Cellist and composer Eugene Friesen will present an evening of original music selected specifically for the exhibit “Cardboard Menagerie” at the Mariposa Museum on Friday, May 20, at 7 p.m.
Selections will be inspired by nature, jazz, world music, and J.S. Bach.
When Grammy-award winning Friesen visited the Mariposa Museum last March, he found artist Rich Entel and a Mariposa team putting the final touches on the installation of “Rich Entel’s Cardboard Menagerie,” an exhibit of nine very large animals sculpted from corrugated cardboard, broken musical instruments, and hand-printed text from Tibetan, Indian, and Hebrew traditions.
Friesen, whose work with the Paul Winter Consort and as an independent artist has long been attuned to the sounds of animals and nature, liked what he saw.
“Eugene was just visiting the Mariposa with his children and hadn’t heard about the Menagerie exhibit, so the timing was just serendipitous,” said Mariposa Executive Director Karla Hostetler. “After he and his children played with the musical instruments upstairs (a favorite section of the hands-on museum), they came down to look at the sculptures. Rich [Entel] was positioning text of the Carl Sandburg poem “Wilderness” that goes with the exhibit, and Eugene said, ‘I’ve been working on some music inspired by a different Carl Sandburg poem.’ The conversation turned to Eugene and his music with whales, and Rich said, ‘I’ve been working on a whale…'”
That whale has since been completed and will be at the Mariposa in time for Friesen’s performance, taking its place alongside the lion, warthog, buffalo, owl, pelican, giraffe, crocodile, elephant, and stag. A tiny female form, called the Little Conductor, rotates in their midst, conductor’s wand raised, stopping at each sculpture in turn.
“The humpback whale will rise as if breaching from the museum’s floor,” Entel said. “It’s significantly larger than other work I have done and stretches the limits of what I can do with cardboard. I enjoyed meeting Eugene, and I’ve been propelled in this work, knowing he is coming to play for this piece and the other sculptures in the ‘Menagerie.’”
Tickets for the are $15, $10 for Mariposa members and $5 for children.
Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling 924-4555
The exhibit will be on display through May 30.
For more information, visit www.mariposamuseum.org.