" On behalf of the Paisley Artscape Society, thank you so much for your submission for the 2024 edition of the Paisley Street Sculpture Project.I am pleased to tell you that the Artscape Board chose your submission "History In The Wind" as one of the 2 sculptures to be displayed in Paisley this year. The Board really appreciated the concept of time as captured by your design and the way it connected to the celebration of Paisley's 150th anniversary as a village."
“History in the Wind’
What is the weather? One of the defining characteristics of Canadians everywhere has been our discussion (often complaints) about the weather. Through Canada’s long history, weather vanes have had symbolic meaning, with specific cultural / regional styles.
Over the decades, with my connection to museums throughout Canada, weathervanes have been a area of both interest and work. This has included reproductions of specific artifacts, new work inside historic design traditions, and extension into my own ‘windbile’ series of sculptural objects.
‘History in the Wind’, overall, consists of a series of individual elements, representing various historical and cultural traditions, stacked chronologically one above another on a central support. In this the rough form also echoes First Nations ‘totem pole’ memorials.
1) The Land - As Canadians, again almost universally, we are strongly tied to place. Since the Canadian Shield runs under almost all our country - and almost links the whole country side to side, a block of granite forms the base of the sculpture. I have proposed random piece of glacier dragged and smoothed stone - here representing the Land before the advent of humans.
2) First Nations - Obviously the First Nations Peoples inhabited the Land for thousands of years before the recent history of Canada. For at least Eastern Peoples, the Turtle is important in traditions about the creation of the world. Here the figure of Turtle is rendered in a thick slab of simply surface carved wood. This element, although mobile, is not balanced to shift under anything but the most harsh of winds. This is intentional, representing the long duration of First Nation’s traditional beliefs.
3) The Norse - The Scandinavians of the late Viking Age were the first Europeans to travel to our East Coast, although admittedly only with a brief stay. Bronze Weather Boards like this element were fixed to the ship’s prow, with weighted ribbons moving to indicate wind direction and speed. The figure punched into the metal surface is the World Serpent, thought to entwine the World.
4) Early Europeans - The first European voyages to their ‘New World’ start in the early 1500’s, what is really the end of the Medieval period. At this time, the ‘Banner’ design was common. The element was created out of individually hand forged bars, the whole riveted together - the construction method chosen here. The date of 1605 represents the founding Champlain’s original settlement at Port Royal in Nova Scotia.
5) Quebec - The most common early Canadian weather vane is the rooster or cock. With its ties to Christian symbolism, this remained especially true in Quebec. The historic samples range from simple sheet iron cut outs, carved wood, and hammered tin plate and elaborate copper sheet. The Weathercock seen here, executed in copper, is based one from Saint Georges.
6) Upper Canada - As settlement moved westward into what is now Ontario, the taste of the English speaking immigrants effected choice of design, with the Horse becoming one of the most popular. These were often made of tin plate, thin iron sheets with a bright white tin coating (now worn to black with time). The pattern here is loosely based on a number of vanes from Central Ontario.
7) Into the Future - As time progressed, commercial stamped weathervanes, sized as decoration rather than function, started to replace the larger often self made figures. With the shift (in my own life time) of Canada from primarily a rural to primarily urban dwellers, people are increasingly cut off from even being able to feel the wind at all. Increasingly, suburban home owners were able to install simple weather forecasting instruments. This includes the spinning cups of the Anemometer, to measure wind speed. For the top element the form of this functional instrument is warped to create an element as much eye catching as useful. It incorporates six spiral shaped individual arms, each with a inserted moving ball element
Technical Details:
This sculpture was originally designed for the 2017 ‘Canada 150’ competition, but was not selected.
- The installed sculpture will stand roughly 9 feet about the base mount.
- The individual elements all shift with the wind, the widest being the Banner, at roughly 5 feet above ground level and sweeping out roughly a five foot diameter circle (so 2 1/2 feet each direction from the base). Note that this element has the least amount of ‘fin’ so will require the most wind to push it.
- In keeping with the requirement for long term durability, many of the structural elements will be created from stainless steel. Primarily this relates to the central support, which will be composed of a single length if 3/4 inch diameter threaded rod. The individual elements are secured via nuts with washers also of stainless. The individual bearings will be of a weather proof type.
- The base flanges and central upright will all be permanently welded together. The remainder of the elements plus their hardware will be threaded onto the upright at the installation site.
Asking Price for ‘History in the Wind’ can only be estimated at this point.
This primarily because of the unknown cost of sourcing some of the major components.
I have undertaken considerable work creating individual weather vanes over the years :
http://www.warehamforge.ca/WEATHERVANES/wvane.html
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