Vessel
Jacqueline Metz & Nancy Chew
12’h (3.65m) x 15’d (4.57m)
Width tapers from 10’ (3.04m) to 3’ (0.91m)
Corten steel, wood
Installed August, 2009
Marina Park
In 2008 the City ran a public art competition for artwork for the 25,000 square foot Skateboard/BMX Plaza at Prince Arthur’s Landing. The site would serve as a casual socializing space, set within the vibrant waterfront landscape at Prince Arthur’s Landing. The public art component aimed to commission works that would capture the spirit of Thunder Bay’s Waterfront vision - “year round, connected, ours to celebrate” - and provide an artistic vision for the entire skate plaza. The artwork had to demonstrate a connection between the skate plaza and people of all ages, the local environment and local heritage, and Lake Superior in particular.
The Vancouver artist team of Jacqueline Metz & Nancy Chew describe their artwork:
The history of Thunder Bay – especially the industrial shipping heritage, but also the voyageurs – forms a reference point for reflections on ideas of vessel and voyage, on the journeys we each make. The artwork creates a space and an experience through which the viewer moves.
Vessel also reflects on container, on the definition of object and space. The cadence of the curved steel ribs defines both an ambiguous space and a monumental object. The form shifts between solid and skeletal as you move around it; from within the plaza and surroundings are visible, yet separate – revealed and concealed simultaneously. It is the viewer’s interaction with the artwork that defines what it is.
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