The enablers of this serendipitous event were all
smiles despite a sudden burst of protest from three very vocally agitated
naysayers. They complained that the delivery trucks no longer had easy drop-off
points, that the sculpture was yet another waste of public money and bound to
be vandalized.
The naysayers couldn’t be bothered to get the
facts, and when there were attempts to offer the facts, during their loud
ranting, they weren’t interested. Some people simply don’t like change, and
don’t want to understand. They have their worldview and no one is going to
change it. It’s especially hard to do so when they stomp around in circles
looking angry, and yell as opposed to listening. It was funny to see how the
two children ignored the ranting and fondly ran their hands over the stone.
The Waterfront District BIA was planning to
put a couple big planters and a garbage pail where the big rock was carefully
placed by crane on Friday. The BIA wanted to ensure that the path between the
Scotia Bank and the Daily Grind coffee shop wasn’t continually used as an alley
drop off point for delivery trucks.
It is a pedestrian walkway, which is supposed
to be a safe passageway. The potential for an accident and lawsuit was nearing.
A young employee at the Daily Grind regularly hears complaints from customers
who have near misses with the delivery trucks. Scotiabank customers have
similar complaints.
Fortunately, the planter and garbage can was
only a stopgap. Fortuitously, a couple days before, Don Bayes a new member of
the BIA, and operator of Art’s Gallery on St. Paul Street, came up with an
alternative solution. One of the artists with work at the gallery, John David
Hart, was meeting at Rooster’s Bistro with the supplier of his stone, Howard
Pilstner of 23 Aurolite Mine. John and Howard strolled into Art’s Gallery and
during the conversation John said he would like to donate a big piece to the
city. KAPOW! Don got inspired and mentioned the problem with the walkway. Howard
too liked the idea and was willing to donate the rock. Contact with the BIA and
the City was made and bang, done deal.
Don chortles when he mentions the speed at
which it all came together. “72 hours, man!” And who paid for the delivery of
the stone? “The BIA had to foot the bill to float the stone out of the mine
before the snow flew,” says Don, grinning. “Cost the taxpayers nothin’”
When the 4,000lb rock was released from its straps it was
immediately fawned over by a couple children. Passersby took pictures and
video. The amount of quartz and amethyst visible on its surface was pretty
extraordinary.
John Hart got out his grinders and went to
work over the next couple days, carving and shaping and applying other stone
pieces to the bigger rock with rebar and construction adhesive. He carved in
the shapes of traditional Ojibwa spirit animals: owls, fish, turtles, eagle
feathers and more.
As a work of art, the stone had a lot to say
before it was carved. In it’s own way the earthly spirit of a 1.5 billion year
old creation could be left to its own devices, to speak of its ponderous yet
beautiful evolutionary geological formation. But there are lots of big rocks in
Northwestern Ontario that can speak to this.
However, John lets the stone do most of the
speaking. His approach to sculpture is physically shallow, allowing the shape
and nature of the rock to present itself. He hasn’t carved the rock in its
entirety to look like anything representational. It’s as if nature had a pact
with the artist that neither would intrude too much on the other.
John allowed the rock to be rough, to be
unpredictable in shape, to be blocky and unformed in parts. This gives a
graffiti feel to John’s etchings and additions, as if overly creative hikers in
a park had taken their time to scratch in animal symbols and then stood stones
upon one another.
The stone and sculpture will have its fans
and detractors, but two groups of people who have taken to it immediately are
children and many First Nations people, who will stand and thoughtfully admire
the work.
The young women at the Local Grind have
decided to take it upon themselves to throw water on the base of the sculpture
as a couple of the aforementioned naysayers have decided to piss on it on a
daily basis so far. If the police can, it would be good to catch these
jackasses in the act. Downtown is for everyone.
And if you don’t mind, I’m going to plug my
own art show! I’m helping out the Habana Gallery, 118 North Cumberland, with
some exposure. Tomorrow night at 7:30 I have a gala opening for portrait and
figurative works of mostly local people at the gallery. The show will run for a
month or so. The gallery is located across from the former Cumberland Cinema
Centre.
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