Marxhausen Hosts International Artists

by Ben Middendorf

The Marxhausen Gallery of Art is currently hosting “Body-Site: Meeting Nature and Culture,” an exhibition showcasing work by Akira Ikezoe, Hiroshi Sunairi and Jorge de León.

Akira Ikezoe curated the exhibition. On Sunday, Nov. 8, he gave an artist talk on the artists and works he selected for the show.

Akira described his interest in the connection between nature and culture, exemplified by his images of man-made structures being overtaken by vegetation and rivers. He attributed this interest to his hometown of Kochi, Japan.

“Our body contains nature and culture both,” said Akira. “We can’t stop aging, we can’t stop growing. But also, we grew up in the culture, wherever it is.”

Akira’s “after dinner” drawings and animation are displayed in the exhibition.

For the show, Akira also selected fellow Japanese artist Hiroshi Sunairi. Sunairi’s documentary about the 2010 Tibetan earthquake, “Making Mistakes,” is included in the exhibition.

The documentary explores the people and culture of Gyêgu, the town which was at the epicenter of the quake. Hiroshi traveled to Gyêgu after the quake to chronicle the aftermath, but developed altitude sickness due to the region’s high elevation and had to return to a lower town.

“The documentary has an enormous visual appeal to anyone who watches it,” said Professor James Bockelman, director of the Marxhausen Gallery of Art. “‘Making Mistakes’ shows Hiroshi’s struggle with possibly giving up too soon, and his realization that in the process, there is culture and art.”

“He’s trying to probably say it’s okay if your dream doesn’t come true, or maybe the process is more important than the result,” said Akira.

Akira also selected a film and several drawings by Jorge de León, a Guatemalan performance artist whom Akira met during a visit to that country.

“He experienced the civil war in Guatemala,” said Akira. “He couldn’t of course, because of the war, get a very good education or anything, but he had a great artist in his family, so he became interested in being an artist. But…he (didn’t) have any good materials for sculptures or anything, so that’s why he became a performance artist.”

De León’s performance film depicts the artist crouching in the suspended carcass of a cow.

“I think the eviscerated cow represents him trying to reenter the womb,” said Bockelman. “De León never knew his mother when he was young, and wasn’t reunited until she was terminally ill.”

Bockelman also drew comparisons between de León’s film and Rembrandt’s “Carcass of Beef,” and Francis Bacon’s “Figure with Meat.”

“Body-Site: Meeting Nature and Culture” will be showing at the Marxhausen Gallery of Art through Monday, Dec. 16.

“I think it’s a great chance for students to see artwork from other cultures which are very different from our Western thought,” said Bockelman.

Marxhausen Gallery is open from 11 a.m to 4 p.m. on weekdays and from 1-4 p.m. on weekends.