I’m pleased to announce that I won this years People’s Choice award for le Mois de la Photo à Montréal 2009. This award was based on a public on-line vote for the favorite artist participating in this years event. In addition to the title, I received a generous prize of $1500. Thanks to all those who voted!
After the sugar mural completed its life cycle, in an all-too-quick duration of 1 week, documentation of this devolution was used to create a new, digital artwork. The resulting image, incorporating “tiles” from various stages in the process, will become the billboard image for PLAN LARGE, a public art initiative that the Darling Foundry does every 2 years with Le Mois de la Photo, a contemporary photography biennale.
This is the image in its digital form. Once installed, it will look a little different, since it will be backlit. Click on an image to view it larger.
Here is documentation of the short-lived life of my mural… It was installed on August 19, I had an opening for it on the 20th and by the 28th the panel was taken down. Normally, these installations last longer, but we suddenly got a lot of rain in a short amount of time. At the end, the wasps were becoming an “issue” of public safety (ie: the City of Montreal asked us to take it down!). But it was at the end of its life anyway, so we appeased them.
Photo documentation from this week-long process of degeneration is being used to create a single photo-montage that will replace the sugar mural. This billboard image will launched for the opening of the 2009 Mois de la photo in Montreal at the Darling Foundry on September 12.
Installing the mural on-site happened on August 18 and 19th, just before the opening on the 20th. It’s up!! It’s already started to fade, so we’ll see how long this one lasts.
I just finished the last of the painting. It feels good and extremely satisfying. But it also feels a bit too soon to celebrate, since this project is now just beginning in a lot of ways. I’ve put in almost 130 hours just for the painting, and soon I’m going to put it outside and let it wash away in the rain. Sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my brain around that. But I trust that it’ll be worth it. I’ve done this enough times to know that this is the route I must take to get the results I want. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will prove to be true.
Here it is in sections, still on my studio floor. You’ll have to wait until it’s installed to see the final product… But here are some hints:
The painting is mostly complete. Now it’s just finishing all the little things and joining up all the elements. The installation will now be happening around August 18 or 19th. The official unveiling will happen on August 20 at the Darling Foundry.
I’ve just begun painting the design onto the sugar tiles. The next couple of weeks are going to be very full trying to get this done in time, but I trust it will indeed be done on schedule. I’m hoping to have it installed in early August - the earlier the better. Click on an image if you would like to see a larger version.
I am working on a 2-part project in Montreal for August/September 2009. It’s for the “Plan Large” project that the Darling Foundry does in conjunction with Mois de la photo. The Darling Foundry has 4 public billboards located in Old Montreal. For each Mois de la photo biennale, the Foundry selects 2 new artists for 2 of the billboards. With this scheme, each billboard stays for 4 years.
I was selected for the ground level billboard this year. The first part of the project is to install a newly designed sugar mural on top of the existing billboard space. As this is a temporary mural, I will be documenting it throughout its demise. This sugar mural will be installed in the beginning of August. Once I have completed my documentation, I will be composing a photo-montage from my documentation. Regardless of its appearance, the panel will the removed by the middle of September so that the photo can be installed in it’s place.
The opening for the Mois de la photo is September 12. At this time, I am still uncertain if the photo will be up for this date, or if the sugar mural will remain. The original idea was to leave the sugar mural up for the opening, so that people could see this ephemeral work before it’s gone. Since the photo billboard will be up for 4 years, there will be ample opportunity for people to see the photo at a later date. This is likely what will still happen.
Here are some images of my design at my studio. The pattern is printed out to the scale and shape of the actual mural (approx. 5 1/2 feet high x 12 feet wide).
There was a feature article in the Salvador newspaper, “A Tarde”, about the exhibition last week. Since the article came out just before the show opened, they didn’t have any images of the finished product. Instead, they printed a large image of my working design.
The opening of the exhibition “Saccharum BA” at the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia (MAM/BA) in Salvador, Brazil on Monday, June 15/09.
Project done. Disaster averted. All completed according to plan.
Exhale… Enjoy the evening!
