Celebration of the Bow River: Swift Currents
One of Cécile Belmont's Letter Performances; another iteration will soon take place in Calgary
From hand-carved boats to T-shirt slogans to three-foot floating spheres, a range of notable public-art projects are paying homage to watercourses in Calgary this summer. They’re all part of “Celebration of the Bow River,” a unique six-artist, four-month series that aims to foster appreciation of one of the city’s most precious natural resources. The series kicked off in June when Alberta artist Peter von Tiesenhausen, well known for his works on themes of nature and landscape, released 100 small wooden boats into the water at Douglasbank Park. Next up was Canadian duo Chloe Lewis and Andrew Taggart’s Museum of Bow, a travelling archive of absurd river-valley artifacts housed in Truck Gallery’s very own 1975 Dodge Empress RV. Shortly after Museum of Bow’s debut, large-scale photographs by established Calgary artist Derek Besant started to take over public-transit buses, LRT stations and Pattison billboards. The installations, which run to September 13 at 200 outdoor sites, depict portraits of Calgary residents submerged in water alongside the words “I am the river.” This month, temporary lookouts are being built by Argentinian-born, Quebec-based artist José Luis Torres. (Inspired by architectural practices and nomadism, Torres is Truck’s second “Camper Resident” of this summer series.) And there’s still more watery wonders yet to come: Each night from August 14 to 20, UK artist and designer Laurent Louyer (aka Creatmosphere) will float glowing, three-foot-wide spheres on the river’s pools and eddies, wrapping up his endeavour with a spectacular 500-globe installation on August 21 at dusk. In a different type of mass action, Berlin-based artist Cécile Belmont (Truck’s third and final Winnebago artiste for the celebration) will gather city residents from September 8 to 27 to enact one of her Letter Performances, which use simple means, like T-shirts, to articulate connections between people and their environments. Overall, “Celebration of the Bow River” offers a fun creative tribute to a beautiful and vital tributary.
Creatmosphere (Laurent Louyer) Rendering for Sources: The River of Light 2010 Courtesy the artist
Peter von Tiesenhausen Passages 2010 Courtesy the artist
Subscribe to Canadian Art today and save 30% off the newstand price.
