Artist Laurie McGugan's joins us online to talk about some of the challenges and rewards of creating public art. She's in the midst of a major public art project commissioned by the City of Toronto, for the new Woodbine Park on the waterfront.

First of all Laurie, what is the correct nomenclature for what you do. Do you call yourself an artist? A public artist? And how important do you thing public art is to Canadians?

I call myself an artist as it covers more territory. I have used 'public artist' which is still a broad term. I think public art is very important to Canadian culture. This is not to say that we are immersed in it, but it is important in that it creates a dialogue about art in the public domain. It is part of the environment and the everyday life of a lot of people. Its artwork that comes out and meets you on the sidewalk.

Do you think Canadians really appreciate it? Or is it something they need to be educated about?

Yes, I think Canadians appreciate it. All opinions count in public art which is the great thing about it. If the artwork is strong I think it brings people around to understanding it over time.

Is purely an urban phenomenon?

That is an interesting question. I immediately get this image of Inukshuck trail markers in the Arctic. There are lots of examples of public art in the non-urban environment however I think the nature of the 'public' part of the public art changes. Perhaps the public that 'goes to see' public art projects wherever they may be are not unlike the people that go to art galleries regularly. It is not something the public would generally come upon by chance. I don't know, if a tree falls in the woods, did it make a sound?

You're working on an installation piece in Toronto in the Beaches area. Could you tell us something about it?

The piece is called "Circle of Trees - a Time Piece" and is a Millennium project for the City of Toronto. It is an installation of seven mature maple trees of about 30' in height in a circle of approximately 56' in diameter. One of the trees is cast in bronze. It remains the same while the others live their lives. In front will be a boulder with a plaque illustrating what the piece looked like when first planted. This will act as a reference point when, say someone comes to the piece in 50 or 100 years. (See links below for more details)

Where did you come up with the idea?

The idea was one that I had developed a number of years earlier. I had a model of it and when the millennium approached and monies were becoming available for projects, I turned to this piece and realized that it was all about time. Underneath the hoopla of the millennium angst in all its forms, the millennium, I felt was essentially a marking of time. And that is what this piece is.

We've seen the moose in Toronto being defaced. How do you protect your art from vandalism?

It has to be through design. I am scared to explain this really because I don't want to give anyone any ideas, but basically, with the Circle of Trees, one solution was in what tree I chose as the the one to cast into bronze. I interviewed over 100 trees for the job. I had to pass up many a beautiful specimen because, frankly, they were too easy to climb. I chose strictly on the way the tree grew as a deterrent to one form of vandalism. I strongly believe that in public art, if the vandalism aspect is not part of the design, the piece will not be successful. I think the most exciting pieces of public art invite interaction, so it is a sort of marriage between the idea and the reality of it's situation. There are other ways such as involving the community to have ownership over the work and that can help. Bottom line, however, is that if someone wants to destroy something, they will. If your artwork is coming out onto that sidewalk, it might get mugged.

And now the all important money. How do you access funding for this sort of thing? How many levels of government do you have to appease?

Money. There are many different scenarios on that. This project was unique and was an exception to almost all normal processes. It was an exception as a millennium project and all the short time lines that existed around the grants and completion times. Normally public art evolves through competitions and money that already exists through Percentage for Art type programmes. The Circle of Trees was an idea that I brought to the City of Toronto on my own. There was a year of aquiring approvals on all levels, from the neighbourhood to the City Council. I applied for Millennium project funds from The Canada Council Millennium Fund, Ontario 2000 and the Toronto Millennium Fund. In the end there was a partnership between myself and the City through Department of Parks and Recreation who were building the new Woodbine Park where my piece resides.

If you had a crystal ball, could you foretell the future for public art in Canada and the rest of the world?

I think that it will grow steadily. There are programmes that exist in most major cities that lay the foundation for art to be part of all new development. Moose roaming the streets puts the subject of public art into daily conversation and it if it's not about the money, it's about the 'talk'.

Thanks a lot for the time Laurie. Good luck with your millennial tree ...

Links:

Some say that with the mountains, the ocean, and a view of it all from Stanley Park, why would a scenic city like Vancouver need art in the view? But Vancouver is growing fast. It's an increasingly urban landscape, with towers and the transit hustle starting to block some of the best views.

The city of Vancouver is on to a good thing, with new rules that require developers to commission public works of art in front of new buildings being constructed. There's some criticism of this initiative, and a deep suspicion on the part of some critics that developers, out of spite, are deliberately choosing "ugly" art. But such suspicions can be put to rest now that Vancouver's newest piece of public art has been unveiled.

Funded by the Concord Pacific Group, which is spending at grand total of $8 million on the former Expo site, artist Chris Dikeakos and architect Noel Best have created an astoundingly beautiful sculpture/rain shelter called Lookout. The piece uses words, images and hieroglyphs to reveal the history of False Creek. Both men worked in the then-industrial area in the 1960s and '70s and know the lay of the land. and they watched in awe as Expo '86 moved in and transformed this area into something touristy and kitschy. Now it's a hip urban development.

The artwork consists of two concrete pavilions with glass roofs that are supported by sheets of steel, and features the added convenience of 13 chairs. This offers visitors a place to enjoy the panoramic view of the south shore of False Creek.

You can find the sculpture at the foot of Davie Street, just around the corner from the Urban Fare grocery store.

Or you can see it on the web:
The Lookout Sculpture

The sonic silo is our final stop in this tour of public art in Canada:

A very curious experiment in music and sculpture is happening this summer in the Old Port of Montreal, and some of the effects can also be seen on an accompanying website.

[The User] is the name of an artistic collaboration by architect Thomas McIntosh and composer Emmanuel Madan. They have taken over the Silo #5 grain elevator in the Old Port of Montréal for an artistic experiment that "combines sound, architecture, and communication technologies to transform a significant landmark in the industrial cityscape of Montréal."

Silo #5B-1 used to store grain that came to Montreal by train and was shipped off to world markets from there. It was built in 1958, but by the mid-1990s most of Canada's grain was being exported via Vancouver, and the silo has been empty since then. Cited by Le Corbusier as a masterpiece of modern architecture, no one dared tear down the structure.

Now the building has been overtaken by the [The User], which is making use of the structure's acoustics by introducing sounds into the physical space. The sounds, according to the artists, are collected from "various communication technologies" around the world ... to create an instrument which blurs the boundaries between music, architecture and net art."

Some critics in Montreal have found this assemblage of technology and art to be confounding. There's been much muttering about the amount of public money poured into a project that isn't accessible to all. If we were to rate public art projects, it's definitely a far more complex installation than the simpleton Moose project in Toronto.

The public has been invited to contribute sounds to the silo, via telephone and the Internet. The sounds reverberate though the silo and are transformed due to an amazing echo, up to 20 seconds in duration. Also in the works are a series of concerts commissioned from national and international artists, to be broadcast at a later date on CBC Radio-Canada.

You can check out the details and hear for yourself:
Silophone