Stand of Birch
2018
Cyrville Station, OLRT, Ottawa
Stainless steel, #304
22’ x 15’ x 32’
I love the way trees move in the wind, how they breathe and how they are in constant communication with the land, its biology and one another. For me, Stand of Birch represents the inter-connectivity that is required to create any healthy and vibrant community. These slender young trees, this new growth represents an aspiring holistic community, one that builds on its collective purposes and shared experiences.
Standing at the end of the Cyrville Station platform are nine individual birch trees made of stainless steel pipe. The tree canopy is tangled together creating a small birch forest.
Wave
2015
York Community Recreation Centre
Cast aluminum, grasses
5’6” x 11’ x 120’
A rolling wave rises from the landscape cresting in a gentle curve. The aluminum wave catches the light, which highlights the grooves and fissures in the sculpted form. Wave is a unique intervention, a striking visual arc that stretches 120 feet across the landscape. A fusion of the organic and sculpted metal, Wave activates both the landscape and the imagination in a dynamic re-imaging of the movement of water which is inspired by the land-form of which it is a part and the devastating effects of Hurricane Hazel in this area in 1954.
Falling Star
2013
Half-moon Bay Park , Nepean, Ottawa
Cast aluminum, LED lights
14’6” x 13’6” x 4’
Balanced on one of its five points, Falling Star brings a piece of the sky down to earth atop the toboggan hill at Half Moon Bay Park in Nepean, Ottawa. Creating a bridge between the immensity of the celestial universe and our place on earth, the etched and pitted surface of the cast aluminum star tells the story of its long journey. At night light gently shines through the hundreds of tiny holes in the star referencing a starry sky.
Archive
2011
Central Archives and Ottawa Public Library Materials Centre, Ottawa
Stainless steel, granite boulders, grasses, LED
22' x 42' x 32'
Archive is a house made out of lace-like stainless steel that floats twenty feet above the ground and is tethered to the earth by silver ropes weighed down by large boulders. The work plays with the tension between the illusion of levity and reality of gravity. The lattice-like effect is created from a collection of letters cut out of the stainless steel form, creating a rhythmic pattern that is illuminated from within at night. The sculpture alludes to collective and social histories that are both ephemeral and transitory, yet, by virtue of the human desire to collect and organize, become permanent and cherished.
Maintaining Gravity
2009
City Hall, Kitchener/Waterloo
Plexiglass, steel, incandescent bulb, boulders, ropes, masking tape
82' x 36' x 8'
Maintaining Gravity was an installation in the reflecting pool in front of Kitchener City Hall as part of CAKFA's 2009 edition of Veracity. Playing with the illusion of the absence of gravity, the work alludes to those moments in life when life is filled with possibilities.
Tidal Mass
2007
NGB Studios
1,850 fluorescent lightbulbs, steel, 250 compact fluorescent lightbulbs, steel rods
29” x 384” x 648”
When I was working on Tidal Mass I was reading The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery. Inspired by the melting of the polar ice caps, Tidal Mass floods the entire floor of a warehouse with thousands of used fluorescent light bulbs. The piece is illuminated from both below and above, giving the impression of undulating waves. Commonplace objects, in this case fluorescent light bulbs, are transformed into a hybrid natural landscape through their use and repetition on a large scale.
Article by Gil McElroy: Link
