Flying Red Line, Tal Streeter

Exhibition Label:
"Site Specifics,” Aug-2010, Susan Earle
Tal Streeter earned both his B.F.A. and M.F.A. at KU and is known as both a sculptor and an authority on Japanese kites and their history. He is the first artist outside of Asia to use traditional Japanese kite-making techniques in the context of contemporary art. He is a creator of what some call Wind Art, a maker of paintings in the sky. This handmade kite is 15 feet long and was flown by the family of KU Professors Raymond and Elizabeth Goetz off the KU campus in 1972. They bought the kite at that time and later donated it to the Spencer Museum of Art.

Streeter’s Minimalist red line threads through many of his works from 1967 to 1977. In 1970, he created a red, 70-foot high, zig-zag column of steel in New York City, reaching toward the sky like his kites.

Archive Label 2003:
Streeter, a sculptor who studied kite-making in Japan and Korea, organized an exhibition entitled Kites: Red Line in the Sky in 1972 at KU. During a lecture associated with the exhibition, Streeter invited an audience member to purchase one of the kites and fly it with him. Professor Ray Goetz rose to the challenge, selected The Flying Red Line, and along with his family, assisted Streeter in launching the kite over the Kansas prairie. The Spencer Museum’s kite was the largest Streeter had ever flown, and he likened it to lifting an airplane off the ground.

Inspired by a Korean friend, Tal Streeter asserts that the act of flying rather than the construction of the object is the real art of kites:

“As the kite is released, your hand is connected to the sky, your awareness is all of the sky.

“You project yourself into an object and then that object starts to fly.... That is your extension.

“And the object that has been so painstakingly made and decorated becomes only a small spot in the universe.”

Exhibition Label:
"Windmills to Workshops: Lawrence and the Visual Arts," Jul-2004, Kate Meyer
The design of this Japanese-inspired 15 foot long kite features a red line, Tal Streeter’s Minimalist motif of choice. Streeter and the Goetz family flew the kite on the Kansas prairie, a prospect Streeter anticipated with enjoyment, knowing “it was going to be a beautiful place to fly it, against the big horizon, all sky and land, green, blue and the red line of the kite.“ Streeter earned both his B.F.A. and M.F.A. at KU and is known as both a sculptor and an authority on the Japanese kite.

Exhibition Label:
"Summer in the Central Court," Jun-2006, Kate Meyer
With available sunlight shimmering late into the evening and no school in the morning, summer beckons us outside to enjoy good weather and simply play. Armed with sunscreen, bug spray, and lawn chairs, we travel to the park and the pool. Some classic summer activities have fallen from favor - the local ballgame rarely prompts a parade these days, and the few remaining drive-in theaters collect more weeds than movie tickets. Artists transform summer rituals and activities from classic to extraordinary as Tom Huck lampoons the momentous arrival of a new fast food restaurant in Potosi, Missouri, in Playland: The Great Sharkburger Shortage of '95. Likewise, Tal Streeter’s gigantic Japanese-inspired kite dwarfs viewers in the gallery, but its fifteen foot span and striking red line would also dominate our field of vision in an open, blue sky. As play becomes spectacle, summer inspires as it entertains.