Walker Art Center show offers a peek at new director as curator

A still from "The Maid," a short film by Carissa Rodriguez. Courtesy the artist and Karma International
A gallery at the Walker Art Center will offer a glimpse of its new director's curatorial skills.

Mary Ceruti, who started as the Walker's executive director in January, co-curated "Carissa Rodriguez: The Maid," which will be on view beginning Thursday, Oct. 3.

The gallery will feature a 12-minute film by New York-based artist Carissa Rodriguez. In it, the camera observes Sherrie Levine's crystal and black glass "Newborn" sculptures in private homes and public spaces — questioning how we collect, care for and consume art.

The camera circles and studies the sculptures. One is perched on a glass table in a private home, almost floating. Another is unwrapped in a museum storage space by gloved hands.

Rodriguez created the film for a show at SculptureCenter, back when Ceruti was the director there. That solo exhibition, her first, was "absolutely pivotal" in her career, she said in August. Along with Ruba Katrib, its former curator, Ceruti helped Rodriguez locate some of the 24 sculptures that "exist in the world," Rodriguez said.

The film "traces their various lives in different collections, be it private or institutional," she said.

One of the sculptures lives at the Walker.

That's one reason why the art center is acquiring Rodriguez's film, Ceruti said. "It's in interesting dialogue with the rest of the collection."