An Encounter with Presence: Emery Blagdon +Shannon Stratton
Starting in the 1960s in rural Nebraska, Emery Blagdon (1907–1986) built an increasingly dense environment filled with sculptures made of baling wire and aluminum foil, brightly colored paintings, hand-painted lightbulbs, salts, and other organic matter. Impacted by personal tragedy, Blagdon worked for nearly thirty years on this constantly changing installation called “The Healing Machine.” His intent was to channel the earth’s energies to alleviate pain and illness.
The “Healing Machine” could not be preserved in situ and is now in the Arts Center’s collection.
Harry Bertoia (1915–1978), a prominent Modernist designer, made hundreds of sounding sculptures from the early 1960s until his death in 1978. These works are known collectively as Sonambients. He installed several sculptures in a stone barn on his property for performances that have been described as spiritual, enlightening, and transformative.
The Artists
The Responders
This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding was also provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Kohler Trust for the Arts and Education, Kohler Foundation, Inc., Herzfeld Foundation and Sargento Foods Inc. The Arts Center thanks its many members for their support of exhibitions and programs through the year. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) (nonprofit) organization; donations are tax deductible.
The Road Less Traveled 50th anniversary program was conceived by Amy Horst, deputy director for programming. The exhibitions series was organized and curated by Arts Center Curator Karen Patterson. Special thanks to Emily Schlemowitz, assistant curator, for the curation of Driftless: Nick Engelbert & Ernest Hüpeden and Folk & Fable: Levi Fisher Ames & Albert Zahn, and Amy Chaloupka, guest curator of The World in a Garden: Nek Chand and Volumes: Stella Waitzkin.
