If you happen to drive by Burnside in the next couple of days, stop
at Velocity Machining and Welding (19 Pettipas) to see sculptor Ilan
Sandler‘s newest piece, “The Vessel,” a 5.7-metre-tall,
stainless-steel water pitcher. Sandler and Velocity are old
co-conspirators; you may remember Sandler’s giant steel book with the
float-away pages, which is now installed along Toronto’s busy 401
Highway, near the airport. “The Vessel,” commissioned by Toronto’s
Department of Parks for Taddle Creek Park, will be a clean reprieve in
the city of trash after it’s installed (date pending because of the
strike). Created from four kilometres of stainless-steel rod, the
length references the “approximate distance that Taddle Creek ran from
Taddle Creek Park through downtown to Lake Ontario. I have
reconstituted a memory of the buried creek by referencing its length
and bending the steel rod into water-carrying arteries that form a
vessel,” writes Sandler, who won a national competition for the
commission in March 2007. Light will slice through the rods, and water,
stored to irrigate the park, will “flow from the top of the rim of the
vessel over its surface and then cascade onto the ground plane,
creating sound that drowns out the noise of traffic.”
This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2009.
Seen it yesterday but had no idea what it was for.
Boring at best! Check out what Kevin Stone does with stainless steel, a welding machine, and time.
http://www.metalanimation.com/
Smee, you’re an art critic as well? Ilan’s work (ilansandler.com) is far from boring–sorry, you can’t say that about someone who sculpted a full-size helicopter from simulated dinosaur bones. He’s an incredibly thoughtful, intelligent artist who gets international commissions, and we’re lucky he chooses to work from here.
Sue: An art critic as well as what?
Whatever…………I do critique art, I critique architecture, I critique the design of consumer goods, I critique everything actually, as well as create art.
Altho you say I can’t…………I can, and will, present my opinion on art if motivated to do so, as I was when I saw the ‘jug’. I was not critiquing all of the artist’s creations, just the water jug. And I find it…..as I said,……boring. You stated your opinion……..”far from boring”. I stated mine. Both are valid opinions in the eyes of the beholders.
But really Sue, the artist may be all you described him to be, the artist could be a certified genius, the artist could be lots of things, none of which means a damn thing when I look at a single piece and I form my opinion. I wasn’t expressing an opinion about the artist. I was expressing an honest opinion (mine alone) about a giant stainless steel wired jug that I do not even consider to be of much interest, sorry to disappoint and sorry if I broke the rules of artistic judgment that you subscribe to.