Carleton’s Regional Carls Program

"The Nirthfolde Visitors’ Bureau: The Exhibition as a Narrative Form"

Last January the Nirthfolde Visitors’ Bureau ‘occupied’ the premises of the Northfield (MN) Arts Guild Gallery. Nirthfolde is a bucolic, yet bustling burg situated in a parallel universe that neatly overlaps the small college town in southern Minnesota. Created by David Lefkowitz and Doug Bratland, the Visitors’ Bureau featured misinformation panels, ahistorical artifacts, and other displays designed to perplex and amaze. 

David will present a talk describing the Visitors’ Bureau, and the degree to which our understanding of place is always constructed through stories that combine fact and fiction. His work in painting, installation, and mixed media addresses everyday paradoxes of perception, and larger questions that arise from them. Much of the work explores the blurry boundary between the human-built environment and the natural world. 

David's presentation will be in the Bark Room (off the lobby).