CUYAHOGA FUGUES – 2003

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SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION SPACES Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio Lured by fire and water and the imposing presence of the volcanic steel mills at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, Cuyahoga Fugues is a site-specific mixed media response to the exploration of both during a residency in Cleveland. In his Musices poeticae praeceptiones of 1613, Johannes Nucius defined a fugue as "the frequent and definite recurrence of the same theme in various parts which follow each other in spaced entrances." Struck by the interdependency of the life of the river, of the people and of industry to each other, I turned to this musical compositional structure of the fugue and Glenn Gould’s radio composition, The Idea of the North, for inspiration. With the fugue as a conceptual point of departure, the collected narratives and video of the Cuyahoga River, the people whose lives surround the river, and the steel mill industry have been woven together to become Cuyahoga Fugues in "three voices." Mixed-Media: Spiral steel pipe, sheet metal window plenums, electrical conduit and fixtures, poly pipe, portable TV, transistor radio, ice-fishing pole, audio and video. Site Dimensions: 14’ H x 40’ x 40’ view Cuyahoga Fugues drawings