I will be down on 118 Avenue this weekend setting up a sculpture for the MADE Thaw Hut Competition, as part of the Deep Freeze Festival happening this weekend in Alberta Avenue, as previously noted. For this temporary outdoor show, I've decided to rework an earlier sculpture I did for Latitude 53. This, I'm guessing, is probably against all the rules and ethical codes of artists. But hey, we're in a park not a museum. I'm just happy to bring it out of my garage so it will see the light of day once again. Then again, I'm a keener, so I wrote this very academic Artist's Statement to go with it. Enjoy!
The concept for Fleeced was inspired by one of the most common forms in architecture – the dome. Its very shape suggests solidity and privacy. By providing the participant with a place to feel safe and protected from the elements, this hut not only gives physical protection from the cold and wind, but it encourages the viewer to take psychological comfort under its roof. The blanket of felted wool material covering the shelter further imbues it with connotations of coziness and warmth.
However, this experience is troubled by its the tent-like construction which is ultimately temporary and transient. The hut resides in the liminal zone between the boundaries of private and public, for its lack of walls deprives the occupants of their privacy and leaves the participant with the feeling of being watched. Fleeced is evocative of the psycho-analytic concept unheimlich or uncanny — described as exposing something to public view that was or should have been concealed.