Isla Burns, 'Caravel'

Artist Background: Isla Burns was born in Calcutta, India and was raised in Edinburgh, Scotland. She moved to Canada in 1970 and studied at the ACAD and the University of Alberta. She connected with steel works early in her career as she took up welding to help pay her bills as she waited for her career to take off as an artist. She moved to Vancouver where she became the first female welder in her shop. The work required her to be very precise and to put great amounts of care into what she was creating. Burns fell in love with steel as a medium and decided to focus her artistic career on creating welded steel sculptures. She eventually moved back to Edmonton where she continues to live and work creating these welded pieces.

Caraval is an earlier work of Burns’ and appears much more simplistic than her later pieces. It was commissioned in 1991 as one of the first Percent for Art projects and its acquisition occurred at the same time as the opening of the new City Hall building. It has had to be restored over the years as water and dirt have damaged the surface of the piece. I believe the city now has a regular maintenance schedule where the work is cleaned to prevent any further erosion.  

My Thoughts: I love the delicacy of Burns’ current works so I do find this piece is missing some of the magic that I have come to recognize from her sculptures. That being said, I like the simplicity and shine of the stainless steel, especially in comparison to many of the darker, patina works around the city. The placement of the work is a little strange and I visited Churchill Square numerous times before realising there was an artwork hidden behind City Hall.

What do you think? Am I the only person who didn’t notice this artwork?