This summer I am not travelling far but that doesn’t mean there are isn’t art and death to explore in #YYC! I discovered the Calgary Public Art Collection Map. YYC Public Art Collection consists of over 1300 works of art found outside, in plazas, LRT stations and the +15 downtown (https://www.calgary.ca/arts-culture/public-art/collection.html). I decided that a couple of days a week I would pick an area using the map and check out the work. So far, I can say it’s been an adventure and along the way I’m discovering local food, shops, and people, but here I’ll be focussing mostly on the art and when possible taking up connections to Birth, Living, Dying and Death.
My first stop was the far NW in Royal Oak to see Convergence by Laura Haddad and Thomas Drugan (#LauraHaddad #ThomasDrugan).
This is a phenomenal work of art that has to be revisited throughout the natural seasonal cycle. In the middle of our first heatwave this metal and glass work flickered in the morning sun. Eerie glowing lights shimmer from the glass-tipped ends and the sun refracting and playing with the light captured only on camera, not the naked eye!
The two pieces undulate against the prairie blue sky, coming together, then separating as I moved around the piece getting closer and then stepping back to take it all in. Haddad and Drugan’s installations respond to the nature of the place – playing with sun, sound, light, wind and water.
Their sister piece, Flock, 2018, found at the bottom of the hill by the parking lot of the YMCA to the side of the storm pond plays with natural elements too and while standing in the heat of the early afternoon of Summer looking back up the hill, I can only image how in the middle of the darker days of Winter the piece standing in the barren prairie hill would remind us that all good things must come to an end.
I Know! A rather dark ending to a beautiful summer outing, but I am, yet, again in awe at how art reminds us of this great big beautiful life we are all living.
https://maps.calgary.ca/PublicArt
#cityofcalgary #cityofcalgarypublicart #cityofcalgaryart #YYCpublicart #YYCartmap #haddad_drugan #radicaldeathstudies #cemeteries #datenight #askamortician #deathpositive #deathpositivity #hepburnskeleton #artanddeath #deathandart #mementomori #letstalkaboutdeath #mortalwayfaring #summervacation #deathandart #darktourism