Login / RegisterDouglas Coupland distills Calgary’s essence with new installation
Douglas Coupland has created a new work that explores the identity of Alberta’s largest city by condensing an assortment of its distinctive elements into a uniform, colour-coded index. Titled Interpretation of Calgary, Alberta in the 21st Century, the wall-mounted installation is an array of 30 multi-ringed targets, each representing an aspect of the local culture or the natural environment such as curling, wild roses, or the whooping crane.
“It’s a distillation of Calgary that is both part of the modern world, yet also eternal,” the Vancouver artist said in a news release. “It is a work that engages the viewer in an ongoing challenge to identify and remember what is depicted—almost like a chocolate box and its map. The forms become signs that will, across time, mellow and ripen within a viewer's memory, also acting as a smart and anticipated 'welcome home' moment.”
Developer Qualex-Landmark commissioned the artwork, which is roughly five metres by four metres in size. It is to be installed in the lobby of an under-construction high-rise condo development in downtown Calgary. Coupland’s other major installations include Digital Orca at the Vancouver Convention Centre, Terry Fox Memorial at B.C. Place, and Monument to the War of 1812 in Toronto.
Perfect.
Artists complain when people don't pay for their work, and now, people complaining when artists go where the money is. Classic. Condo or not, there is nothing eternal about any of Calgary with the rate at which those suburbs have gone/are going up. Vancouver is no better.
It's nice to see a little bit of "culture" going in to a city I feel lacks it at some times, and it's wonderful that it's simple enough to be appreciated by anyone that has a chance to see it---it may be in a 'oil money' condo building, but it's hardly a hoity-toity display. It's a reminder of who we are and where we come from, and a nod to some of the things that make Canada so great.