Before I get into this artwork I just wanted to thank everyone who came out to the PrairieSeen x YEGallery art walk last night! We had a lot of fun and a ton of good discussion. PrairieSeen did a great job of organising the walk and we hope to do it again sometime in the future.
Artist Info: 'Immense Mode' was completed in 2009 in the SouthGate Transit Centre as part of the Percent for Art initiative. The work is a collaboration by the artist pair Dawn Detrando and Brian McArthur from Red Deer. The partners own and run Voyager Art and Tile, a ceramics and sculpture studio in Red Deer where they create their own pieces for sale.
Dawn hails from Massachusetts where she attended the Massachusetts College of Art and Ohio State University. She mentions that she is interested in the concept of travel and migration, particularly within the prairies. This concept often comes across in her artwork.
Brian is originally from Red Deer and went to school at the University of Regina and Ohio State University where he met up with Dawn. His main artistic focus is in Canadian folklore and history. The two founded Voyager Art and Tile in 1999 and have made a successful business out of selling their art tiles for private display or obtaining public art commissions for works around the country. Both artists are interested in the whimsical and humorous in their artworks.
'Immense Mode' is a 2 storey high sculpture made of bricks and glass. The bricks came to them wet and they were able to carve and shape the bricks themselves to create this sculpture. In an open letter about the artwork Brian mentioned that they received a lot of help on the project. The steel frames, concrete and installation labour were all donated by various construction companies within the city.
In his letter Brian mentions that the intention around the piece is to liven up the transit centre. The artists wanted the work to be a communal space where people felt comfortable standing next to or sitting on the artwork. Brian wrote that if the work brightened someone's day they had been successful.
My Thoughts: I always thought Immense Mode looked a little silly so I was happy to read Brian's goal of making people smile or laugh through the artwork. The piece always reminded me of Jack and the Beanstock or the legs of the Wicked Witch of the East when she has the house fall on her in the Wizard of Oz.
I think the placement of the work at Southgate mall is appropriate because of the connections one can easily make to shoes and shopping. Furthermore, I was interested to find out about Dawn's passion for travel and migration in her artwork. I think the obvious link between feet and migration as well as the artwork's home in a transit terminal make a nice connection between her artistic focus and 'Immense Mode'.
PS: Sorry about the terrible photo quality for this image! I only had my cell phone on me this time.
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