Heavy Machinery Becomes Musical @ CIA
By John Benson
It takes a true artist to look at a massive piece of transportation equipment and hear music.
In a nutshell, that’s what renowned conceptual artist David Cole has done for this latest project, which along with sculpture artist Barbara Stanczak’s work, will be on display in the spring exhibition “The Art of Scale + Form” at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA).
A conceptual, political commentator and installation artist at heart, Cole simply deconstructs America’s industrial machine image, exposing – for good or bad – what he feels is its true and current existence.
Cool Cleveland talked to Reinberger Galleries Project Coordinator Ivy Garrigan about the massive Cole exhibit and the meaning of converting a 13-ton piece of construction equipment into a 2-ton working music box, which plays “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Cool Cleveland: So, yeah, we’re still trying to work our mindgrapes around this exhibit. Normally the gigantic construction machines can be found around orange barrels on the highway making our lives hell, not making music. So what exactly is Cole’s part of “The Art of Scale + Form”?
Ivy Garrigan: It’s exciting because it’s a really unique collaboration between CIA, Cole – who is based out of Rhode Island – and Ohio Caterpillar, the construction equipment company. Basically the work is a 13-ton vibratory asphalt compactor that has been deconstructed and rebuilt into a musical instrument that functions in the same way a music box would. The compacting drum has been re-fabricated so there are pegs all along it and as the drum spins, it will hit the tuning teeth attached on the front. That’s where the sound is created. And it just barely fits into our gallery. It’s more than 20 feet long and almost 11 feet high.
Oh, so it’s really one of those no-brainer exhibits where audiences will be dumbfounded why they never considered turning a vibratory asphalt compactor into a music machine?
I don’t know… why would someone think of it (laughs), because it is a very simple piece. It’s a steamroller turned into a musical instrument. This rotating drum is very similar to the music box. I think your first impression when you enter the gallery is how in the world did this happen, how is this here right now, how did the floor not cave in? It literally is inches from the ceiling.
How does “The Art of Scale + Form” fit into the CIA mindset?
At the Reinberger Galleries – we are part of the CIA, which is an art and design school – we are always looking to show work that is not only up-and-coming and important in the contemporary art landscape but also can act as a way to educate our students. Dave was able to come work on site because he had to put the piece together. He did studio visits with our students and is giving a lecture. So it’s not necessarily [that] his specific message is something we’re looking at as a gallery but it’s more, I’d say, a sense of collaboration and working with an artist that’s very prominent in the contemporary arts scene and allowing our students, staff and community to engage in that and be up close and personal with his process.
The notion of Cole’s creation playing music is very interesting. How does that play into the whole experience?
Dave Cole works very often with heavy machinery. One other piece he did was a performance piece where he knitted an American flag and it wasn’t just him but it was orchestrating two people operating giant backhoes that had giant knitting needles and [they] knitted this giant flag. So he’s definitely familiar with the territory. He’s very interested in painting portraits of America and this sort of uneasy trauma that perhaps our country is going through right now. Because at America’s peak it was after the industrial revolution and everything was shiny and new [and] wonderful and machines like this sort of epitomize that time. But now there’s all of this pressure for America to scale back and to reevaluate what we stand for.
Finally, the idea of this massive contraption playing “The Star Spangled Banner” seems appropriate for Cole’s message.
Yes it does. It’s a very haunted, sort of torque-d version of it. Everyone is familiar with the tune, but it’s very distorted because it’s so large and the sound resonates so much. It’s definitely at a different pitch, and really magical but also an uneasy feeling because of the scale and the noise level and how loud it is. It’s magical in that it’s whimsy, and although it’s not a delicate thing, it’s very amazing that it works. It’s an interesting dichotomy.
The Art of Scale + Form, featuring the work of David Cole and Barbara Stanczak, exhibition appears Fri 3/30 through Sat 5/19 at CIA’s Reinberger Galleries, 11141 East Blvd., Cleveland. The free opening night reception is 6 to 8PM on Fri 3/30. For more information, visit http://CIA.edu.
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio. When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106