UnPOPular Public Art ?
Transformer Site (1983) was probably the most unpopular and misunderstood public work of art ever bought and paid for by the citizens of Ottawa. It was conceived and fabricated by A et B associés. One of two major commissions for the former City of Ottawa Police Department Headquarters at 474 Elgin Street, the installation was greeted with immediate hostility and derision. It also suffered from a misguided location and an unfavourable comparison with the building's other artwork - Jerry Grey's bright and folksy mosaic mural in the station's lobby. The sculpture represents the found ruins of an abandoned industrial site. The furore had simmered down when Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially opened the building on their first visit to Ottawa - but the ceremonies were on the other side of the buiding - well away from this.
A et B associés was a collaborative partnership formed by artists René-Pierre Allain and Miguel Berlanga in 1980. Essentially miniaturists, they produced a series of ever more complex tabletop models of Piranesian ruin-scapes that documented an overgrown post-industrial wasteland. Transformer Site took that vision and scaled it up into a lifesize reality.
Despite its disadvantageous setting it is still a seriously mysterious piece full of intriguing parts like these chambers covered up by steel plates and the pronged buttressing.
Crammed into a north-facing and sunken courtyard, the piece was designed to be embedded in a landscape of grasses and other vegetation. However between the deep overhang of the police headquarters on one side and a double row of red maples of the other, it sat in perpetual shade and the intended greenery never took hold. After several attempts to plant the area it was eventually hardscaped with concrete pavers and turned into a little used and even less enjoyed outdoor seating space. A tiny patch of grass has hung on in one of the corners. The sculpture has several depressions that were meant to be planters.
Without any surrounding vegetation to serve as a foil to all of this concrete, Transformer Site's impact is blunted by its cement-on-cement context. The police station's overbearing and windowless precast walls don't help matters.
René-Pierre Allain was born in Campbellton, New Brunswick in 1951. While obtaining a Visual Arts BA from the University of Ottawa (1979-82) he formed A et B associés with Berlanga. He left Ottawa shortly thereafter for Hunter College (MFA), and has taught and exhibited in New York ever since. His recent paintings and metal panels, like the one above, continue to explore geometric themes.
Miguel Berlanga was born in Madrid, Spain in 1951 but has lived and worked in the Outaouais since his arrival in Canada in 1972. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Canada and abroad. He has received numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. In 2005, he was invited to be a member of the Royal Canadian Academy.
Berlanga's new house in Gatineau (above) as featured in the Ottawa Citizen Homes Section certainly reflects the shapes and colours of Transformer Site.
The City Council of the day actually voted to have the piece removed but this was dropped when the price ($50,000) proved to be prohibitive. To its credit, the selection committee which included the Chief of Police defended its choice. The piece then became the property of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, and in 2000 it became part of the new City of Ottawa's collection. After twenty five years the controversy has faded.
You have to enter Transformer Site to really appreciate its parts - which taken individually are more successful than the whole ensemble. Weathering has added dimension and depth to the concrete and steel, like this protruding I-beam.
It only gets direct light in the late afternoon, when mellow bounce lighting from the station's glass block walls warms up the patina. The concrete was distressed during construction to hasten the aging effect.
Four sentinel columns provide verticality. The dominant totem is pierced by a big steel pipe with a bolted flange.
The personnel at the OPS Headquarters now known as the Arthur Rice Building (the chief who had stood up for the work) doubtlessly continue to feel that this hunk of rust and cement is a legacy to be endured. The partnership of A et B associés dissolved following Transformer Site and both artists embarked upon independent careers.
In 1983 the supporting drawings, models and documentation for the piece were exhibited at Gallery 101. Allain and Berlanga were superb draftsmen and model builders and I remember their work as one of the highlights of Ottawa's early '80s artscene. Hidden in these dank surroundings Transformer Site provides few clues to its origins. And most people still hate it.
Transformer Site (1983) was probably the most unpopular and misunderstood public work of art ever bought and paid for by the citizens of Ottawa. It was conceived and fabricated by A et B associés. One of two major commissions for the former City of Ottawa Police Department Headquarters at 474 Elgin Street, the installation was greeted with immediate hostility and derision. It also suffered from a misguided location and an unfavourable comparison with the building's other artwork - Jerry Grey's bright and folksy mosaic mural in the station's lobby. The sculpture represents the found ruins of an abandoned industrial site. The furore had simmered down when Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially opened the building on their first visit to Ottawa - but the ceremonies were on the other side of the buiding - well away from this.
A et B associés was a collaborative partnership formed by artists René-Pierre Allain and Miguel Berlanga in 1980. Essentially miniaturists, they produced a series of ever more complex tabletop models of Piranesian ruin-scapes that documented an overgrown post-industrial wasteland. Transformer Site took that vision and scaled it up into a lifesize reality.
Despite its disadvantageous setting it is still a seriously mysterious piece full of intriguing parts like these chambers covered up by steel plates and the pronged buttressing.
Crammed into a north-facing and sunken courtyard, the piece was designed to be embedded in a landscape of grasses and other vegetation. However between the deep overhang of the police headquarters on one side and a double row of red maples of the other, it sat in perpetual shade and the intended greenery never took hold. After several attempts to plant the area it was eventually hardscaped with concrete pavers and turned into a little used and even less enjoyed outdoor seating space. A tiny patch of grass has hung on in one of the corners. The sculpture has several depressions that were meant to be planters.
Without any surrounding vegetation to serve as a foil to all of this concrete, Transformer Site's impact is blunted by its cement-on-cement context. The police station's overbearing and windowless precast walls don't help matters.
René-Pierre Allain was born in Campbellton, New Brunswick in 1951. While obtaining a Visual Arts BA from the University of Ottawa (1979-82) he formed A et B associés with Berlanga. He left Ottawa shortly thereafter for Hunter College (MFA), and has taught and exhibited in New York ever since. His recent paintings and metal panels, like the one above, continue to explore geometric themes.
Miguel Berlanga was born in Madrid, Spain in 1951 but has lived and worked in the Outaouais since his arrival in Canada in 1972. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Canada and abroad. He has received numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. In 2005, he was invited to be a member of the Royal Canadian Academy.
Berlanga's new house in Gatineau (above) as featured in the Ottawa Citizen Homes Section certainly reflects the shapes and colours of Transformer Site.
The City Council of the day actually voted to have the piece removed but this was dropped when the price ($50,000) proved to be prohibitive. To its credit, the selection committee which included the Chief of Police defended its choice. The piece then became the property of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, and in 2000 it became part of the new City of Ottawa's collection. After twenty five years the controversy has faded.
You have to enter Transformer Site to really appreciate its parts - which taken individually are more successful than the whole ensemble. Weathering has added dimension and depth to the concrete and steel, like this protruding I-beam.
It only gets direct light in the late afternoon, when mellow bounce lighting from the station's glass block walls warms up the patina. The concrete was distressed during construction to hasten the aging effect.
Four sentinel columns provide verticality. The dominant totem is pierced by a big steel pipe with a bolted flange.
The personnel at the OPS Headquarters now known as the Arthur Rice Building (the chief who had stood up for the work) doubtlessly continue to feel that this hunk of rust and cement is a legacy to be endured. The partnership of A et B associés dissolved following Transformer Site and both artists embarked upon independent careers.
In 1983 the supporting drawings, models and documentation for the piece were exhibited at Gallery 101. Allain and Berlanga were superb draftsmen and model builders and I remember their work as one of the highlights of Ottawa's early '80s artscene. Hidden in these dank surroundings Transformer Site provides few clues to its origins. And most people still hate it.
Really interesting post. I've never realized it was public art - I always assumed it was some kind of physical plant or machinery attached to the police station.
ReplyDeletevery interesting post!! I have never seen this in person but it gives me a better understanding for sculpture locations and installations
ReplyDeleteIf anyone should follow the career of René Pierre Allain, they will find that his career as an artist is appreciated all over the world and even now...in Canada. Have a look on Google for his resumé and where his works are.
ReplyDeleteThey are lasting works to be sure.
Those stones look like tombs.
ReplyDelete