This winter, the Wexner Center for the Arts is showing a number of innovative exhibitions including Adi Nes: Biblical Stories and Solitaire: Lee Lozano, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Joan Semmel but the one that's really got everyone buzzing is Kerry James Marshall's Every Beat of My Heart.
Every Beat of My Heart is based on Marshall's narrative Rhythm Mastr, a tale that tells of love, redemption and vengeance in the lives of African-American characters in an inner city setting and includes cameos by African American superheroes.
Originally a comic strip, Rhythm Mastr has been brought to life by Marshall's artistry and the Columbus teenage puppeteers that tried out in game show like challenges this fall and who have been rehearsing with Marshall since November. Erik Pepple, Media Relations Coordinator at the Wexner Center, describes it as "the culmination of Kerry James Marshall’s residency award project here at the Wexner Center. This is a truly remarkable project — one that engages many facets of the Wexner Center’s multidisciplinary approach to the contemporary arts in that this particular project encompasses performance, film, and visual arts. It’s a thought-provoking and deeply engaging show.”
Kerry James Marshall is a name recognized worldwide--his work has been exhibited across the country and overseas. Marshall focuses on contemporary issues in urban America, through which he aims to call attention to the invisibility of Africans and African-Americans in Western art. In fact, Marshall hopes his Rhythm Mastr tale and it's African- American characters and superheroes will carve out a place for itself in contemporary youth culture.
Notes Pepple, “The exhibition addresses and engages not only issues of identity, but also that of the power and potential of youth — of how they are the key to a progressive and hopeful future and how they can rise and become engaged, involved, and empowered.”
Every Beat of My Heart runs from Feb. 2 through April 13th in the Wexner Center Galleries. Gallery admission is free. Free puppet piece performances will be open to the public on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 3 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tickets will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The Wexner Center is located on the OSU Campus, on 1871 N. High Street. For more information visit www.wexarts.org/info/visit/.
Marshall, skilled in everything from painting to cartooning to drafting, has put together an elaborate multi-media exhibit that includes sculpture, video and performance art - the latter of which is mainly done through puppets. They aren't just any puppets, though. Based on the traditional Japanese Bunraku puppets, these puppets are constructed on rods and require multiple puppeteers. Marshall, along with other Columbus-based puppeteers, traveled to Japan the summer of 2007 to perfect his puppet-creating abilities.