Artist’s plastic lions a fitting symbol for start of Works fest
Pink and joyful, Yong Fei Guan’s lion sculptures come off as coy at first sight, but the twin beasts were inspired by two disruptive events in our city, each connected to China.
Yong is one of hundreds of artists participating in this year’s 33rd annual edition of The Works Art and Design Festival, running June 21 — July 3 all over Edmonton.
Her sculptural project started with the city’s unceremonious plucking out of Harbin Gate last spring — including its pair of goodfortune stone lions — to make way for long-term LRT construction. This noisy civic effort has also infamously kept awake residents of City Market Apartments, not to mention erasing out of existence two independent art and music venues, Space and the ARTery.
Yong was further inspired by China changing its intake policies, no longer reliably buying every sort of Albertan recyclable garbage in unfathomable bulk — Edmonton alone formerly sold it 10,000 tonnes of recyclables a year.
Appropriately made of plastic, Yong ’s lions present a connected theme: how Edmonton showed it “valued” one of its cultural landmarks, while at the same time, how its own waste was no longer “valued” overseas.
“That’s why I did the whole project. I personally have emotions about the lions being removed from their location,” said the local artist at a Works sneak peek at Matrix Hotel Tuesday. “That gate is part of Edmonton. From what I understand from the Chinese community, once you remove it, it’s damaged.”
While the gates and lions are in storage and she’s heard talk in the community of building a new gate, “For me, as an artist, it’s not just about replacing something old with something new.”
The Works’ theme this year is Paradigm, as in the phrase “paradigm shift” (fundamental change). To wit, that same LRT construction this year displaced the 13-day festival off its usual home turf on Churchill Square over to Capital Plaza at the Legislature Grounds, a move which has its perks. The performance stage and tents will now live amid the line of active water sprouts, including the Federal Building. The beer garden will now have a grassy area from which to watch the music.
The intended-to-be-temporary move also puts the festival in line with a number of new public artworks running up 108 Street made for the country’s 150th, and these sculptures are indeed in the redesigned guide — all the artists and music schedules online at theworks.ab.ca as well.
This includes information about the Works’ fundraiser gala, June 22 at the Hotel Mac.
In her annual introduction to the artworks, executive artistic director Amber Rooke highlighted beautiful textile works by Kasie Campbell and her mother Ginette Lund, who died in May; handmade cosmic scenes photographed by filmmaker Scott Portingale; and a giant construction looking at life in the valley by Emmanuel Osahar.
Always articulate, Rooke noted one of the most meaningful aspects of experiencing art is the creation of meaning. “When we’re experiencing fictional narratives, we talk about the suspension of disbelief. When you’re experiencing an artwork, there’s a sort of suspension of certainty.”
She invites everyone to see as many artworks as possible — the entire event is free.
“You will find art that you like,” she notes, but “my 2018 art challenge to you is to spend some time with the work you’re not so sure about — maybe even something that you don’t like — and try to make room for it in your life.”
Spend some time with the work you’re not so sure about ... and try to make room for it in your life.