Every Beat of My Heart is the culmination of Season 1 artist Kerry James Marshall’s Wexner Center Residency Award. The work grows out of his Rythm Mastr series, an expansive sequence of narrative works that tells a tale of urban life featuring superheroes inspired by African archetypes and African-American culture (view Marshall talking about the series on his Art:21 webpage here).
Marshall’s Wexner residency began last summer with a trip to Japan to study the traditional art form of Bunraku puppetry. He then convened a group of 23 Columbus teenagers totrain as puppeteers in order to present Every Beat of My Heart as a live performance with musical accompaniment by jazz drummer Kahil El’Zabar.
The performances take place this weekend: Saturday, February 2, at 4pm and 7pm, and Sunday, February 3 at 2pm and 4pm in the Wexner Center Galleries.
After the performances, the puppets and sets will be on view as part of the exhibition Kerry James Marshall: Every Beat of My Heart, through April 13. A video of the complete performance will be on view in the lower lobby during this time as well.
Tickets are extremely limited and are available only in person, first-come, first-served at the Wexner Center Ticket Office/Patron Services Desk on the day of the performance (two tickets per patron maximum). Overflow seating with a live video feed will be available in the Film/Video Theater during all performances. (The ticket office opens at 10 am on Saturday and 11 am on Sunday.)
Read more about the project here and here.