Client: Societé de développement commercial du Village
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Completion date: 2014
Artwork budget: $8,600
Project Team
Architect
Sylvain Bilodeau
ARCHITECTURAMA
Industry Resource
Visual Box
Art Consultant
Jean-François Proulx
Artist
Nicolas Vallet
Utopies Sélectives
Overview
HEDGE is a spatial and visual installation based on perspective and carries the themes of hedge and labyrinth.We wanted to create a spatial and visual installation based on perspective and exploring the themes of hedge and labyrinth.
Context: Winning entry for a design competition. Location: Corner of Ste-Catherine street and Wolfe in Montréal. Dimensions and materials: six pre-existing luminous walls 7.5’x32’ each made of steel structure; Digital printing on twelve translucent vinyl (each image is printed on a 7.5’x32’ vinyl canvas); Fluorescent tubes are used as backlighting device.
Goals
Design challenges: Obtaining an appearance that is as beautiful night and day; Controlling the effects of backlighting an impression on vinyl; Managing large scale images and printing to be viewed also from very close; Propose a design not attractive to graffiti.
Social and environmental impact: The location is a busy area in downtown Montréal used at any time of the day by very different groups of people. The installation was intended to communicate at different levels for different people. Passersby who walk on the pedestrian street only see the rows of green hedges, and then gradually discover the inside of the work and its optical effects.
Process
A continuous perspective using all of the panels is created to be view from the sidewalk which is located on the north side of the St. Catherine Street. The images where presented as a preliminary design and a model was used to illustrate the anamorphic effect. They have been treated and/or remade as final images of high resolution produced by a team of graphic design and digital imaging artists.
Additional Information
The history of perspective is one that searches for an optical illusion. From its beginnings, its application exceed flat surfaces and its science is utilized in the construction of buildings, decors and gardens in an effort to derive perception and transform reality. A familiar element in landscaping, the hedge divides, encloses and forms spaces. It also signifies intellectualizing landscape and shaping disorderliness which are best exemplified by the French garden. The labyrinth is a spiritual and sacred space, it inspires reflection, meditation and the reconnecting with one’s self. By extension, it symbolises all elements that are obscured and confused.