Calgary’s Public Art Program recently released this short animation describing how public art in that city–and most cities–is selected. Some of the works currently under development include Jill Anholt and Michelle Wong’s Charged Line for Fire Station #5

concept drawing for Charged Line

Travelling Light by the German group inges idee:

Which is described as a

17 metre sculptural ring [which] will be integrated into the row of existing street lamps….Seen from a distance, it forms a huge window framing the expanses of the landscape…

And two works referencing the Bow River, one by Lorna Jordan, the other by Brian Tolle. The river, which ices up in the winter and is used recreationally in the summer, bisects the city and provides its drinking water.

Helksinki Yarn Bombing, 1 October 2011

3,800 blankets covered the steps of Helsinki Cathedral, gathered as part of a larger effort to distribute blanket to the Feeration of Mother and Child Homes. A total of 7800 blankets were collected and donated. Thanks to Crochet Me for the story.

Want to click to a site that dazzles? Try Magda Sayeg–”the mother of yarn bombing”–run your cursor across her home page before you enter! Her current projects include steps, a bus, statues…

Saw this billboard in Vol.1 No.2 issue of Art Y the Public Sphere (published 3x a year by Intellect Journals)

This link takes you to the creators, the British art collective Freee.

Do you agree? In some cities, private developments over a certain size must set aside a percentage of the budget for public art. In other cities, it is the city itself as a developer which contributes art to its capital projects. If this is the economic function of public art, there is also the geoaesthetic function of public art: to complement, contradict, contrast and comment on a site and its varied uses by people. This other aspect is not necessarily going to increase private property; it may, in some instances, be seen as a detriment, as was the case with the Dennis Oppenheim work Device to Root Out Evil, which was removed from a pocket park in large part due to some complaints by residents who said it blocked their view of the harbour and mountains.

Dennis Oppenheim. Device to Root Out Evil (1997 constr.) Harbour Green Park, Vancouver Biennale 2005-2007.

There’s some talk it may return to Vancouver after five years in the Ramsay neighbourhood in Calgary: read about it here in the Biennale’s blog post:

…as part of our 2013-2015 exhibition, the Vancouver Biennale is exploring options to bring this important piece of art back home. Come on, Vancouver! We know you’re ready for this. We want it back! Let us know if you do too. There’s strength in numbers, so spread the word and show us your support. It’s time to bring Device To Root Out Evil back to Vancouver.

And here’s where I’d put it:

Image from NorthVanMike.

Satoshi Hirose, a Japanese artist based in Milan, Italy, created this work for the Saiseikai Iizuka Kaho Hospital, in Iizuka-city, Japan.

Suspended in resin are chunks of legume, coal, metasequoia, beads, plastic, gold, map, led, and steel. Sometimes artworks in public areas can be as subtle as this, not imposing or announcing themselves, a work well-situated for a hospital waiting area, reminding me of the constituent elements in our bodies.

Sometimes a work is so subtle we could walk right by it, such as this sculpture by Doug Alcock in Kelowna, BC:
Across from it, on a boardwalk alongside a protected wetland area known as Brandt’s Creek, is Mel Gunn’s Leaf Bench:

Neither work is particularly attention-getting, yet the bench and the heron add to the walker’s experience. All too often, I think, the folks commissioning public art, and the artists creating it, put the art before the site. Or neither:

Tembo, Mother of Elephants. Derrick Stephan Hudson. Downtown Toronto.

Subtle, it ain’t. And Douglas Coupland, author and artist, is not one to make quiet art:

Red Canoe. Douglas Coupland. Toronto

However, it is claimed to be one of the city’s top outdoor makeout spots…

16 April, “Michel Goulet Day” award

Quebec artist Michel Goulet was awarded “Michel Goulet Day” today by deputy mayor Tony Tang, councillor Heather Deal and parks board officials, as he and Biennale director Barrie Mowatt announced the donation of the work “Echoes” to the city. It is installed in front of the restaurant at Kitsilano Beach, one of the most prominent locations for an artwork in the city.

Echoes is a set of stainless steel chairs, each having a phrase in English or French cut into the seat. They are arranged in pairs: some facing, some side by side, and some back to back, forcing different interactions among those who sit on them. They are permanently set into concrete between the beach and the seawall sidewalk fronting the restaurant and concession stand.

Later this week Goulet receives the Order of Canada from the Governor General, David Johnston, in Ottawa. My profile of Goulet.

Photo by Popejon2 on Flickr. For more click image.

Michel Goulet accepting award from deputy mayor Tang.

One of the 23 short films, posted now because Goulet’s installation Echoes is being recognized in Vancouver–it’s been up for a while, but finally gets some official recognition as a significant work for the city with this donation by the artist and the Biennale Foundation–and because Goulet is soon to be honoured with the Order of Canada.

The complete documentary, a two-DVD set, is available to institutional buyers from Moving Images.