Lifted (For Shoulders)

This sculpture, rich in materials and meaning, was created by Oberlin College faculty member Johnny Coleman to honor Oberlin Conservatory of Music professor Wendell Logan, who died in 2010. Close to the artist since the early 1990s, and to Oberlin alumnus and author James McBride, Logan was a towering figure in the study and performance of jazz for many decades. McBride, Logan’s executor, insisted that Coleman take Logan’s saxophone and create a work to honor him—the resulting sculpture incorporates his trumpet mouthpieces, as well. The central birdhouse has holes on two sides meant to represent concept of sankofa, often represented by a bird that faces both forward and backward to denote that one should take from the past what is useful for the present. The overall structure is reminiscent of the “grandfather seats” of the Dan peoples of Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire—evocatively linking past and present, Africa and America.