Embedded History
Studio Kimiis - Steven Beites & Christian Joakim
Largest wall section 6.5 (2m) h x 39' (12m) w; smaller wall section 6.5' (2m) h x 7' (2m) w
Glass fibre reinforced concrete
October 2011
Prince Arthur's Landing - Beside Baggage Building Arts Centre
The artistic panels produced by Studio Kimiis are part of a water-feature wall connected to the Baggage Building Arts Centre. Its location is of historic significance as the gateway through which traders, voyageurs, and settlers came to Western Canada.
The City's art competition placed emphasis on an interpretation of the guiding theme ‘Red River Road: Pathway to the West/To the World’ and a literary selection by author Marilyn Dumont titled 'Red Sky Métis'. The artwork was expected to highlight the cultural and geographical significance of the site as a key link to Aboriginal and Métis history and in particular the Red Sky Métis, the Riel Rebellion and the development of Western Canada.
Studio Kimiis’ artwork navigates three thematic currents: history and culture, materiality, and discovery. The fabrication process began as a digital overlay of water images – both calm and turbulent. The pattern was superimposed onto the surfaces of two species of wood - pine and red cedar – which were a deliberate representation of foreign and local species. The blended wood surfaces were CNC milled, and used to cast a series of rubber moulds, which were then used to cast concrete panels.
The result is concrete that appears to flow like water, while having the wood grain texture of two distinct species – pine and red cedar – which can be seen to represent the historical blending of the aboriginal and French voyageur cultures.
The waterfall is seasonal, operating from Spring to Fall, creating a sheet water flow over a 5m portion of the wall.
Artist Statement
The artwork is viewed not as a culmination of a series of steps but as one instance, representative of a process. Broadly stated, the focus of the artist's proposal was centered on ‘embedded materiality’: material and material process as applied to generative design and fabrication techniques.The artwork displays an acute awareness of the historical heritage of the Red Sky Métis, especially the complex relationship of the First Nations people and French European fur traders as they came to live and prosper on the same land with one another. Water is important to the design inasmuch as it represents the livelihood of the fur trade and the coureurs de bois. The rivers of the fur trade were the link between these first European explorers and the Aboriginal peoples of the Great Lakes region. The rivers were the link to the Northwest Passage of the New World, and these same rivers eventually came to sustain the new nation of the Métis. In many ways water is a generative force of the artwork, expressed by the material registration of overlaid surfaces consisting of smooth, rippled flow and more turbulent conditions. These surfaces represent the blending of two cultures and a material dialogue which hopes to represent the emergence of the Métis as a unique nation. - Steven Beites & Christian Joakim / Studio Kimiis
Detail of panel surface
