Lionel Thomas, 'Migrants'

Artist Info: Lionel Thomas was a British Columbia-based artist who was best known for his public art sculptures and murals. Thomas was present in the Canadian art field for the better part of the 20th Century, graduating from the John Russell School of Fine Arts and the Ontario College of Art and Design in the 1930s and moving to Vancouver by 1940 to teach at the Vancouver School of Art. He had a number of group and solo exhibitions over his career and worked as an artist well into the 1970s. He died in BC in 2005 at the age of 90.

'Migrants' was created by Thomas in 1957 for the previous Edmonton City Hall. The bronze sculpture work was originally part of a fountain that sat outside the building and shot a stream of water into the air. The work was inspired by Thomas' visits to Stanley Park in Vancouver where he would spend time watching the geese. The sculpture consists of 9 geese - 5 sitting and 4 flying - and is supposed to represent progress. Apparently, the sculpture was not well liked when it was revealed. Many Edmontonians did not see the representation of the Canada Goose and instead began calling the work the 'spaghetti tree'. Over the years the public warmed to the fountain and demanded that it be incorporated into the current city hall building constructed in the 90s. While the piece is no longer a fountain, the geese sit as a sculpture on a bed of rock on the West side of the building.


My Thoughts: I have been wanting to discuss this sculpture for a while because I had been asked about it a number of times. Upon telling a few older Edmontonians about YEGallery I was asked if I have written about the spaghetti tree. It took be a little while to figure out exactly what they were talking about because I have never seen anything other than geese in the sculpture. I thought it was interesting how the name 'spaghetti tree' was originally a term of confusion but has now become the affectionate nickname for this sculpture.

While I haven't been living in Edmonton for long enough to know what the original fountain looked like, I like the way the sculpture is situated in the glass alcove of the current city hall. I think the angles of the window panes work well to contrast the curves of the geese as they take flight.

I have included a link at the bottom of what it originally looked like as a fountain. (You might be interested in knowing that the only search term that brought up what I was looking for was 'Spaghetti Tree')

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