Wright State illuminates Modern Art

Nine month project will include fine arts, percussion and dance events

One of the terrific ongoing arts collaborations in the Miami Valley is known as CELIA.

The innovative Wright State University program — the acronym stands for Collaborative Education, Leadership and Innovation in the Arts — benefits both our community and the school’s students by bringing top-notch artists to town to interact with both students and the public. A number of university departments join together to come up creative themes for the projects.

The just-announced topic for the school’s next collaboration is “Modernism,” a theme that will be played out over the next nine months through art exhibits, lectures and dance performances — many open to the community-at-large. In addition to a re-installation of a wall drawing in the new Creative Arts Center created by famous artist Sol LeWitt, highlights will include artist residencies by Sō Percussion and a performance by Dwight Rhoden’s Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Rhoden, a Dayton native, is the co-founder of the well-known New York troupe that performs throughout the world and serves as the resident choreographer of the Charlotte Ballet.

The WSU project is entitled “MODERN: Reimagining the New. A window into the making of the Modern Art movement.”

HOW IT BEGAN

CELIA director Hank Dahlman said the seeds of this collaboration really began with an 1981 installation at Wright State by LeWitt. The artist was best-known for drawings created directly on wall surfaces by teams that followed his detailed instructions but were given some creative leeway as well. Most involved geometric shapes or line drawings. In the case of Wright State’s drawing, LeWitt himself came to Dayton and supervised a team of Wright State students.

The pencil and chalk wall drawings originally were installed over a 69-foot wall at what’s now the Trading Room in Wright State’s Rike Hall. Although they were intended to be drawn within a cube, they were instead drawn horizontally due to the wall’s shape.

Wright State’s installation had disappeared over the years, but the original instructions and sketches are still intact. The school determined to re-install the artwork on a blank wall in the Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries in the university’s new Creative Arts Center. This time, the cube shape could be followed as intended.

“We decided we would use this as an opportunity to kick off an examination in the Modernist movement in all of the arts,” Dahlman explains. “During the 20th century in music, art, dance, theater, you had the idea of breaking with the past and attempting to approach things from a different perspective in a more modern way. So we brought in CELIA fellows to brainstorm different activities and events and exhibits and performances we might do.”

The CELIA team includes Stefan Chinov, associate professor of art and art history; Gerald Noble, director of percussion; and Gina Walther, associate professor of dance.

RE-CREATING THE LEWITT ARTWORK

The LeWitt Foundation will select a team of artists who — with the help of Wright State faculty and students — will execute the LeWitt’s original instructions between Feb. 6 and Feb. 16. Chinov says the new crew will involve one of the students who participated in the 1981 installation — Jean Koeller, a well-known Miami Valley artist and aWSU art alumna.

Chinov says it’s fitting that the artwork will be part of a gallery that now houses the Stein’s private collection.

“It’s related to their collection because the university purchased the original proposal for the drawings through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and received a matching grant from the Steins at that time,” he explains. The re-installation will demonstrate how the same idea can be executed in different ways — a key concept in the Modern Art movement.

Chinov says his part of the project will include speakers, a panel discussion and films and will allow students and the community to learn more about a major figure in the history of American 20th Century art. “The fact that students will be able to watch the artistic process is invaluable,” he says. “LeWitt is the father of conceptual art, art that considers the idea more important than the actual product.”

ADDING MUSIC

Dahlman says percussion will provide a great example of a modern approach to music. “Prior to 100 years ago percussion instruments were always part of something else, ” he says. “Starting in the late ’20s and ’30s, we began to see percussion being done for its own sake — not just for communication or ceremonial use in religious and military settings.”

French composer and teacher Darius Milhaud, Dahlman says, set off a whole new genre of music when he began writing pieces strictly for percussion instruments.

The musical component of Wright State’s Modern Art tribute will feature a residency by Sō Percussion. Based at Princeton University, members of the group also serve as co-directors of the percussion department at the Bard College-Conservatory of Music and run the annual Sō Percussion Summer Institute for college-age composers and percussionists.

The four-member group performs everything from 20th century classics to their own works — a synthesis of original music, artistic collaboration, theatrical production and visual art.

“Percussion lends itself to the idea of interpretation,” says Dahlman. “And it’s fascinating not only to listen to, but to watch.”

CUTTING-EDGE MODERN DANCE

It didn’t take dance professor Gina Walther long to come up with her ‘dream troupe” for the upcoming modern art project. “It’s been a dream of mine to bring Dwight Rhoden and his Complexions Contemporary Ballet to Wright State,” she says. “His company is beautiful and exciting and on the cutting edge of modern dance.”

Rhoden will visit and teach at WSU before the school’s Spring Dance Concert April 20-23. On Sept. 18 his company will perform at the Victoria Theater and he’ll return to Dayton to work with dance students.

Walther is excited that her students will be in a room with someone so creative and forward thinking. “He has a way of pushing dancers to the edge of their abilities,” Walther says. “With some choreographers that can be a negative thing but Dwight is always nurturing and on your side.”

Some of the Wright State dancers have seen Rhoden’s company in action in New York. “Complexions was more than just beautiful lines and steps, they were a company full of passionate dancers and that showed throughout every dance,” says Alexandria Flewellen of Columbus, who admits she was speechless when she learned the company was coming to her school.

Halle Augenstein of Marion, describes Rhoden’s dancers as super human. “They were the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen!” she says. ” The chance to learn from a legend like Dwight Rhoden is a dream come true.”

RHODEN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO MODERN DANCE

Rhoden has been a principal dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and has appeared in numerous television specials, documentaries and commercials throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He’s been a featured performer on many PBS Great Performances specials and has also directed and choreographed for TV, film, theater and live performances. He has worked with, and/or created works for such high-profile artists as Prince, Lenny Kravitz, Kelly Clarkson, The Drifters, Paul Simon, Billy Strayhorn, Marvin Gaye, U2 and Patrick Swayze.

One of Rhoden’s major contributions to modern dance, Walther says, was the way he has combined different dance genres. “The kind of style that they do is fiercely athletic,” she says. ” A lot of their scenes are en pointe, in which the dancers move gracefully on the tips of their toes, but you’re not going to be seeing classical ballet of old. His movement is so technically demanding yet organic so if we’re talking about modernism and where the art form of dance is going in the future, his is the first company that comes to mind.”

Walther first worked with Rhoden when she was a member of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. “I remember I was mesmerized by him and sometimes found it difficult to pick up his choreography because when he would start moving I would just want to watch him,” she recalls. “He has a gracefulness and a majesty.”

Dahlman says the results of the upcoming collaboration will be very significant on campus in the coming months. “It will answer two questions,” he says. “Where have we been and where are we going?”


WANT TO GO?

What: "SOL LEWITT," a documentary film by Chris Teerinks.

When: 6-8 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 2.

Where: Dayton Art Institute, 456 Belmonte Park N, Dayton

Admission: Free

A second public screening of the film will occur from 2 to 4 p.m. on Feb. 24 at the Stein Galleries and include a panel discussion with Stefan Chinov and Karla Huebner, associate professor of art and art history. This event is free.

ALSO: John Hogan, who guided and oversaw most of the LeWitt installations and is considered the world's foremost expert on LeWitt's art, will give a free lecture at Wright State Stein Galleries at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 12 prior to the public opening of the re-installed LeWitt wall art.

MORE UPCOMING EVENTS:

  • The Percussion group, So Percussion, will perform a free concert at Wright State's Schuster Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan 28.
  • An open rehearsal of choreographer Dwight Rhoden's piece will take place from 5-6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18 in the Wright State Univeristy Creative Arts Center, Studio 170.
  • Dwight Rhoden's company, "Complexions Contemporary Ballet" will perform at the Victoria Theatre on Sept. 28. Details yet to be announced.
  • For more information on Wright State's series of events on modern art, check out https://liberal-arts.wright.edu/celia/events. Or call (937) 775-ARTS (2787)

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