Brian Presnell, artist, furniture maker, and designer behind Indy Urban Hardwood and many of the beautiful pieces that adorn restaurants, bars, and businesses all over Indianapolis, revisits his art-handling roots by partnering with an old friend to fabricate and install a challenging art piece for an internationally-acclaimed designer.

The day we met Brian, we instantly knew he was a character. We were looking for a supplier of locally-sourced lumber to use as flooring in our new office, and we found that. But we also found someone we couldn’t wait to start following around with a camera because we knew he was going to tell some pretty amazing stories.

Brian, through his company Indy Urban Hardwood supplies local wood to many artisans and craftsmen including Ash Blaeds. As we started getting to know him better, we decided we really wanted to work with Brian and Indy Urban Hardwood to source wood for the flooring of our new office building. More than that though, we wanted to document his work and ongoing journey.

This short film, specifically, came together because he called us and said, "Hey, you guys told me to let you know if I was doing somethin' cool. Well, this is cool." Sometimes, it really is that easy.

He explained that he had been tapped by friend and collaborator Brian McCutcheon of Ignition Arts to provide lumber and help with the installation of an art piece at the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial show in Chicago. The piece they would fabricate and install was the vision of acclaimed designer, Walter Hood.

The piece, called Three Trees: Jackson, Obama, Washington was created in response to tensions surrounding the plans to build the Obama Presidential Library on public land in Jackson Park on the South Side of Chicago. It was made up of three large “trees” that were constructed of wood, sourced from Brian’s shop, affixed to a core of metal rings and brackets, fabricated by Ignition Arts.

From the time our team heard about the project, there was less than a week until it was scheduled to be complete so we started filming right away. We spent a day with Brian at Indy Urban Hardwood where he and his team were cutting, drilling, and, in some cases, burning wood staves. There was a lot of energy in the shop as they prepared for what would be their biggest art-focused collaboration in quite a while.

We also interviewed Brian McCutcheon about the work his team had completed leading up to that final week and how they planned to spend two full days transporting and installing the three “trees” in an outdoor space in the middle of the Chicago Museum.

That outdoor space, as it turned out, was only accessible by climbing a ladder into a utility area, shimmying past the museum’s ductwork, and passing through a service door out into the mossy green worksite. Dozens of the Y-shaped wood and metal components had to be moved through by Brian and an assembly-line of people from Ignition Arts.

Over two days, that team worked tirelessly to get the piece installed. They constructed each layer of the trees as they went and then carried them up ladders and scaffolding to slot them into place. It took a lot of communication and collaboration to make the installation happen. 

Looking back on the experience, Brian is so proud to have worked on such a highly-acclaimed piece. Less than two weeks after it showed, Walter Hood was named a 2019 fellow of the MacArthur Foundation, awarding him the famed “genius” grant.