Harvest Table sculpture is beautiful and functional
Recently unveiled public art at Waterloo Park designed to encourage a sense of community
WATERLOO — Although Ted Fullerton’s art appears in collections around the world, his latest piece, “Harvest Table,” installed in Waterloo Park on the weekend, is unique for the sculptor.
“It’s the first functional piece of art I’ve done,” Fullerton said of his two 16.8-metre-long metal harvest tables with attached bench seats and a whimsical, oversized squirrel and acorn topping off the piece.
Fullerton, who lives in Tottenham, Ont., is best known in Kitchener for “Pedestrian,” the sculpture of walking figures on the roof and exterior walls of the municipal parking garage at the corner of Benton and Charles streets.
Less visible is “Animanimus,” a bronze and steel man balancing on a chair at the top of pole
on King Street East.
You have to look up, way up, to see it.
In Guelph, Fullerton’s sculptures included “Bird In Hand,” a figure holding a bird that is set in front of City Hall.
Creating a harvest table for the City of Waterloo’s Canada 150 project using a nature theme seemed appropriate to the artist.
“The call for submissions came last summer, we were at our summer place,” he said.
“As I was reading it, I observed outside a squirrel putting up nuts for the winter.
“I thought about preparing yourself (early) for winter, being so vulnerable.”
The tables were officially unveiled at Waterloo Public Library’s Picnic in the Park on Saturday, where crowds gathered despite the constant spurts of drenching rain.
The people who turned out were admiring the tables, said Kelly Kipfer, the library’s community manager.
“It’s practical and beautiful,” she said, adding the tables are a nod to our region’s Mennonite past.
Kipfer said locating the tables on a concrete base, adjacent to Father David Bauer Drive, is designed to encourage a sense of community, in conjunction with the park’s open fields, picnic tables, trails and skateboard park.
“They’re right in a space that was installed to draw people together,” she said.
“I think the tables are just so striking,”
Fullerton’s concept was created so that everyone, regardless of age or experience, would find something enjoyable and interesting in the work.
A deep thinking adult might ponder the meaning of the table and its relation to the natural setting.
A child could delight in the squirrel staring down that acorn or just see the table as a place to eat lunch, or perhaps colour, play games or do crafts.
Regardless of what people will use the table for, Fullerton hopes everyone will take time to sit and enjoy.
Does he think he’s onto something here, making functional art for communities?
“It would be nice if that happened,” he said.