Europe - Sometimes, the best new ideas are those that make us most uncomfortable. Such was the case with brutalism, a school of graphic and architectural design that emerged in the 1950s.
Emphasising stark, bold form and function over ornamentation, brutalism represented a radical departure from traditional thinking. Although many criticized this new concept as “unromantic”, it ultimately caught on, reshaping our notions of design, and taking the human imagination to new places in the process.
This summer, some seven decades after brutalism first shook things up in the design world, highly regarded lighting and production designer Bryan Barancik has channelled its visceral power to create a gripping, deeply moving show for Lenny Kravitz on the four-time Grammy winner’s 27-city European tour, which began23 June in Hamburg at Sporthalle.
With its wide zoom monochromatic colour schemes, and an intense Stufish-designed set that featured blow-through video cubes, audiences are connected to the core elements of the artist’s performance on stage.
Aiding Barancik in lighting this deeply moving production are 150 Chauvet Professional Color Strike M motorised strobe-washes supplied by PRG, UK. Also critical are what he describes as an “incredible team of A players”, including Ray Winkler of Stufish, lighting programmer Felix Peralta, associate LD Joe Mac McGinley, and lighting director Mike Gionfriddo.
Throughout the show, Barancik and his team accentuate the powerful, uncompromising narrative of the show by changing up the lighting style based on the music, other media, and input from his client. At times, the entire stage is covered with intense strobing effects, only to then go almost completely to black, before being super charged again with bursts of white or coloured light.
“I like using wide zoom profiles as a way to paint the environment with monochromatic sources as a juxtaposition to more beamy looks,” said Barancik. “At times it’s great to have the vibe change without cluttered architecture in the air. It was also important to me on this tour to allow the architecture of the entire visual composition to have a chance to breathe. We wanted the lighting, scenic and three-dimensional video surfaces to live together.
“There was some narrative to this show that stemmed from the initial creative discussions with Lenny Kravitz. You can describe it as modern electric brutalist spirituality. There are songs with only a few cues where we paint the band members themselves and the set is white. Then there are others that slap you in the face for three minutes. It runs the spectrum.”
Barancik ensured that his lighting worked in sync with the set design from Stufish to advance this hard-edged narrative. “The set design was intended to create a heavy, weighted, strong energy, using cubes and subtle video panel returns to help create depth,” he said. “The lighting plot was intended to continue that brutalist feeling. Alongside that was a bit of practicality too - the first leg of the tour was mostly festivals. This guided many linear decisions as well as programming decisions, so that the visual intent of the show would translate as much as possible between festivals and arenas.”
Adding to the raw power of the design are the rig’s Color Strike M fixtures, many of which are arranged along the downstage edge or on the tips of trusses, while others are placed behind the video cubes where they are used for blow-through effects as well as for illuminating the interior structure of the cubes in various ways as a scenic element.
Speaking of Color Strike Ms in his rig, Barancik noted: “They have many uses ultimately, including musical accents, but also interior scenic lighting, even lighting that creates the look of an elevator shaft from the top down.” It is an image at the heart of the brutalism philosophy - stark, evocative, somewhat unnerving, and oh so liberating for the creative soul.
