b y A n t h o n y L u e n s m a n

Irato

Alice F. & Harris K. Weston Art Gallery

The NEA Commissions 2001–2002When architect Cesar Pelli gave over a vast corner of

the Aronoff Center for the Arts to the plan of the Weston Art Gallery, little could he have known how congruous its design would be with contemporary artist projects and a standing invitation to view them. The resulting space of two pristine white galleries on the lower level and one very public atrium space above presented a fortuitous combination of public and private, large- and small-scale programming possi-bilities. Founding gallery director Salli LoveLarkin saw the intrinsic value of the upper space as the real “stage” for the gallery’s ambitious artistic agenda; the opportunities this space provides for public commissions and site-specific installations is unparalleled in this region. Her vision was to present works that would thrill and intrigue an otherwise unsuspecting audience on their way to a Broadway show or just going about their daily business down-town. Presented with a venue of such immense exposure, artists lined up with projects for consideration.

The upper gallery, approximately 2,000 square feet on the Seventh and Walnut Street corner of the Aronoff Center for the Arts, overlooks a plaza area and a major downtown intersection. Its soaring four-story glass window walls and busy central location beckon artists with its unrivaled public visibility for their work. The space is not without its challenges, however. As an atrium, installations are viewed from inside and out, twenty-four hours a day. The most successful projects have addressed the unique elements of the upper gallery’s architecture, acoustics, shifting light patterns from day to night, safety and security, and the daily trespass of the public—both curious and not.

Three projects were proposed to the National Endowment for the Arts in the category of creation and presentation of artistic works: Nuts Society T-shirt Center by the Nuts Society of Bangkok, Thailand (summer 2001); Three Landscapes by Joel Otterson (winter 2001); and Irato by Anthony Luensman (spring 2002). The gallery was selected to receive funding in a highly competitive year of applications—one of only two such grants awarded in the state of Ohio. The award recognizes the past achievements of the Weston Art Gallery in site-specific work as well as the outstanding slate of artists and projects proposed.

The NEA commissions have stretched the gallery in every way imaginable and to great critical acclaim. This, the final installment of three limited-edition catalogues, will preserve the exhibition for posterity. As a strategic showcase for artist projects, the upper gallery continues to bring new audiences to art, often in unexpected ways—an important and ongoing mission of the Weston Art Gallery.

Kelly O’Donnell, Assistant DirectorWeston Art Gallery

Music Box Anthony Luensman on Stage at the Weston Art GalleryTony Luensman sits on the floor of a Covington, Kentucky, Korean restaurant, talking about his

current installation at a downtown Cincinnati gallery, as well as some upcoming music performances. It’s a warm May afternoon and Luensman is casually dressed in a t-shirt, shorts and sandals. A gentle man with short bleached blonde hair and an angular face, his soft-spoken speech complements his casual summertime wardrobe. Luensman’s conversation is friendly and relaxed, although he has little time for anything else but work. Our conversation covers all his artwork: from the interactive sound sculptures that comprise his Weston Art Gallery exhibition Irato, the new CD release from his experimental ensemble Current Quartet (an electroacoustic group that includes Tony Franklin, Mike Barnhart and Paul Hogan), to his painted works on paper stored at his Camp Washington studio.

At age 36, Luensman is a sculptor, painter, musician and co-artistic director with Mark Fox of the avant-garde troupe Saw Theater. He is a well-known figure in Cincinnati’s tight-knit arts community. Irato, the site-specific acoustic installation created for the

Weston Art Gallery and commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, helped introduce Luensman and his work to the community-at-large. There are odd jobs to make ends meet, but basically he devotes himself full-time to art. Thanks to Irato, Luensman, an artist in the true Renaissance style, is experiencing something of a renewal with his own creative career.

“I would hesitate to say that I’m a composer in any way,” Luensman says, speaking between sips of beer. He speaks quietly, choosing his words in a deliberate manner. “I’m a visual artist who creates sounds. What I compose becomes unorthodox because I’ve never studied technique.” Through his work with Current Quartet, Luensman tests his passion for electro-acoustic and avant-jazz music. A long-time jazz buff, he is a self-taught musician and composer. But you wouldn’t guess that from Current Quartet’s mesmerizing music.

Audiences who know him only from Saw Theater performances are in for a surprise when they see Irato. Visitors are amazed by how he transformed the Weston’s entire four-story street-level space into an interactive concert hall filled with nineteen kinetic sound sculptures. “Donation boombox,” Luensman’s piece from the Stacked exhibition at the Weston two years ago, has been re-installed to the delight of his fans. Inside “boombox,” coins hit a metal plate, which triggers a switch that sends a signal across a long cable. The cable trips a wooden mallet that creates a deafening rumble—at first startling, then humorous—from an amplified steel coil rigged high above the gallery’s Seventh Street doors. The glass box architecture of the upper gallery is the perfect setting for the artist’s buzzing, whistling and whirling sculptures. Situated on the busy downtown intersection of Seventh and Walnut Street, the Weston not only provides maximum exposure, but is witness to the heart of the city.

Irato is a living, breathing interactive composition, as imaginative as it is fun. For people familiar with the music of Current Quartet, the sculptures create a familiar sound. On frequent evenings, when large crowds passed through the gallery on their way to a Broadway Series performance, the sculptures would come alive with a noisy frenzy. On quiet afternoons when there are few visitors to the gallery, the visual beauty of Luensman’s sculptures takes center stage.

piano for one hand

aka: the mendelssohnaka: piano with 83

missing notesaka: michael fowler plays

the mendelssohn

the huttinger model desktop doorbells(the orgonogasmic series): (detail)

1. stacked pleasure double totem

Life objects are the source material for most of Irato’s sculptures. “Kimitaka-kun” is a modified toy monkey mounted above the steps leading to the Weston’s lower level. When triggered, “kimitaka-kun” comes alive, crashing his cymbals, sneering and squawking, “Do you want to touch my monkey?” In the center of the space sits

“stainless steel doorbell for a larger house,” Irato’s largest and heaviest sculpture. Two piano pedals and a drum pedal create resonating sounds from a large steel drum—the “bass” of this creative symphony.

Within Irato, Luensman paid homage to the artists who have created memorable installations in the upper gallery: Todd Slaughter, Joel Otterson, Rich Bitting, Toi Ungkavatanapong, Peter Huttinger, and Jay Bolotin. The “huttinger model desktop doorbells” against the gallery’s south wall has a fan that inflates two sealed condoms into one long cylinder. A metal vibrator tinkles against silver chimes, accompanied by a recorded voice loop from performance artist Annie Sprinkle: “Hello, Peter Huttinger! Peter Huttinger, Annie Sprinkle

here!” He also incorporated several new artistic collabo-rators including David Rohs and Molly Barth (from the highly-regarded contemporary classical ensemble eighth blackbird) by inviting them to create unique sound samples for Irato.

Always juggling multiple projects, Luensman and Mark Fox are currently designing a new production for Saw Theater. Their last work, Account Me Puppet (1998), was an elaborate performance piece inspired by imagery and text from Milton’s Paradise Lost. Commissioned by the Detroit Institute of Arts, it traveled to New York, Detroit and Atlanta and sold out six consecutive weekends to enthusiastic Cincinnati audiences.

“I’m really anxious to do another performance,” Luensman says. “It’s frustrating not to do one for a long time. Projects like Irato take a lot out of me, but I want to keep these projects going. I love creating these devices.”

Like many interactive installations, part of the fun with Irato is trying to figure out how it all works. Connecting all the sculptures and snaking across the gallery are a multitude of power adapters, electronics, and a tangle of wires and

cords that bring Irato’s components to life. Inevitably, as gallery visitors push doorbells and throw switches, various sculptures have required repair. Like life itself, Irato has suffered its share of breakdowns.

Cincinnati is experiencing more than its share of tension these days. Situated in a street-level gallery in the center of the city, Irato appears to absorb the anxious energy of the downtown crowds and passersby and recreates it into something beautiful, engaging and spiritual. In its quiet, glass box, Irato offers the outside human traffic a momentary respite from their noisy routines. From the gallery’s doorways, when visitors soak in the magnitude that is Irato, the experience is quiet, like most visits to art galleries and museums. When these same visitors switch on the sculptures, Irato comes alive with a frantic intensity equal to what’s happening outdoors. Through his installation, Luensman has captured the city’s buzzing, chaotic soul—as complicated as it is memorable.

Steve Ramos

under wire cloud doorbell for dancing vibrators

doorpestilence (detail)

Selected Exhibitions & Performances

2002 The Foundry Project — Headlands Center for the Arts,Sausalito, CASound production and staging in collaboration with danceand theater ensemble The Foundry.

Sound Ghosts — SS NOVA, Cincinnati, OHLive scoring for premiere screening of “Hojas de Maiz,”a 16mm film by Eric Theise (San Francisco).

2001 Insist/Resist — Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA

Score, staging and direction of an original staged dance with choreography by Marc Morozumi (San Francisco).

The Kiss — Fifth Third Bank Theater/Aronoff Centerfor the Arts, Cincinnati, OHLive scoring for 7-person ensemble to video projectby Mark Fox (Cincinnati) & David Zaza (New York).

2000 The Tempter Ris’n — Weston Art Gallery, Aronoff Center for the Arts, Cincinnati, OH

Account Me Puppet — TourTraveled to Theater for the New City, New York, NY; Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Philadelphia, PA; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts, Atlanta, GA; Black Freezer Theater, Cincinnati, OH.

Converging Currents: Composers’ Workshop — Old St. GeorgeChurch, Cincinnati, OHConcert performance of original and improvised music.

1999 The Tempter Ris’n — Headlands Center for the Arts,Sausalito, CASaw Theater production/multimedia performance.

Faust — Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati, OHSaw Theater production and performance of large-scale puppets for Cincinnati Opera’s production of CharlesGounod’s Faust.

Account Me Puppet — Black Freezer Theater, Cincinnati, OH

Built — Rike Center, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH Exhibit and performance of original musical instruments.Group show curated by Peter Huttinger and Matthew Distel.

1998 Account Me Puppet — Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MIPremiere of Saw Theater production/multimedia performancebased on John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Fallen Stages: Drawings, Pages and Chapters from Account MePuppet — Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MIFive-room sound installation and exhibit of originalinstruments/objects in conjunction with Mark Fox’s installation of drawings and objects from Account Me Puppet.

And the movement of hearts came at me like a storm…— P.S. 122, New York, NYSaw Theater production/multimedia performance.

Jackpot — DiLeia Contemporary, Cincinnati, OHExhibit of mixed media works. Group show curated by Matthew Distel.

1997 Before Inventory — KZF Gallery, Cincinnati, OHExhibit of paintings. Group show curated by Matthew Distel.

Stain: unconsummate acts Saw Theater production/multimedia performance.Traveled to Thread Waxing Space, New York, NY; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; Carnegie Arts Center, Covington, KY; Black Freezer Theater, Cincinnati, OH.

Isolate Elevations + pages: by the fulcrum of eyes — The Gallery at Wellage & Buxton, Cincinnati, OHSolo exhibit of paintings and text. Curated by Gretchen Endres.

1996 Wurlitzer Voice — Black Freezer Theater, Cincinnati, OHMultimedia performance/collaboration with Mark Fox.

1995 Verses & Tongues — Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OHMultimedia performance/collaboration with Mark Fox.

Ruins — Black Freezer Theater, Cincinnati, OHMultimedia performance/collaboration with Mark Fox.

Awards

2001 Ohio Arts Council Headlands Center for the Arts Residency, San Francisco, CA

2000 Ohio Arts Council Artist Fellowship 1998 Individual Artist’s Grant, Cincinnati Arts Allocation Committee1997 The Poetry Prize, Xavier University 1995–97 Xavier University Graduate Assistantship 1995 Individual Artist’s Grant, Cincinnati Arts Allocation Committee

1984-88 Kenyon Scholarship, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH1988 The Kenyon Art Prize, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH

The Ryerson Prize in Painting, Kenyon College, Gambier, OHHallstein Memorial Award for Sculpture, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH

1987 Phi Beta Kappa, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH

Irato [It., e-rah´toh]. Wrathfully, passionately.Irato Played1

1. Bell and Rattle Overture (3:10) 5. Corps5 (3:12)

2. Love (from Brief Encounters p.hogan)2 (3:03) 6. Doorbell Suite6 (:59)

3. Artillery Battery—doorbell solo3 (2:50) 7. Toy Gun Fanfare (2:07)

4. Finished Kiss (a.luensman)4 (1:58) 8. Solitude (from Brief Encounters p.hogan)7 (2:50)

Edited and mixed by Paul Hogan (www.currentworks.net).Produced by Anthony Luensman for the Weston Art Gallery at the Aronoff Center for the Arts.Concert performance of Irato,

May 20, 2002 (above and below right)

A n t h o n y L u e n s m a nBorn Cincinnati, Ohio, 1966

Education Master of Arts in English, Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH, (pending) 2003Bachelor of Arts in Studio Arts, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, 1988Painting Apprenticeship with Carmen Cicero, New York Arts Program, 1987

Current Position Managing/Co-Artistic Director, Saw Theater, 1997–2002Saw Theater is a non-profit performing arts ensemble dedicated to the creationand production of contemporary, multimedia performance theater.

Anthony LuensmanWeston Art Gallery

April 12–June 8, 2002

doorbell for tricycle—variation on theminor third or nutonetricycle

Unl ike the instruments I’ve invented

since 1994 for Saw Theater’s highly-original

multimedia stage works—sculpted instru-

ments created and played to match the visuals and mood of a particular

scene—the devices I created for Irato are not necessarily meant for live

performance, but rather for live viewer interaction, their “playability” reduced

to a single trigger or switch. Though in essence a “simplification,” these devices

grew more complicated in many other ways. Without a human agent to stop

and start the sounds, electronics have to provide a suitable replacement and

in most cases digitally “play” the instruments through their cycles. This

reduction to a single button or switch soon led me to reconsider many of the

pieces as “doorbells.” As such, I believe that the unusual visuals of a sound

device still have the ability to strip the observer/listener/maker of precon-

ceptions and open the ears to new sound possibilities.

ANTHONY P. LUENSMAN

April, 2002

the huttinger model desktop doorbells(the orgonogasmic series): (detail)

1. stacked pleasuredouble totem

2. deskbell and intercomfor silver vibrator

aka: “it’s annie sprinkle”

Installation view

Relevant action is theatrical (music [imaginary separation ofhearing from the other senses] does not exist), inclusive andintentionally purposeless. Theatre is continually becomingthat it is becoming; each human being is at the best point for reception.

John Cage, from “Experimental Music: Doctrine” (1955)

Anthony Luensman’s Irato presents the listener with a symphonic array of vibrating bodies

and an invitation to summon a performance frozen in RAM. The means of public/

performance interface are reassuringly familiar (doorbells, switches, bike horn bulb,

and computer game joysticks for the virtuosi) and indulge a contemporary desire to

push buttons that typically serve as a command (fourth floor, come to the door, launch

missile). Irato enables a moment of surprise as one initiates each new mysterious multi-

sensory event; rewarding the adventurer with the crash of an amplified spring, a sizzle

of automated cymbal, the frantic clucks of hens that seem hidden inside a giant metal

drum, or the titillating tinkling of vibrator-excited chimes.

bikehornspeakercoilsplaying Iratoplex—a compositioncommissioned forIrato by michaelbarnhart (detail)

lead haus for a dyingcity—house with nodoorbell— housewith no door

kimitaka-kun (monkey)aka: rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrachelraka: juan neto

autobellprototype for janet

stainless steel doorbell for a larger housealso a hen house (inside) and artillery battery (outside)

rollerbells (photo by Matthew Roberts)

The magic of Irato is Luensman’s

and back with equal interest and

The individual instruments of Irato’s

than random sounds—an action

of sonic events. The event con-

by the number and activity of

particular time. The music is a

cycle and changes to reflect

Irato opened, a rush of people

cacophony, thickened by the

Weston Art Gallery’s reflective

Sounds resounded in mon-

As a saxophonist, puppeteer/composer/theater director, computer programmer, circuit-

bender, and sculptor, Luensman must explore and integrate elements from science, art,

music, engineering, and psychology. His pieces, however, are not hybrids; as truly

multidisciplinary works, they defy this separation. Blending diverse influences with

humility and applying his quietly meticulous critical faculties, he arrives at a collection

of pieces that range in sound from ethereal to clangorous, in scope from the simple

switch to the infrared-triggered microprocessor, in signature from the piano string to

the multi-dimensional speaker array, while remaining whimsical/inviting/pleasurable.

ability to cross from ear to eye

great skill.

music make predetermined rather

triggers a mostly fixed sequence

tent and density are modulated

audience members present at a

counterpart to the gallery’s life

and model it. On the weekend

filled the space with a roiling

recycling resonance of the

glass and brick surfaces.

tage, immersive, emitted from

pieces staged throughout the space, masking and revealing each other in waves,

supended in reverb with a cyclone drone of animated human chatter.

In contrast, as smaller groups visited on weekdays, the air sparkled with gentle chimes,

breath sounds and minimalist marimba music that the author was invited to diffuse

through the 8-channel array of the artist’s “bikehornspeaker coils.” Nearly masked by

other sounds at crowded times, these delicate sound panels were made from snips of

Luensman breathing through a saxophone, from computer-processed percussion with

doppler effects, from air traffic control recordings, and from chirruping crickets. They

were pruned, layered and mixed according to Eric Satie’s proposal to make furniture

music that could transform a space, while remaining gentle enough to allow and

enhance other thoughts. Eight small metal horn speakers were suspended across the

ceiling with individual soundtracks that alternately joined in chorus, solo, dialogue,

and circulation to invite the ear across the space toward the pieces.

Irato provided the audience with a point of entry into a musical realm where the timbral

virtues of the instrumental sounds require no burden of technique or practice, so that

one easily summons “music” and is free to go on listening and “playing.” The instruments

have embedded knowledge.

In designing his pieces, Luensman has exchanged the conventional paper score for the

circuitry that serves to capture his musical idea. Sensor/button/joystick activity turns

to voltages, turns to numbers, into sound and into ideas; energies in constant trans-

formation pervaded the space flowing across wires, light, atmospheric vibrations, and

human nerves. In juxtaposing music that is randomized with fixed musical material,

recorded sounds and automation, Luensman has achieved a unique and expressive

vehicle for the presentation of disparate musical, artistic and technological traditions

in concert.

Michael Barnhart

doorpestilence (detail)

My very special thanks to the Weston Art Gallery crew and installers whose

accumulation of talents and generous willingness made this installation possible:

Matt Distel Shawna GuipRyan Duncan Tim McMichaelBob Fry Steve Zieverink

Thank you to:

Kelly O’Donnell, assistant director of the Weston Art Gallery, for the invitationand initiation of this project via the National Endowment for the Arts

Dennis Harrington, director of the Weston Art Gallery, for making it happen andfor making extraordinary efforts to accommodate the technical requirementsand rigors of the installation

and to those who made special contributions to this exhibition:

Michael Barnhart John and Amy MeyerFred Ellenberger Jennifer and Mark MiddendorfTony Franklin David RohsPaul Hogan Mel and Zell SchulmanWalter Langsam and Russ Speidel Janet SpeierLois and Gerald Luensman Tom and Dee Stegman

Irato is dedicated to my father.

Stephen A. LoftinPresident & Executive Director Cincinnati Arts Association

Weston Art Gallery

Dennis Harrington, DirectorKelly O'Donnell, Assistant DirectorDavid Ryan Duncan, Gallery Assistant

Michael Barnhart A composer, musician and D.M.A. candidate (doctoral degree in music composition) atthe University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Michael Barnhart has collaborated with Luensmansince 1998 in performances with the improv band COBRA, Tony Franklin’s PLT, Current Quartet, ConvergingCurrents Composers’ Workshop productions, and on video projects with Saw Theater. He composed Iratoplexfor this installation.

Steve Ramos Film editor for Cincinnati CityBeat, Steve Ramos writes film reviews and reports on Cincinnati’sart scene. He is a board member of the Cincinnati Film Society, a non-profit organization that encourages theappreciation of film as an art form.

Contact Anthony Luensman at aplpax@yahoo.com.

The Irato exhibition was organized by the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Weston Art Gallery in the AronoffCenter for the Arts and funded by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts from April 12through June 8, 2002.

©2002 Weston Art Gallery

Folder printed by Berman PrintingBooklet printed by Minuteman PressPaper provided by Xpedx

Editor: Kelly O'DonnellPhotography: Tony WalshCatalogue Design:Scott Bruno, b graphic design

Acknowledgements

Exhibition Sponsor

Mel & Zell Schulman

donation boombox—revived withadded kickswitch—in the key offlat broke

or: elevator doorbell (detail above and top left)

under wire clouddoorbell for dancing vibrators

(installation view and detail)

Exhibit ion Checkl istAll works 2002 unless otherwise noted.

donation boombox—revived with addedkickswitch—in the key of flat broke

or: elevator doorbell, 2000steel spring, bass drum beater, electronics, hi-hat pedal

joiebatonmusiquesample contributors: michael barnhart, molly barth, rich bitting, jay bolotin, the foundry(christian burns/alex ketley), paul hogan,david rohs/emily buddendeck/jim reynolds,david sudak, c. spencer yehmodified joystick, computer, electronics

bipstairs—a stairway composition—a stairway collaboration by boom bip (aka bryan hollon)and apl and stairwalkers—featuring thesounds of michael scott’s birdsinfrared switches, computer

doorpestilencepaper, wax, lights, electronics, bug ashtray,doorbell button

kimitaka-kun (monkey)aka: rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrachelraka: juan netomodified toy monkey, electronics, CB handle

under wire clouddoorbell for dancing vibratorsminiature motors, cymbal, electronics, doorbell switch

doorbell for tricycle—variation on the minor third or nutonetricycletricycle, motor, doorbell gongs, electronics,bicycle bulb

lead haus for a dying city—house with nodoorbell—house with no door, 1999wood, lead

the huttinger model desktop doorbells(the orgonogasmic series):

1. stacked pleasuredouble totemblower motor, condoms, electronics, felt,Frankenstein switch

with bedroom extensionblower motor, feather, lights, felt

2. deskbell and intercom for silver vibratoraka: “it’s annie sprinkle”vibrator, chimes, electronics,Frankenstein switch

a fine use for an untunable piano withtoi-esque buttonor: doorbell in d minoror: wal-ter-and-russpiano, solenoids, piano parts, electronics

rollerbellswood, motor, electronics, chimes, monofilament,doorbell switch

autobellprototype for janetmodified toy car, modified joystick, drive-in speaker

saw electric, 1999or an angel winghand saw, guitar pick-up

stainless steel doorbell for a larger housealso a hen house (inside) and artillerybattery (outside)stainless steel drum, electronics, hi-hat pedal,piano pedals

piano for one handaka: the mendelssohnaka: piano with 83 missing notesaka: michael fowler plays the mendelssohnpiano pieces, electronics

electric harp with wurlitzer highsand shiva lows, 2001modified electric piano harp

bikehornspeakercoils playing Iratoplex—a composition commissioned for Irato by michael barnhartbicycle horns, speaker drivers, steel wire,split-loom tubing

fire alarm for dadexisting gallery fire alarm, vinyl decal

The Weston Art Gallery’s mission is to present and support the visual

arts of the tri-state region through exhibitions and special programs. Its

objectives are to foster an awareness and appreciation of the visual arts

among area residents and to support the development of professional

and emerging artists of the region.

Alice F. & Harris K. Weston Art Gallery

650 Walnut Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

Phone: 513.977.4165 Fax: 513.977.4182

www.cincinnatiarts.org/weston