Rodney Hanson was exposed to many artists and musical styles from various parts of the world through his travels in his childhood and teen years. He took numerous trips to the Middle East while his father worked on various projects in archaeology, and spent significant time in La Paz, Bolivia. On those trips, he experienced indigenous art, ancient art, and modern art on the many streets, galleries, museums and cultural sites that he frequented. He would look forward to hearing the mijwicz (an ancient reed instrument) saturating the marketplaces, hearing the darbouka (a clay or metal hand drum) at a wedding, or listening to sikus(pan flutes), kenos, and charangos (a small string instrument traditionally made with armadillo armor). The experiences affected Rodney’s artistic sensibilities for life.
Rodney studied percussion performance at the University of Iowa under Tom Davis from 1988 - 1995. He became heavily influenced by Henry Cowell, John Cage, and Harry Partch. While there, he also grew more intrigued with combining diverse artistic disciplines with the goal of merging them into one.
He began taking classes in art while at the university. He wanted to find a space to create visual sculptures that doubled as musical instruments. After trying metalworking and jewelry, fibre arts and a variety of other media, he found his place in sculpture, studying under Julius Schmidt with an emphasis in Cast Iron sculpture. It was under the direction of Julius Schmidt that Rodney developed the Babaphone project, a multi-percussion instrument utilizing various means to find several tones and textures from a visual sculpture. He also began to develop the Entrapment series, a sculpture played from the inside.
Rodney felt like he needed more development, so he decided to take a couple classes in intermedia art to round out his performance skills, which he found indispensable.
Rodney played with several projects outside of the educational institution as well. He played in a number of punk bands in the Minneapolis area. In Iowa City he collaborated with several musicians and cofounded Humpty Drumpty with Ivan Doutt, a percussion duet on traditional percussion instruments, found objects and percussion sculptures. He also played percussion for various theater performances through the University of Iowa and various theaters.
In 1996, Rodney moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he was involved with a new rendition of Brecht’s “A Three Penney Opera”, performed at the Golden Throne Lounge.
In the same year, he met Rich Path and Mike Bautz, and began playing percussion for their band, Cognitive Dissonance, a post-punk fusion band with a sarcastic edge. Born out of that was “Furious George”, a guitar and percussion duet with Mike Bautz, from 2001 through 2007.
In 2007, Rodney got hired with Michael Ebeling to collaborate on a sculpture and do a workshop on cast iron art for the Ripon College art department. They built “Hybrid Collusion” for the permanent sculpture garden.
Rodney continues to work on his solo project combining music, sculpture and performance art. He converges all of his influences to create an experimental visual and soundscape attempting to find his own space in the world of the arts.
Rodney’s current project is called the “Beard Project”. It is a study of time and space, age, wisdom, flexibility and change. It is a project he has been preparing since 1992. It will tie the twists of the long road together into a cohesive knot.