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Trades bring public art to a new level

9/19/2014

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PictureManaen Senkow (left) and Jordan Thys assemble the sculpture. (Carlyn Yandle photo)
You know you're working with the right people when you arrive at their shop with nothing to show for your sculpture idea but some vague sketches and they don't frog-march you out of the industrial park.

My idea is for a giant version of a severed fiber-optic cable — but it should also look vaguely like a thruster-cluster thing. And I'd also like to hint at those giant tunnel borers and massive industrial fans. Somewhere in there. 

I don't know where to begin to try to communicate all this to industrial welders so my burly cousin with a lifetime in the forestry industry opens a door and before long I'm thankful to be pitching my idea to Manaen Senkow, of Select Steel, whose grandfather John Senkow built the decorative railings at the historic Minoru Chapel in Richmond as well as other metal fixtures that helped revamp Steveston. 

PictureFiber-optic wire bundles (Carlyn Yandle photo)
I tell him it should be a bunch of brightly-coloured, random-length, angle-cut tubes made of some shiny, rust-proof metal. Which should be spaced apart somehow so you could see between the tubes. Which will be hoisted up at the end of the Canada Line in downtown Richmond. And, by 'will' I mean, 'may be', if this City of Richmond public art project doesn't fall through.

I bring along a snarl of fiber-optic wiring in my purse, like rosary beads.

And Manaen, who I'm told does a lot of sketching and designing himself, says yes. All do-able. Then the long collaborative process begins.

This isn't my first time working with metal fabricators — my last project relied on the welding skills of upcycling specialist Noah Goodis — but this would be a small, potentially pain-in-the-ass job at a bustling shop serving the West's primary industries. It all comes down to having faith that people who work with their hands in all crafts like to innovate and stretch their skills. 

PictureJeff Morris bolts down Cluster to the last Canada Line column. (Carlyn Yandle photo)
Fast-forward several months, to  overnight last night (at this writing) when another team of trades gets in on the project, this one in the hoisting of massive sculptures into place. Enter Jeff Morris of Pro-Tech Industrial Movers, who finds the prospect of swinging nearly 1,000 pounds of plate aluminum up onto the end of the last guideway at Brighouse Station "simple." 

He was right. And right on time, too.

My faith in the trades in the collaborative process is confirmed.

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Cluster, day one. (Photo by Eric Fiss)
***
City as Site, a survey exhibition of Richmond's public art, continues at Richmond Art Gallery (five minutes' walk from Canada Line's Brighouse Station, now with newly installed Cluster) to Oct. 26. Public art bus tour: Sept. 27, 1:15-3:30 pm, with public art specialist Dr. Cameron Cartiere and special guest artist Andrea Sirois. RSVP required: [email protected] or 604-247-8313. 

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public art exposed: a peek behind the scenes at new show

8/29/2014

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It's one thing to dream up an idea for the back end of the elevated Canada Line track and quite another to see that dream come together in a mammoth aluminum sculpture.
PictureMetal fabrication at the Select Steel shop, Delta. Carlyn Yandle photo
So when I got my first glimpse of the progress of Cluster at the metal fabricators this week, the piercing clang and whine of the shop suddenly seemed to give way to the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

Whoa.

It was exactly as I had imagined it, except for the immensity. That something so voluminous could come out of a bundle of bubble tea straws was sort of short-circuiting my brain.

Well?, their faces seemed to ask.

"It's... very... big," I said, immediately thankful their earplugs spared them from hearing the bleeding obvious. 

PictureCluster concept sketch (image by Carlyn Yandle)
Of course, no one sees these moments of shock, nor all the anxiety, revelation, frustration, obsession typical of the emotional swings that go into the creation of public artwork. When Cluster is hoisted into position next month, its narrative will be in the eye of the beholder, its entirety read in an instant.

But a new Richmond Art Gallery exhibit (opening next Friday evening, Sept. 5) is pulling back the curtain on the process behind five public artworks that dot the city, in its City As Site show, curated by RAG director Rachel Lafo. Here is where visitors will see evidence of the beginning of the ideas that were pitched, developed, reworked, and finally translated into forms for public placement. Combined with that focus is a survey of all artwork in the local public sphere that is defining Richmond as not just another clutter of condos but a specific space in a particular time.

PictureMetal fabricator Jordan Thys at work. (Carlyn Yandle photo)
For me, laying bare some of my half-baked early concepts and awkward sketches that led to the development of Cluster (as well as the Crossover crosswalk design) is slightly uncomfortable but this is a warts-and-all display. Not shown is the high level of trust that must exist for any collaborative project to succeed: trust in one's own ideas, the physical properties of the materials, the skill and temperment of  fabricators, the foresight of structural engineers, and the patience of the commissioning bodies. Public art projects come with the headache-y package of  issues of insurance, permits, budgets, timelines and many unforseeables. In short, it's much more than a good idea.

Embedded in those physical projects is the intangible quality of faith. Cluster isn't done yet, but I have faith that it will soon be a thing in the manufactured landscape that will spark conversation, which will connect people and by extension contribute toward a unique, vibrant community and cultural hub.

Fingers crossed anyway.



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Bees and bubble tea straws inspire new work

2/28/2014

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My mind has been buzzing with thoughts of legendary environmentalist-artist Joseph Beuys as I've been hatching an idea for a public artwork that is not so much intrusive as inclusive, especially if you're a native mason bee.

It is the convergence of my love of patterns of circles within circles and my growing understanding of the immense value of the Blue Orchard (aka Osmia) Mason Bee. This non-stinging little guy gets up early in the season, collects nectar and spreads pollen at the same time, and is a workhouse in the pollination business compared to the introduced honey bee.

Like most of us, Blue Mason Bees live on their own but are gregarious except their preferred condo complexes are holes in wood. It turns out they also live quite nicely in paper straws that are closed at the back end. 

Artists/gardeners/environmentalists/industrial designers have been innovating ways to boost the population of mason bees in response to colony collapse of the honey bee. 

Condo complexes set up in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris (above) and in the Paris Botanical Garden provide real inspiration, as do the smaller mobile homes, like the one below in Copenhagen.


PictureCarlyn Yandle photo
I've been experimenting with making the straws (see video at bottom) with an emphasis on design, found materials (paper bags and coffee cans). Now for a little colour.

My theory is that bubble tea straws could provide just the right waterproof structure for accommodating all those straws the females pack with cocoons. The straws would be easily removed  and the cocoons harvested, cleaned and stored in the fridge for the winter, ready to be set out next spring. 

I have no idea whether this will work, but the creative process is one of problem-finding and problem-solving.


PictureCarlyn Yandle photo
The plan uses the colourful clusters of the translucent angled straws because they provide built-in overhangs for each condo while allowing for the necessary south light to hit each doorway. 

The clusters-within-cluster design of fiber-optic cables (see below) sets the pattern course in a design that moves from pinky-finger width to something on a grand scale that can be seen from a block away by humans.

It's one of those situations where it will take some doing to get to some knowing.



PictureCross-section of a fiber-optic cable
  

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    Cross-posted at
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