North is Freedom is the name of the nasty monument outside the Halifax North Memorial Public Library. This summer it was absent for more than two months, carted off to Cowie Hill for storage while its base was chipped out and replaced, leaving the library plaza an ugly construction site. But now it’s back. Curses! I live with a view of it out my windows.
The coldest, shortest month of the year is Black History Month and this thing is a giant slab version of that. On Gottingen all the hip and fun places are south of it: Edna, jane’s, Plan B, Alteregos, Ratinaud, Parentheses, Cocoon Boutique and more. There’s nothing much fun at all north of North is Freedom. It stands as a brutal billboard for all those travelling north. This ain’t the north that’s freedom.
This ugly-ass, rusty, chunk of cor-ten steel was dedicated on June 28, 2007. I was there, feeling crazy for hating it on first sight, and hypocritical as I applauded every time everyone else did. NiF is like the monolith which appears in 2001: A Space Odyssey just before the monkeys start bashing tapirs and each other with bones.
I didn’t notice the spelling errors that first day, but they’re there, big bold blemishes etched into NiF by surface water jet cutting. Gerrish, the closest cross street, is spelled Garish. The first name of Rocky Jones, the lawyer and human rights fighter who died last July, is spelled with an E, maybe because his real first name Burnley has one. Who the fuck knows. Rumour has it there are other errors; take the kids down and make it family fun time looking for more. Get them to count the number of uncapitalized proper nouns, or find the quotations, all surrounded by ambidextrous quote marks (holdovers from the days of typewriters and early Unicode, looking like two apostrophes): ”wrong,” instead of the correct curly quotes: “right.”
About the 2001 monolith: Actually, there are three in the novels and films. All with dimensions in the ratio of 1 : 4 : 9.
To annoy myself further I watch 2001 until the first monolith appears among the primates. When it does, I think, fuck that looks like North is Freedom. I ask Jamie MacLellan, who is the public art facilitator with HRM, how big NiF is. His reply: 18 feet high, eight feet wide, two feet deep. Well, no wonder. The monkey monolith and this cock-up have exactly the same proportions: 1 : 4 : 9. Exactly. I have my first and last stab of happiness about the whole clusterfuck.
Is a monument the same thing as public art? Is it fair to judge? A monument doesn’t have to be boring and brutal. Consider the work of Maya Lin: the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Civil Rights Memorial. Consider the Big Nickel in Sudbury. Could NiF be called art, even in an illiterate way, like Thomas Kinkaide’s work? Before these arguments even begin, the beast is hobbled by two huge strikes.
One, the spelling errors alone point to a job done without heart or painstaking practiced craft, two hallmarks of art. Totally the fault of the artist.
Two, that artist was at the mercy of committees and mandarins. You know the old saying: a camel is a horse designed by committee. Just the thing if you want an outcome with priorities spread all over. Requirements in the proposal issued in 2005 included, “The theme for the sculpture must reflect and be representational of the information derived during community consultation” and “particular attention should be paid to major community relevant historical events like the Halifax Explosion; strength, rebirth, diversity of age and cultural, celebration and learning.” Fuck me. That’s not what a piece of art can do; that’s what an essay might do. Or a really boring book with no pictures.
One more thing: the new base has been tinted to supposedly mask the stains from the rust as it migrates downwards. I predict: not so much.
And fuck me. Now they’ve installed spotlights. It’s going to be lit at night.
Another thing Jane Kansas doesn’t like about that monument is the three green human figures; she thinks they look like there’s been a serious disruption with the teleporter.
This article appears in Nov 7-13, 2013.
I quite like this monument and its rusty cor-ten steel. When it was removed I was worried it was never coming back. I haven’t ever looked close enough to see the spelling errors though.
I was pleased when it was removed and I am disappointed that it is back. I dont think it is durable and lasting which is what public art needs to be. Spelling errors outside a library how ironic, especially since the artist was reported by this paper to be a professor at NSCAD – disgraceful.
I’d never noticed the spelling errors (which, I guess, are extra unfortunte given that it’s in front of a library), but it’s an interesting, outside-the-box monument to the North End. It also meshes well with the library’s architecture. I feel like pointing out that the area north of the library is less of a hipster paradise than areas south misses the point of the monument, which seems to be about struggle and overcoming adversity, not “fun” or proper punctuation. And does the fact that it has the same dimensions as the monoliths from 2001: ASO somehow make it objectively unattractive? This is actually probably my favourite piece of public art in the city; it’s one of the only pieces that I’d think of as “cool”. I guess it’s all in the eye of the beholder.
I’d also like to point out the irony of the author claiming that “Gerrish” is spelled “Garish” on the monument, while the accompanying photo clearly shows that it is (mis)spelled “Garrish”…
WOW. What a bizarre rant. I’ve always loved the monument–it’s blunt and powerful and unmissable. The misspellings are extremely unfortunate, especially Rocky Jones’ name–I assume they were made by the sculptor, and by the time someone got around to pointing them out, it was too late. Pretty Mickey Mouse. But curly quotes vs. straight? Who cares?
Anyway, the writer of this piece also misspelled one of the misspellings she calls out, as well as painter Thomas Kinkade’s name. So maybe pot, kettle, all that.
Ms. Kansas I suggest you do some research on the piece before going on another rant against it. The medium of core steel was chosen intentionally for a number of reasons it is unfortunate that the city didn’t see fit to follow through with the maintenance instructions of pressure washing the pedestal periodically.