Quarry Park Recreation Facility Public Art Project
Canadian artist Adad Hannah worked as part of the project design team to determine the location for public art at the Quarry Park Recreation Facility (108 Quarry Park Road S.E.), and developed a large outdoor sculpture that, designed with input from the public, serves as an important hub of activity for community use and cultural engagement. The sculpture is monumental and invites visitors to sit on, walk through, lean or stretch against it.
Public Art Budget: $450K
Year Approved: 2013
Artist: Adad Hannah was chosen via open international call and selected by a project-specific public art selection panel.
Year Completed: 2016
The Artist
Adad Hannah was born in New York in 1971, spent his childhood in Israel and England, and moved to Vancouver in the early 1980s. He now lives and works between Montreal and Vancouver. He has a wealth of experience creating public artworks as part of a design team and through consultation with a wide variety of stakeholders. Often he explores how people interact with each other and artworks, and how art can act as a local landmark and meeting place. Working in response to a place or existing artwork, his process involves collaboration with architects, landscape architects, designers, and the public who will inhabit and use these spaces.
The Concept
- The Fold, by artist Adad Hannah, is a large-scale sculpture made out of self-weathering steel that creates a site-specific, community-engaged hub at the Quarry Park recreation facility.
- In response to feedback from families who were planning on using the recreation facility upon opening, the artist came up with the concept of a series of connected open rooms built out of a material that looks better the older it gets.
- Using windows and shelves of various heights and shapes, passersby are encouraged to explore and engage with these rooms in unique ways – a child walks through a short doorway, a worker sits down to eat lunch, or a jogger stretches their legs on a short set of stairs.
- The Fold will grow with the community, gaining significance with use, so that years from now it will not just be an artwork, but will have been the site of many shared memories.
Engagement
The artist led three community workshops in 2013 and 2014 which allowed community members of all ages to meet the artist, learn about his practice and approach, and participate in a fun, hands-on exploration around the concepts of form, shape and space. In the initial engagement, a central theme emerged that people wanted a place to sit, meet and hang out. After developing the preliminary concept, the artist then led the community in learning workshops about planning a sculpture, exploring ideas of positive and negative space and human interaction with the environment. Participants created their own model for a folded steel sculpture, and the final design was influenced by these interactions and creations.
Artist Mentee
Sean Taal is learning about the design and execution of public art, with a focus on understanding the various aspects of installing a public art piece. Sean documented and assisted with the installation of the public artwork for the Quarry Park recreation facility and created an individual art work that is reflective of Adad Hannah’s work and the Quarry Park site. Sean also created an interactive activity that took place at the unveiling event for the Quarry Park recreation facility.