Husband and wife duo Joshua Cox and Dawn Gettler of Marshalltown are both accomplished artists in their own rights, but the two have combined their talents as part of the latest new art exhibit at Marshalltown Community College’s (MCC’s) Ray Frederick Gallery, a multimedia piece titled “La Vie en Rose,” which is French for “Life in Pink” and is named after a hit song by Edith Piaf and a 2007 biopic about her life.

Cox and Gettler hosted a well-attended grand opening event on Wednesday afternoon, and the exhibit will be available for viewing until Sept. 26. It draws on a familiar theme of home — especially for Cox, whose “Homes of Marshalltown” project has previously been featured in the T-R — with a replica of the couple’s property as the centerpiece.

“I’ve been an installation artist for a long time now, so for me, the work needs to be sort of site specific — like, made for the space — and we were talking about different ideas. And installation work is temporary, right? You make a sculpture or painting, and when the show’s over, you have a sculpture or painting. Well, with installation work, once the show’s over, the work comes down,” Gettler said. “So it was more about creating an experience for the viewer where they would come in and perhaps remember how they felt viewing the work or watching the video.”

They also drew from the experience of raising two children together and even enlisted their daughters, ages six and eight, to film a video playing in the yard that was shown as part of the exhibit.

“Time doesn’t stop. There are days when you feel like you’re in it forever, and then when you’re not in it, you long for those times too. It’s like this weird thing that happens, so (we’re) thinking about the work becoming our daily life and how you can find beauty in your daily life. And it’s not just about waking up, going to your job, feeding, doing chores. There’s some beautiful moments through all of that,” Gettler said. “So when we did the show, it’s kind of like giving people a very romanticized window view of our life. That’s why, when you come in, the first thing you see is this window onto this landscape, which is our landscape, it’s our home, it’s our property, and then the video’s just a video of our kids playing in our backyard. But it’s done in a stylized way in the way it’s projected on the clothesline and taking the sort of, women’s work, but creating a kind of dreamlike situation that happens.”

The goal, she added, is to “activate the whole space” and get the viewer to think about those aforementioned beautiful moments in everyday life.

“This is our life. This is our love, but it’s also the mess and the reality,” Gettler said.

Cox noted that many attendees at the opening were “taken aback” as they walked into the dimly lit space and observed movement, sound and video, and he wanted them to feel something both different and impactful. In keeping with the title of the exhibit, Gettler dressed their daughters in “exaggerated” pink tutus with a choreographed routine — and they loved it.

“It’s, again, just this thing that happens every day. We do capture little moments in the video, but to bring it into this context to show you (that) these everyday moments are really important, and they’re really beautiful,” Gettler said.

As the title might suggest, the color pink is prominently featured in “La Vie en Rose,” and Gettler said the film of the same name draws on the idea of desire and picturing the world in pink — perfect — once you get it. Both Cox and Gettler aren’t slowing down in their artistic pursuits anytime soon: a week after their MCC exhibit comes down, they’ll be opening a sculpture show at Windy Goat Acres in rural Tama County near Chelsea as part of “Live from the Iowa Alps.”

Cox received a grant from the state to pay the artists involved in the show, many of whom hail from Marshalltown, and it will also feature live music.

Some of the pieces from “La Vie en Rose” are available for sale. To learn more about their work, visit tobuildahomeforus.com.

——

Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.