Ian Strange Ley Avenue, 2022. Archival digital print, 900 × 1200 cm (35 1/2 × 47 inches). Documentation of site-specific intervention. Image courtesy the artist. © Ian Strange.

Ian Strange Walnut Street, 2022. Archival digital print, 900 × 1200 cm (35 1/2 × 47 inches). Documentation of site-specific intervention. Image courtesy the artist. © Ian Strange.

Installation view, Ian Strange: Disturbed Home exhibition. FotoFocus Biennial 2022, Cincinnati Ohio. October 1st – December 9th, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.


Ian Strange and crew on site making PENUMBRA Ley Avenue, Cincinnati Ohio. Photo by Asa Featherstone.

Ian Strange and crew on site making PENUMBRA Ley Avenue, Cincinnati Ohio. Photo by Asa Featherstone.

Ian Strange and crew on site making PENUMBRA Walnut Street, Cincinnati Ohio. Photo courtesy the artist.

Ian Strange and crew on site making PENUMBRA Walnut Street, Cincinnati Ohio. Photo courtesy the artist.

Ian Strange and crew on site making PENUMBRA Walnut Street, Cincinnati Ohio. Photo courtesy the artist.

2022
Penumbra
Ian Strange
Creative Production

Penumbra

Penumbra is a collection of site-specific, architectural light interventions and photographic works made by Ian Strange in Cincinnati, OH, accompanied by a body of research and archive materials. The work was commissioned by FotoFocus for the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial, Cincinnati, USA.


The works comprise two site-responsive light installations incorporating homes in Cincinnati, Ohio, created and documented by Strange. Each site intervention utilised large-scale, single-source lighting to both illuminate and obscure the homes and their surrounding landscapes. The work's title, Penumbra, refers to a partial or imperfect shadow outside its darkest point, a place between total illumination and darkness. The photographic documentation, presented alongside intentionally incomplete archival histories, research, and response texts from Jheri Neri (GCNAC), poetically reflect on the imperfect act of seeing and re-presenting the psycho-geography of a home, alongside the complex, internal, human histories of place and landscape.

Penumbra was created during Strange's residency at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, in collaboration with FotoFocus, Cincinnati Museum Centre (CMC), Greater Cincinnati Native American Coalition (GCNAC) and the Hamilton County Landbank, as well as the communities of Elmwood Place, and Fairmount, Cincinnati. New research and research photography from Penumbra now sit in the CMC research library and archives, and also culminated in a one-off artist book.

Penumbra was first shown alongside a selection of Strange’s previous works for "Disturbed Home", a comprehensive survey exhibition at the Art Academy of Cincinnati for the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial: Word Record, curated by biennial artistic director and curator, Kevin Moore.

Credits

Artist: Ian Strange
Executive Producer: Jedda Andrews
Creative Producer: Emma Pegrum
Producer‭: Karri O'Reilly
Gaffer: Jake Heim
Lighting Consultant: Russ Faust
Additional Gaffer (Walnut): Scott Lipez
Electrician: Louis Suer
Electrician (Ley): Brenden Vennemeyer
Lighting Technician (Ley): Chad Penix
Key Grip (Ley): Kevin Martt
Key Grip (Walnut): Mike Dittiacur
Grip (Ley): Jake Storm
Grip (Walnut): Kevin Martt
Locations Manager: Joshua Kellinghaus
Head of Art Department (Ley): Jessalyn Lauree Brown
Head of Art Department (Walnut): Laura Dennings
Art Department Assistant (Ley): Christian Waters
Art Department Assistants (Walnut):
Kasey Hosp, Natalie LeCompe, Rebecca Steele
Ashley Elizabeth Thomas
Install (Walnut): Tim Brazeal (Cincinnati Roofing Services)
3D Pre-Visualisation: Jamie Sher (Spacescan)
DIT (Ley): Sam Stamler
Camera Assistant (Ley): Baxter Stapleton
DIT (Walnut): Emily Russo
COVID Compliance Officer: Erin Forbes
Medics (Ley): Kyle Hess, Christopher Miller
Medic (Walnut): Dan Sanders
Production Assistant: Lindsey Kibler
Production Assistant (Ley): Gabriel Miller
Production Assistants (Walnut):
Collin Combs, Reilly Combs, Donovan O’Reilly
AAC Student Interns:
Ellie Wallace, Rory Torstensson, Derek Sally,
John Ramsey, Emily Underwood, Francsico Huerta,
Lily Lamping, Mykaela Mays, Jenna Riffe, Romazia Nadeem
Production Runners: Shaunn Baker, and David Gewertz
Behind the scenes stills: Asa Featherstone
Behind the scenes video: Brittany Shyne
Behind the scenes video (Walnut): Cameron Henderson
BTS (Documentary) post-production: Dominic Pearce
BTS (Documentary) sound mix: Sandbox
Photo/archive printing and color: Joseph Landro (Joe's Printing)
Archive fabrication: Phil Ridgway
FotoFocus Project Coordinator: Taylor Malikowski
AAC Residency and Research Lead: Lacey Haslam
Archive Research Lead: Ellie Wallace
Research Advisor: Ann Senefeld (Digging Cincinnati)
AAC Community Engagement Lead: Linnea Gartin
Grip /Lighting and Production Support: Midwest Grip & Lighting
Camera Gear: Dodd Camera
Lifts and Lift Support: Arts Rental, Cincinnati Jib
Specialty Lighting: Magnum Lighting and VIncent Lighting
Transportation Support: The Camera Department, Dennis O’Reilly
Catering: OINK!
Fabrication (Walnut): Fast Signs
Art Supplies (Walnut): Fellers and Laird Plastics

Special Thanks:

FilmCincinnati, Kristen Schlotman, Jheri Neri (GCNAC), Otis Pelfrey and Pam Galinsky, Cincinnati Port Authority, Amy Bancroft, Village Mayor Joe Anneken (Elmwood Place), the Cincinnati Police Department, Stanislava Pinchuk, Sam Winzar, Suzie Sheehy, Dustin Taylor, Lakesa Bryant, Jennifer Hill, Pam Ford, Larry Ford, and the communities of Elmwood Place, and Fairmount, Cincinnati.

PENUMBRA was commissioned by FotoFocus for the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial, curated by Kevin Moore. It was created through an Art Academy of Cincinnati residency, alongside a paid student internship program supported by FotoFocus. The project was created with collaborating partners: Cincinnati Museum Centre (CMC), the Hamilton County Landbank, the Greater Cincinnati Native American Coalition (GCNAC), and the Art Academy of Cincinnati (AAC). This project would not have been possible without the generous support and participation of the neighborhoods and community of Elmwood Place, and Fairmount, Cincinnati.

Acknowledgment:

As a step toward honoring the truth and achieving healing and reconciliation with those Indigenous peoples who were affected most by the Doctrine of Discovery and broken treaties, we acknowledge the traditional homelands of the Shawnee, Miyamia, Delaware, Potawatomi, Wyandot, Seneca, Chippewa, Ottawa, Wapaghkonnetta, and over 50 other historic Nations and bands that call this land home. We acknowledge and honor that the word Ohio comes from the Haudenosaunee word ‘ohi-yo', for 'good rivers', and that this was a place of gathering and ceremony, trade and exchange, food growing, sharing and story, and respect for culture, and finally, we acknowledge that the lands upon which these works were created were unceded and stolen from these original peoples.