City unveils public art along Confederation Line LRT stations
The City of Ottawa is spending more than $7 million on art at 13 LRT stations along the Confederation Line.
It is now giving Ottawans a sneak peek at what we will be getting for that public money.
Each station will feature unique designs from different Canadian artists, along with elements linking the stations, including the red "O" that's become the transit system's trademark.
All images are provided by the City of Ottawa.
Tunney's Pasture
Cost: $495,000
The station located at Scott Street and Holland Avenue will feature two large glass mosaic wall murals with colour gradation on both sides of the platform, along with a skylight. The piece titled Gradient Space by Vancouver artist Derek Root is expected to give a "sense of movement and energy" to the terminal, according to a release from the city.
Bayview Station
Cost: $495,000 and $200,000
The station links the Trillium Line to the Confederation Line and features an integrated piece called As the Crow Flies by Ottawa artist Adrian Göllner and made with tubular steel and fencing. It touches on the history of the Ottawa-Gatineau area with a 120-metre line drawing with a silhouette of the Gatineau Hills and Mechanicsville architecture, along with the Canadian War Museum, the Supreme Court and Terrasses de la Chaudière Complex. And of course, it feature's a crow's flight line.
Outside the station, Cascades (shown here) by Toronto artist Pierre Poussin, celebrates Chaudière Falls as an an important spiritual, cultural and trading hub for indigenous peoples.
Pimisi Station
Cost: $740,000 and $296,000
The Anishinabe culture will be central to the art at the station situated at the Booth Street Bridge.
Pimisi – which means "eel" in the Algonquin language – has a sacred significance in the culture. The station will feature indoor and outdoor artwork created by five Algonquin artists (Simon Brascoupé of Ottawa; Emily Brascoupé-Hoefler of Ottawa; Sherry-Ann Rodgers of Gatineau; Doreen Stevens of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, Que.; and Sylvia Tennisco of Pikwàkanagàn, Ont.
Montreal artist Nadia Myre's work expresses the Algonquin relationship to the earth with an eight-metre tall chromed eel, a three-metre split-ash woven basket and a row of birch trees made of tinted glazed panels.
One hundred hand-painted paddles forming a canoe, a 3.7-metre tall moose and Algonquin birch bark biting window designs will be situated around and inside the station.
Lyon Station
Cost: $595,000 and $200,000
Two artworks take over the underground downtown station.
With Words as Their Actions depicts the 32 women who founded the Ottawa chapter of the Women's Canadian Historical Society in 1898 and member Anne Dewar's story of the transition of Bytown to Canada's capital cut into stainless steel will be the focus of the station's concourse. The piece was designed by a team from Toronto-based PLANT Architect.
And Calgary artist Geoff McFetridge's painting This Image Relies on Positive Thinking represents a vision of contemporary life and vibrancy in a city.
Parliament Station
Cost: $595,000 and $200,000
Vancouver-based artist and author Douglas Coupland's piece will showcase Canada's provinces with deconstructed flags along the wall descending into the station.
And Trails: home and away by New Brunswick-based artist Jennifer Stead will bring an image of nature to an otherwise barren concrete wall with laser-cut painted steel panels depicting plants from coast to coast to coast .
Rideau Station
Cost: $595,000 and $200,000
A gallery theme takes form at the downtown station with Montreal-based artist Geneviève Cadieux's FLOW drawing on Canada's northern beauty and the proximity to the Rideau Canal.
A second piece takes a page from an architectural blueprint. Toronto artist Jim Verburg's with his work entitled The shape this takes to get to that (the grid, its daily interruption, and the possible options that exist).
uOttawa
Cost: $200,000 and $200,000
Black-and-white portraits with gazes that follow you through the station make up Train of Thought by Calgary artist Michael Besant, while Ottawa artist Kenneth Emig's two-metre tall cube SphereField uses mirrors and glass to represent change.
Lees Station
Cost: $295,000
Transparent Passage by Ottawa artist Amy Thompson paints the Rideau River on transparent glass, along with the nature around it and a sculpture of a bird in flight.
Hurdman Station
Cost: $495,000
Nature and the man-made world combine in Coordinated Movement by Vancouver artist Jill Anholt's piece that uses painted metal hanging from the walls depicting the flight patterns of birds.
Tremblay Station
Cost: $345,000
The provinces are linked at this station with the silhouettes of their official flowers posted on mirrored finish stainless steel panels placed on the underside of a glass ceiling over the walkway to the VIA Rail station in Toronto artist's Jyhling Lee's National Garden.
St. Laurent Station
Cost: $345,000
Re-imagined Canadian histories will make up three large untitled murals along the station's westbound platform and corner of the eastbound platform from Chelsea, Que. artist Andrew Morrow.
Cyrville Station
Cost: $295,000
The Stand of Birch by Kingston artist Don Maynard includes 13 stainless steel birch trees surrounded by prairie grasses that will sit on the north side of the station.
"For thousands of years, indigenous peoples have used the bark from birch trees to build their canoes," Maynard writes in the news release. "They travelled on the Gatineau, Rideau and Ottawa rivers to trade, hunt and meet with family and friends. Things have not changed much."
Blair Station
Cost: $495,000
Thirty suspended screens with thousands of small pieces of dichroic glass are designed to wave in the breeze created as trains pass through the station. Lightscape is designed by Ottawa's cj fleury and Montreal's Catherine Widgery, who were inspired by the sunrise.
