Region turns down donation of ‘world-class’ sculpture
Kitchener entrepreneur captivated by ‘Mirrors of Babel’
KITCHENER — There was something about the delicate tracery of the soaring sculpture that captivated Ron Doyle.
The piece, called “Mirrors of Babel,” was commissioned for Nuit Blanche, Toronto’s all-night contemporary art event, in 2018.
And in 2019, Doyle, a Kitchener entrepreneur, bought the huge sculpture. He put in on display at Lot42, the former industrial warehouse he transformed into an event space, with custom lighting to show off the interplay of light and shadow cast by the sculpture’s intricate lines.
“It fit perfect,” Doyle said. “It was made for it. It went right to the ceiling. It was beautiful.”
The sculpture is by UNESCOprize-winning French-Tunisian artist eL Seed, who says it upends the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, which tells how God scattered the people of the world and made them speak different languages after they tried to and build a tower that rose to Heaven.
The artwork is made of interlocking pieces of reflective steel, cut and twisted into a complex web of Arabic
calligraphy. A tribute to Toronto’s multiculturalism, the piece is based on an Arabic translation of “Prairie Greyhounds,” a 1903 poem by Mohawk poet Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) of Six Nations.
The sculpture looms almost13 metres (42 feet) tall and is about 6.4 metres (21 feet) in diameter.
“It is very cool,” said Doyle. “It is a world-class piece. (El Seed) is probably the most well-known Arabic street artist in the world.”
But now that Doyle is selling the Lot42 site, he wanted to find a new
home for the artwork, which he says he spent about $50,000 on.
Given its size, Doyle thought the artwork would be tough to sell, so he offered to donate it to the Region of Waterloo.
With its themes of cultural harmony and of journeys, he thought the piece would be perfect in the atrium of the King-Victoria transit hub, which will be a central location to catch the LRT, Grand River Transit, intercity buses and trains. Construction on the hub is expected to start later this year.
He also could envision it as a central artwork in a major roundabout, not unlike the sculptures often seen in roundabouts in Spain.
But the region’s public art advisory committee turned down Doyle’s offer, “with regret,” at a meeting on Feb. 11. The committee’s advice will go to regional council for final approval.
“It’s almost irresistible when someone wants to give you something so beautiful,” said Betty Anne Keller, the chair of the region’s public art advisory committee.
The piece is too large for the transit hub, and the region simply didn’t have another space big enough to properly display it indoors, said Helen Chimirri-Russell, the region’s director of cultural services.
And the committee had several concerns with putting it in an outdoor setting such as the plaza in front of the transit hub.
It was created for a temporary situation for Nuit Blanche, and it’s not clear how well it would withstand the rigours of a Canadian winter over the long term, and hold up to things like exposure to salt, Chimirri-Russell said. There were also liability concerns if people tried to climb onto the delicate artwork.
“It is a pity,” Chimirri-Russell said. “It is beautiful, and it is by an important artist. It was an extremely generous offer which I think both the committee and council I’m sure are very grateful for.”
In the end, Doyle says the artwork will probably go to The 50 Small Park Resort, on Wilby Road in St. Agatha just west of Waterloo, owned by his friend Jason Araujo.
The sculpture could rise up from an island in the centre of a pond at the resort, which was formerly the Alpine trailer park, Doyle said.
The sculpture would have been seen and enjoyed by many more people in a site like the transit hub, he said, but he did want it to have a home. “I don’t want it to sit and rust in a container.”