ASPEN.- Beginning Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 5 p.m. (MST), on the AAM grounds at 590 North Mill Street in Aspen, the Aspen Art Museum will host Imaginary Thing, a contemporary art exhibition event spanning thirty consecutive days and featuring individual works by thirty-one artists from around the world. Organized by guest curator Peter Eleey of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis , Imaginary Thing is a site-specific group exhibition that literally takes place in a hole dug in the ground. The exhibition culminates with a public talk with Eleey and AAM Director and Chief Curator Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson on Thursday, August 7, 2008.

Inspired by an “impossible piece” conceived in 1968 by the fictional N.E. Thing Co. (artists Iain and Ingrid Baxter), Imaginary Thing is structured to feature the daily addition of a distinct artwork into an eight-inch diameter by eighty-four inch deep (8” X 84”) shaft located adjacent to the AAM’s main visitor entrance. Artworks will be added at 5:00 p.m. over the course of the thirty days of the exhibition. The shaft will remain visually accessible during regular museum hours (weather permitting), and members of the public and the media are invited to attend any or all of the daily artwork additions. In instances where the artist will not be present to personally introduce their artwork into the exhibition, it will be added by either an AAM staff member, or a designated representative selected by the artist.

Following the introduction of the final artwork on August 7th, the shaft will be filled with concrete—the finished piece becoming both a permanent sculpture as well as an inaccessible archive.

Artists participating in Imaginary Thing are: Robert Barry, Iain Baxter, Kris Cox, Enrico David, Jason Dodge, Shannon Ebner and Erika Vogt, Matias Faldbakken, Matthew Fischer, Jay Heikes, Annaday Hiser, Violet Hopkins, Christian Jankowski, Ryan Johnson, Farrah Karapetian, Matt Keegan, Robert Kushner, Rick Magnuson, Shelly Safir Marolt, Tracey Nichols, David Noonan, Rick Parsons, Jesse Ring, Annette Roberts-Gray, Mirjam Rosner, Dana Schutz, Natasha Seedorf, James Surls, Ricky Swallow, Lesley Vance, Nicolau Vergueiro, and Peter Wohlsen.

Imaginary Thing is organized by the Aspen Art Museum . AAM Art Talks are part of the Questrom Lecture Series.