Sitting on the Docks of Broadway!
by Aaron Duke + Duncan Bates
+ Michael Barker
Sitting on the Docks of Broadway! brings the cottage to Winnipeg for the summer of 2015. The citizens of Winnipeg work too hard and deserve a dock on which to fish, drink beer and suntan! Ok! We can’t bring the fish and the beer might not be allowed, but they can suntan! And they can relax, socialize, perform, eat vendor dogs and enjoy all too short summer months. Set within a field of wheat-like grass, two wooden docks sit beneath the shade of the natural umbrellas which are the Elms that march along Broadway. Sitting invitingly atop the docks are whimsical interpretations of that ubiquitous piece of cottage furniture- the Adriondack chair. These bright coloured seats call out for people to come and relax in Winnipeg’s newest public space.
Citizen Garden
by 'In the Middle' (Branton Leskiw, Dale Wiebe, Kent Mundle, Matthew Rajfur, Corey Doucette)
Cool blue flag poles rise out of the ground like the tall prairie grasses that once encompassed and followed the meandering river-shore. The repetition of polls provides a light yet protective shield from the hot sun that beams down during Winnipeg summers. Cool blue flags fluttering in the wind provides visual interest from a distance and invites wonderers to investigate the site. Once inside the garden, movement of the flags reminds the user of the relieving affects a summer breeze can have upon them. Collecting and organizing each individual’s notion of what cool means to them as well as having their face printed on a flag, demonstrates both the diversity and unity that exists in the city that thrives in the middle of Canada.
LASA Cool Garden
by Alyssa Lambkin Anderson, Ian Cheung, Julieta Cohen + Rob Freeman
INVITED ARTIST
This garden draws inspiration from the history of the Fort as a site of cultural exchange and public debate. The form creates a temporary place that offers both a spot to rest and an elevated perspective from which visitors can gain a more textured view of the depth of the park.The interplay of the raw lumber and planks that come together at the highest point is meant to be indicative of the many intercultural meetings, exchanges, and conflicts that have occurred in this place. The contrasting wood materials are also meant to refer to the natural resource character of the economy that went through the fort and drove the evolution of the surrounding settlement.
Le Rendez-Vouz
by Rodney LaTourelle + Louise Witthöft
INVITED ARTIST
Rodney LaTourelle is a Canadian artist and writer based in Berlin and Winnipeg. Louise Witthöft is a Danish designer based in Berlin. LaTourelle and Witthöft's work involves large-scale colour installations, public artworks and architectural interventions. Their site-specific installation at the Forks is a multi-coloured geometric structure that will perform double duty: functioning both as sculptural intervention and as a space for visitors to sit, read, contemplate the surroundings and enjoy impromptu gatherings or performances. By expanding a series colour/patterned stripes into a stepped form, a range of graphic conventions encounter the riverside context, providing a strange juxtaposition with the surroundings, but also a human proportioned interpretation of the slope. Like a folded piece of paper, the installation activates colour and pattern to create a semi-public space scaled for hanging out at the river’s edge.