Long-awaited public art in Bloomington's Trades District proves: The right angle is not 90 degrees

Six years ago, a sculpture by Berlin-based artist Stefan Reiss was picked from among five finalists by the Bloomington Arts Commission to be installed as a kind of gateway for Bloomington's Trades District.

The Trades District, north of city hall, is a 12-acre portion of a larger area that forms Bloomington's certified technology park. 

After a few delays, which were related in part to pandemic-induced supply-chain challenges, a contract with a new fabricator, Weber Group II, was approved last summer by Bloomington's redevelopment commission. Reiss's piece is now finally getting installed, with a celebration set for next Thursday (April 10) from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Reiss's sculpture arrived on Monday, delivered in pieces by the fabricator to a concrete pad near 10th and Madison streets. The pad was poured specifically for Reiss's artwork, with embedded conduits for routing the wiring that will light up the sculpture.

Many of Reiss's works feature an intricate arrangement of long, slender beams intersecting at various angles, which are meant to convey a sense of movement and balance.

This Thursday afternoon, The B Square bumped into Reiss and his collaborator on the project, Karsten Schuhl, who were spraypainting the flanges of the stainless steel beam components, where they are bolted to the concrete.

The slope of the concrete pad posed an installation challenge. The flanges of the beams were supposed to be bolted in place so that they were flat against the concrete pad, following exactly its slight downward slope. But Reiss told The B Square he walked around and around the sculpture to assess the impact, he was not satisfied that the beams were angled in a way that was true to the design he had laid out. All the angles are specified exactly in the design, Reiss said. So Schuhl devised a concrete shim to wedge between the flange and the base—which put the beam at the correct angle.

About the angles in his works, Reiss said, "I try to avoid 90-degree angles." Reiss always makes the angles to one side or the other of 90-degrees—to make it interesting. As Reiss put it, "Ninety degrees is always a little bit boring, I think."

The lighting will be visible through translucent panels that cover the windows that have been sliced into the faces of some of the beams.

Reiss and Schuhl both learned their craft at the Weissensee Kunsthochschule in Berlin.

Reiss's piece of art is labeled O.T. 987—which is not all that mysterious a name. The abbreviation "O.T." is short for the German "Ohne Titel", which means "Untitled" in English. The number is an index, which works as an identifier to distinguish one sculpture from another.

The celebration by the city next Thursday (April 10) is is supposed to include remarks from Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson, Reiss, and members of the Bloomington Arts Commission. It will start at 6:15 p.m. and will be followed by a reception on site and at The Forge.

The celebration is scheduled to include music by DJ Good Peoples and food by Self-Titled Vegetarian Kitchen & Catering The event is free and open to the public, but the city is asking people who plan to attend to RSVP.