(light music) (upbeat piano music) - Milwaukee is a showcase for both local artists and world-renowned creators.

On this episode of, "The Arts Page," we revisit The Noguchi Museum in New York, and find out where you can see a couple of Isamu Noguchi sculptures, in person, here in Milwaukee.

Get to know the public art nonprofit organization, called Joy Engine.

Meet the artists and organizers behind "NiteLight," an immersive art and light festival, held recently on Historic Mitchell Street.

(soft piano music) Then, hear a soulful song from R&B singer, Ty Wilder, as part of our Milwaukee PBS digital series, Rhythm Cafe MKE.

"The Arts Page," starts right now.

(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music continues) Welcome to, "The Arts Page."

I'm Sandy Maxx.

Earlier this year, we brought you a look inside and outside the Noguchi Museum in Queens, New York.

Isamu Noguchi was the son of parents from two different cultures.

Although his mother wanted him to be a doctor, he became one of the most significant artists of the 20th century.

In 1985, Noguchi founded a museum dedicated to his work.

The Noguchi Museum features a range of the artist's innovative creations, from large sculptures, and drawings, to models.

The museum honors his unique and extraordinary legacy.

Let's revisit this museum, and then, you'll learn where you can see his impressive artworks right here in Milwaukee.

(light music) - Noguchi was born in 1904.

He was born in Los Angeles, California.

His mother was an Irish woman from New York.

She was born in Brooklyn.

His father was a traveling poet from Japan.

Noguchi wasn't even named until he was almost three years old.

His mother just called him "Boy," or "Yo."

(soft piano music) His identity was complicated.

From the very first moment of his birth, he was biracial, chose to be multicultural his whole life, but at a time when it was much harder.

(soft piano music continues) He enrolled at Columbia in Pre-Med.

His mother felt that he was destined for bigger things than being a doctor, and by that, she meant being an artist.

(soft piano music continues) He was a spectacular academic sculptor at 19, 20, and then very quickly realized that he was becoming the poster boy of a passe art form.

(soft piano music continues) He really wanted to change sculpture in a way that made it a force for civic good.

He wanted to make it an active part of our everyday lives, that's why he never stopped making furniture.

His Akari lamp series, he made playgrounds, he made playground equipment, he made sets for theater and dance, he had long collaborations with people like Martha Graham.

(soft piano music) The museum was founded in 1985, but Noguchi had been here for almost 10 years.

He bought a derelict factory building, which is the red brick building behind me, and started using it for storage and staging.

(soft piano music continues) Sculpture is all about physical inconvenience.

Everything is big, and heavy, and takes some space, and requires equipment to deal with.

So, sculptors always need more room.

(soft guitar music) He decided that in order to encapsulate his perspective, or his point of view, his way of thinking of things, that the best thing to do was to build an institution, and so, he began to turn his private garden and space into a display space.

When the museum opened, it was seasonal, where Noguchi would be here, himself.

You could ring the bell, and he'd come down and walk you through.

One of the things that you'll notice when you come to our museum, probably right away, is that we don't have wall labels.

We do that, not because Noguchi hated wall labels.

When the museum first opened, there were labels, identifying all the sculptures, somewhere near them, in a kind of traditional museum fashion.

Gradually, he just removed them, and it's because he wanted your experience of the work to be primary.

The fastest way to kill an artwork is to pretend that you've solved it.

(soft guitar music continues) The museum is really about a direct and intimate relationship with these objects and these things, and more important, the larger sense of an environment that they create.

They really produce an atmosphere, and we're standing in this garden, which isn't even two thirds of an acre, it's teeny tiny, it's a postage stamp.

He called the museum "An oasis on the edge of a black hole."

The black hole is New York City, and the urban maelstrom, and as small as it is, you come here, and you just soak it in, and you soak it in through osmosis.

It's like visiting a forest, not like going to the museum.

(soft guitar music continues) Maybe Noguchi's most successful sculpture, overall, are his Akari lanterns.

He called them, "lanterns," rather than, "lamps," because he said he wanted them to be as movable as butterflies.

The traditional paper lanterns, in Gifu City specifically, are made with a particular kind of continuous bamboo ribbing and Washi paper, that's made with interior bark of a mulberry tree, and it produces a laid paper that's just more durable, more flexible, and more resilient than classic-laid cotton paper.

(soft piano music) "Break Through Capestrano" is made out of Japanese basalt.

A basalt column is a single crystal of basalt, and Noguchi worked with harder and harder stones, because he wanted the material to resist him.

What he really liked was stones that had already been marked by some process, that he would then incorporate into the work.

You can see the lines of drill holes, those drill holes were made manually, with hand drills, and then, they'll push two bamboo wedges into the hole, and fill the hole with water, the bamboo wedges expand enough to crack the stone.

Noguchi loved that, and he loved the product of this breaking process.

So, he would take these stones columns, and set them upright, slice the bottom off, so that it would stand up, and then make his few adjustments to turn them into, "sculpture," in air quotes.

(soft instrumental music) The well that's right behind me, this wonderful variation on a tsukubai, that is a circulating fountain.

The water just cascades out over the stone.

That's another one of those basalt columns, just lopped off with a coring drill, making a hole in it.

(soft instrumental music continues) Some of these sculptures are eroding, but the trees are growing.

Their relationship to each other is changing constantly over time.

He planted all of the trees, so the magnificent Katsura tree, that provides the canopy that dominates the garden, it really was a sprig.

It was a quarter-inch sapling, and now, you see what that's become, and that's why the heart and soul of the Noguchi Museum is this garden.

(soft instrumental music continues) - You can see some of Noguchi's artworks for yourself, here in Milwaukee, by simply going for a walk downtown.

Two of Noguchi's red geometric sculptures can be seen as part of sculpture Milwaukee's exhibition, "Actual Fractals, Act I."

You'll find one on the northwest corner of Wisconsin Avenue and North Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, just across the street from Third Street Market Hall.

The second sculpture is in the Third Ward on North Broadway, just south of the Public Market.

Let's learn more about Noguchi and, "Actual Fractals, Act I."

(upbeat electronic music) - Yeah, so we're really excited to have Isamu Noguchi's sculptures here in Milwaukee.

We have two of these sculptures, and one is here, near downtown, off of Wisconsin Avenue, Martin Luther King Drive, and the other one's down in the Third Ward.

Noguchi was a really influential mid-century artist, who kind of defined Modernist style, but these sculptures were designed both to have a visual aesthetic, but also to be engaged in, and these are designed to be play sculptures.

They're, they invite people to climb on them, and to me, I really love this idea.

Often, we think about different ways of engagement with artwork, and in this work, the artist is, actually, not just symbolically asking us to engage in the work, but physically, to explore it.

(upbeat music continues) - [Sandy] Noguchi's sculptures are part of Sculpture Milwaukee's exhibition, called, "Actual Fractals, Act I."

The exhibition brings together the work of several artists from different parts of the world, to showcase the similarities we all share, even though we may be from different places and cultures.

John Riepenhoff is the executive director of Sculpture Milwaukee, and also the curator of, "Actual Fractals, Act I."

- The idea of "Actual Fractals, Act I," was kind of a way to describe how there's many Milwaukees in one Milwaukee, and that we're all kind of sharing the same time and place, and through each artwork, we're kind of invited into the worldview, or the personal view of different artists.

This exhibition shows 11 works by eight different artists.

Each piece is kind of a gateway into different artists' worldview.

A fractal, itself, is kind of a repeated pattern, or a form, that can be scaled in different ways, and for me, it's a organizing principle to think about ways of connecting with different people, and sympathizing with patterns in their life that might be different, but have similar kind of qualities of our own lives.

So, it's describing how we have many Milwaukees that are kind of all sharing this space and overlapping.

(upbeat music continues) So this is one of four new images by artist Pao Her, who's Minneapolis-based, and each one of these images, that are in different parts of downtown Milwaukee, depict scenes of the jungle in Laos.

These light boxes, which we produced for this exhibition, become almost portholes from downtown Milwaukee to the this jungle scene.

This particular piece is a light box with an image on both sides, and there are different images, so you can kind of be invited to step to the other side, and see another jungle scene.

I love this juxtaposition of being in this concrete environment, and then being entered into this world.

(upbeat music) In Erika Verdi's piece, she's actually created a large-scale bronze sculpture, that is a stack of three different tropical fruit that are found in the climate, and the forests around San Paulo, where she's from, and I like to think about it in terms of, if we did a Milwaukee version, it might be a brat and a piece of cheese, (chuckles) and in some ways, they're describing regional specialties, but also, things that could be threatened if the jungles go away.

(traffic humming) So this is "Sun's Fall," by Katy Cowan, and Katy is from Wisconsin, she's a Berlin-based artist.

She actually developed some of the technology to make what's, typically, was an indoor type of sculpture, to be safe to be outside for a duration.

They look like they're two by fours in ropes, but they're actually cast in aluminum, and then they're painted with oil paint, so they have, when you get the chance to look at it up close, it has all the richness and detail of an indoor oil painting, but it's also something that we can present outside.

(traffic humming) (upbeat music) - [Sandy] Lars Fisk's, "Tudor Ball" is one of the more prominent pieces of, "Actual Fractals, Act I."

Perched on the corner of East Wisconsin Avenue, outside the U.S. Bank building, Fisk's objective with the, "Tudor Ball," was to, quote, "Make clear the true essence of the subject, "by representing it for what it is not, a ball."

(upbeat music continues) - The Lars Fisk work, which is a replica of a Tudor home, only in the shape of a giant sphere ball, the artist is actually taking something very familiar to us, which is, and very common in Milwaukee landscape, the Tudor Revival, Tudor home, and he's using all the same qualities, real wood, real glass, and terracotta roof, but he's actually reformatted those elements to kind of snap onto this, this sphere.

So, you see a lot of craft, and it kind of captures our imagination, that, like, it's something very familiar, but it's actually in this new form, and I love to see that as this way of, in juxtaposition with, literally, the tallest buildings in the state, kind of, as this kind of ball, almost the image of it, almost rolling down the streets of downtown Milwaukee.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - "Actual Fractals, Act I," is on display through October of next year, and, "Actual Fractals, Act II," which will expand on the current exhibition, is set for spring of 2024.

As the summer came to a close, local public art nonprofit, Joy Engine, made sure it ended on a high note.

You may have heard of Joy Engine from their past installations, like "Cracking Art," which brought a flock of big, brightly-colored plastic bird sculptures to Milwaukee's Lake Shore State Park.

A pair of pink birds from "Cracking Art" are still on display, across from the Milwaukee Public Market today.

On Historic Mitchell Street, Joy Engine held a first-of-its-kind, large-scale art and light festival, called, "NiteLight."

The creative team behind "NiteLight," share how a process called projection mapping, made this outdoor event truly unique.

(upbeat guitar music) On Milwaukee's South Side, one of the last festivals of the season took place.

On the surface, it was just another street festival.

It was family-friendly, there were lots of local vendors, there was good food, good music, and fun activities, (upbeat guitar music continues) but what made this festival different was the main event.

This was NiteLight.

(film reel whirring) (upbeat electronic music) (upbeat electronic music continues) (upbeat electronic music continues) (upbeat electronic music continues) Presented by Joy Engine, a local public art nonprofit.

They worked with local artists to bring a dazzling light and art show to historic Mitchell Street.

- Joy Engine is a newer nonprofit.

Basically, what we like to do is really wow the city of Milwaukee, like, bring in crazy events that we aren't seeing around here, and I had gone to a festival, last year, in Cincinnati, called, "Blink," which is a 30-block installation of different kinds of light shows.

I fell in love with a type of art called projection mapping.

(upbeat music) - [Sandy] Projection mapping is the art of using projectors to map light onto three-dimensional objects.

This technique, combined with music and sound, creates a highly-immersive experience.

- I would say my favorite part about this is the fact that we're projecting 30,000 lumens of light onto a three-story building, that's a block wide.

- I'm super excited to see the work on the building, and see everybody's work on the building.

This is something I've never seen in person, so I'm really excited about it.

- [Sandy] Four Milwaukee artists were picked to create short films for NiteLight.

Wes Tank and Brianna Cole were two of the contributing artists.

- My piece is essentially a visual score of a song that I made, (upbeat music) and it's a song that I started, like, 10 years ago, and I was working on it, off and on.

It's part of a larger album that I'm gonna be dropping this year, but I love Mitchell Street.

I love the the people of this neighborhood, and it's a really great part of town, and I'm really excited to see some, like, cool stuff happening here, and activating this awesome historic corridor.

(drums booming rhythmically) - I think that the piece that I created really embodies that joy, and even though it's not in the same style as my other work, being able to animate a piece that kind of shows how I feel when I listen to the song is just super special to me.

- [Sandy] Mitchell's Street Arts was chosen to be the backdrop for this one-of-a-kind show.

The 122-year old building, once home to the Kunzelmann-Esser Furniture Company, is now a center for artists to work and collaborate.

- We just had our grand opening on August 18th.

The project actually started with the space, and we went through about six months of just talking with local residents, local artists, and civic leaders, and saying, "What do you want to see here?

"What sort of programming would you come to?

"What do you want your street to look like in five years?"

And we had a vague sense, as a team, of what we wanted to build it into, but our entire mission, and vision, and values were informed by those conversations.

- [Festival Patron] Yeah, they were really cool.

- [Sandy] As the sun set on a cool September evening, audience members found their seats, and waited in anticipation for the big show to start.

(soft electric piano music) (soft electric piano music continues) (electric piano music) (electric piano music continues) (electric piano music continues) (upbeat orchestra music) (upbeat orchestra music continues) (upbeat orchestra music continues) (soft rock music) (singers vocalizing) ♪ An expression of my performance ♪ (soft rock music continues) (woman continues singing) ♪ Ask questions whenever possible ♪ ♪ Process information made from questions ♪ ♪ Turn ideas into more questions ♪ ♪ I'm just hoping, sometimes ♪ ♪ Doesn't even tell all stories ♪ ♪ Of all different (indistinct) terms ♪ (woman continues singing) (soft rock music continues) ♪ She may have a broken (indistinct) ♪ (upbeat electronic music) (upbeat electronic music continues) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) Ty Wilder is a rising star in the Milwaukee music scene.

She started singing at her family's church at just four years old.

She trained classically at the Wisconsin Conservatory, but is a self-taught R&B singer.

Here is Ty Wilder performing her song, "After Party (Interlude)," for our Milwaukee PBS digital series, Rhythm Cafe MKE.

(Ty snapping fingers) (Ty blowing lips) (soft piano music) (soft piano music continues) (soft piano music continues) - Go ahead and roll.

- Okay, speed.

(soft piano music) (soft piano music continues) ♪ Why do my flaws ♪ ♪ Matter so much to you ♪ ♪ 'Cause all I ever wanted was to be enough for you ♪ ♪ So I wear my heart on my sleeve ♪ ♪ Tryin' to please your needs ♪ ♪ But I can't keep living this way ♪ ♪ I've got too comfortable in this toxic love ♪ (soft piano music continues) ♪ Hey ♪ (soft piano music continues) ♪ I've got too comfortable in this toxic love ♪ ♪ So I'm calling you out, baby ♪ ♪ And I'm gonna bounce, baby ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ I'm callin' you out, baby ♪ ♪ But I'm gonna bounce, baby ♪ (soft piano music continues) ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ (Ty vocalizing) (soft piano music continues) ♪ Hey ♪ (soft piano music continues) ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ (soft piano music continues) - That, I like that, that was good.

(laughs) "After Party (Interlude)" is off of my EP, "44."

It goes after a song called, "Rent Party," ♪ I wear my heart on my sleeve ♪ - [Ty] It kinda is that feeling you get when you, like, go partying with your friends, and hangin' out with your friends, and then you have to go home, and just think about your love life, and think about, you know, the things that you may have going on in your mind.

♪ Too comfortable in this toxic love ♪ (Ty vocalizing) (soft piano music) ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ I've got ♪ - I wrote that as an expression of how I was feeling at the time, being around my friends, being social, and then having to come home, and deal with my own stuff.

♪ Hey ♪ ♪ So, I'm calling you out, baby ♪ ♪ 'Cause I gotta bounce, baby ♪ (soft piano music) - That's where "After Party (Interlude)" kind of came from, that feeling of loneliness, and trying to find self-awareness, and figure yourself out through this world, so that's where all of these lyrics and things came from.

♪ Love ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ So I'm callin' you out, baby ♪ ♪ And I'm gonna bounce, baby ♪ (soft piano music) ♪ Yeah ♪ - You can see the full collection of Rhythm Cafe MKE volumes at our website, MilwaukeePBS.org.

Thank you for watching, "The Arts Page."

I'm Sandy Maxx.

Please join us the first Thursday of every month, for a half hour full of art on, "The Arts Page."

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