The subject of this film, Mark Hogancamp, almost had his head taken off by a pack of bullies in a bar.  But Hogancamp lived to create a painstaking, war-torn, one-sixth scale universe called Mar-wen-col (a word combining his own name, and the names Wendy and Colleen, two significant women in his life).  Marwencol is overrun with punk-i-fied Barbies and Nazi G.I. Joes, enacting a cycle of torture and love.  Hogancamp’s bird’s eye photos of Marwencol are worthy of a New York gallery show.

Watching the film is like unstacking a set of Russian dolls, revealing ever weirder scenarios combined with spectacular pathos. The Boston Globe critic Ty Burr calls Marwencol “a strange and very beautiful documentary about the gray area between obsession and art — about the compulsive need to create something when the world leaves you with nothing.”  (Read his full review.)

Any art museum is a haven for objects of embodied power: a Buddha statue, a Bidjogo mask, a painting of the Virgin Mary.  The dolls he created to live in Marwencol are just as effecting for Hogancamp – and for viewers of the film.

My IMA colleague Lindsay Hand went to the South by Southwest film festival last March, and this was the standout film that we had to bring to the IMA.  The screening’s co-presented by our friends at the Indianapolis International Film Festival.  After the film, we’re going to skype in filmmaker Jeff Malmberg for a virtual post-film chat in The Toby.

Marwencol is also showing this week in Toronto, Minneapolis, and San Francisco.  We’ve brought it to Indianapolis for your viewing pleasure—if it pleases you to have your mind blown.

I’m here at the Indianapolis International Airport waiting for the 11 members of the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra to arrive.  They perform at The Toby this Saturday night, 7 pm.

Since seeing their picture in a cooking magazine five years ago, I’ve been obsessed with bringing them to perform at IMA.  I love that they take an everyday object like an eggplant and mine it for its expressive sonic properties.  I love that they wear all black and let the colorful veggies create a visual pop.  I love that they treat vegetables as sculptural objects.  I love that their music is experimental.

Here’s a listen to their latest CD, Onionoise. I especially like Brazil.

NUVO music critic Scott Shoger did a great piece on them this week. CBS Sunday News Sunday Morning is coming to record their visit. The Austrian Consulates from Chicago and New York are coming too.

Getting them here wasn’t easy.  Let’s just say, if you’ve never dealt with the US Citizen and Immigration Service, be glad!  The good news is that their concert is a signature event in the 2010 Spirit & Place Festival, whose theme is “Food for Thought.”

Today, some donated veggies are being delivered.  If they aren’t the right size and shape, we’ll have to go shopping tomorrow, probably at Saraga. Note: If you want to learn how to make you own veggie instruments (hint: drills are involved), sign up for tomorrow’s 1 to 5 pm workshop.

Friday night, I may take the orchestra members to First Friday.  I will definitely let them take a look at the IMA’s Warhol show.  After the show, we’ll go to either Brugge Brasserie or Barcelona Tapas, I think.

Since they are worldwide one-of-a-kind, you won’t regret coming to their concert Saturday night at The Toby.  As part of the event, we are also displaying vegetables as art in The Toby lobby, and having a cookbook swap, too.  I know I’ll see you there…

Have you checked out our fall calendar? Schedule your cultural adventure now. Here are the trailers to whet your appetite:

The event is free, open to the public, and offered in conjunction with the IMA’s Educator Sneak Peek Program. To accommodate multiple audiences, the program will be divided into two sections (feel free to come to one or both parts):

Part 1 — 5:00 pm
We’ll discuss the roles of staff members in selecting, displaying and caring for contemporary art.

Part 2 — 6:00 pm
We’ll discuss in greater detail the process of commissioning new artworks, complexities of working with installation art, and the long-term care of contemporary artworks.

Joining me on the panel will be a friend and special guest, Jill Sterrett, Director of Conservation and Collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA); and

Lisa Freiman, IMA Chair of the Department of Contemporary Art;

Greg Smith, IMA Senior Conservation Scientist.

Here’s a link for more information about the program. I think we’ve got just about all the angles covered in this panel, but if you have any questions that you’d like us to address, please leave a comment and we’ll see if we can add it into the conversation.

Detail of Tara Donovan's Untitled (© Tara Donovan, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York)

Without further ado, here is the list!

• June 4 Across the Universe / 2007
• June 11 Rebel Without A Cause / 1955
• June 18 The Usual Suspects / 1995
• June 25 Pee-wee’s Big Adventure / 1985
• July 2 Stella Dallas / 1937
• July 9 North by Northwest / 1959
• July 16 The Rocky Horror Picture Show / 1975 (midnight showing; gates open at 10pm)
• July 23 Monty Python: The Holy Grail / 1975 (midnight showing; gates open at 10pm)
• July 30 The Muppets Take Manhattan / 1984
• August 6 A Fish Called Wanda / 1988
• August 13 Stand By Me / 1986
• August 20 L.A. Confidential / 1997
• August 27 O Brother, Where Art Thou? / 2000

We also have exciting news for members:

• Presale Tickets Beginning April 8, members will have exclusive access to online tickets for all Summer Nights films. This means no waiting in line on the day of the movie!
• Priority Seating Members get the best spots on the terrace! Gates open for members a half-hour earlier than for the public (6 pm).
• Big Savings Members receive tickets for 50% off the public price (Public $10 / Members $5)

I am thrilled we can offer these savings to our most devoted fans. I have attended several Summer Nights films that have sold out, and it’s hard when we have to turn people away.  Become a member and get your (half price!) tickets early.

Also, I will be here for the midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show.  I guarantee it is going to be a wicked good time.  Won’t you come join me?

The details: Double-Shot Music Documentary Day at the IMA
Saturday, March 13
1-5 pm
The Toby

Wug Laku, local artist and member of ArtsWORK Indiana fills us in on the events taking place this weekend as part of Disabilities Awareness Month at the IMA:

A full house (Photo by IMA Photography Dept.)

Osso (Photo by IMA Photography Dept.)

DM Stith and Osso (Photo by IMA Photography Dept.)

But I hope we have that same problem Saturday night November 7 at The Toby for Caddy! Caddy! Caddy! What’s that, you say? Caddy is an elusive character in the novels of William Faulkner. We describe the performance as southern-gothic-meets-Japanese-avant-garde. Ill-fitting wigs, chalky white faces, and 4-point barbed wire are the visuals. Slow, grotesque movements are the path to the unconscious. Oguri (below) is the single name of the Los Angeles-based dancer who created Caddy!

Oguri (Photo by Steven A. Gunther)

Oguri is a master of butoh, a radical yet subtle style of Japanese dance. The first person to perform butoh was Tatsumi Hijikata, in 1950s Japan. Here’s how Oguri himself tells it: “In Japan, there was folkdance, ballet, and modern dance. Performers presented seven-minute pieces for a classy, sophisticated audience. Hijikata comes along half naked and shines the light in the audience’s eyes. He killed a chicken on stage, and the little girls fainted and he was kicked out. After he was expelled, people sought him out because he seemed so cool, and at the time, many people had the same antiestablishment sense.”

Hear ye, hear ye. If you are antiestablishment in Indy, I am summoning you to The Toby this Saturday for Caddy!, which invites you to consider your nightmares. To look into “the mirror which thaws fear.” To observe disconnection. To confront pain.

The Nutcracker it is not. And, anybody with a ticket stub from a recent Toby event gets in half-price; students of any age are free with ID. I dare you to be there…

Visit the IMA Blog tomorrow for a full interview with choreographer and dancer Oguri.

Everyone needs a little everyday design, and Target has got the right idea by teaming up with design super-stars like Michael Graves and Isaac Mizrahi on everything from fashion and beauty to decor and dishes. My favorite collab has to be the rock ‘n roll infused line by Alexander McQueen, inspired by my all time favorite front woman, Leila Moss of The Duke Spirit.

McQueen's muse, Leila Moss modeling the Target line

And these days at the IMA, it’s all about design, design, design. The European Design exhibit is drawing to a close (hurry if you haven’t seen it!) but the Design Center will stay open with great pieces you can take home. Already have a lot of design in your life (or living room)? Take some photos of your everyday design objects and upload them to our Flickr group.

And here’s some great news: tonight you can hear Jeff Carter, senior designer for Target Stores, speak here at the IMA.

• Thursday, June 4
• 7:00 pm
• The Toby at the IMA
• $7 Public / $4 Members / $5 students, click here for more details

And let me just take a moment to mention Target’s website.  I’ve always been a fan of their clean layout (although the mega menus are over-stuffed), and the Design For All section provides a mini profile on each designer they’ve collaborated with. Nice. Although,  I’d really like to see video interviews with each designer or even a Design For All blog. That’s probably asking too much-  but hey, a girl can dream, right?

Speaking of blogs,  check out these Target posts from local design blogs The Design File and Level: zine.

And this one from The DieLine:  Los Angeles-based illustrator Hiroko Sanders created the illustrations for the Kleenex ‘Perfect Slice of Summer’, new limited edition tissue box series for Target Stores.

Juicy.