It’s not easy to visualize the final outcome of an upcoming public art project, but it should be big, animated, and affixed with many winged things, particularly moths.
A collaboration begins on Saturday, Sept. 3 in the Guelph Farmers’ Market parking lot. Guelph artist/environmental designer Glynis Logue, known for works with a public presence, will guide participants in the making of a large-scale apparatus focused on unpredictable weather and its effects on migratory insects, particularly moths.
This is the third year for the City of Guelph’s RBC Market Mornings program, which is all about artists leading citizens in free outdoor art-making activities. The program helps engage artists with the public in a celebration of imagination and community spirit.
“RBC Market Mornings is designed as a program that brings people together in public space to participate in an artist-guided creative project,” said Ella Pauls, Guelph’s manager of cultural affairs and tourism, in an email. “The outdoor set up at Guelph Farmers' Market offers an informal drop-in opportunity where people can experience a simple, hands-on activity that will result in an interactive temporary public art display.”
It is the hope of the city, she added, that the experience is a memorable and meaningful one for those who take part, and one that contributes to a collective sense of place and civic pride.
“We see opportunities for people to make connections on several levels - with each other, with the artist, and with our natural environment,” she said, adding that the city's arborists will provide the ash wood for the project.
A great many ash trees have to cut down in the city to combat the emerald ash borer infestation. Repurposing that wood is integral to Logue’s concept.
The work to make a free-standing, mobile sculpture for display at the corner of Gordon and Wilson streets, happens each Saturday in September from 10 a.m. to noon.
The many hands involved will learn how to transfer printed images onto reclaimed local ash wood, as well as repurposed aluminum. Participants can select from printed images that depict nature and the various airborne and wind propelled insects that inhabit it.
Those separate pieces of the sculptural puzzle will then be assembled into a public art piece that can be thrown into motion by a passersby or the wind.
The interactive installation will be on display throughout the fall. Logue could not immediately be reached for comment, but in a city press release she said she envisions “a highly visible beacon, stimulating the imagination and building awareness of life’s constant changes—especially in the world of bugs.”
Logue owns Logue Land Studio, and environmental design company. It has created a host of outdoor projects, including the Pearson Motional Garden at St. Joseph’s Heath Centre in Guelph, the Hickory Valley Habitat in Hamilton, and the Moffat Creek Learning Grounds in Cambridge.
As an artist she has completed a number of commissioned projects, including Mood Clusters for Beyond the Edge Artist’s Gardens Exhibition in Ottawa, and The River for LAND/SLIDE: Possible Futures Exhibition in Markham.
The theme for the Guelph project was proposed by the artist.
“(It) reflects the relationship between her creative practice and her interest in changing patterns in insect populations,” said Pauls. “The theme is indeed timely, especially as related to Guelph's effort to stem the advancing loss of ash trees due to the emerald ash borer.”
The project cost is about $5,000, and is covered through the RBC sponsorship.
