A sculpture has been installed on the roof of the Two Rivers Gallery that can entertain you, make you think, and perhaps even save your life.
Sculptor Karl Mattson of Rolla (near Dawson Creek) towed the large item to Prince George and on Thursday morning a crane lifted it onto the gallery's rooftop sculpture garden. The thing weighs almost 1,000 pounds but its symbolism weighs considerably more than that. It is an actual functional temporary bunker in the event of a poison gas incident, and all jokes about the old days of P.G.'s stinky pulp mills aside, up in Peace-country, a sour gas event is a life-and-death fear thanks to the active petroleum industry.
"It is my response to the lack of an adequate response plans for sour gas leaks in particular around my farm, but also by extension the entire oil and gas industry in B.C.," Mattson said. "Being a sculptor, I've never been great at words, or anything to do with activism, so this is my way of expressing my concern."
He built three of them, no two exactly the same, but all able to actually work. One of them is his tailor-made coffin, adding yet another layer of symbolism. The other two, including the one at Two Rivers, resemble moon landing pods. The one in Prince George is ironically made from a former fuel tank, plus a lot of other found items and recycled materials.
"There are parts that are rusty and old and antique-looking and some items are from the modern oil and gas industry, so it has that double context on what he's saying about that industry," said assistant curator Maeve Hanna, the lead on acquiring the piece for display and arranging Sterling Crane's donation of the skyhook used Thursday to raise it to the roof. "It also has the double meaning of being an actual self-contained breathing apparatus and an art piece that would work in real life. The audience is totally invited to have an up close experience with it; you can look right inside it."
The Prince George unit would fit three people and theoretically (it has not been tested) could sustain the trio for 12 hours.
Gallery curator George Harris has included Mattson in two previous ways at the gallery - once he was included in a mixed-artist exhibition and once Mattson had a steel art piece on general display in this same outdoor gallery - and it was Harris who spotted this "life pod" on display in Wells at the ArtsWells event last year.
"One does need to ask these questions and provoke thoughts and considerations, and that is an important part of what art can do," Harris said.
The other pods will be on display as well, this year, in Dawson Creek and back at ArtsWells and following the year at Two Rivers all three will be on display simultaneously at an exhibition in Grande Prairie.
There have also been sightings of the life pods at the Sweetwater Music Festival, which Mattson hosts each year on his farm.
