Sculptures recently placed at the Athabasca riverfront to commemorate the town’s 100th anniversary have been met with mixed reviews.
A number of town and county residents have taken to Facebook to voice their disappointment in the three rock-like sculptures, placed by a centennial volunteer committee.
The committee applied for a federal grant to help fund Athabasca's 2011 centennial activities, as well as to hire a sculptor to create an artistic monument to the town’s history.
Ultimately, the committee chose sculptor Terry Reynoldson for the job, and has received criticism for not choosing a local for the project, prompting committee member Mike Gismondi to respond.
“One of the criteria of the grant was that it would be an open competition throughout the art communities,” he said, noting the contest was open to artists from all over Alberta. “That’s the approach we took as a committee.”
Out of 13 submissions received, only two were from local artists, and neither met the requirements of the committee's criteria for the project.
“We asked them to have an artist statement and answer specific questions. And they had to include how their piece of art related to Athabasca’s past and future.”
Gismondi stated it also had to tie in with the centennial celebrations.
“Some people chose to ignore those specifications,” he said. “Some people felt they had created pieces of art in their own head for whatever reason, and they thought that was perfectly adaptable to what we were asking for, and they had already built it and here it is, and that we should just give them the money.”
When looking for an artist, committees follow a process, he said.
“You put out a request for proposals,” he explained. “You put out a budget line, you indicate a theme, and you engage the larger community of artists all over the province and see what ideas you get.”
The committee chose to go with Reynoldson, who has been teaching sculpture and developing public art projects since 1993.
“I thought that was a pretty big deal that he was interested in coming to our little town and doing something for us,” Gismondi said. “I see that as a very positive statement about the space and the public space and the excitement of wanting to do something with the community on the project.”
Gismondi said the committee talked for hours about the sculptures and which should be chosen.
“There are a lot of people with different tastes,” he said.
“There has to be room in the community for all of these things.”
Gismondi said Reynoldson portrayed his idea to the committee in a way they thought was perfect for the community.
The sculpture itself includes three basalt (volcanic rock) boulders that Reynoldson carved with special tools, and its title is “Turned by A Pebble,” which is a line from the poem The Two Streams by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Gismondi noted that in the poem, Holmes describes how a single drop of water on a mountain slope in the Canadian Rockies might hit a pebble and, instead of flowing to the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, turned east instead to form the Athabasca River flowing to the Arctic.
“Terry talked about how (the poem) inspired him and about how the river itself was formed by quite a unique accident of geology and geography and that influenced not only rivers, but communities,” Gismondi explained. “The fact that this town is even here is an accident of geography.”
Gismondi said the artist spoke to the older history of the town.
“Its initial foundation was that kind of accidental thing,” he explained. “When it is at low flow you can see these circular rocks that are left that have been worn out over time, but it leaves these spheres.”
If you look at the sculptures you can see the rolling hills the artist was trying to capture.
“They’re allegories for something,” Gismondi said. “They’re not reproductions, and I can see how some people don’t like abstracts.”
As for the discussions around town in regards to the sculptures, Gismondi couldn’t be happier.
“It’s doing its job because I’m sure that’s what people said about abstract art in the past.”
Gismondi is hopeful the art will become clearer in its location when Rotary installs their walkway because the stones are only a few feet from the proposed path.
Town councillor Paula Evans was also on the committee, and said without the committee there wouldn’t have been any art.
“It was the committee who applied for the grant,” she said. “Without the committee applying for the grant, the money wouldn’t have come to this community at all.”
