STRONG OPINIONS
Suitcases in fountain at Victoria Park, bench surrounded by Mennonite prayer cap are among the favourites
Readers weigh in on public art
Record readers have strong opinions on public art.
Especially that rusty bell, love it or hate it, in Waterloo Public Square.
In a recent column, I wrote about some of the public art in Waterloo Region and invited readers to discuss the pieces they feel strongly about.
What a great conversation it was.
I had given a thumbs-down to the rusty bell, which is officially called Waterloo Bell/Bell for Kepler. It’s constructed of three parts that deliberately don’t fit together.
Some other readers don’t like it either.
“It just looks awful,” said Shannon Pennington of Waterloo. “If it were bright and shiny, it would make such a difference to me.”
But perhaps Shannon and I would like it better if we climbed inside it!
“My grandkids often squeeze through the opening and climb inside to make the “rusty bell” vibrate with their hollering,” said Mark Whaley, a former Waterloo city councillor.
He was on the jury that chose the bell, and agreed the debate was heated.
“But to my mind the other choices were rather ho-hum in comparison and I just knew this one would be controversial like good art always seems to be,” he said.
The asymmetrical shape of the bell sculpture “gave me a sense that like the city itself it was trying to find balance with the world around it,” Whaley said.
Pennington doesn’t like the bell, but she does like the sculpture of suitcases and trunks that are “tucked into the rocks of the ponds and small waterfalls of the water feature” at the entrance to Victoria Park near the former Grand River Transit bus terminal in downtown Kitchener.
“It’s simple, beautiful and whimsical,” she said.
“Unfortunately, its meaning may be somewhat diminished once the bus station no longer sits nearby, bringing people and their luggage to and from the city centre.
“But perhaps the art can then be a reminder of the history of the area as a transportation hub.”
Art that whispers
In the earlier column I had said that public art should stand out. But many readers said they enjoy smaller pieces that are on a human scale.
Melissa Bowman says she loves “stumbling across a tucked-away installation that I didn’t know existed.
“It provides an element of surprise and a feeling of connection to something that maybe only a few others have also experienced,” she said.
There is a small sculpture garden on the University of Waterloo campus that gives her this feeling.
“While I also enjoy big, bold statements from public art, I also believe there is value in art that whispers to you instead.”
A bench encircled by a Mennonite prayer cap
Don’t forget sculptor Ruth Abernethy, says Patricia Mighton of New Dundee.
Abernethy is best known for her statues of the prime ministers of Canada, which are installed in the grounds behind Castle Kilbride, a mansion in Baden that’s part township office, part museum.
But Mighton likes a lesserknown work, “Leap of Faith,” even better.
It’s at the corner of Bleams and Wilmot Centre roads. A teenaged boy and girl, holding hands, are “a bronze duet,” Abernethy says on her website. They are about to leap off a stone arch into a courtyard below.
“They are taking a leap of faith into their future just as our ancestors took a huge leap of faith when they left their past behind to create a new home here in Wilmot Township, “Mighton said.
Mighton is also partial to another work by Abernethy, a bench covered by what looks like a Mennonite woman’s prayer cap, rendered in stainless steel mesh.
“At first glance, these forms are immediately familiar, welcoming, protective, and suggestive. They are part of our personal landscape and distinctive in the heritage of Waterloo,” says the city’s website.
The prescient title of this 2007 installation is “Choice.”
Mighton added: “What a contrast between the acceptance of choice of religious garb here in Waterloo compared to the proposed Quebec bill!”
Steel beam from World Trade Center
Cheryl Murphy of Waterloo loves the Fallen Firefighter Memorial in the park between Kitchener Public Library and Centre In The Square.
She gets goosebumps as she contemplates the anguish of the firefighters depicted on the sculpture by Timothy Schmalz while listening to the wind rustle in the “majestic” trees all around.
“This is my go-to stop when friends visit,” she said.
Murphy didn’t mention this, but there is also a steel beam from the wreckage of the World Trade Center as part of the installation.
It recognizes the contribution local firefighters made to the recovery effort in the days after the attack. They brought respirators for the workers on the scene, and they raised $300,000 to help victims’ families.
Industrial machines that evoke science fiction
The artist Nicholas Rees wrote to say how glad he was that industrial machines, in use a century or more ago, were being seen as public art.
The plan to put some of these machines along urban pathways like the Iron Horse and Spur Line trails had originally been about celebrating and preserving our industrial heritage, he said.
“But it was always apparent to me that when cleaned, repainted and placed on public display, these machines sometimes had a subtle elegance that was sculptural,” he wrote.
“Ghostly at times, as you point out, sometimes elegiac and occasionally whimsical perhaps.”
One of his favourite public art/ artifact works is the turbine governor once used in the old Adam Beck hydro plant in Queenston.
It was later donated to the Industrial Artifacts Project by Ontario Hydro. It is displayed on the second floor of Kitchener City Hall.
“I like it because it is a wonderful combination of sculpture, whimsy, fantasy and history,” Rees wrote.
“Fantasy — reminds me of something from an old sciencefiction film (think of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” roughly the same age as the artifact).
“Whimsy — like a large toy. Sculpture — self evident, and supportive of my claim that machinery can sometimes be viewed as art.
“History — reinforces the fascinating link between Berlin and Niagara hydro power, Berlin being the first town in Ontario
to receive electric power from the Falls in 1910.”
Public participation in public art
Julie Roedding often wonders about the sculpture at her bus stop, at Weber and Guelph Streets in Kitchener.
“I think it ties in with the now defunct garment industry that was prevalent in the area,” she wrote.
“It’s a sewing needle threading itself through some fabric, then it morphs into gears.
“I think it represents the way that manufacturing has evolved using machine over man. I could be totally wrong! It would be nice if there was a plaque that explained the artist’s intent of the piece.
“What was nice, was when the piece was installed, the public, mostly children, were invited to try out their blacksmithing skills and help with the assembly. That’s what public art should be about — the public!” Her comments reminded me of another piece of art on the Ion light-rail line.
There’s a sculpture beside Grand River Hospital station that looks like a spinal column morphing into a piece of railway track. Artist Sandra Dunn held a public workshop and invited people to help hammer the steel bones sticking out of the spinal column.
Art on the building
Two of my co-workers suggested pieces of art, both on buildings. Photographer Mat McCarthy drew my attention to a colourful image of a Mennonite barn-raising on the side of the large condo building at King and Victoria streets in Kitchener. The vivid scene is a welcome contrast to the dark slab of wall.
Editor Neil Ballantyne likes the mural on the side of the Toreense store, which sells Portuguese specialty foods at Mill Street and Stirling Avenue in Kitchener.
It’s beautifully drawn and constructed. And it is in the right place. The images of fishing, traditionally so important to people of Portuguese descent, speak to what happens inside the store and in the homes of its customers.
The last word
Finally, Jim Erb, regional councillor and former Waterloo city councillor, says he walks by the rusty bell every day and has to suppress the urge to scrub it with a wire brush.
His own favourite piece is “Laurel Creek” behind the Waterloo City Centre.
Almost 30 years ago, when he was on Waterloo council and the city hall was built, they decided to have a competition and install the winning piece. Erb was on the selection committee.
“If my memory is correct, it was the first piece of public art/ sculpture in the City of Waterloo,” he said.
“The sculpture is made of wood and steel to depict some of the original businesses in Waterloo and to reflect the flow of the Laurel Creek above and below the ground in uptown.
“As part of my walks in uptown, I often walk past this sculpture and in the summertime it is gratifying to see many residents sitting on the lawn around the various components.”