Talking, Tomorrow …

Just back from a whirlwind trip to Vancouver with my friend & collaborator Scott Smallwood – we installed Macromareal(redux) at Emily Carr for a month-long exhibition, and spoke to some of the students there.

Not sure I’ve caught my breath – but tomorrow (February 28) I will be speaking again, with another collaborator, about another project – this time, at the University of Alberta.

At 6pm, Dr. John Waldron and I will be speaking about our project, Boundary|Time|Surface, as part of the LASERAlberta series of talks on art/science collaborations.

 

I am really grateful & excited to have this opportunity to share this project with the wider community here – and I’m really looking forward to the feedback and discussion!

You can find more info about the talk & the project here … .

If you are in the neighbourhood, please join us!

Gros Morne 2.0

I had a great few days out in Gros Morne National Park!

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Rocky Harbour at sunset

It was wonderful to be back there – I hadn’t realized just how much I’d missed the place and the people. It was grand to see people we’d got to know, and visit the places that became our home-away-from-home for several weeks last year.

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The view from Green Point

There’s a raw, wild beauty to the landscape that captivated me the first time I saw it – and that hasn’t changed one bit. If anything, each visit deepens my appreciation of all the area has to offer.

I got a lot accomplished too – also a very good thing! This return trip had a purpose behind it beyond being blown away by all the beauty: I needed to shoot some more images and video to compliment the work I did during my residency last summer, and I also wanted to create some molds of bedding surfaces at Green Point.

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Yay for two part silicone putty!

Happily, the weather cooperated, and so did the cameras … and I’m very happy with the results from the old making too!

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A view of the town or Rocky Harbour from Lobster Cove Head

I’m really excited to dig through all the images and video and get editing … and get those molds back to the studio to play with them too! Soon enough.

Just a few more days, and I’m back on the Prairie … how quickly the time has passed!

 

 

One more time before I go …

I had an opportunity to get out to Green Point one last time to make some small works on Monday. It was a bittersweet thing; I was delighted to have the opportunity to work in that remarkable place again, but I was doing so fully aware that there are only a few days left here, and this was my last time on these rocks for quite a while.

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Still. The work took on a playful quality as the day progressed – I was reminded of being a kid and playing on the beach for hours – there were many ‘what if’ and ‘why not try’ moments. It was lovely to feel so unencumbered by the need for ‘results’. To be able to get lost in responding to the place and its physical character in a simple, childlike way.

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Part of that was the scale of these pieces: they are all small, hand-based gestures toward understanding the place in simple ways, intimate approaches to line and light and surface.

The photographs, however, can tell a very different story; the absence of many reference points for scale allows each piece a different kind of solidity, and different understandings of lines and borders and containment come into play.

It was a good day, and especially so because it left me with a great deal to think about.

I’ll miss this place.

Especially because the room to breathe and think is such an intrinsic part of all of it.

Decision Made: We Install Boundary|Time|Surface on SUNDAY June 22, 2014

I have been neurotically watching the weather forecasts the last couple of days, hoping against the odds that the lovely weather we’ve had would return in time for Saturday. And as of a few minutes ago, it looked like this:

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and this:weather 2

So, no luck for Saturday. BUT – Sunday does look like it will work!

SO, an “executive decision”  has been made:

We are going to create Boundary|Time|Surface at Green Point on SUNDAY JUNE 22 2014!

The basics on how the day will shape up are as follows:

We will be on site from about 9:00 am on.

Volunteers arrive 9:30 – meet at the Parks Canada sign by the beach – look along the beach to the headland; you should see us!

Construction will begin at 10:00 am, and finish before 3:00pm.

I will remain at Green Point with my partner in this adventure, John, to document the tide’s alteration of the sculpture – high tide is at about 9pm, so we will be watching and recording until then.

Results of the day to follow soon!

Wish us luck!