May 9, 2012 - 8:22am
By Tamara Cunningham,
Nanaimo Daily News
Estelle Fox peered through a massive picture frame sculpture [VIU Visual Arts Instructor Jason Gress] was putting the finishing touches onto at Maffeo Sutton Park, exclaiming with awe over the view captured in the centre.
"I just love this one," she said, looking out towards the lagoon. "No matter where you look through it, you have a beautiful view."
Fox and her husband, Murray Dunphy, stopped in Maffeo Sutton Park Tuesday to watch as city workers bolted down the latest additions of temporary public art.
[Full story in the Daily News]()
Artist statement
The Title of the piece is Frame
The medium is wood, steel, and latex paint.
Dimension is 14 x 7 feet
Installation at Maffeo Sutton Park, Nanaimo, BC
Frame was conceived as a public project that encompassed both an artistic object and gesture. I wanted to offer up the notion of framing something in the sense of mediating an experience. In this case, the large-scale gold picture frame is the object used to point the viewer in the direction of the gesture...The act of taking a particular view or viewpoint of a place, event, or concept, is a very powerful thing.
I also wanted to draw attention to the beautiful natural surroundings we have in this part of the world. The positioning of Frame appears to offer two specific viewpoints, one of ocean and harbour, one of city and mountain.
When in reality. The piece frames multiple tangents and vistas, as well as presents the ever-changing passage of weather, people, boats etc. through the mediated border of its ornate rectangle Frame also serves to offer a commemorative aspect in its ability to provide a space for any number of impromptu snapshots cast by an infinite number of tourists, graduating classes, wedding parties and the like.
I also want to offer the latitude for viewers to find the piece a bit of a ghastly intrusion into an already beautiful scene. My hope is that people take the time to sit with the work, and contemplate what passes in and around its borders.
Jason Gress, Visual Art Instructor, Vancouver Island University
Tags: In the Community
