Beniah Leuschke

I think of myself as a builder of ideas rather than a maker of objects. I treat my work as the longest distance between two points. These points are not beginning and end, rather strategic points within the game of object making. I use word plays, double entendre, and general misuse of language as a base for improvisation. My aim is to create temporary solutions for imaginary problems. The work may seem incomplete or imply an absurd function. Its work is play with a purpose. Tools and toys are easily confused. The objects threaten to be arbitrary, celebrating the foibles of masculinity, confusing boundaries between furniture, tools, and sports ephemera. The viewer experience is my primary emphasis. Problematized by multiple layers of accessibility and interactivity, the experience becomes a synthesis of memory and the flutter of an idea becoming several things simultaneously. I aim for the work to be a cluster of grapes —not grape juice; equal parts granny smith, Smith & Wesson, Wesson oil, and Oil of Olay. Interpretation solves as many problems as it causes, but I believe that if you’re thinking anything about the work you can’t be wrong.

Artist-in-residence from 2006 to 2013.

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