as it speaks about our influence on the environment with a volcano that spews packing peanuts; and Charlie Houska’s Swimming With the Fishes is superfun and colorful, as his work always is!” Otherwise, Lahs-Gonzales contemplates a similar question from the perspective of a golfing enthusiast mulling the holes’ challenges. “They are all challenging in their own way, but the architecture and design firms Arcturis, CannonDesign and Switch all have holes that employ interesting architectural and design strategies,” she says. “Arcturis uses mirrors to fool the player, CannonDesign’s is a beautiful honeycomb structure that can go easy or difficult, depending on what side your ball goes on, and Switch lets you be a giant downtown, playing through the Arch. And of course, the chess museum’s hole is all about strategy as well as education, as it pits the elements of the ‘mate in four’ chess problem – getting checkmate in four moves – against the golfer, who has to navigate around the pieces of the problem to get to the holes.” In short, for everyone from duffers to pros, from its first tee to its last putt, “Golf the Galleries” at The Sheldon may well constitute an artistic ace. The Sheldon Concert Hall & Art Galleries, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900, thesheldon.org