Music Made Visible: Metaphors of the Ephemeral by marsha levin-rojer
Music Made Visible: Metaphors of the Ephemeral Artwork by
Marsha Levin-Rojer in honor of
Maestro Gustavo Dudamel The Bernstein Gallery of the Woodrow Wilson School Princeton University December 2018 - January 2019
INTRODUCTION This exhibition of Marsha Levin-Rojerʼs art at the Bernstein Gallery is inspired by Gustavo Dudamel and his commitment to music as a catalyst for change. A panel discussion and documentary video address El Sistema, Dudamelʼs innovative public music education program that was begun in Venezuela and now flourishes across the world. Levin-Rojerʼs art addresses music itself. Her work makes music concrete, makes it last, makes it visible. Fundamental to the show are two large graphite drawings, each an exquisite rendering of deep feeling. One, "Metaphors of the Ephemeral,” consists of the subtlest pale grey shadings that gradually but unevenly recede into a deep black and are all washed over by hundreds of wave-like erasures. The other, "Release,” is pervaded by mystery and solemnity in the form of undulating ribbons under varying degrees of tension. The shapes in this drawing are much like those in the later "Hallelujah,” a painting made with sensuously collaged ribbons of rice papers in oranges and purples, showing less restraint and more joy. Levin-Rojer is highly accomplished not only with drawing but also with the making of mandalas as art; and for this exhibition she has made exceptional ones. Her "Music Mandala" is a pale blue square canvas with a very large central circle consisting of confetti-like shredded sheet music. Richly textured and closely detailed, it is exuberant with the liveliness of life. The very different "Incandescence" is a white mandala made of interconnected cut-outs of acetate that have organic shapes: a lovely poetic entanglement of light and shadow, evocative of all that is unknowable and intangible. The artist uses her paper cutting technique elsewhere to good effect, as well: in the simple "Timbre,” the paper cut-outs enchant with gradual changes of earth tones; and in "Harmony,” the acetate forms shine forth their brilliant blues and reds, and the expanse of delight runs on for five feet. Perhaps the finest work of this sort is "Magical Transformation,” where the hand-cut mylar forms are hung suspended, loosely shimmering silver, quintessentially ephemeral, and fully living up to the ambitious title. And then there is “A Lyrical Path to Enlightenment,” fifteen feet long, up the wall and onto the ceiling, all handcut from road maps, inviting us to muse on the whereabouts of relative and ultimate realities as we make our way along.
"Adagio for Strings" is an unusually simple work. Long metallic threads elegantly curve across a grey rectangle of richly textured paper: it is transfixing and bewitching. "Allemande Right" is a charming wall-hung construction of dozens of small paper squares, each tinted sensitively with unique shades of watercolor. All together interconnected rectilinearly, they delightfully suggest square dance, in keeping with their inspiration from music by composer Caroline Shaw. Shaw also inspired 'The Detail of the Pattern is Movement,� a painting collaged with hundreds of tiny dots that form graceful lines of vibratory energy. Similarly "Every Note is a Universe" took its title from a statement by Dudamel, whose music inspired it; the painting shows large blue ethereal sound waves collaged with small dots of colorful specificity that sing out. The works in this show are a testament to the transformative powers of imagination, so prized by musician and visual artist alike. Mary Oestereicher Hamill, Ph.D. Curator and Director, Bernstein Gallery
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Princeton University January 2019
ARTIST'S STATEMENT The work in this catalogue was commissioned by Princeton University to honor Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, the Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, in conjunction with his 2018-2019 yearlong artistic residency with the University's Department of Music. For Dudamel, the power of music lies in its invisible beauty, “"the fact that sound, vibration, and harmony can create something in us", the fact that something ephemeral can have such a profound and lasting impact. It is DudamelĘźs firm belief in the ability of music to enrich our lives that sustains his commitment to El Sistema; it his passionate belief in its power to enrich our souls that drives him personally. Many have pondered the magical quality of music; Marcel Proust describes it as a "fragile, exquisite, and supernatural magic" whose motifs float in shreds before completely vanishing. Many years ago, I marveled: how is it possible that ephemeral, evanescent sound waves can be perceived as so concrete when they coalesce in musical form? It is at a time like this when I turn to my background in math: in an attempt to resolve this apparent incongruity, I envisioned a 'mapping' of sound waves into music and the world: Melody as a one-dimensional Line moving through space; Harmony as a two-dimensional Plane floating in the air; and Music as their three-dimensional product, a Solid that becomes a landscape -- music suffusing and infusing the world. This model became the basis for my continued explorations including the work in this exhibition. My next goal was to make music visible. One need not look very far for metaphors of the ephemeral. I have chosen just a few: a musical staff that takes off in Flight; a mandala-like form constructed from shredded sheet music to represent the spiritual response to music; metallic mylar that gently moves in space creating flashes of light, the "magical" transformation of sound waves into music; a grid, a square dance, dancing off the wall and into space; and the ephemerality of our soul as represented by A Lyrical Path to Enlightenment. With a friendly nod to the wave/particle duality of energy, light and sound, I have used both lines and dots in many of the works to express energy and movement. The titles and inspiration for several pieces come from a direct quote by Dudamel: Every Note is a Universe, as well as textual fragments from the "Partita for Eight Voices" by Caroline Shaw: Allemande Right, The Detail of the Pattern is Music, and Far
and Near Are All Around. I would like to thank Professor Stanley Katz, the Director of the Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, for his vision and stewardship of the Bernstein Gallery of the Woodrow Wilson School, and Mary Hamill, the Director of the Bernstein Gallery, for inviting me to create the work for this exhibition. Many hours of planning and coordination went in to making this show a reality and I very much appreciate all of their efforts. I would also like to thank Marna Seltzer, the Director of the Princeton University Concerts, for giving me the first opportunity to explore my ideas of a 'Musical Line" for the University's 2015-2016 PUC125 Concert Series – it is that project that gave rise, both literally and figuratively, to this exhibition. This project has been an immensely gratifying endeavor. Music is indeed a gift and I hope that this catalogue will capture some of its spirit and energy. Marsha Levin-Rojer January 2019
Hallelujah, 2018 | Collage of Japanese papers on canvas | 48" x 48"
Every Note is a Universe, 2018 | Oil, watercolor on canvas | 24" x 48"
The Detail of the Pattern is Movement, Homage to Caroline Shaw, 2018 | Collage on paper | 33" x 22 1/2"
Harmony, 2018 | Installation of hand-cut colored acetate film | 60" (size variable)
Far and Near Are All Around, Homage to Caroline Shaw, 2018 | Oil on canvas | 36" x 36"
Music Mandala, 2018 | Shredded sheet music, oil, watercolor | 36" x 36" x 1"
Allemande Right, Homage to Caroline Shaw, 2018 | Installation of cut paper, watercolor | 20" x 28" x 1" Next pages: A Lyrical Path to Enlightenment, 2018 | Installation of hand-cut maps, Mylar, glass-headed pins | 180"x 48"
Timbre, 2018 | Installation of hand-cut papers, glass-headed pins | 45" x 35" (size variable)
Adagio for Strings, 2018 | Metallic thread, paper | 29" x 37"
Metaphor of the Ephemeral, Homage to Gustavo Dudamel, 2018 | Graphite on paper | 36" x 28"
Release, 2013 | Graphite on paper | 37" x 50"
Opposite page: Incandescence, 2018 | Installation of hand-cut Mylar, glass-headed pins | 60" x 60"x 1" (Detail above)
Magical Transformation, 2018 | Hand-cut Mylar, metal rod, monofilament | 36" x 60" x 5"
Flight, 2018 | Tape installation | 45" x 180" (size variable)
marsha levin-rojer www.marshalevinrojer.com
Solo Shows and Installations 2018 2018 2015-6 2013
“Music Made Visible: Metaphors of the Ephemeral”, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ “Deconstructed Mandalas”, Penn Medicine at Plainsboro, Plainsboro, NJ “The Musical Line”, Princeton University PUC125 6 Concert Series, Princeton, NJ “Multimedia Drawings by Marsha Levin-Rojer”, Pennswood Gallery, Newtown, PA
Selected Group Shows and Special Exhibitions
2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2013 2011 2010 2010 2009 2008 2007 2007 2004 2003
“MOVIS: Into the Woods”, Stoneybrook Watershed, Hopewell, NJ “From Small to Large”, Monster Mouse Studios, Marrickville, Sydney “By Line”, Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminster, NJ “Qui suis-je?”, Cluis, France “Boomerang”, NJ State Museum, Trenton, NJ “HAM & Eggs”, Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ “Bumping into Intangibles”, The Pingry School, Martinsville, NJ The New Jersey Arts Annual, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ “Reinventing the Wheel”, Arts Council of Princeton, Princeton, NJ “Connect|Reconnect”, Mercer County Community College, West Windsor, NJ “In Suspension”, Mason Gross School of Art, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ “Crossing Cultures”, Colmar, France “or•ga•nic: Nature takes form”, Princeton Public Library, Princeton, NJ New Talent Show, Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA US Artists Show, The Armory, Philadelphia, PA
Public Collections Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ The Medical Center at Princeton, Princeton, NJ Capitol Healthcare, Ewing, NJ