Maquette display
A public exhibition of the maquettes chosen for the Sculpture Court competition

May 23 to June 4
Ten artists submitted proposals for the first phase of the competition, 4 were invited to submit 3-D maquettes, from which one proposal was chosen for installation in the FOFA Gallery Sculpture Court. The artists who participated in this competition were Randall Anderson, Rosalie D. Gagné, Mary Sui Yee Wong (Patrick Coutu was invited to submit a maquette to the second phase but withdrew).

Context
Scheduled to open in September 2006, the FOFA Gallery is set to be an exhibition and research space that reflects the creative diversity, activities and interest of the Faculty of Fine Arts. Adjacent to the FOFA Gallery, the Sculpture Court sits at the heart of the Quartier Concordia. Dedicated to the installation of experimental works by Fine Arts students working at the Graduate level, the Sculpture Court will host large-scale projects created specifically for the site.

This past winter a committee composed of Sculpture Department Professors and the FOFA Gallery Coordinator met to define the terms for the first Sculpture Court Competition, made possible through a generous private donation. In March 2006 the competition was announced to current students and recent alumni of Concordia’s Masters in Fine Arts Program. The parameters of the competition required that proposals address the urban context and scale of the space, and that the work be capable of withstanding the environmental conditions for a period of two years. Ten remarkable project proposals were received and reviewed by a five-person jury composed of Concordia University professors, staff and one community member. From the initial ten proposals the jury selected three to advance to the second phase of the competition. These three entrants were then invited to submit large-scale, 3-dimensional models of their proposed works, seen displayed here in the FOFA Gallery vitrines.

The Proposals
Randall Anderson proposed a figurative work that draws allusions to icons in Modernist art, particularly Umberto Boccioni’s bronze, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (which, coincidentally, is currently on display at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal). Anderson’s proposed work addresses the individual’s negotiation of complex social and psychological spaces, where the sense of self is constantly being redefined by changing information and circumstances.

Rosalie D. Gagné’s project takes natural elements as its point of departure. Her proposal, entitled Suspended Atmosphere, seeks to remind the passers-by of the cycles of nature. In her work, “crystallized raindrops” would be suspended from an overhead structure and would provide a lyrical “counterpoint to the intense activity that takes place downtown.”

Mary Sui Yee Wong has proposed an installation entitled The Idler. Her project takes the urban environment into account, and creates an atmosphere for pause and contemplation for those who live and work downtown. Her work is playful, and with its cement rabbit focal point and Astroturf covered forms she has drawn inspiration from the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, and traditions of European topiary gardens.