Krista Franke

The Ice on Whyte festival drew crowds on Jan. 23, joining artists and audience in a public space.

Edmontonians revel in our wintry climate just as much as we complain about it.  For artists and curators, the winter city is full of risks and possibilities. I asked several members of Edmonton’s visual art community what makes art in Edmonton’s winters special.

Difficult Climate: Art in the great outdoors is deeply influenced by weather. According to Kristy Trinier, the City of Edmonton Public Art Director, Edmonton’s climate is among the very harshest for an artwork collection, pointing to 75 degrees of temperature variation every year, the falling leaves, the snow piling up, and the cycle of freezing and thawing in spring and fall. One of City Hall’s well known outdoor sculptures, the canoe-like “Caravel” by Isla Burns, fills with snow each winter.  Murals need special top coats, sculptures need snow removal, branches must be trimmed.

Bring Back the Light: Artist and Silver Skate Festival Curator Ritchie Velthuis insists, “I fell in love with winter through art.” He muses, “Winter cities are always looking to the return of the light.” The craving for light that comes from living in darkness inspires artists and curators, and light is a theme that permeates Edmonton public art. The “fairy lights” at the provincial legislature grounds, the Baba Yaga walk in Whitemud Park, and the spectacular combustible sculptures at 24 Hours to Ignition are examples Edmontonians kicking at the darkness. Pamela Anthony, director of the Winter Light Festival says she believes “there is an atmosphere of heightened awareness — something as simple as gathering around the fire becomes emblematic of our interdependence as a community.” 

Permanent Art in Public Spaces:  The snow and cold is more than inspiration to Edmonton artists: it provides a canvas. “Winter is our context — it is stark and difficult in many ways, but very playful and beautiful in others,” says Anthony.  Certain art objects disappear against an urban winter environment of concrete and metal girders.  But pieces like  Brandon Blommaert’s mural at the Ambleside Ecostation pop against the stark white winter landscape: giant digitally-manipulated landscape photographs inhabited by strange creatures made out of recycled materials, all set against a bright green background.  Or Brendan McGillicuddy’s piece called “Overflow” at the Callingwood arena — a giant icicle sculpture illuminated by an LED lighting system, which also embraces our desire to recapture the light in winter. John Mahon, Executive Director of the Edmonton Arts Council, argues that the challenge for public art is to find pieces that work well in our radically different seasons.

Transitory Public Art:  Because of the difficulties in maintaining permanent art in Edmonton’s brutal climate, some curators focus on temporary exhibitions. “I think temporary art is vitally important — it allows for experimentation, for specialized experience, it creates a sense of occasion. And because the art is temporary, more is allowed,” says Anthony.  Trinier agrees that temporary exhibitions allow people to “experience art in places you wouldn’t expect it, and allows you to explore more provocative themes.”

Snow and ice sculptures, as seen at Ice on Whyte or Silver Skate Festival, provide an extreme example of transitory art. “It’s a completely accelerated artistic process,” says Velthuis.  “It’s a performance … and  it’s so risky because big chunks of snow or ice can fall off.  It’s appealing to artists because you have the chance to make something truly monumental, and it gets done really quickly, compared to a bronze or cement sculpture which takes months and months.”  Sunshine melts the ice, wind moves the snow, which makes the work alive and changeable.  “Nature can provide those cues of change in the spring and summer, you know, trees come into leaf and burst into that dark green in the summer,” but maybe we crave something extra in the deep midwinter.