Here's something for our new art thread. This one should certainly provoke some discussion.
Toronto artist awarded $1 million Arriva public art commission
Calgary Herald
Published: Thursday, June 05, 2008
CALGARY - A $1 million public art competition to design a work for the Arriva residential site in historic Victoria Park has been awarded to Micah Lexier for a sculpture that takes the playful form of a giant scribble, developer and arts patron John Torode announced Thursday.
Lexier's linear sculpture, Half K, brings a unique approach to the site, which takes in a full city block, and will become the largest and most innovative public artwork in the city.
Bounded by 12th and 11th Avenues S.E. and by 3rd Street S.E. and Olympic Way, the arriVa project includes one of the three residential towers slated for the project, a podium and two heritage school buildings, Victoria Park School and Bungalow School.
The half-kilometre-long sculpture, made of 500 metres of painted steel pipe, will twist, curl and flow around the Bungalow School in a series of arabesques and arch up into the air above it. The school is located on the 12th Avenue side of the site.
The $1 million arriVa commission is the first in a series of public art projects that will raise the Torode Group of Companys' commitment to the arts by bringing public art into the urban spaces in which Calgarians live, work and play, Torode said.
Lexier, an internationally known Canadian artist, based in Toronto, has close ties to Calgary where he is represented by TrepanierBaer Gallery. One of his earliest public works, A Portrait of My Grandfather, was commissioned by the University of Calgary for its Scurfield Hall in 1994.
Half K, which is Lexier's 12th public art commission, will be completed and installed on the site sometime within the next two years.
© Calgary Herald 2008
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...4-aa2e3bb7a862
And, Bigtime's View