John Michael
Marielle Allschwang & The Visitations performing Precession of a Day: The World of Mary Nohl at the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan in June. Below: artwork at Nohl’s Lake Michigan home.
On childhood trips to her grandmother’s house Marielle Allschwang would drive past a cottage on Lake Michigan in the suburb of Fox Point. Its yard was dotted with playfully bizarre sculptures. Dinosaurs, in particular, caught young Allschwang’s imagination. Locals called it home to a witch. Her father didn’t make that distinction.
“He was just like, ‘Check this shit out, this shit is wild,’” says Allschwang, a Milwaukee musician. Years later, when Allschwang was an art student, a professor compared her visionary, dreamlike works to those of Mary Nohl, the creator of the enchanting sculptures from her youth.
“When I did make that connection, the parallels were pretty uncanny,” Allschwang says. “The echoes and reverberations of what I tend to gravitate toward visually — she must have had an influence on me.”
In 2014, Allschwang received a commission from the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and other funders to create a multimedia tribute to Nohl, a project that would involve five years of research, writing and recording. As she immersed herself in the world of Nohl, she found creative solidarity in the process. Allschwang and members of the Milwaukee outfit The Visitations will perform their audio-visual exposition of Nohl’s imaginative home, Precession of the Day: The World of Mary Nohl, at the UW Memorial Union Play Circle at 8 p.m. on Sept. 19. The event is free.
Born into a well-to-do family in 1914, Nohl graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1937 and taught art in Milwaukee for a few years before opening a pottery studio in Whitefish Bay and a jewelry studio at the house in Fox Point, where she lived with her parents. After their deaths, her inheritance afforded her the luxury of creating art as she saw fit, often using materials from the property — driftwood, shells and glass.
Despite the idyllic setup, people in that community and era were suspicious of Nohl’s independent, creative lifestyle. Superstitious locals burned her sculptures, made from lake sand concrete, and fired bullets through her windows. Nohl tried to make light of it, sending newsletters with the greeting “Boo!”
Nohl died in 2001. Her home remains closed to the public and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. She left an estate of nearly $11 million for a foundation in her name that funds children’s arts education and art scholarships.
Allschwang, the members of The Visitations and director Heather Hass spent hours on the grounds, examining Nohl’s creations and capturing photos and video.
“As Mary Nohl says, you have to pull out what’s inside you any way you can,” Allscwhang says. “She was this transformative force. I see her as a collaborator with her environment in this artistic ecosystem — something I aspire to be,” Allschwang says.
Kelly Bolter
Artwork at Nohl’s Lake Michigan home.
Allschwang is no stranger to the stage. With the voice of a folk gothic Disney princess and hushed, dark, pretty musical compositions, she’s a key member of Milwaukee’s indie music and arts scene. She released the 2015 solo album, Dead Not Done. In various combinations she plays guitar, violin and sings with Group of the Altos, Hello Death and Collections of Colonies of Bees, who opened for Sylvan Esso on their 2018 tour.
As a nod to Nohl’s open, playful creativity, Allscwhang’s music for Precession of a Day integrates musical influences from her German and Filipino roots with new wave and metal. The music has been published as a double record with photos of Nohl’s art-filled home.
“‘Precession’ is actually a term for the movement of the planets and stars around an axis. It’s about this ongoing cycle. Astrologically, we read this cycle to determine our place in time and our activities for the season and for the day,” Allschwang says.
Nohl’s artist’s routine — waking up, creating self-inspired art, transforming nature and serving the environment — is poignant today, particularly for women, Allschwang says. “That’s really beautiful and it’s really important to be reminded of that.”
