City loses 32 metre sculpture

[Barry N]

City scrambles to find missing metal sculpture
32-metre-wide artwork misplaced after removal from railroad bridge

Ron Chalmers
The Edmonton Journal

Saturday, June 09, 2007

EDMONTON - It's big, brightly coloured and missing.

The city has lost a metal sculpture that it bought for $78,000 in 1987 to decorate a downtown railroad bridge.

The city spent another $191,000, including $50,000 from CN Rail, to install the two-piece folded-metal Fanway on both sides of the bridge over 97th Street at 105th Avenue.

The 32-metre-wide work spanned the entire street.

"You couldn't just lose it in your garage," said Mayor Stephen Mandel. "We are trying to locate it but cannot, which is unacceptable. It is an expensive piece of art."

Artists Harry Savage and Sylvain Voyer created the work, inspired by Oriental fans, after winning a competition.

The piece on the north side of the bridge was painted in dark blues and greens, suggesting a night sky. The piece on the south side was mostly yellow and red, evoking sunlight and the colours of Chinatown.

"It was perfectly suited to that location, and celebrated the multidimensional character of the area," says Linda Wedman, executive director of the Art and Design in Public Places program. She managed the competition and oversaw the installation in 1988, but was not responsible for maintaining the work.

The Fanway remained in place until 2001 when Qualico Developments bought the bridge and surrounding property from CN Rail, and replaced the art with a billboard advertising the planned Station Lands project.

Although the Fanway was owned by the city, "we took it down at our expense and stored it," says Ian Macleod at Qualico. "We offered to re-install it, in another location, at our expense."

City staff briefly considered a re-installation on another railroad bridge, or on the City Market building, then simply removed the piece from Qualico -- and that is the last anyone can recall of it.

Various city officials have been searching their minds, records and storage sites for the past week, without success.

It's even unclear which department is responsible.

"All of our computers, vehicles and equipment are traceable," Mandel said -- but big art works apparently are not. "It's very disconcerting. There should be a system in place."

Spokespeople for CN Rail, the Edmonton Arts Council, and the Downtown Business Association all are unaware of the Fanway's current location. So are the artists.

Savage, now living in Roberts Creek, B. C., said it was finished with aircraft-quality paint to resist the elements -- but was damaged by a too-tall truck that struck its bottom edge.

Voyer, now living in Claresholm, said the apparent loss was not unique, as public art often is displaced by redevelopment. "It happens all the time."

In 1993, a large metal sculpture by Edmonton artist Roy Leadbeater was removed from College Plaza during renovations and sold to Acme Scrap for $25. When Acme owner Norm Schayer learned that it was worth $90,000, he

donated it to the Citadel Theatre where it now is installed on the north side of the building.

The loss of the Fanway is being reported just as councillors consider spending at least $600,000 on each of two artistic city entrance markers.

rchalmers@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2007

[Sonic Death Monkey]

I'll bet it's in Ken Cantor's garage!

[Dakine]

BONER

[DanC]

Oops...I bet it got sold for scrap.

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by Sonic Death Monkey

I'll bet it's in Ken Cantor's garage!

Sorry SDM, but it's not in my garage.

And it's not clear in the article but the two artists did consent to its being relocated before it (they? - there are two) were taken down at Qualico's cost for the city to relocate them.

In addition to the city's plans to relocate it (the "other" railroad bridge under consideration was the CN one over Fort Road) even if they were not going to be relocated, the supporting structure that kept it from falling off the bridge on to 97th street had also been damaged over the years, likely at the same time as the damage to the fans themselves.

Other considerations being addressed at that time including safety and visibility issues that had changed with the use of the bridge itself changing from railroad cars to pedestrians.

It wouldn't fit in my garage anyway, although it would have made one h**l of a cool fence if you could figure out how to do that and keep it a secret.

[Moleman]

BONER

so very confused by this statement

[m0nkyman]

Originally Posted by Moleman

so very confused by this statement

A 'boner' can be defined as a really dumb mistake, one done by a bonehead.

[Dakine]

Originally Posted by m0nkyman

A 'boner' can be defined as a really dumb mistake, one done by a bonehead.

Sort of we useto use this word back in the 80's allot when something went wrong like breaking your arm while skating Youd say "BONER!" or ya got some real "Boner!" weed. your favorite tv show wasn't on that was a BONER!