Input sought on public art project
Arts Council changes habit of secret decisions
Do you hate the Talus Dome sculpture? Well, this is your chance to have your say on Edmonton’s next major public art commission.
Six finalists have been chosen for the $1-million commission at new North East Transit Bus Garage on Fort Road, near the old Canada Packer’s smoke stack. And, for the first time, the Edmonton Arts Council has put out a public input survey at www.surveymonkey.com/r/KW38LMT, with Sept. 2 as the deadline.
It’s a major step in transparency and collaboration for the arts council. The council has made bold public art picks in the past, but also weak ones. But whatever it chose, it did so with secret committees in secret meetings. A committee of experts will still make the final choice on this competition, but if the public is going to pay for this art, it’s fair we have input.
Katherine Kerr, public art director for the arts council, is pleased with the quality of the public input so far and believes it will provide valuable perspectives to the committee. “There’s been an overwhelming level of thoughtfulness and reasoned responses that have come back.”
With Wednesday as the last day of the public consult, I went to two local artists, Slavo Cech and Erin Pankratz-Smith, for their take. Pankratz-Smith and Cech weren’t keen on three of the six pieces:
First, Montreal artist Jacek Jarnuskiewicz’s Travelling Wind sculptures, which would sit on top of the garage, are five sculptures that evoke huge blades of vegetation blowing in the wind. The piece is beautiful but boring, Pankratz-Smith says: “Prairie landscape has been overdone.”
Second, American artist Albert Paley’s top submission Nexus, a colourful and monumental 12-metretall abstract steel sculpture. Paley is the elder statesman of large-scale monumental metal art, Cech says, but this piece isn’t groundbreaking. “It doesn’t really resonate with me,” Cech says.
And, third, Tim and Jan Elder of the German art group realities: united offers up Collective, which uses technology found in billboards, colourful and rotating triangular rods that will move as the LRT train passes, creating a shifting colour field and a sense of movement. “It just reminds me of those advertising sign boards,” Cech says.
But Cech and Pankratz-Smith both liked Cecil Balmond’s elegant moving light sculpture Montuno. It would be made of a series of triangular LED rods as tall as 4-1/2 metres. The lights will be triggered by the passing LRT. In the dark of night, it’s colourful display would evoke the northern lights.
It’s a bit gimmicky, but fun, Pankratz-Smith says. “Especially with our long nights in the winter, it’s going to be visible all the time, which is cool. It’s visual. It’s beautiful.”
Pankratz-Smith’s top pick was German artist Thorsten Goldberg’s work, “53º20 — 40’N.” This work is five aluminum sculptures of topographical maps from five mountain locations around the world, such as Zhupanovsky Crater in Russia and Alberta’s Mount Chown, which share the same geographic latitude as Edmonton. Pankratz-Smith says the work invites people to think of other places connected to us. “It’s subtle and deeper, and there’s some long-term endurance. I think it would last.”
Cech’s top pick is American artist Ned Kahn’s Wind Channels. Kahn creates gigantic walls of reflective steel tiles that generally go on the sides of buildings and are activated by the movement of wind. They make a building appear to be everchanging, shimmering as if it were a cloud or fog blown by wind.
“I can’t see how those shiny discs are going to stay clean,” Pankratz-Smith says. “It’s just a shimmery building, and it’s cool, but that’s it. Maybe it would be amazing and maybe it would stand the test of time, but I’m not sold.”
Cech argues it’s the right choice to put up the reflective strips of Wind Channels on the transit garage, even if it’s a risky move and could be unpopular. “I can just see the comments, ‘We spent a million dollars on a disco cube.’ But I really like it. It does catch the light and create that sense of movement.”
As for my own take, the Balmond and Kahn pieces are my favourites. The last thing you want to do is create something in this bleak, industrial spot that doesn’t stand out. The Balmond and Kahn pieces are most likely to be visual knockouts, so that’s what I’d like to see my own two-cents purchase.
You? dstaples@edmontonjournal. com