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RAILTOWN
Not surprisingly, my preliminary design work
focused on the significance of the railway and the strong heritage theme of
Nelson’s downtown core; however, upon visiting the project location, a
theme was revealed when a young lad rolled by on
his skateboard and I envisioned, chronologically, a sampling of what may
have crossed the creek over the last century. The design that followed was a
meandering multi-layered assemblage constructed from the wheels and
cogs of that which has made the crossing.
Considering the specs of the project (30
unique panels spanning 135 feet), the functional requirements of the railing
on the sidewalk side, and the weight restrictions; the production design was
not without its challenges. After a couple of false starts and two months
lost to a serious hand injury, I settled into 7 months of rigorous studio
work/installation. It was important for me to use reclaimed materials from
within the region, which was limiting; however, it opened up some materials
that I had long over-looked, in particular, brake parts. The bulk of the
sculptural core consists of cross-sections of 300+ cast-iron automobile
brake rotors/drums, each filled out with bicycle sprockets, mountain bike
rotors and the measurement gears from petrol pumps. These, assembled side
by side, meandering the middle rail, resulted in the required flush surface
for the side-walk side of the railing. The creek side (back-side) of
the railing reveals the three-dimensional perspective of the sculpture, in
which a variety of mixed metals (horse related, mining/forestry/agricultural
components, auto/motorcycle/snowmobile parts, bicycle/skateboard, etc.) lap
the front pieces--- all bolted and riveted together. The remainder of each
panel is filled out in sheets of perforated metal. All is lightly
spray-coated which will gradually give way to a natural oxide finish. |
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