#yegtransit

Edmonton’s Valley Line Southeast LRT project reaches new milestone

Bridges have been said to symbolize flexibility and change. A freedom to move from one side to another. The new Tawatinâ Bridge, which now spans across the North Saskatchewan River, connecting the north and south banks, is no exception. Nor are the 400 panels of artwork that will be installed on the ceiling of the pedestrian walkway beneath it. The artwork was commissioned through Edmonton’s Percent for Art policy, managed by the Edmonton Arts Council, and is one of fourteen public artworks selected for the Valley Line Southeast LRT project. Artworks were chosen from a total of 260 proposals by a series of selection committees comprising community members, local artist representatives, and project personnel. Internationally celebrated artist David Garneau, whose practice includes painting, curation, and critical writing, was awarded the commission in 2017.

The 400 panels for the project were constructed from a material used for making signs so that the artwork would not corrode. Each piece was trimmed, gessoed three times, and finished with three coats of varnish—a process made easier thanks to many hands. In fact, though Garneau is the designer and architect of the commission, he considers this work a collective project rather than a personal one.

“I love making art as a form of self-expression. This work has some of that, but mostly it is truly a work of public art. Before lifting a brush, I consulted with First Nations and Métis people about what needed to be painted. Then, I worked with more than a dozen artists to complete the panels. While I researched and designed the panels and painted about half of them myself, many hands, minds, and hearts made this collection possible. It is more a collective expression than a personal one.”

Each piece was shaped, painted, and arranged to suggest interconnectedness between people and the other beings in the region. But as Garneau explains, though the arrangement invites narratives, the pictures are not stories—the stories are what people bring to the pictures.

“The paintings are images. They are visual fragments that need Storytellers to bring them to life. Stories are how we make meaning of them. Some will focus on settler readings, some will read for Cree or Métis narratives… there are lots of reading possibilities. Once the works are up, Storytellers, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers will lead a storytelling tour of the paintings. They will tell aspects of the stories needed at that time. Nothing will be written down. Memories of the stories will be shared with others, and Keepers will need to be consulted to revivify the stories from time to time.”

Garneau’s connection to the river valley and the bridge dates back much further than 2017 when he was chosen to complete the commission. His great-great-grandparents, Laurent and Eleanor Garneau, after whom the nearby Garneau district was named, owned the river lot (number 7) neighbouring Tawatinâ Bridge.

“We grew up in Edmonton and knew a little bit about my great-great-grandparents. Their presence made me feel connected to that territory. As kids in the 70s, we spent a lot of time in the river valley. The opportunity to work on the bridge was a way for me to honour that connection.”

As Garneau explains, the bridge and its restoration are also symbolic of relationships past and present.

“This project is a form of reconciliation. In 1885, Laurent Garneau was arrested as an ally of Louis Riel. He was threatened with hanging. He spent six months in jail. Chief Papaschase took care of the family—Eleanor and eleven children—during the imprisonment. Years later, after the Papaschase Band lost their land and the Chief was on the verge of destitution, Laurent built a cabin for his old friend in remembrance of the care Papaschase showed his family. With this project, and others, I have been able to rekindle the friendship between Papaschase Cree, in the form of present Chief, Calvin Bruneau, and Elder Fernie Marty, who I consulted for this work. The paintings also show the entwinement of First Nations and Métis people. There was a good relationship, and now it’s being restored. The bridge is in suspension between the two sides of the city. It was an important crossing place for all kinds of people.”

The finished panels have been sitting in storage in Edmonton for more than two years now, awaiting their installation, set to take place October 7 to 17. It’s an occasion Garneau has been looking forward to and is hopeful to share with generations to come. As he explains, the ways in which to interpret each panel are as multifaceted as the people who will look up at them.

“There are many ways to engage these paintings. There are familiar scenes, plants and animals from the region. There are paintings from historical photographs. Many panels are informed by Métis belongings in the Royal Alberta Museum. There are humorous juxtapositions, and there are even some hidden messages, codes, and references. There are images that lead to secret stories that only Story Keepers can reveal in person and at the right time. And many images are placed next to each other to suggest a particular narrative. I hope to keep people interested for many years to come.

David Garneau’s artwork for the Tawatinâ Bridge was commissioned through Edmonton’s Percent for Art policy, managed by the Edmonton Arts Council. It is one of fourteen public artworks selected for the Valley Line Southeast LRT project. Click here to learn more.

About David Garneau

David Garneau (Métis) is Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Regina. His practice includes painting, curation, and critical writing. He recently curated Kahwatsiretátie: The Contemporary Native Art Biennial (Montreal) with assistance from Faye Mullen and rudi aker; co-curated, with Kathleen Ash Milby, Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound, National Museum of the American Indian, New York; With Secrecy and Despatch, with Tess Allas, for the Campbelltown Art Centre, Sydney, Australia; and Moving Forward, Never Forgetting, with Michelle LaVallee, at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina.

The Valley Line Southeast LRT project is adding a splash of colour and texture to communities along the route thanks to the City’s Percent for Art Policy which is managed by the Edmonton Arts Council. 

The Valley Line Southeast LRT project’s public art collection will include 14 different projects, including art glass at five of the eleven stops and at Davies Station, five stop canopy sculptures, one mosaic, one series of paintings, and one inflatable sculpture. Additional opportunities for artists to get involved in Valley Line Public Art are yet to be announced. 

Individual artists, organizations and collectives submitted 260 submissions for the public art opportunities along the 13 km LRT route. Each submission was reviewed by selection committees made up of community members, local artist representatives, project personnel and City of Edmonton staff. The commissions were awarded to four Edmonton-based artists, three Alberta-based artists, one international artist, one Indigenous artist team, and one Métis artist. 

“I have a bright, dynamic approach to public art, to inspire a sense of wonder and beauty in common public spaces” said Shan Shan Sheng, the only international artist selected for the Valley Line Southeast public art collection. Currently based in San Francisco, she has completed more than 50 large-scale public art projects around the world, including the award winning piece Ocean Wave at the Port of Miami. Her works are designed to evoke a sense of wonder, nature and culture. 

Shan Shan Sheng was selected to create an art glass project for Davies Station. Located in an industrial area frequented by freight trains, Davies Station is elevated to prevent any rail right-of-way conflicts for LRT passengers moving through the area. The size and scale of Davies Station made it the most fitting location for a single large-scale piece of public art. Let’s take a closer look.

Fluid Landscape lit up by the station lights after all 53 panes of glass were installed.

Located on the north east side of Davies Station, Fluid Landscape was the first and largest of the public artworks from the Valley Line Southeast LRT project to be installed. It spans nearly the full length of the station. “Fluid Landscape will become an instant icon, a beacon of light in the urban landscape, offering a blend of color, nature, as a distinctive overlay and frame to the changing seasons of Edmonton, as seen from the transit station,” says Shan Shan Sheng.

From 75 Street, motorists can already see a colourful abstract wave across the glass wall of the station, but up close, passengers will see a blend of Alberta’s diverse landscapes, including the prairies, forests, lakes and mountains throughout the seasons. Fluid Landscape will be illuminated by the natural light that flows through the station by day and by the station lighting at night. 

From inside the station, passengers might even recognize some of the locations that have been blended into the piece. Here’s a sneak peak from inside Davies Station. 

Installation

Worker safety and special care for the glass panels were important for the installation process. The artwork spans 53 panes of glass, which needed to be installed individually by TransEd’s crew, using three lifts in tandem to install each piece. To keep the workers separated they each used their own lift. The glass panel was attached to a third remote controlled lift using suction cups. The suction cups held the glass panel securely in place until the workers could install the permanent hardware.

Check out our time lapse of some of the installation during some of the coldest days of November 2020. 

VIDEO: Glass Panel Installation.  One-by-one each panel was lifted and secured into position to create the complete artwork.

(Platanos by Michelle Campos Castillo, at the Belvedere Transit Centre. Photo: EAC)  

There are many ways to find a way home - Dorothy had ruby slippers, Edmonton artist Michelle Campos Castillo has green plantains. An homage to her cultural heritage and the many communities that call north east Edmonton home, Platanos now graces the newly opened Belvedere station.

“Food is important to our well-being. Outside of the necessity of eating, it is a reminder of ‘home’ or where we come from. It’s something I turn to when I need to be grounded and remember who I am.”

Born in El Salvador, Campos Castillo and her family arrived in the early 1990s, and Edmonton’s north end quickly became home for the youngster. She picked up English quickly while eagerly absorbing new experiences, places, friends, and cultural mores. “Looking back, I was so young. The rest of my family had a better sense of who they were. They were always able to hold on to parts of the culture whereas I was floating around for a long time in terms of who I was and who I wanted to be.”

An integral part of the immigrant experience, food is one of the first things sought out in a new place as part of maintaining identity, but as a community becomes more diverse, the need to substitute ingredients becomes less. “Food was a huge adjustment and a source of shame because mine didn’t look like the perfect cut up little sandwiches everyone else had. My mum would send me to school with beans and plantains or rice and I just wanted a meatloaf sandwich.”

Campos Castillo says her success at integrating into “Canadian” culture had a price – in her early twenties, she was disconnected, alone, and just eating ‘random things.” A phone call with her mother changed that. “She told me to cook a pot of beans. I was a bit broke and beans are super cheap. I don’t know what it was – the experience of cooking something I grew up with or a DNA thing, but [the beans] awakened memories and feelings that brought a sense of comfort to my body; it’s comfort food that is meant to nourish on so many levels.”

The green banana-like food is part of many cuisines – African, Asian, Caribbean, Latin American. “You notice the overlap of cultures and their markers more, which is why I chose the plantain as my inspiration. We’re all living outside our home regions and it’s so beautiful how these things bring us together. I wanted to honour that.”

Creating Platanos was a homecoming she says, “Part of my journey of learning how to live between cultures is finding my way back to those cultural markers that I ignored for the sake of surviving. There’s a big cultural push with people younger than me who are honouring their cities and the things they grew up with. I am inspired by that pride because for so long I did not carry that with me. Platanos is part of paying homage to that.”

L: Al D. Girvan, 1966 R: Dwayne Martineau, 2012

It all began with a “spaghetti tree”. When Edmonton city planners commissioned The Migrants for the 1957 incarnation of City Hall, they sparked a lively six-decade conversation.

The bronze sculpture, which remains as one of 64 artworks at City Hall, formed the kernel of a collection that now contains 239 artworks by 302 artists. Of that, nearly 70% of the artists are local (or were at the time of selection). Our collection spans a myriad of mediums rendered in ancient techniques like mosaic as well as cutting-edge 21st century technology.

The City of Edmonton implemented C458c -  Percent to Encourage and Provide Art in Public Areas Policy – aka “Percent for Art” – 25 years ago, in order to ensure the new City Hall would contain artworks by, for, and about Edmontonians. The Migrants – temporarily slated for “retirement” – was re-installed on the west side of the building following an outcry from citizens saying they would miss the iconic artwork. Since then, the City of Edmonton Public Art Collection has grown exponentially. City projects – including LRT, recreation centres, police and fire stations, parks, streetscapes, renovations, bridges, libraries, sports facilities, transit centres (to name a few) – are catalysts for new artistic visions that continue to animate our conversations.

In 2017, the Edmonton Arts Council Public Art team installed six new artworks and are managing more than 20 new and ongoing projects. The Conservation team repaired, cleaned, and maintained dozens of artworks including restoration of the Norman Yates mural. The EAC was honoured to receive recognition from Americans for the Arts (Public Art Network Year in Review – Amiskwâcîw Wâskâyhkan Ihtâwin, Destiny Swiderski); Creative City Network of Canada (Public Art Award of Excellence – Tsa Tsa Ke K’e [Iron Foot Place], Alex Janvier) and the Edmonton Urban Design Awards (Award of Excellence, Urban Fragments - Amiskwâcîw Wâskâyhkan Ihtâwin, Destiny Swiderski; Award of Merit, Urban Fragments – Tsa Tsa Ke K’e [Iron Foot Place], Alex Janvier; Award of Merit, Community Projects - #YEGCanvas in partnership with Pattison Outdoor Advertising, various artists).

2018 promises to be just as busy!

Read on for profiles of the new art; join us in the new year for previews of Calder Library, ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞, Tawatinâ Bridge and more.

Sometimes, Always, Even – April Dean (Paul Kane Park) This artwork connects park users to time and place as they enjoy the granite water feature in this downtown park. The words continuously flow around the water feature in a formally minimalist font, allowing an intimate experience of discovery across the white granite surface.

Thing 1 & Thing 2 – Lisa Turner & Paul Bernhardt (West Edmonton Mall Transit Centre) Mysterious pink and green objects glow from the walls of the WEM Transit Centre – investigating the relationship between advertising, product design, and the objects we desire. The artists were inspired by the art’s location, adjacent to one of the world’s largest malls, and drew on theories of psychology and consumer product silhouettes to create these low relief panels.

Turbulent – Jill Anholt (100 Street Funicular, Downtown) These turquoise metal ribbons are inspired by the swirling forms, and twisting, turning shapes that appear along the edges of water currents in the North Saskatchewan River. They are integrated onto the concrete benches at the funicular site and offer a playful opportunity for pedestrians to pause, sit, lounge, and have a face to face conversation with a friend or experience a chance meeting with a stranger.

Heart of the Valley – Black Artifex (Whitemud Equine Learning Centre) This intricate, pyrographed mural is inspired by the history of the equine centre site and setting in the river valley. The designs and motifs incorporated throughout are inspired by “western aesthetics” such as leather tooling, wood craft, and branding. The artwork is burned directly into the cedar siding adjacent to the main entrance, inviting viewers to touch and explore.

Esprit – Pierre Poussin (Alex Decoteau Park, Downtown) This red abstract sculpture celebrates the spirit of Alex Decoteau, Canada’s first Indigenous police officer; World War I veteran; Olympian, and first inductee to Edmonton’s Sports Hall of Fame. Composed of metal ribbons that intersect in fluidity, the sculpture evokes the silhouette of a man mid-sprint.

Resonant Progression – Royden Mills (Terwillegar Off-Leash Area) This artwork by Edmonton sculptor Royden Mills, consists of three sculptures placed in conceptually linked sites in Terwillegar Park. The sculptural components link the viewer now with a sense of history and the sounds of nature, as well as inviting contemplation and play. Each sculpture - Potential, Resonant Point, and Beyond Listening, contains an acoustic element that animates the site.

Borden Art Park Temporary Sculpture Loan Exhibition – Sandra Bromley, Kasie Campbell, Agnieszka Koziarz, Susan Owen Kagan This year, the sculptures featured within Borden Park changed. The new exhibition, featuring 11 artworks, represents more than 30 years of artmaking by women artists in Edmonton. The Temporary Sculpture Loan Program is part of the Edmonton Arts Council’s Transitory Art programming.

Dream (2021) by Michelle Campos Castillo, Becca Taylor, Christina Battle, Tiffany Shaw, and Shawn Tse. Photo by EAC.

As the new plaza opens at the Stadium LRT Station, commuters and community members will be able to take a seat and enjoy one of Edmonton’s newest public art installations. Back in 2020, the public art selection committee recommended artists Michelle Campos Castillo, Becca Taylor, Christina Battle, Tiffany Shaw-Collinge, and Shawn Tse for the Stadium LRT Station public art project. For this project, the team identified an interest in uncovering, listening to and exploring well established narratives of the area and its shifting values of public space with regards to transit and the transitory experience of moving from one place to another.   

Their artwork, Dream, is comprised of 14 individual structures varying in colour and size, that come together to create a playful gathering space. Read on to learn more about Dream from artist Michelle Campos Castillo as she expands on the work and the experience of collaborating with the other collective members.

Tell us more about the concept behind this artwork.    From the very beginning we all seemed to propose building a piece that would serve as a gathering space, a place of interaction. We really wanted to oppose the idea that Stadium was just a place that people passed through on their way to work or a football game.  We settled on a constellation of seating that could accommodate anyone, regardless of age, gender, body type, economic and social groupings. And we especially wanted to give residents something playful and accessible to them at any time. The shapes are meant to flow into each other, inspired by our North Saskatchewan River, constellations and prairie skies.   What drew you and the other artists to apply for this public art opportunity?    It was Tiffany Shaw that brought the group together. We all have different levels of public art experience. Personally, I was really interested in the process of experimenting and creating work together; from the concept stages to creation.

How did you collaborate or engage with the surrounding community during the creation of this project? And how did your engagement shape the final design?    We met with numerous individuals from the community surrounding the Stadium LRT, including residents heavily involved with the Parkdale/Cromdale Community League. They gave us insight into the vibrant community living around the Stadium which validated our approach in creating a space that would welcome all – not just those passing through a couple of times a year to a game or event. We wanted to invite the community to linger and gather. Additionally, the center of the circle is open, as an invitation for those to perform or interact with those utilizing the benches.      We really wanted to give something special to the residents in the area. The station itself is surrounded by parking lots and full of concrete, so adding a bit of colour and playfulness was super important to us.    We hoped that this place would provide a sense of safety when moving around the station, so we constantly thought about ways groups and individual people would navigate around the artwork whether they considered engaging with it or not. Originally, we wanted to add power to two of the objects, but cost was prohibitive for this idea.   How did this group of artists come together to form this collective? What was it like working together on this project? Following this collaboration, does the collective have any plans to work together on future projects?    Tiffany Shaw brought the group together. I think we were generally fans of each other’s work and that’s why we all agreed to join the project. The biggest challenge was trying to schedule meetings between five busy people, but generally we share the same values around accessibility and serving our communities, so things flowed pretty well. It was really fun to share projects and images in the beginning, ones that inspired us to dream big. While the group has no plans of reuniting for future projects, there’s still people from the group collaborating frequently.

How did working as a group shape your work? Were there any surprising outcomes that came from it?     I think working in a group can help you take a concept beyond your own vision and limitations, and that’s really exciting. I think the project would look very different without these five individuals. Everyone offered a unique perspective and asked important questions that pushed the idea further than we would do on our own. I think working collaboratively can be very powerful and effective especially when public art asks to consider literally everyone interacting with the pieces.

Shawn Tse, Becca Taylor, Tiffany Shaw, Michelle Campos Castillo, Christina Battle and fabricator Will Johnson. Photo provided by the artists.

About the artists  

CHRISTINA BATTLE is an artist, curator, and educator in Edmonton. She brings decades long experience in the form of arts administration with a focus on participatory practice. Christina has completed a number of public artworks, most notably for the Blackwood Gallery (Mississauga, 2018), Nuit Blanche Toronto (2019, 2017, 2006), and the Capture Photography Festival (Vancouver, 2019). Her current research is situated around her recently completed PhD dissertation: Disaster as a Framework for Social Change: Searching for new patterns across plant ecology and online networks (2020).

MICHELLE CAMPOS CASTILLO is a graphic designer and artist born in El Salvador. She has completed various public art projects with the EAC; recent works include, Platanos, a set of three sculptures on permanent display at Belvedere Transit Centre, and artwork for the LRT Valley Line in the west end of the city, currently in the concept development stage.

TIFFANY SHAW is an artist, curator and registered architect. Her public art projects include pehonan (2018) at the Indigenous Art Park, Métis Land Use at Markham Transit Station in Winnipeg (2019) and family pattern at Kinistinâw Park. Tiffany was born in Calgary and raised in Edmonton. She has a BFA from NSCAD University and a M.Arch from SCI-Arc. Tiffany is a core member of Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective. Her Métis lineage stems from Fort McMurray, Alberta via the Red River.

BECCA TAYLOR is an artist, curator and writer, of Cree and Métis descent. Her practice involves investigations of Indigenous community building, through food sovereignty, gathering, deep listening, conversation and making. She has experience curating and organizing community and site-specific interventions in urban and rural landscapes. Notably, in 2015 she organized a series of youth led public art works in Winnipeg’s North end and in 2018 she co-led land-based residency, Common Opulence, in Northern Alberta.