NEW public art and art installations in your city

[Martin Mtl]

Let's make this thread a running showpiece for new public art in Canadian cities (installations, digital/lighting schemes, sculptures, fountains, gardens, etc.)

I'll start with Claude Cormier's new installation (TOM III) at the Mtl Museum of Fine arts.

All pics from Claude Cormier website here.

[Martin Mtl]

Also from Claude Cormier, the Pink Balls installation is back for the whole summer in the gay village. More pinky than ever !















All pics from Claude Cormier website here.

[SignalHillHiker]

Beautiful!

[Darkoshvilli]

It doesn't get any gayer than pink balls.

[freeweed]

Those first ones are incredible, it's just too bad that you can't (easily) walk on them. Kinda takes a lot of otherwise useful space away. I guess this way you always have an unbroken view of the installation.

Calgary recently installed a big blue steel hoop that everyone is in an uproar over. Several dozen other things, but as with all good art people only wanna discuss what they dislike.

[SFUVancouver]

I love the Pink Balls installation and pedestrianization.

Good idea for a thread.

[J.OT13]

Most new public art in Ottawa over the last 10 years has been disastrous. Here's the most recent embarrassment called "Bambini" in Little Italy.


http://www.1310news.com/2013/09/24/l...s-pedestrians/

[Wooster]

Most recent one is called Chinook Arc by Creative Machines in Calgary's Beltline neighbourhood:

http://2.beltline.ca/media/chinook_arc_83942.jpg


https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...31263051_n.jpg

Wonderland by Jaume Plensa


https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8228/8...6505d254_z.jpg

A couple temporary ones by Calgary artists Wayne Garrett and Caitlind Brown

Cloud (has been travelling all over the world)


http://www.apowl.co/wp-content/uploa...nd-Brown-1.jpg

And Solar Flare


http://www.calgaryherald.com/cms/binary/9301558.jpg

[rousseau]

Montreal is special. And cool.

When you see the village done up like that you invariably wonder at how unique Montreal is. And you invariably think about Canada's other metropolis by way of comparison.

And, after a few moments, you invariably think of Rob Ford.

Montreal. Rob Ford. You can't put them into the same sentence. You can try, but it won't work. Montreal...Montreal...

Rob Ford.

Nope. They resist each other. Just for fun, try to imagine Rob Ford spearheading that kind of public installation in Toronto.

[SignalHillHiker]

It really is unique.

In St. John's, it's all about ourselves and all about permanence. Public art doesn't exist unless it is permanent and explicitly related to our history or identity.

You simply do not get these temporary flourishes of urban joy that Montreal provides. I'm exceedingly jealous, not so much for the public art installations, but for the maturity of the culture that installs them.

We're grand, I'm sure there's no doubt how much I love my city and culture... but it's things like that that remind me... it's cosmopolitan in many ways, yes, but it's also heartbreakingly provincial in many others.

[Acajack]

Do other Canadian cities regularly do temporary installations like Montreal does?

I know Toronto had Mel Lastman's moose in the city at one point but I am not sure it was that well-received. Did London, Ontario not do something at one point as well?

[SignalHillHiker]

The only temporary one here I can even think of was our version of that thing all cities have done, where a series of identical statue-type things were created, painted by local artists, and displayed around town.

Winnipeg did polar bears. We did mermaids.

There's still one kicking around outside the Newfoundland Chocolate Company:



And there was a really cool one posted here relatively recently... I think it was in Vancouver? With this ceiling of lights displaying above a street?

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

The only temporary one here I can even think of was our version of that thing all cities have done, where a series of identical statue-type things were created, painted by local artists, and displayed around town.

Winnipeg did polar bears. We did mermaids.

The Bears are still around, just moved locations.

Originally Posted by Cyro

Several artist rendered bears along Assiniboine ave in Winnipeg.


Source

Loved these sculptures when they lined Broadway and still do.

[speedog]

Temporary installation - back in 2000 Calgary had Udderly Art, 125 painted cows scattered about the city. There is still a small display/explanation at the Legacy Pasture located on the +15 level walkway of the Centennial Parkade downtown on the north side of 9th Avenue - information on this past art installation here.

FWIW, the very controversial 'Travelling Light' in Calgary ($470k)...


Of note, in Calgary 1% of a project (not sure of the exact details) has to go towards public art at that project's location - now a very hotly debated issue since the 'blue ring' which means some $2 million plus for a new art installation as a part of Calgary's new airport tunnel project.

Personally, I support public art as I believe it makes a city that much more liveable although I believe that the placement of said art needs to be in locations that the public can truly appreciate it/get in touch with it and that is the problem with the 'blue ring' in Calgary - located where the average pedestrian/cyclist/whomever just can't stop or get to to enjoy/admire/contemplate the piece from close up. Art often becomes loved and great because of it being in a location where the public can actually get up close and interact with it.

Another public piece (Courage and Thunder) in Calgary that is yes, very western, and that most of the public never has seen and paid any attention to...

[lake of the nations]

Last summer, this tree was built in eastern Sherbrooke. It was part of the rejuvenation of this intersection.


Porte d'entrée King Est by lake of the nations, on Flickr

Here is the same intersection before the makeover.


Google Streetview

[speedog]

What was wrong with putting in another real tree?

[Rusty van Reddick]

More Calgary horses, but still a beautiful set- Joe Fafard's horses at the courthouse park in downtown Calgary:

[lake of the nations]

Originally Posted by speedog

What was wrong with putting in another real tree?

They planted 5 spruces and 6 deciduous trees (5 are on the other sides of the intersection) as well as numerous perennials. It is definitely an improvement.

[softee]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Do other Canadian cities regularly do temporary installations like Montreal does?

I know Toronto had Mel Lastman's moose in the city at one point but I am not sure it was that well-received. Did London, Ontario not do something at one point as well?

Some more recent Toronto examples within the last couple of years include brightly painted (in their entirety) or blinged up bicycles chained to poles throughout the city and publicly accessible pianos installed in various locations downtown.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

More Calgary horses, but still a beautiful set- Joe Fafard's horses at the courthouse park in downtown Calgary:

We have the same sculptures from the same artist in front of the national Art Gallery on Sussex Drive.