Up! (and better than ever)

Thanks to six straight hours of climbing, Jerry McClanahan and Zach Atchley successfully restored the Bluff Furnace Art of History display. They were assisted by volunteers Monika Groppe and "Seun" Oluwaseun Erinie, and by Nick Honerkamp, who also engaged in some selective chainsaw beautification to the site's landscape in order to improve sight lines from the Tennessee River.

Monika and Seun rig a panel to be hauled up the frame.

Zach (top) and Jerry (below) get high.

This time, instead of using cable ties to secure the panels to the frame, it was decided to use bungee cord that was looped through the panel grommets and then around the frame sections.

We assumed that this would securely attach the fabric while simultaneously allowing a desirable amount of give during high wind-shear episodes. Mark Making had quickly repaired and re-stained the tornado-damaged grommets and fabric, but we had to wait two weeks for delivery of the 600 ft of bungee cord before we could proceed; more than half was used during the installation, and the rest will be kept at the ready for any future repairs or replacements. This new attachment protocol is aesthetically superior to the cable ties, as it makes for a more seamless panel against the frame; see below. We also believe that it will be more resistant to ultraviolet damage than the plastic ties. Only time will tell.

Tuesday's effort was photodocumented by Chattanooga Times-New Free Press photographer Angela Lewis, shown here. One of her photos appears in  the March 30 metro section of the newspaper.

A very focused Angela Lewis, Chattanooga Times-News Free Press Photographer

Having survived a tornado, the Art of History installation should have a relatively stabile future. And happily coinciding with our second successful hanging is the publication of a lead article on Bluff Furnace in the Society for Industrial Archaeology Newsletter, Volume 40, No 1, Winter 2011. Authored by Nick and entitled "Cupola Art Teaches Iron History at Bluff Furnace," this SIA publication now brings an international audience to the site, its art, and its history.

Down But Not Out

The "high intensity windstorm" (aka "tornado") on February 28 caused extensive damage to Chattanooga. As seen below, Bluff Furnace was not immune to nature's random fury. Luckily, we recovered all the downed panels. The Mark Making staff removed the damaged goods and returned to the studio.

 

We will regroup, repair, and rehang the damaged panels.

Art of History Display, Cress Gallery, UTC

The making of the Bluff Furnace "Art of History" exhibit is now highlighted in two display cases in the Cress Gallery of Art at UTC. With invaluable help from Gallery Curator Ruth Grover, the displays were put together and mounted last weekend by Tanya, Lindsey, and Nick. Below are photos of the cases as well as the accompanying text. Art of History will run through April.

“Art of History”

UTC Institute of Archaeology and

Mark Making of Chattanooga

The content of these contiguous lobby cases record the 2010 collaboration of Mark Making and the UTC Institute of Archaeology as a joint effort of the University and the Community to create a work of monumental art that stands as a document to the history of Chattanooga.

The work “Art of History” is an artistic account of Chattanooga’s historic Bluff Furnace and its time and place in Chattanooga’s past and future. Designed and executed by the collaborators and painted on a 1,440 square foot vinyl “skin”, the Furnace’s story comes to life through the team’s selective interpretation of fact and photograph traced onto acetate with markers, scanned into Adobe Illustrator, and projected and hand painted on the vinyl’s surface using an industrial inspired color scheme. The result creates a dynamic illumined perspective inviting the viewer to consider the work from all angles.

Located on the historic south bank of the Tennessee River, along the contemporary River Walk and its serpentine twists just west of the Hunter Museum of American Art, the Bluff Furnace was Chattanooga’s first heavy industrial site built in the 1850’s as a charcoal-fired, steam powered hot blast furnace. Converted to a coke-fired furnace in 1860, and failing after two blasts, the furnace and its ruins were slowly buried by debris until archaeological excavations during the 1980’s recovered the lost site.

The wall case contains documentation of the process of “Art of History”: group thinking and action, materials, process, and outcome. The freestanding case contains a model of the actual site installation and archaeological artifacts recovered from the site.

This exhibition illustrates both the history of the furnace and its archaeological and artistic resurrection. It also serves as a reference to Chattanooga’s effort to redefine and resurrect itself industrially from brown to green as a leader on all fronts, and its commitment to the arts as a defining community parameter.

The UTC Institute of Archaeology, Dr. Nicholas Honerkamp, Director, is a non-profit archaeological research unit affiliated with the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Geology, College of Arts and Sciences. It is committed to the scientific investigation of cultural process throughout both historic and prehistoric eras.

UTC Anthropology majors Meredith Gilligan, Will Andrews, and Shea Cochran; Environmental Science major Lindsay Roden; Anthropology Alumna Lindsay Cochran; and dual Art and Anthropology major Tanya Dickenson participated.

Mark Making, founded by Chattanoogan Frances McDonald in 2008, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to enfranchise all, regardless of age, gender, or situation, in the creation of meaningful art in highly visible community sites.

Exhibition Impact

Top panels, facing north

After surviving over a month of  amazingly harsh weather, the "Art of History" installation is beginning to make it's public interpretive mark. Yet another media outlet has spread the word, this time in the form of a UTC News blog posted on February 4 entitled "UTC Faculty, Alumni, Students Construct Public Art Installation" and available at
http://blog.utc.edu/news/2011/02/utc-faculty-alumni-students-construct-public-art-installation/

This concise blog entry highlights the UTC/Markmaking partnership. Next up is a display in UTC's Cress Gallery that will be mounted in mid-February.

In the February/March issue of Chattanooga Parent the Bluff Furnace installation is featured in an article by Jennifer Crutchfield entitled "The Mystery of the Belching Blasts and the Lost Furnace."

We have also begun to receive substantial feedback on the installation. Mark Making and local community volunteers have been distributing questionnaires about the display to visitors on the Walnut Street Bridge and the Tennessee Riverwalk. To date 140 face-to-face surveys and 30 on-line surveys (via Survey Monkey) have been completed and tabulated. Particularly gratifying was that 78% of respondents “would not have guessed this piece was created by non professional artists;” 97% agreed that this piece “brings attention to the historical significance of the Bluff Furnace.” Not too shabby!

Snow Furnace

Even seven inches of snow has not deterred the Furnace from its interpretive mission! The "trial by ice" was successfully weathered, and the exhibit remains intact. A good sign.

Photo courtesy of Carl Guerra.

When visiting the site, we invite you to listen to the Bluff Furnace audio tour on your cell phone. Call 423-535-9083, then enter 73 # when prompted. An on-site sign with the audio tour number will be installed soon.

Up and Running!

Two days of wind and rain had no discernible effect on the panels. While this is what we expected, it's nevertheless a relief.

Friday's (Dec. 31) installation generated a lot of publicity for the project, to wit:.

- WUTC Around and About interview (aired Jan. 5) about the site and the exhibit-making process, accessed on their blog at   http://wutcana.wordpress.com/2011/01/05/4659/

- A  30 minute-talk radio (WGOW) discussion (Jan. 3) about the project featuring Frances and Nick with host Andrae McGary.

-  Allison Carter's photographs appeared in the January 1 metro edition of the Times-Free Press under the title "Bluff View Artwork."

- Wesley Schultz of Chattanooga.com produced an extensive photographic blow-by-blow of the process; you can see it at    http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_191461.asp

- Channel 9 (WTVC) covered the work in a 6:00 News presentation entitled "Restoring Bluff View History Through Art" at
http://www.newschannel9.com/video/?videoId=734462564001&lineupId=1137849423&play=now

- Finally, the Channel 12 (WDEF) news coverage, "Bluff Furnace Art Installation," can be viewed at
http://wdef.com/video/bluff_furnace_art_installation/12/2010

Allison Carter, Photographer

The Unknown Camera Man (probably with Channel 9)

A Productive and Successful Hanging

Thanks to four-and-a-half hours of continuous and skillful efforts by our intrepid climbers (Jerry McClanahan and Patrick O'Brien), all 18 panels were mounted onto the furnace frame. The weather cooperated (relatively warm, no wind), and there were no hasty trips to the emergency room, which is always a plus. The installation was covered by at least four different news organizations, and numerous Riverwalk visitors stopped in their tracks in what we like to interpret as flat-out shock and awe over what they were seeing. There were no major glitches: everything fit surprisingly well. A storm is predicted for Chattanooga tonight, and that will serve as our first practical test of The Fabric vs The Elements.

This is a visually stunning installation. See below.

All is in readiness.

Transporting the panels

Strapping up

How high are they?

High. Very, very high.

First panel goes up.

Interior view.

Making progress.

Bottom row.

The finished product, looking north from the  Riverwalk. Yes!

Almost Up

After some final color adjustments and clear-coating, all of the work is now completed and the panels are ready for transport. The studio is once more clean, bright, and bare. Hanging of the panels has been tentatively moved to Friday, December 31st while the postponed unveiling is still being decided. Zach and Frances are submitting a press release for the installation, and there is anticipated to be a media presence.

Design, Fabrication, Painting & Etc. Complete!

Thanks to a last minute push by Tanya, Meredith, and the Mark Making staff, the final panels are finished. Weather permitting, furnace riggers Jerry and  Patrick will climb the frame and hang all the panels midweek.

Final Approach

We are down to the last four panels that need painting, and they are all "short" - the end is in sight! Despite their acute fear of heights, Lindsay and Nick also climbed the dreaded scaffolding to clear-coat several finished panels.

Another task has been to collect some rusted iron flakes from the site's salamander so that Lindsay could crush it with a mortar and pestal. The resulting iron oxide dust will be mixed with the paint on the Mark Making logo (our final panel).

Since we're nearing completion of the fabrication phase, we thought it was time to photodocument the net results of our efforts. Zach and Meredith accomplished this in the studio parking lot from a third story height. This gives a sneek preview of the finished product; the Toyota Corolla provides a sense of scale.

Finally, we collectively worked up a press release as well as a script for a cell phone walking tour that will be available for the site's visitors next month; Public Art Chattanooga is sponsoring the latter.

Will Paint For Food

After Shea and Nick spent a day improving the viewscape at the site (cutting trees and pulling privet), work continued apace on panel prep/painting. Aided by recent UTC graduate Lindsey Cochran, Team BFRP (Tanya Dickenson, Lindsay Roden, Meredith Gilligan, and Frances, Nick, Zach, and Katherine) have  completed approximately half of the panels this week.

Tanya, Meredith, and Lindsay painting a section of the pictograph.

Lindsey and Nick do the same.

To enhance the artistic experience, and fuel the furnace, as it were, Nick labored many long hours in his kitchen baking two deep dish crew pizzas. They didn't last long...

Mmmmm...

A tentative hang date of December 29 is being proposed, followed by a New Year's Eve unveiling. Garnet Chapin of the Parks Foundation is coordinating this event with Mark Making, as it will also involve the Walnut Street Bridge Plaque Replacement Project kickoff event. This concatenation of Parks Foundation-sponsored projects should result in an impressive media-heavy unveiling.

Team BFRP has been considerably enhanced with the addition of some major climbing expertise in the form of Jerry McClanahan and Patrick O'Brien, pictured below. Both are veteran climbers, and both have volunteered as riggers when we hang the fabric. This is a good thing, as everyone else on the team (except possibly Zach) is terrified of climbing the frame.

Jerry McClanahan, Patrick O'Brian: Furnace Climbers.

Jerry was able to visit the site with us and inspect the frame. We also brought out a panel and suspended it from the bottom of the frame to get another reality check on the background color on-site.

Today we began working on our version of the 1856 furnace image as well as the main title panel. We finally are seeing an end to the fabrication phase, though much still needs to be done.

Zach and Katherine with the title panel.

Artistic Overdrive (In the Service of History)

Team BFRP is quickly approaching cruising altitude in the fabrication phase of our effort, and today we got into a definite Bluff Groove. But first we had to contend with a problem that (literally) surfaced on the substrate: we discovered that the black-paint block letters on the first two columns were not adhering properly after drying. This was addressed by rolling on a urethane coat over both the text and the background. And based on our visual reference trip to the site yesterday (see Dec. 6 blog) we also decided to add more more warmth to the background tint.

Once that was done we got down to brass tacks, painting the bottom half of the wordy timeline and part of a panel containing one of two silhouettes of Robert Cravens. The sequence of tasks is outlined below.

First, we darkened the background tint using sponges. Katherine and Nick apply the finishing touches.

Next, the 15 ft high panel is stapled to the studio wall.

Then we project text and images onto the fabric at the proper scale.

 

Finally, we paint. Tanya, Meredith, Frances, and Nick in action.

Dry Run

 Today we had a visual check using some finished panels at the site, as Zach and Katherine unfurled them on the frame. We were looking at text legibility in the contrasting colors, as well as overall tone and scale.

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Final Design, and Paint

Friday's work had a double purpose: to make progress on the "easy" panels (big letters) and to make final decisions on design elements, including a vastly improved locomotive image and some wording edits and scaling issues.

Meredith with a finished large-letter panel.

Tanya and Zach staple the fabric prior to painting a "busy" panel.

Two entire large-letter columns are completed ("Bluff Furnace"  "Chattanooga Industry"). Producing the time line is the next goal; after that, the images become much more complex. By starting with the easiest panels we've become acquainted and more comfortable with the brushes, paint characteristics, and our individual motor skill challenges, and these initial experiences will (theoretically) allow us to paint the remaining panels with clarity and grace.

Unfortunately, final exams begin this coming week at UTC, but Team BFRP remains undeterred! Work sessions are still being scheduled, including clearing on-site. The weather is another variable that we will have to contend with, as we normally dry newly-painted panels outdoors. Rain and high winds may prevent that luxury in the coming days.

Finally, as a great spin-off effort, Tanya and Lindsay have begun designing displays on this project that will be mounted in cases in the UTC Fine Arts Center at the end of January. Frances was able to arrange this coup with Ruth Grover, Director and Curator of the Cress Gallery, who is graciously  providing us with this opportunity.

Fabrication Begins

Although minor tweaking is still occuring on some text and image sizing/placement, Team BFRP has reached a new phase in this project: fabrication. Three large (c. 90 x 166 inches) have been successfully stained, and one panel is 95% complete.  This first panel is one of the easiest to paint, as it consist of oversize text that will be facing the Tennessee River viewscape. The process used at the Mark Making Studio involves several steps. First the panels were attached to the wall. Then the panels were stained using sponges.  Finally, Illustrator images were projected onto the panel at the correct scale, the letters were traced with eraseable markers, and then they were filled in with black paint.

Zack, Frances, Tanya, and Lindsay prepare to trace the projected text.

Painting the text.

This first panel in essence constitutes our shakedown cruise for establishing painting techniques and procedures. What we have realized in starting this part of the journey is just how much more work needs to be done. It is a sobering realization.

Design nearing completion, and a minor setback

Team BFRP welcomes the addition of Lindsay Roden, who joined us last week!

The team has nearly completed its design phase, thanks largely to the concerted Illustrator efforts of Tanya. A couple of images are being finessed, and we will decide on a font (or fonts) this week. The Mark Making studio has been prepped (walls covered in plastic prior to painting, scaffolding erected), and the substrate dimensions were finalized, resulting in an order to the supplier.

Unfortunately, when it arrived the substrate fabric was found to be an "alternate" material that did not meet our specs, so it was returned. The supplier is replacing the panels with the correct material, but this puts us back one week. However, this is crunch time for Mark Making (see their homepage link below), as they are bringing another project to fruition at CSAS this weekend, so the delay is actually ok. And it gives us a chance to complete our design. Starting next week (or at least after Thanksgiving!) we'll be in the fabrication phase of this project.

Mark Making's home page
 - friend them on Facebook at Mark Making

Gearing Up

The Team is getting close: today at the Mark Making studio we finished designing the blast furnace process pictograph (definitely a group effort), and the images were photoed and loaded into Illustrator. After editing and sizing (ongoing), we will be able to project them against the wall at full scale. Then we start painting.

Shea working on a locomotive image for the pictograph.

Meredith's rendition of a traditional charcoal-fueled blast furnace.

Frances demonstrates projection painting.

The team spent considerable time peering at the background fabric shading (think "parchment"), and tried out several different paint formulas and application methods (a large sponge seems to work best). We also looked at how well the black painted lettering and images will contrast with the background at distance.

Other tasks included finalizing panel sizes and grommet placement in each panel, which is a precursor for ordering the fabric. This lead to a discussion of procedures for mounting the fabric to the frame, and safety issues in doing so. We also grappled with the Luffing Problem: seasonal temperature differences will produce more (summer) or less (winter) tension in the fabric. Minimizing luff will be an important priority.

The end of the work session was devoted to viewing the images at full scale against the wall, composing captions, and charting out a work schedule once the fabric arrives (in about a week or ten days).

Taking Shape

After a one week hiatus occasioned by UTC's fall break, Team BFRP was back on task. Friday's studio session began with an overview of what has been accomplished to date in terms of display themes, content, scaling, colors, permits, materials, finances, etc., and what needs to be done prior to fabrication. Several hours were devoted to tweaking dimensions of various images and text, determining the ultimate size of all the panels that will be attached to the frame, finalizing (well, almost) the timeline wording, and especially to working on the iron process pictograph, which will ultimately be a central part of the display. The latter was designated as NYRFTB (Not Yet Ready For The Blog), but that will change in the next couple of weeks. The timeline will be posted separately and we invite readers of this blog to make suggestions about our first draft.

A highlight of the afternoon was a one hour meeting with several members of Public Art Chattanooga. We summarized our ideas and presented some of the mock-ups that we have developed. That was followed by a Q and A session and a productive discussion with the PAC members. We then continued to work on the pictograph and timeline.

Our immediate task is twofold: (1) finalize the pictograph, and (2) load our final images and text into Photoshop. Not only will that simplify the organization and editing of the separate panels, it will also allow us to project the images and text against the studio wall at full scale. That will be tremendously important for adjusting proportions and simply getting a sense of what works (and doesn't!).

Scaling In

Last week Team BFRP continued to work intensely on drawings of photographs, constructing the schematic of the iron-making process, and dealing with those pesky scaling issues. This week, under the direction of Frances and Zach, Tanya worked like a woman possessed in Photoshop, attempting  to scale out the visual elements that we've developed to date. Here is the result of her efforts:

 

Note that the oversize letters will be attached to the columns that face the Tennessee River. Note also that there will be additional text embedded in these images; this is still a work in progress. However, this scaled model represents a huge step in the development of the Furnace exhibit.

The incredibly detailed rendering of the 1886 Norris, Wellge and Company’s Bird's Eye View of Chattanooga was produced by Shea, while the intricate foundry representation was Meredith's contribution. Tanya drew the 1860 and 1864 photographs; we can't remember who drew the 1856 photo.

Measuring, Planning, and Vantage Points

Hello everybody! We're continuing to look at some pesky critical issues. The stack is huge; this fact alone creates problems re the practicality of different methods of painting and hanging the giant canvases, as well as the different points from which the stack itself will be viewed.

On October 8th, Zach, Francis, Tanya and Shea went to the furnace site to better establish how much of the stack can be seen from different vantage points and to determine how big the lettering on the finished product should be. 

Here's Zach on the stack's framework getting some feedback on letter sizes. This is higher than it seems and is crazy.

More of Zach climbing. There's nothing really vital in the shot, but it's a way cool picture. 

Tanya and Francis painting some sample canvas to see how the colours that we plan to use show up against the natural background of the site.

Here are Francis and Shea working on a scale mockup of what we're actually going to put on the furnace stack. See the blue lines? Those are those different viewscapes we referred to.