DEAR KINGSTON…was a one day temporary Art Exhibition on June 23 2013, with 15 word sculptures installed by Artists along Kingston's 7.7 km shoreline, as part of the Shoreline Shuffle. Each word or phrase was relevant to the need of its immediate surroundings and drew reference to place, community desire, and the need for change along Kingston’s waterfront. Here are the Artists Statements about their WORD…
#1. Christine Dewancker – ALL YOU EVER WANTED
ALL YOU EVER WANTED is an optimistic gesture of totality. It is a phrase that, when placed in a physical environment, acknowledges potential meanings and addresses our desires for that space, while also embodying an impossible sentiment that can never be fully realized. I chose this installation site because Douglas Fluhrer Park has a long history of industrial development and is currently undergoing development planning. The park means many things to many people, and differing ideas between residents and city officials have arisen in the process of considering the direction for the development of the park. This echoes the issues the Water Access Group is addressing with the Shoreline Shuffle and the concern for water access along the Kingston shoreline. [map]
#2. Marney McDiarmid - HOME
Amherst Island, Pigeon Island, and Wolfe Island support significant concentration of birds that include Greater Scaup, Canada Geese, Ring-necked Ducks, Common Goldeneye, Redheads, American Black Ducks, Snow Geese, Tundra Swans, and American Golden Plovers, Caspian Terns, Ring-billed Gulls, Double-crested Cormorants, Herring Gulls and Great black-backed Gulls, Red-tailed Hawks and Rough-legged hawks, Great Gray Owls, Boreal Owls, Snowy Owls, Long-eared and Short-eared Owls, Brant and Dunlin. Declining water levels, pollution, and shoreline disruption threaten this vital habitat. All call this lake home. [map]
#3. Joan Sharpe - ADORN
"When wandering around the city, I was struck by this site because it is like a blank canvas. People are naturally drawn to the water when feeling melancholy or contemplative, and this space, with its hard edges, needs something to cradle one's spirit. Yarn-bombing is an effective way to gently draw attention to landmarks. Believe art, and knitting, heals." [map]
#4. Dorene Inglis - RIGHT OF PASSAGE
The poetic sounding right of passage grants you the freedom to roam the length of the Great Lakes. It is an ancient tradition that stresses the importance of public access to waterways. A provincial initiative, the Great Lakes Shoreline Right of Passage bill would restore your right to walk freely along the lakes and an important step towards a renewed cultural engagement with our Great Lakes. SWIM DRINK FISH The twig arbour harkens back to Nature and a less developed shoreline when a favourite pastime would be a stroll along the lake. The arbour placed in front of a fence that restricts public access to a former 19th century dry dock declares Right of Passage. [map]
#5. Rebecca Soudant – BATHE
“Bathe” alludes to home, washing, cleansing, birth place and origins. Water, as we know, is precious to both the inner and outer habitat. The tee-pee, as a dwelling reminds us of one origin since here, as described in the 1840 edition of the Kingston Chronicle and Gazette, there was a native burial ground. The sail, the tee-pee’s walls, also references this site’s past when it was a major shipyard – a time when wind and water empowered. With a forceful past buried here, “Bathe” rises up to encourage a passionate future where we can speak of shorelines and local water in the same sentences as ‘home’. [map]
#6. Chantal Rousseau - Launch
Spelled in duck food, Launch will be an edible word created at the public boat launch near the Pump House Steam Museum, one of the spaces where waterfowl congregate along Kingston’s waterfront. Playfully drawing attention to the relationship between humans and birds within the city, Launch also invites reflection on the positive possibilities of change. [map]
#7. Robert Kauffman (of Rock Balancing group) - AWARE
Many times, I have walked right by the prize, as I was focused on some distant goal. What I often lacked was an awareness of my connection to the present. Engaging in setting stones to balance has enabled me and others opportunity to pause and take in our surroundings. This allows me to take in the Kingston Shoreline with new eyes. Now, I hope all passing by gain not only an enjoyment of the temporary elements we have erected: but can pause and reflect, upon our role and place in Nature’s mysterious unfolding. [map]
#8. Su Sheedy – PARK
The word PARK, as a double meaning, is intended to draw attention to the ongoing design challenges we face when it comes to car accessibility and open public space. Sense of place manifests itself largely in the physical realm but it is more than just bricks and mortar. It is about direct experience and emotional connection, stories and story telling and social fabric of people. The Murney Tower has existed here at MacDonald Park since 1846. It once took an active part in defending our land and Canadian culture, and now exists as a symbol of pride and land ownership. We need to continue to protect our spectacular, unobstructed views of land and waterscapes, not loose site/sight!…another double meaning. I have chosen this particular parking lot (one of 6 along our inner city shoreline) because I feel it grossly impinges on our waterfront beauty and possibility for human interaction. When it comes to design such as this, who is behind the wheel? [map]
#9. Laura Donefer - WADE
There are inner forces in my life that seem to be unrelated to conscious thought, and it is from within those unseen realms that I uncover my voice. My body is my house: the bones and blood of me linking my inner core to the physical world around me. Throughout my life I have been twinned with nature, sometimes feeling no different from a tree, a stream, a boulder. I relate to the wise women of old who understood the natural forces. They knew how to taste plants, listen to the water, smell the storm, feel the body. They knew the magic of everyday and for this they were condemned. The works that I create are the narrators of my innermost core, and sometimes I make them bound by love, by lust or by terror. [map]
#10. Neven Lochhead. Sharon Thompson - LISTEN
The ideas for this project are drawn from our attraction to the living beauty of the sounds of Lake Ontario, the roll and crash of waves as they hit the shore, the screams of seagulls lifting on the wind, the soft murmur of the lake when it is peaceful. The word “Listen” asks us to open ourselves to this living beauty of sound. It also implies the need for our attention to and care of this magnificent important lake on our doorstep. [map]
#11. Jane Derby- CARING
The site is a crumbling cement wall, alongside the waterfront path which passes by the old Ontario Psychiatric Hospital, originally the Rockwood Asylum. The word Caring, what we yearn to do, what we know is right, what is dictated has two senses here at this site - not just in terms of caring about the fragile and delicate natural ecosystem, the waterfront, but in terms too of our fragile and delicate cultural ecosystems, in this case represented by the hospital. Our intentions are real, but so are our conflicts. The word, carved out in a living but fragile medium, reminds. [map]
#12. Dave Gordon- RESTORE
My word RESTORE , in charcoal, is situated on the old wharf by the psych hospital. Once there was a rail line that delivered coal to the ships. In recent years people fished on the site or rode bikes around the perimeter, or just contemplated the lake, until the Ministry of Transportation erected an ugly fence to keep the public away. As Reagan said to Gorbachev -“Take down this wall”; I say- “Ministry of Transportation – take down this fence!” [map]
#13. Suki Falkner - STEP
The word "Step" often connotes aspiration- a yearning- a small or large progress- toward an ideal. Where do the [foot]steps lead us? What ideals are suggested here? Surely, our over-arching theme of waterfront sustainability. But also, in the historical resonances of the site, we are led to aspirations towards wellness, kindness, and humane institutions. [map]
#13(.5) Dorene Inglis - !*#@? ...say the mussels
There was a time when indigenous species of mussels were considered to be the spokesperson for the Great Lakes. Their presence was a barometer for the health of the ecosystem. Urban development, lower lake levels and invasive species have placed native species in decline making it crucial to look at land use along the shoreline. Planting shrubs and trees along the high water mark creates buffer zones which in turn improve water quality and encourage rejuvenation of aquatic ecosystems. [map]
#14. Erika Olson - HOLD
hold up, hold out, hold on, hold against, hold someone, hold something, hold in, hold close, hold to, hold the line, hold over,hold of, hold fast, hold one's breath, hold water [often with negative] (of a statement, theory, or line of reasoning) appear to be valid, sound, or reasonable: this argument just does not hold water. [map]
#15. Maggie Hogan - IMAGINE
Imagine waterfront. While participants ponder the many wonderful aspects of our lake-front paths and the many obstacles to easy and safe waterfront access, we are all being called on to imagine the future and consider how we might make changes that allow us to use and enjoy the waterfront more. The city, as always, is in a constant state of flux and with a little bit of imagination, we can contribute to ensuring the waterfront in Kingston changes in the future to accommodate the people of Kingston who walk, boat, ride and play along our waterfront everyday. [map]