Even with the Minnesota State Fair in full swing, the Twin Cities arts scene offers alternative ways to spend the weekend. Cosplayers and science fiction fans will fill downtown St. Paul, while Hmong musicians and fashion designers mark 50 years of resettlement at the State Capitol.

In Minneapolis, an emerging Mexican American artist presents a solo exhibit exploring how technology shapes our daily lives, asking what might happen if the hours spent on phones and social media were devoted instead to making art. 

Local artist explores technology’s impact on humanity

At Creating Change Gallery, an arts hub supporting emerging Minneapolis artists, one installation invites visitors to place their head inside a box of mirrors. Inside, flashing lights mingle with the sounds of computer beeps and vital sign monitors, creating a disorienting experience. 

“Are you in your body now?” asks Mexican American artist Nina Rivera, describing the experience as confronting the “millions of different fragments of yourself constantly changing.”

Rivera grew up online in the early 2010s, immersed in the overstimulation, distraction and warped self-image that came with digital life. In their debut solo exhibit, “Default Mode Network,” those experiences take physical form.

A sculpture series titled “Screen Time” transforms the hours Rivera spent on their phone into clay heads, a practice of reclaiming digital time through creation.

“I had looked on my phone one day and I saw my screen time was eight hours and 17 minutes. I just felt a sense of shame but also really wanted to fix it,” Rivera said. “I grabbed a big chunk of Crayola air-dry clay and just started making a head for the same amount of time straight.”

Other works explore the intersection of memory, technology and the body. “I Used to Remember What I Yearned For” distorts home videos sonically and visually to depict memory deterioration. Another installation, “Error Threshold,” features a printer that instead of spitting paper, pours white liquid into a tank, from which hands stretch outward, suggesting the blurred boundaries between humans and machines.

Art became Rivera’s way to process experiences that were otherwise difficult to articulate. They began creating at Highland Park Senior High in St. Paul and refined their practice at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, using it to explore their quiet borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses.

“It made me reflect very hard as a person,” Rivera said. “I was trying to make sense of my trauma and how I wanted to make art moving forward and how I wanted to use art as a therapeutic practice.”

“Default Mode Network” continues this practice, using immersive environments, sculpture and video to confront the self that exists between the digital and physical worlds. 

Festival marks 50 years of Hmong resettlement

Hmong Minnesotans will celebrate 50 years of refugee resettlement in the United States at the Hmong 50 Festival at the Minnesota State Capitol. The festivities begin at 11 a.m. with the national anthem performed by Hmong artist Maly Vu, followed by live performances from more than 40 musicians and dance groups, including CypherSide, Hmong Qeej, and Ci Dance Academy. 

More than 20 food vendors will serve Lao and Thai dishes, sugarcane drinks, and desserts. The event will also feature traditional and contemporary fashion shows, cultural art exhibits, and outdoor activities including a bounce house and trampoline.

Sci-fi cosplayers take over Mears Park

Superheroes, villains and science fiction fans will gather at Mears Park in downtown St. Paul for “Sci Fi Sounds & Cosplay” on Saturday night. The event is hosted by Adrian Perryman, known for cosplaying as “St. Paul Prince,” and will feature a runway, scavenger hunt, photo booth, and craft station for attendees who want to make or add to their costumes. 

DJ Cassiopeia will provide live music and a photographer will be on site to capture participants’ costumes.

READ MORE

Twin Cities artists ponder visions of freedom in Theater Mu’s New Eyes Festival

How St. Paul civil rights leader Debbie Montgomery turned Martin Luther King’s words into a 60-year march for justice

DJ Mickey Breezy to kick off ‘Hands-On Hip Hop’ at Minnesota Children’s Museum