The Wexner Center docents are a diverse bunch with a range of backgrounds and interests. One broad thread that pulls them together is their love of the arts. Over the next few weeks, we’ll share a series of posts featuring members of our community and university student docent programs. Check back often and get familiar with some of the faces that you might see in our galleries.

Danielle Miller is a student docent who has been with the Wexner Center since 2008. She’s currently studying medicine at Ohio State. Danielle recently spearheaded a project that combined her interests in the arts and medicine. Working with Dr Merjin Van der Heijden (Dean of the Arts and Sciences Honors Program) and Drs. Robert DePhilip (Professor of Anatomy) and Peter Embi (Biomedical Sciences Vice President), Danielle created a unique experience for students of both fields. Here’s her description of the project: Anatomy According to the Artist; Anatomy According to the Physician.

The human body is a remarkable entity, eliciting study from multiple disciplines throughout the centuries. One of the rights of passage for both medical students and art students is to master the basic science or aesthetics of the body through an understanding of human anatomy. On March 9, 2012, twelve medical students and twelve art students came together for a session titled “Anatomy According to the Artist; Anatomy According to the Physician” in which students from both fields got the chance to learn anatomy from the other discipline’s perspective. The medical students first held a “mini anatomy session” where art students learned some basic muscles of the body and then explored the body through a cadaver lab session taught by anatomy students, teaching assistants, and faculty. In return, the art students and faculty then held a live model drawing session and taught medical students the basics of drawing the human body.

Overall, the session generated some great discussion about how learning anatomy is both similar and different in art and medicine—and about the difference between how an artist sees a body and how a physician sees a body. One of the most beautiful comments about the connection between art and medicine came from an art student who said, “the bones of the body are like lines to the artist, the tissues are like texture, and the muscles represent movement.” Donations for attending the session went directly to funding the Anatomy Memorial Service, a nondenominational memorial service held each year by health professionals to thank the families of those who have altruistically donated their bodies to the medical center for educational study. Their donations have changed the lives of many medical students, and now art students, by providing educational experiences that go far beyond those of a traditional classroom.

WOSU produced a piece on last fall’s production of HOUSE / DIVIDED to air on the Big Ten Network. From WOSU:

Learn how The Builders Association, a nonprofit theatre company, offers Ohio State University students and faculty an opportunity to collaborate on a show commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts.

Here’s a list of the top ten bestsellers at the Wexner Center Store in the past month. Not seeing your favorite merchandise? You can always vote with your wallet (in the Store or online) or tell us your picks on the Facebook page.

1. David Smith | Cubes and Anarchy
2. William Wegman: Gray and Scarlet Poster
3. Chris Marker: Coreennes
4. The New iPad 16GB Wi-Fi
5. The Modern Architecture Game
6. WEX “I’m not a papercup”
7. Kippenberger: The Artist and His Families
8. Petite Planete Poster
9. Shockaholic
10. The Art Of Daniel Clowes Modern Cartoonist

“How was it?”

I have to confess I haven’t felt up to the challenge of properly describing the experience of seeing the US premiere of Napoleon in Kevin Brownlow’s most recent restoration of the Abel Gance silent-era epic at Oakland’s Paramount Theater on March 24.

Sure, it was unforgettable. Hyperbole only goes so far, however, because in trying to sum up the experience one realizes there really isn’t anything to compare it to.

It’s hard to image a better setting for such an event. The gorgeously restored, 3,000-seat art deco Paramount Theater felt like it had been sitting there on Broadway in Oakland’s theater district all of these years waiting for this film—and this point in film history—to come along. Adding to the once-in-a-lifetime sensation was the Oakland Symphony’s equally memorable performance of Carl Davis’s score, conducted by the composer himself in its American premiere. The accompaniment transported me back to the 1920s, as I imagined what it must have been like to experience films in this manner on a regular basis. It also left me worrying about Davis’s right arm…not everyone has the stamina to conduct a 5-1/2 hour score, breaks or no breaks. (Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum Director of Repertory Programming, told me he tried to get to get Guinness to consider the music to be the world’s longest continuous film score but to no avail.)

And then the film. First, it’s no exaggeration to say that it’s unlikely that Napoleon will ever be presented in the United State in a similar manner in most of our lifetimes. The film screened March 24, 25, and 31, and April 1, and those shows are likely it for the foreseeable future. The costs involved with an orchestral score performed live are by themselves so prohibitive that it’s doubtful that any group will display the moxie and courage summoned by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival to organize an event on this scale again. (Read Manohla Dargis’s New York Times article on staging the film here).

So, “How was it?”

Epic. Incredible. Jaw-dropping. Transformative. A story about the film on NPR (I believe) quoted one expert as saying that the film was on par with Citizen Kane as one of the greatest in film history. Trying to rank it is really a pointless exercise: I wouldn’t quibble with anyone who said it was one of the greatest films ever made nor with someone who thinks that it isn’t even one of the top 10 of the silent era. There really isn’t anything to compare it to, especially when one considers the theater, the live score, and the audience primed to burst into generous rounds of applause in response to any of Gance’s stylistic flourishes. Gance took everything available to a filmmaker of the era and more and put it to use. The handheld camera provided wondrous surprises throughout the film, putting the spectator in the middle of a snowball fight led by the young Bonaparte at its outset and creating moments of unexpected intimacy, as in a scene in which Josephine discovers Violine’s shrine to her husband. The camera movements in that sequence would be as home in a John Cassavetes or George Kuchar film as they are in Napoleon.

Gance’s Polyvision is, of course, the most famous innovation associated with Napoleon, and the moment when all three of the Paramount’s specially-installed screens came alive brought the most joyous applause of the evening from the crowd. Many mistakenly believe that the entire film features Gance’s three-camera/projector/screen technique, but it actually only appears in the last movement, roughly the last 25 minutes. In those final moments Gance, unbridled, throws everything at the audience in a dizzying flurry of triptych images—hand-held, super-imposed, landscapes, close-ups—that give one the sense of a filmmaker with one foot over the line of cinema’s frontier. And that  only brings us up to the start of the first Italian campaign in the life of Napoleon.

As wondrous and unforgettable as the screening was, I found myself lamenting the fact that I may well never have another cinematic experience even close to this one. For one thing, it’s difficult to imagine myself getting worked up enough to fly cross-country for a screening of—you name it—in a digital format.

I encourage anyone with an interest in silent film to consider attending the 17th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival, held at the Castro Theater July 12–15. It’s sure to be a great time!

The conference was held at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Austin. We were a few blocks from 6th St., where all the cool stuff happens. But we were so busy at the conference there was little time to venture out.

There were over 80 attendees at the conference from all over the world. There were even two other guys from Columbus who work for Abercrombie. Some attendees weren’t editors though. Some were videographers and producers. The retreat is sponsored by Future Media Concepts, a New York‒based company specializing in all things training in the world of video post production.

Technology was the main thing on everyone’s mind. There were representatives from such companies as AJA, GTech, Grass Valley, Apple, and Adobe…. I attended many demonstrations of hardware and software tips and techniques. The presenters were fantastic, ultra talented and knowledgeable. I learned more than I want to know about the new Final Cut Pro X. I learned about mobile apps that are useful to editors and filmmakers. Some color correction experts gave a demonstration using the DaVinci system, which is amazing. GTech showed off their Thunderbolt hard drives, which are 12-times faster than FireWire 800 drives. They said that David Fincher wanted to edit The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in its native uncompressed 4K environment, and Thunderbolt technology made that happen. As a giveaway, GTech was offering a 12-TB Thunderbolt drive array to the winner of the annual editor’s retreat poker tournament. I wasn’t the lucky winner, but I did get a free Final Cut Pro X book.

One of the highlights for me was attending a presentation by Frank Serafine, who did the sound design on many big Hollywood films such as the first Star Trek movie, Poltergeist, Tron, and others. Listening to him discuss his process when designing a soundtrack was quite inspiring. Jay Rabinowitz gave a keynote speech on his career. He edited Dead Man (and many other Jim Jarmusch films), Requiem for a Dream, and The Tree of Life, to name just a few. Really nice guy who got his start by hounding Woody Allen’s editor at the time and then eventually getting a job editing Jarmusch’s Night on Earth. Rich Harrington, who presents many excellent tutorials for Creative Cow, gave great demonstrations on using Photoshop for video and some cool After Effects tips. Compressing video footage is something we have to do regularly, so I attended an informative discussion on that.

Of course we had to have a night out, so the organizers took us to see Office Space at the Alamo Draft House. They fed us a buffet of Texas BBQ and all the meat you could eat. BBQ and beans and beer: generally I wouldn’t want to sit in a small movie theatre with a bunch of guys who’ve been eating BBQ and beans and washing it down with beer, but how could I resist the screening of Office Space, complete with karaoke callbacks. And there was a feature where you could send a text message and your message would appear on the screen while the movie was playing. So of course there were a lot of text messages joking about how the movie was edited and so on. After the screening we had the opportunity to smash a copy machine just like in the movie! Out to the parking lot we went, put on a helmet and swung away! Many joked that they were really swinging at the new version of Final Cut Pro.

After five days of networking, note taking, talking shop, and learning, learning, learning. I was ready fly back to Ohio but I wasn’t ready to leave Austin’s sunny 75-degree temperatures. Many thanks to the university’s Staff Development Grant office and my colleagues at the Wexner Center for making this happen for me.

Hear from Director of Performing Arts Chuck Helm on the jazz shows that will be gracing our performance space in the coming months.

Here’s a list of the top ten bestsellers at the Wexner Center Store in the past month. Not seeing your favorite merchandise? You can always vote with your wallet (in the Store or online) or tell us your picks on the Facebook page.

1. David Smith | Cubes and Anarchy
2. Voucher Book For Women
3. XX XY Blocks
4. La Jetée | Sans Soleil: Two Films by Chris Marker (Blu-Ray)
5. The Modern Architecture Game
6. Chris Marker: Coreennes
7. 10 AM Is When You Come To Me | Mug Gift Set
8. The Book of Symbols
9. WEX “I’m not a papercup”
10. Earth Sticker

Mark Bradford exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

With the winter exhibitions under way, we thought we’d check in on two of our exhibitions that have been making their way across the country.

Mark Bradford, which was organized by and premiered at the Wexner Center in 2010, continues its massive tour of the country. Shortly it will be on the West Coast, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (February 18–June 17, 2012), concurrent with a presentation of three Bradford works at the nearby Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, including Bradford’s Detail, his “ark” of sorts for Hurricane Katrina. In a review in the San Francisco Chronicle , Kenneth Baker called it an “impressive solo show,” and notes that “Bradford shows that in the new century lineages such as painting and installation thrive not by mimicking their ancestry, but by reimagining it.” Before that, the exhibition, called “light and fleet” by The New York Times, was at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston in late fall 2010/winter of 2011, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in summer 2011, and the Dallas Museum of Art in the fall. In Chicago, the exhibition was called “gorgeous, thick, meditative, relevant” (Huffington Post), while he left his mark in Boston with works “quietly radiating meanings, emotions, and no end of visual satisfactions” (Boston Globe­). D Magazine in Dallas took note of the exhibition, catalogue, and microsite: “That’s the kind of generative impact that just a handful of institutions can have on the larger art world.”

Elliott Hundley: The Bacchae, which was organized by the Wex and premiered here in the fall, is currently at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. In a recent review, Dallas’s D Magazine wrote about Hundley’s intricate mixed-media works inspired by The Bacchae tragedy: “Their complexity practically defies description, and the range of materials is remarkable.” The Fort-Worth Star-Telegram described it as “a veritable bacchanalia of textures and found objects.” And the Dallas Morning News called the exhibition “thoroughly au courant.” Along with the exhibition itself, the lush and fully illustrated catalogue produced by the Wexner Center “give[s] you the opportunity for further ogling and education” (alive!).

And speaking of traveling shows, mark your calendars for Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955‒1972, which opens May 19 at the Wexner Center, on the heels of a Los Angeles run at the Hammer Museum, where it’s on view now through the end of April. The show, featuring about 100 works in polyester resin and other materials by the late Polish sculptor, premiered in Brussels at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in the fall of 2011. The exhibition earned an Artforum cover feature in November 2011, and Frieze writes, “A place for Szapocznikow within the canon of art history is firmly being made.” The exhibition makes its way to MOMA in New York later this year. But before New York, Columbus.

On our way to a softball game on a beautiful Ohio summer day in June, we receive a phone call: Kimberly and I have been awarded the bid for the café space at the Wexner Center. My niece, Deonna, says, “We have a restaurant?”

Fast forward 10 weeks until September 12, 2012 (opening day). The restaurant is called Heirloom. Our menu is made from scratch with a core focus on seasonal ingredients creatively prepared. We somehow managed to gather and hire an inspired group of food and service specialists. Grower, farmer, purveyor, and other artisan relationships of our combined restaurant management experience were combined and rekindled. With personal investment and family support, we gathered the funds to develop the concept, test menu items, assemble and train a team to complement our vision. Our guests to Heirloom include students, faculty, staff, and the many visitors to the Wexner Center and Ohio State campus.

We have a restaurant?!

Fast-fast-forward to January 15, 2012:  our first 100 days and counting:

Our menu is still made from scratch and newly revised with an ever-growing accent on local and sustainable sources. Our café staff is continuing to exceed expectations.  New relationships combined with past ones have fruited many new sourcing opportunities including collaborating our efforts with Ecological Engineering Society on our own Wexner Center Chef’s Garden.  We are defining our success, thus far, by purchasing quality ingredients and continuing to employ our talented staff. Our guests have expressed much gratitude for the delicious food served in a timely manner, all facets echoed by local positive media support. Perhaps the greatest reward for us in this business is that we can often forget that this is a business, in the way an artist might get lost in art. Hospitality happens.

We have more than a restaurant.

On the horizon:

February 17:

Dinner premiere at Heirloom in a special event preceding the films Truck Farm and The City Dark, both introduced by director Ian Cheney.

Now thru April:

As part of Ohio State’s SENR (School of Environment and Natural Resources) MENR (Masters in Environment and Natural Resources) project, graduate student Bob Fitchko is evaluating Heirloom and comparing overall site and operations against industry standards for optimal sustainable practices.

By June:

A chef’s garden. Heirloom, an eco-conscious restaurant, will start a garden later this year outside the Wexner Center, providing Heirloom visitors with local, sustainably grown fare. Stay tuned for more information on this garden, which will complement the Wexner Center’s “Green Mission Statement” and its “green” programs focused on sustainability and reduction of environmental impact.

And so much more to come.

John and Kimberly Skaggs
Heirloom
wexarts.org/cafe
twitter @HeirloomCafe