Client: Edmonton Arts Council

Overview

Turbulent takes inspiration from the patterns and flows of water movement to create a series of colourful seating elements that float atop concrete pedestals along the edge of a public walkway at Edmonton’s riverfront. At night the art elements glow from below, enhancing their sense of buoyancy and weightlessness

Goals

The North Saskatchewan river valley is the largest expanse of connected parkland in north America, connecting Edmontonians and surrounding communities, with places of activity recreation and nature. The overall civic project for which this artwork was created, The River Valley Access Project included large urban stairs, a funicular and a bridge culminating in a broad pedestrian promenade that allowed people to be able to travel from the urban downtown core to the natural landscape of the river valley trails and parks. The goal of the artwork for this project was to artistically interpret the connection of Edmonton to its river valley within this construction project in a highly integrated way. To facilitate a seamless integration with the project, Jill was brought onto the design team early in the process.

Process

This was a highly integrated project involving the landscape design team, engineers, fabricator and the artist in order to create and install the final work within this challenging site. The artwork was designed to enhance a series of concrete pedestals which were situated along a sloped bank at the river’s edge. The artworks, which are constructed from painted bent steel plate which is 1” thick, were extremely heavy and unwieldy requiring coordination between the general contractor and the artist and their art fabricator/installer. Getting power to the pieces to enable them to be lit at night, including designing a lighting system which could be removable and serviceable also proved to be another great challenge involving collaboration and coordination between the electrical consultant, the engineers, the general contractor, the design team and the artist.

Additional Information

Project received an Edmonton Urban Design Award, an International Architecture Award and an Alberta Minster's Award for Transportation Innovation