The name is ironic to some, apt to others. Celebrations is the title of the city's latest installation of public art, located on the lawn at the westernmost end of Rolling Mix Concrete Arena's (RMCA) property.
Public discourse has lashed out at the carved granite and twisted steel as being visually opposite of a celebration, while others are ecstatic that the municipality invested in public art at all. Some have cynically name-called the new pieces of art everything from cartoon bombs (a la Wile E. Coyote's futile Roadrunner weapons) to the nether region parts of the male anatomy.
The other side of the conversation has energized people's intellect, striving to learn what it all means, wondering where the materials came from and how the artists came to their conclusions.
Still others are upset that any taxpayer money went to pay for art, while another sector of the public loudly advocates for exponentially more public art.
These ongoing, fluid and universal dialogues are partly why municipalities of any sort choose to place art in the public eye at all. The argument is itself a net gain for a particular area's personal culture.
Doug Hofstede is the community coordinator for the City of Prince George. He did not choose the art or determine the budget for it, but he is the municipal manager who facilitates such things. He explained that a request for proposals (RFP) was put out to the public, based on a $48,000 cash allotment provided by the Downtown Partnership Committee (now disbanded).
The RFP was compliant with public procurement protocols and the winning design was chosen by the Community Services' Public Art Advisory Group - a table he sits at with a professional arts administrator, two professional artists and two members of the public at large.
The art was made by Mary Ann Liu and Paul Slipper, both internationally exhibited sculptors from British Columbia.
The three components of Celebrations are bulbs of granite trimmed with twisted steel. The statement made by Celebrations becomes much easier to understand when the basis is explained. Each one represents a balloon, but not just a common static balloon.
"At the peak of a celebration, at that apex, when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's or the big winner is finally announced, that's when a cascade of balloons is dropped. The sculpture is indicative of that moment when the balloons hit the ground, that split millisecond before it bounces back up into the air, the moment when the celebration touches the ground," said Hofstede. "Balloons are evocative of celebrations. They evoke memories of events such as community gatherings, family milestones, parades, special events, and happy occasions."
Celebrations - everything from hockey championships to royal visits, concerts to conventions - are what routinely takes place inside RMCA, and with the concrete, stone and steel that comprises the building, what better medium than granite to sit outside on that otherwise nondescript lawn?
"Etched into each balloon are images of Prince George's past celebrations and community gatherings," Hofstede explained. "Each granite balloon was shaped to a final weight of over 2,200 kilograms or nearly 5,000 pounds. The Cambrian Black granite was quarried in Quebec, while the Brazil Red stone hails from Thunder Bay. Much closer to home, the Aqua Mist white balloon started its journey on the Sunshine Coast's Hardy Island. When it comes to granite, those are colour varieties that correspond to the stone; it's what nature gives you."
They are also tactile, he said, "inviting people to walk up and touch them, push and pull on it, and that's ok with those pieces," and will withstand the various elements of weather. No public art is vandalism-proof but these are hardy items in that sense, and can't be stolen without Herculean effort.
So heavy are they that each balloon had to be installed on a six-foot concrete plinth buried underground.
The nay-sayers that spoke up following the installation are, like the yay-sayers, just as much a part of the overall intent of this installation, as with any public art, Hofstede said. The city would never set out to evoke anger or invest in art that made an offensive statement, but ideally the public is served by a vigorous discussion.
Take for example, he said, the centennial mosaic that stands at the north end of the Four Seasons Pool. The depictions of aboriginal people were then benign to the eyes of a society still mired in colonial prejudice, but today it stands as a sign of how far local minds have come now that the views of those depictions are informed by acknowledgment of its racism.
That sculpture was actually intended to be installed in front of City Hall, back in 1967, but the building's architect at the time had enough political sway that his refusals were heeded and it was moved to the pool lawn as a compromise.
Celebrations, too, was intended to be placed elsewhere in the city but the RFP was altered in light of the granite's weight. But, said, Hofstede, it worked out that the new location was a perfect complement.
"It's a very visible site, and if you tried to describe that spot before the balloons were installed I wonder how many people could picture it. But now it is a place that has that definition, a place that people are noticing perhaps for the first time. It has been turned into a landmark."
If you think of other towns and cities you visit as a tourist, it is the landmark that leaves the deepest impression. Public art is what people use as reference points, conversation points, photo opportunities, and ultimately a sense of self.
Kelowna has the sculpture of stylized sails downtown, and it also has an Ogopogo statue in City Park.
Nanaimo has the Portal To Our Heritage carved cedar archway and the tall Blue Flowers sculpture in front of the Port Theatre.
Paris has the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa.
Prince George has Mr. PG and more than 50 other public art pieces that could, to some viewer or other, be definitive of the area. More are on the way.
"It's always good to have a variety of public art," Hofstede said. "Public art can enhance any location, and create sense of place in those locations. Beautifying your community is important, but public art is supposed to do more than that. Creating a place people can call their own is also important. Public art can help create a sense of connection and sense of location. If you have a concrete plaza, its not necessarily an inviting place. Art helps draw people in. Art often stimulates thinking, and even if that is disagreement, that is a helpful exercise. You get the story of a place by way of its public art. Even something as subtle and simple as the Bridget Moran statue (on a park bench downtown) - look at all the interaction that statue has provided. And the Terry Fox statue (7th Avenue and Dominion Street) is the only one in Canada where he's not running, because it was here in Prince George, at that spot where the Labour Day Classic (modern name) race started, where he looked into the future as a youth to see the Marathon of Hope. He hadn't started that run, yet, but there was where he began. The sculpture talks all about that, in a single frozen image without a word being said. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a sculpture worth?"
