#willjohnson

Edmonton’s first curated Indigenous Art Park will open in 2018. The six selected artists are currently at work creating and fabricating their works. The EAC will check in with them as work progresses.

(Fabricator Will Johnson with artist Amy Malbeuf)

In the world of public art, little things mean a lot. While the public may gape awestruck at the final artwork, tiny flourishes accomplished behind the scenes in the fabricator’s shop or studio, can elevate the impact from “nice!” to “Holy -!”.

In his west end studio, Edmonton sculptor Will Johnson has laid aside his Captain America welding mask to walk the EAC public art team and artist Amy Malbeuf, with partner Jordan Bennett, through his progress so far on Iskotew, her large-scale sculptural installation for Edmonton’s Indigenous Art Park scheduled to open in 2018 in Queen Elizabeth Park. Iskotew is a sculptural representation of the word “fire” in Nehiyawewin (Cree language) syllabics: ᐃᐢᑯᑌᐤ. The Cree word for woman, iskwew, is derived from the word fire, therefore; iskotew references the sacred abilities of women, and the often unrecognized labours of Indigenous women who contributed to creating the place now known as Edmonton.

(Amy Malbeuf’s maquette for Iskotew)

Will is the craftsman/fabricator, contracted to make the artwork from Amy’s maquette, detailed drawings, blueprints and elevations. “I’m just physically putting this together, but WOW -  this is a really impressive piece of work.”

His voice is animated as he runs a calloused finger over the edges and joins of the ᑯ component and notes the flawless join of a continuous weld. “The key thing of importance for me is to keep things nice and flush. Amy is looking for extremely crisp edges with a little bit of a bevel for safety’s sake but crisp edges so the elements stand out.

(Spot welds & flush edges)

The fabrication process is painstaking, entailing finicky attention to detail combined with brute force. The sculptural components are curved and rounded, which means that Will must bend and shape the metal as he welds. He works his way around a piece little by little, bending the metal with bars, shims, and clamps to keep everything flush before executing continuous welds where possible, and spot welds where necessary. “I’ve had to do some interesting body contortions to get inside the structures to complete the long welds. Where I‘ve done spot welds, we’ll go back with a zip disk and create that safety bevel along the edge, then chase [smooth] down the welds.”

The project grew in scope and technical challenge after City engineers looked at Amy’s proposal. The artist had specified lighter 1/8-inch steel sheets, but was asked to fabricate using a much thicker 3/16-inch steel. “These are getting heavier as they get assembled! I'll start moving them around with my chain hoist because they’re probably going to weigh four or five hundred pounds finished. It will take a crane on my pickup and a couple of trips to the art park when we’re ready to install!”

Once all five components are complete, they will be painted in the vibrant turquoise and pink Amy envisions before they’re mounted on screwpiles and bases in a hill within the park.

(More precision work)