the skinny - by heavy industries

Calgary’s 2013 Public Art Shines – Literally

Emmery — Wed, 22 May 2013 01:06:39 +0000

Just last Wednesday, May 15th, the Public Art Board hosted Sneak Peek: Public Art 2013, highlighting eight new public art installations slated for various Calgary Neighbourhoods.

Of the eight, at least four use lighting as an integral component of the piece design.

Charged Line – Jill Anholt and Michelle Wong for South Calgary Fire Station #5, 3129 14 St. S.W.
Cloud Ring – Creative Machines for Beltline Park, 12 Ave 9 St S.W.
Luminous Crossings – Cliff Garten, City Hall LRT Station and Downtown West Kerby LRT Station, Macleod Trail & 3 St. S.E. and 10/11 St. on 7 Ave S.W. respectively
Travelling Light – Inges Idee, 96 Ave N.E.

Charged Line – Jill Anholt and Michelle Wong

The Public Art Board Chairman, Chip Burgess emceed the event and was quoted by the City of Calgary News Blog sharing his excitement about the up-and-coming projects,

” ‘The City’s commitment to public art really shines through this exciting and diverse offering of projects,” said Burgess. “My board colleagues and I are very proud to be involved in these installations that will undoubtedly enliven our public spaces, engage our fellow citizens and have a positive impact on our urban realm,’ ” he shared.

Cloud Ring – Creative Machines

Also presenting at the event was Rachael Seupersad, Superintendant of Public Art. She shared about a few of the projects including Cloud Ring. Cloud Ring is formed after the historic Beltline Streetcar Loop, also resembling a Chinook Arch.

The sculpture will give off an alluring light, shining from the inside-out, with a seemingly translucent skin. The sculpture is an interactive piece, engaging the onlooker in a personal and unique way, which is very important to the work of the artists that make up Creative Machine. “Our work isn’t really complete until the public interacts with it,” Shares artist Blessing Hancock. Apart from having a soft translucent skin the piece is “Intensely lit with LED’s at night and by the sunlight during the day it will do all different colours under visitor control,” shares artist Joe O’Connel.

Cliff Garten was also present sharing about his piece, Luminous Crossings.

Luminous Crossings include tall illuminated sculptures at both the east and west stations marling the gateways to the 7th ave LRT line. The sculptures also use coloured LED lighting that interact with the train schedule to signal to passengers the arrival and departure of the LRT.

Luminous Crossings – Cliff Garten

The City if Calgary public art website gives a bio of Cliff Garten,

“Clff Garten has completed more than fifty sculptures throughout the U.S. and Canada in collaboration with significant architecture, landscape architecture, and engineering projects. Garten’s artistic approach toward civic sculpture explores the expressive potential of infrastructure. He places his sculpture within the everyday as a way to re-imagine how civic infrastructure might perform beyond its basic function,” http://www.calgary.ca/

Travelling Light – Inges Idee

Another installation for Calgarians to look forward to is a piece from Inges Idee, whose work we have featured many time on the skinny including Running Track, The Drop and Aufschwung.

Travelling Light is a circular sculpture housing at it’s top two street lights. The sculpture will not only symbolize movement, from a distance it also strategically acts as a frame for the backdrop it seemingly encapsulates.

Briane Tolle’s – Parkdale Regional Pathway

There are four additional exciting pieces that Sneak Peek featured at the event last Wednesday, including Briane Tolle’s piece for Parkdale Regional Pathway, which we also recently featured on the Skinny.

Check out the additional projects at http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Recreation/Pages/Public-Art/Percent-for-Public-Art.aspx and let us know which you are excited for!

www.heavyworld.com

M.C. Escher at the Glenbow

Emmery — Wed, 15 May 2013 01:57:27 +0000

Come one come all, and prepare to be dazzled and amazed; see for yourself the incredible work of M.C. Escher: The Mathmagician.

Surely the man was a magician of sorts, his craft to be ogled and awed by appreciative onlookers world-wide; however, how many really know the craft of M.C. Escher?

The time has come where we get a chance to experience his art first hand. The Glenbow opens M.C. Escher: The Mathmagician May 25th to Aug 18th, 2013.

The exhibit, organized by the National Gallery of Canada and Art Gallery of Alberta, features 53 works by M.C. Escher, selected from their collection.

A Bit about Escher

Although his work has been enjoyed by millions of people world-wide, few truly appreciate the mastery of this artist’s career.

Images of his original pieces have been reproduced; however lack the same intricate detail of his original pieces.

Escher worked primarily in Woodcut and Lithograph. The first technique involved carving an image into a slate of wood, with the intent of printmaking. The second utilized a block of stone, porous limestone was popular in the 19th and early 20th century, which was etched and treated with a grease-based solution. Ink would then fill in the areas not treated with the solution. Once complete the stone carving would be used to produce many prints.

Relativity – Woodcut

“M.C. Escher, during his lifetime, made 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and over 2000 drawings and sketches,” explains his website, http://www.mcescher.com/.

Relativity – Lithography

After completing schooling in the Netherlands, in 1922 he traveled to Italy where he stayed until 1935. During this time he sketched innumerable images of the countryside which he later produced into mostly wood-cuts.

After his stint in Italy his artistic interest expanded to include “an intense engagement with the physics of the world – of reflective surfaces, plays with perspective and illusions of depth – and with an interest in the order, symmetry and geometric logic of mathematics,” as described by glenbow.org.

Furthermore, as his work evolved throughout his practice he became mesmerized with regular Division of Plane, tessellating irregular shapes to create positive/negative imagery. This focus became arguably his most famous and recognizable trait.

A Bit about the Exhibit

The 53 pieces exhibiting at the Glenbow from May 25th to Aug 18th, 2013 span his “earliest prints and experimentations with the regular division of a planar surface, produced during the artist’s enrollment at the School of Architecture and Ornamental Design in Haarlem, Netherlands,” to his later career where he “plays with impossible architectures Relativity (1953), Belvedere (1958) and Waterfall (1961),” explains glenbow.org.

Let us know if you venture down to the Glenbow to be awed and inspired for yourself!

For more information on public art and architecture check out our website or join us on Facebook and Twitter.

www.heavyworld.com

Calgary Art Circuit

Emmery — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:57:58 +0000

There is a new way to experience public art in Calgary.

On the last Thursday of every month join the Calgary Public Library for a guided walking tour of public art in Downtown Calgary.

The tour is roughly an hour long and covers the history and details about Calgary’s Civic Art collection around the Municipal building and +15 walkway systems.

The tours are run by volunteers of the Calgary Public Library and are free to attend.

Christine Pinkney from Art Circuit shares one of the goals of Art Circuit is to help Calgarians, “Appreciate (the Public Art) environment and setting more … We incorporate a lot of local history and information about Calgary that you wouldn’t necessarily know,” she explains.

Some of the pieces included in the Art Circuit tour are, So the Bishop Said to the Actress, By John Seward Johnson Jr., The Bears, By Suzanne Sablé, Family of Horses, By Harry O’Hanlon, Joy, By Roy Leadbeater and many others.

For a full list with piece descriptions visit the City of Calgary website.

As the city of Calgary website shares there are also many other ways to take in Calgary’s Art Circuit:

Download the Downtown Public Art Circuit app for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Includes GPS map and narrative explanations of the different pieces.

Download the Downtown Public Art Circuit Podcast and listen to the fun and informative audio-guide explaining the stories behind the works.

Print out the Art Circuit tour brochure and follow along as you take an art walk at break-time, lunch-time or anytime!

Flip open your cell phone while walking the Circuit, call (403) 268-1616 and listen to great narrative while you stroll along.

With so many new and notable pieces of public art popping up in Calgary, we are excited to see this program grow and continue to incorporate new technology to share the story behind them.

For more information on the creation and fabrication of public art check out our website or join us on Facebook and Twitter.

www.heavyworld.com

Wreck City Wraps Up

Emmery — Wed, 01 May 2013 22:26:17 +0000

This past weekend not only did Calgary say farewell to 9 houses slated for demolition in the NW community of Sunnyside, Calgary also saw the completion of Wreck City art exhibit.

photo Caitlind R.C. Brown

The Calgary art installation, Wreck City, ran from April 19th to 27th on the 800th block of 5th Ave NW.

Consent to run the exhibit, which took over 9 houses on a Calgary Street in Sunnyside, was granted to local Calgary artists in January.

Since the houses were slated for demolition, the artists were granted full permission to overtake the property prior to demo, giving full creative control to the artists and curators. That is like unleashing a 12 year old on a candy store with $100.00 cash.

Camille Betts installation at Wreck City – photo Caitlind R.C. Brown

The project was comprised of 8 local Artist/Curators, headed by Caitlind r.c. Brown, and 100 artists, musicians and performers selected from a call for submissions process (including Heavy’s own Jim Laing).

Over the course of the nine days Wreck City ran, it saw approximately 10,000 guests. From young gaffers in strollers to curious baby boomers, the age ran the gamut of generations all eager to participate in the largest independent exhibit of its kind in Calgary.

The homes are scheduled to be torn down in May and replaced with a 115 suite residential complex.

The project was in part an ode to 809, one of the houses on the street that took place in the exhibit. 809 Gallery was Calgary’s first prominent pop-up garage gallery and a site for independent artists to gather and collaborate. Wreck City, to some extent, was a farewell to 809; a way to memorialize the house, emblazoning it into a piece of Calgary History within the arts community.

Graffiti House, Shawn Mankowske – photo Caitlind R.C. Brown

The art installations amongst the houses were of varying themes and feels. Some were occult, dark and eerie, while some where playful and whimsical. And some had elements of both, dark and light.

photo Caitlind R.C. Brown

The houses were painted, cut out, added to and taken from. In the house that Caitlind curated, 823, a twirly slide was installed, part of which bulged out of the west facing side of the house. People could enter the slide on the top floor of the house and enjoy a whirly ride on it, exiting into a room on the main floor. The former main room was emptied and a swing installed from the roof, facing the front window.

photo Caitlind R.C. Brown

The upstairs balconies, front and back were converted into nests, wrapped in tree branches, nestled away from the hustle bustle of the exhibition participants below.

Wreck City was the first independent art project of its kind and size in Calgary. It encouraged artistic subcultures to collaborate and thrive.

photo Neil Zeller Photography

From an artistic prospective the freedom of the project was exciting – they could literally do whatever they wanted with these houses – what an incredible opportunity.

Wreck City was 100% self-Initiated and self-funded, with an exception of a $1,000 grant received from the Awesome Foundation. They greatly exceeded their fundraising goal of $11,000. Calgary Arts Development and Bucci Developments Ltd each agreed to match donations of up to 2,500.

photo www.marketcollective.ca

So, what was your favorite part about Wreck City? Tell us what you liked!

www.heavyworld.com

VanDusen Botanical Garden LEED’S by example

Emmery — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:08:15 +0000

Along busy Oak Street in Vancouver, BC there is a green wall of dense plants and shrubs enclosing behind it Vancouver’s secret garden, VanDusen Botanical Garden.

Or so it was for VanDusen before they decided to undergo the LEED Living Building Challenge certification process.

Now the enchanting, organic, orchid-like Visitor Centre proudly faces busy Oak Street announcing to the world, here we are, come and see us! Not so much a secret anymore!

It was decided in 2008 that the building would be redone to aspire to attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’s (LEED) Living Building Challenge certification. The purpose – to lead by example – to authentically represent the values that are true and important to VanDusen.

As VanDusen’s marketing director, Nancy Wong explained, not many people truly understand what it is to be a botanical garden.

“We are like a living museum. We have collections of things that are rare and endangered that we nurture and keep from going extinct. They may be extinct in their natural habitat, in the wild somewhere, but they are not extinct in the network of botanical gardens around the world.”

And so one could understand the importance of representing sustainability in design as well, and that was one of the primary motivations behind the refurbishment of the Visitor Centre.

“What I really believe regarding sustainability in a botanical garden is that we are really about plant conservation, explaining the importance of biodiversity. Well if we don’t live more sustainably there is no hope of achieving that. The building isn’t just a show-off project is it right up our mandate and if you are going to build something in a botanical garden it had better be built with that sustainable ethos. That is the heart of it all,” explains Garden Director Harry Jongerden.

What does it mean to be a living building?

Jongerden explains, “The living building challenge is a challenge to design and construct a building that functions like a plant. It is intended to capture and treat its own water and also to generate its own energy needs.”

In addition to the above requirements, to achieve Living Building certification there is also material restraints. For example, there is no PVC piping used in the project, nor is there vinyl coated wiring. None of the materials used in the project can have any off-gas affects or harmful by-products used in the manufacturing process.

Also, all materials used on the project must be obtained within a 500 Mile radius – which as Jongerden explains, for a coastal city like Vancouver, is vastly reduced by the area extended out into the ocean.

Ultimately, the building function is net zero, and is self-sufficient on-site.

So when it was decided that VanDusen would undergo the Living Building challenge architect and design team at Perkins + Will went to town to design a building that would live up to the challenge.

The result is an incredibly innovative and beautiful building ecosystem, with many inspiring features.

As one approaches the Visitor Centre one of the first things that is noticed is the roof. It sprawls in undulated ripples outward like leaves.

Parts of the top of the roof are green, planted with grass and bulbs, while other parts are situated with solar panels responsible for energy capture.

The roof panels themselves are made from wood, much of which was beetle kill from neighbouring forests.

One of the second features one might notice when approaching the Visitor Centre is the wall that wraps the building. It is a work of art in and of itself with different coloured striations. The wall is made of pounded earth that was dug from 300 ft beneath the site.

This is the “same technique,” explains Wong, “that was used to build the Great Wall of China.”

The challenge when building the wall was there could be no organic material in the soil. Hundreds of pounds of earth had to be sifted by hand to remove any leaves, seeds, insects, twigs etc., from the clay based earth.

The site is also complete with its own water capture and treatment system.

Rock beds hugging the sidewalks are designed to capture rainwater, as does the roof. Rain water then runs into a berm and is filtered through layers of natural materials; earth, sand, and etc. Water then ends up in a bog where the bog plants do the final cleaning and filtration.

“All of our black water from the building goes through the same system and is used to water the gardens, and all the grey water is completely cleaned and comes back as potable water,” explains Wong.

So onto heating and electricity… The building is situated with solar cells that capture, store and redistribute heat.

A solar chimney is used inside the building to help regulate the heat. On a cloudy day it positions itself to capture maximum sunlight and funnel it down. On a day that is sunny, it automatically rotates to block the sunlight, while at the same time opens the neighbouring windows to create air circulation and ventilation.
So what happens now with the Living Building Challenge certification process?

Building input and output must be monitored for a period of a year to prove the net zero functionality of the building. This is where the team at VanDusen is at currently.

With all of the new and innovative technology on-site tweaks and adjustments have been made along the way to ensure complete functionality of the building’s “eco-system”.

Now VanDusen is at the point of monitoring the building’s operations to submit the input/output report.

While this takes place the team eagerly awaits the LEED Platinum certification, which is comprised of a different set of criteria. With LEED Living Building certification, LEED platinum becomes a sort of a given, however in and of itself is an honourable designation.

The result of this adventure has been great for VanDusen. The building itself has won numerous awards including the International Award for Engineering in Architecture – given out of the UK.

At the end of the day is it about education. VanDusen hopes to educate people on the importance of biodiversity and sustainability and through the undertaking of this project the hope is to draw more awareness to the Centre and its intention.

Jongerden gives thanks to the Vancouver Park Board for being willing to undergo something so challenging – and to Perkins + Will for their incredible vision and expertise.

For more information on the VanDusen Botanical Garden visit http://vancouver.ca/vandusen/.

www.heavyworld.com