Cleveland artists Dana Depew and Michael Loderstedt have collaborated on a 20-foot site-specific installation piece for a communal area in the new Tinnerman Lofts, an art-rich adaptive reuse building project from Neil Viny of the Dalad Group, that visually mines the site's history.
The Tinnerman Lofts building, located 2308 Fulton Road, was originally constructed in 1893 for the Tinnerman Steel Range Co., which operated until 1957. Tinnerman is known for inventing a type of lock nut with two sheet metal prongs that act as one thread called a ‘speed nut.’ The speed nut was eventually used in the manufacturing of automobiles and stoves, and during World War II the United States government also began using Tinnerman’s speed nuts in its aircraft. Vista Color Imaging was the tenant in the building for several decades more recently.
Liz Maugans serves as the curator for the Dalad Collection, which is an extensive group of work from local artists that enliven spaces like the upscale apartment building.
For this piece, Depew and Loderstedt found an old Tinnerman range on eBay and combined it with oversized children's block letters that run up a structural pole in the community living room.
“Screenprinted on the non-text-based sides of the dimensional blocks are other historical images that are lifted from the Tinnerman family’s records of patents and images that celebrate and pay tribute to the various homes and histories of the space," says Maugans. "Both a fun, tongue-and-cheek tribute to industry, manufacturing and creativity as it also doubles as the extravagant welcome into the community space and the building’s entrance.”
Worthington Yards was the first complex from Dalad Group to nurture the idea of using local art to enhance the environment. Worthington houses the Yards Project Space, which serves not only residents but visitors through exhibitions and installations.
“The work across the board is really about uplifting, quirky, and inventive ways to think about life and living,” Maugans says. “It is a big part of this success, and passionately integrating it in every project, including Tinnerman, and is the draw for people wanting to live there and stay there. Investing in artists and the art they create is the amenity that promotes the residents to meet neighbors, and connect with the city better through NEO artists and the work they create.”
With the piece in Tinnerman Lofts, “Homage to Woody Guthrie (HOME on tHE RangE),” Depew partnered with his former Kent State University professor.
“Liz Maugans asked both me and Dana Depew (my collaborator) to develop a proposal around an idea she and owner Neil Viny had, which was to have wooden children’s blocks spell the Woody Guthrie song title 'Home on the Range,' as an homage to the former use of the building as an enameled stove factory,” explains Loderstedt. “We added some elements to anchor the concept to the building, using imagery culled from the Tinnerman Company over many decades–– their original stove patent drawings, advertisements for their 'Speed Nuts,' and a number of other unique images.”
The space is now on view and available for tours and open houses.
