Andy Sturdevant, photo by Zoe Prinds-Flash
Andy Sturdevant, the ubiquitous and distinctly hirsute artist, writer, and man about town, is taking on the mapping of alleyways in Minneapolis. His upcoming MAEP exhibition, “Alley Atlas,” is an open-source blend of urban design and personal history in which Minneapolitans are invited to name alleys based on their experiences of them.
In anticipation of the “Alley Atlas” opening at the MIA on October 17—coinciding with Nerd Thursday, of course—I asked Andy about his alley attraction, alley animals, and his own nerd status.
Katie Hill: So are you something of an alley cat?
Andy Sturdevant: I mostly just really love walking through the alleys in my neighborhood. You find out how people really live. You see their gardens, their jungle gyms, their cars, their boats, their fire pits, their home improvement projects, their recycling. A few years ago, I saw a great movie by Guy Maddin called My Winnipeg, which is a fantastical semi-documentary about his hometown. There is a section about alleys and how they act as a shadow city that operates beneath the official grid of the city streets. That idea of a shadow city really resonated with me. It’s a secret city only people on the block know.
KH: What happens in your alley?
AS: My alley is pretty uneventful. The neighbor kids tend to play on the sidewalk or the street, and there’s more cut-through automotive traffic than I’d like. Some of the alleys in my neighborhood are a lot more fascinating; I get a little jealous sometimes.
KH: Have you met any alley cats in this process?
AS: Squirrels seem to be the real dominant species in most alleyways, though I’ve seen an opossum or two. There are quite a few submissions that name alleys after specific cats, nonetheless: Vera, Echo, Buster, Ron, and Minerva are all alley-loving felines that have had alleys named in honor of them so far.
KH: Will you expand this project beyond the Minneapolis blueprint—like to St. Paul?
AS: It could work with any city that has alleys. I really wanted to include St. Paul in this initial round, but the idea of trying two cities—especially one where the alleys are as historic and complex as St. Paul’s—seemed like a little more than I could handle. But St. Paul didn’t totally get left out of this iteration. There’s a book on display in the MAEP gallery that I compiled with selections from newspapers and novels about Twin Cities alleyways. In that, there are a few accounts of St. Paul alleys, including a really nice passage that Patricia Hampl wrote about living along an alley off of Summit Avenue. St. Paul alley-lovers will not be left empty-handed.
Andy Sturdevant, “Alley Atlas” submission, illustration, 2013.
KH: Do you consider yourself a nerd?
AS: Obviously.
KH: What makes you really geek out?
AS: Nerds get the reputation for being intensely interested in very specific topics, and clearly that’s what I’ve done here: gotten intensely interested in the very specific topic of alleys for a whole year. Alleys are a good intersection for a whole range of nerdy interests, from municipal code to storytelling. Although it’s interesting that you used both the words “nerd” and “geek,” as in “geek out.” I’d always been taught that geeks were more flamboyant, whereas nerds were more monastic in their interests. I’m not sure where I fall on the nerd-geek continuum, though where art is concerned I’m probably closer to the “nerd” side. It’s not like I’m wearing T-shirts about how much I love alleys, although maybe I ought to consider that.
The opening of both Andy Sturdevant’s “Alley Atlas” and Sarah Burns’ “midday” in the Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program galleries at the MIA is October 17at 7 p.m. Hang around for Nerd Thursday —and feel free to wear T-shirts that profess your nerdy interest in whatever makes you geek out.