..
As was
My usual pre-dawn circle. Twice. Into the park from the mall-end. Barefoot in cold, wet grass along the tram-side of the soccer-field - this whole stretch in darkness. Past that along the path to the park-gates: there - in bare feet again - behind the large flower-bed - at this time mysterious with high, lush, wet growth on either side. Turning back along the lake: still quiet, except - for a while - wet-feet-squeals in my crocs; the occasional duck's dream; a muskrat's splash. Given dark-on-darker reassurance by Elephant Mountain. Sometimes dodging unpredictable sprinklers! Occasionally, lamps with what's-what imposition.
Rosehips behind the pumphouse to be picked after the second circle, meditation, exercises - dawn breaking by then. Farther along the path and beaver-territory, after the left-bend: more rosebushes - more rosehips.
I know these circles well, the only changes are with weather and seasons. This early-morning ritual grounds me, puts/keeps waking Nelson in proportion for me. Energy like this is a large part of why I came back to Nelson.
As is now
Has been for a week. On the water-side of the path - between the pumphouse and the Osprey/Millennim Plaque - now stands a metal tube/pipe/post/cylinder of about 20 feet in height and 55 inches in circumference. Huge! Like: hugging it (this once only!) the tips of my middle-fingers touch. Picture 55 inches compared to your waist, or visualize a wooden hydro-pole. That's an average of 12 inches less at shoulder-height, while tapering towards the top. This metal-tube is not - same width all the way, except for a much narrower pipe-insert of maybe 2 feet in length, closer to the top, before the original width continues for another 3 feet or so. From this narrow part 4 metal rods with large metal-balls at their ends are pointing horizontally in 4 directions - arbitrarily so and non-functional, not north-south/east-west either.
Then - topping all this - an awkward sharp change in direction turns into a thick neck and enormous stylized head of a heron, about 5 feet in height and a beak going on forever. Also metal.
The immediate overall impression is that of a giant swizzle-stick or outsized stuck weather-vane on a post. More prosaic: there's this enormous shiny bird's head sitting on top of a fat, plain and shiny tube: this taking up about three quarters of an overbearingly huge, pointless, badly placed whole.
Heron's Landing
This then is Councillor Macdonald's Heron's Landing. Obvious first question: If it indeed landed in Nelson - why is it facing Taghum, or Castlegar, maybe Vancouver? Could it be just stopping over?
This whole heron-business doesn't only look heavy - it is. Weighing about 1 ton. So its feet should be of interest: like how firmly are they (is the pipe) resting on the concrete platform. Not very - it seems. Imagine (yes, most of this is about imagination - and not) 3 people are standing back-to-back inside the pipe, forming a tight circle, with their legs slightly spread, and about 6 inches of their feet visible outside. So - there are 6 brackets sticking out from under the pipe. Each bracket is fastened to the concrete with 2 sets of bolts and nuts - the bolts embedded in the concrete. This is it: there are no additional bolts inside the tube; what else is going on in there I don't know - like how brackets connect with the tube. Back to the feet: also imagine that all toes are flexed - pointing upward, not resting on the ground. Neither are the brackets: instead of completely sitting on/connected to the concrete, there are gaps of different widths towards ends, between them and the concrete - the widest about half an inch. This seems dodgy! What with often very strong winter-winds along here, the whole gestalt is prone to some shifting: conceivably leading to bit-by-bit further upward-bending of brackets and - ultimately - the heron crash-landing.
Herons
Imagine a heron - the bird reality. In flight the body is an arrow, with wings not flapping but stroking the air. It prepares to land gliding like the Concorde - remember the Concorde? - with spread wings resting on air, the tail fanned and long legs lowering: for a moment trailing like 2 ribbons, then reaching forward to stand - never stumble - and immediately walk. In the spare elegance of its body, sinuous curves in the movement of its long neck: measured steps on most slender legs. Quietly watchful. Choosy.
Understandably, there is a haiku magazine of international repute: Heron's Nest.
in winter silence
the heron's wings part the mist
above the river
Jan McMillan
blue and grey feathers
lightweight body on thin legs
wings wrap around core
Andros
evening wind
water laps
at heron's legs
Buson
(1716 - 1783)
All this is missing in the heron of Heron's Landing: its shiny metal-bulk - harsh visual assault in a natural setting - would never allow it to rise, soar and land! Where it should have a heron's body - it has a stump! Visual assault: because it does not fit-in, complement, emphasize. No context! Definitely not gluten-free!
During the day its in-your-face presence is not softened by trees and shade, and after dark one of the path's lamps gives it enough light to make it jar the senses.
Size is everything: seeing this piece is not an option - it can't be avoided!
Where it squats
A while ago, some members of the Cultural Development Commission (CDC): supposedly in charge and Donna Macdonald: really in charge - go to the lake-side to scout possible sites for this heron-pipe. Although it - the real thing - at that point, has never actually been seen by the CDC - I don't know about Donna. A few pictures only. Always partials in the horizontal from oblique angles, making a contextual choice of an appropriate location impossible - one would think.
The piece as a whole has never stood upright - by itself - on its own feet, until it is eventually placed here at the lake, and there are members of the CDC who still haven't seen it to this day - horizontal or vertical.
No other-area sites are considered, and the group comes up with 3 possibles at the lake - one of them where the post is now. Seemingly, the now-location is picked by the CDC because it has no outstanding features to distract from the hoped for maximum look-at-me-impact of the piece.
Although - supposedly - the public is making the location-decision by voting on the Internet. Nice PR! This process is flawed in several ways: it limits voting to those using a computer and only offers 3 choices - those predigested at the lake. My objection is: there should be 4 at least. The 4th would be None of the above and/or Other - allowing for suggestions of other locations. Also - the Internet-public's decision is based on 3 very small pictures only, with the post photo-shopped into them - but in proportion much smaller, more slender than the real thing, in real space and time. Hardly any visual impact on its environment or anything else.
So, after having seen the post only as a partial horizontal and/or mini-vertical - all in few pictures - the impact of the real thing, now squatting at the lake, may be a (shocking) revelation to CDC and voters.
Hatching
The clincher! You ready? This heron was never meant to fly - or land! The name has nothing to do with a heron landing but is the name of a proposed high-end condo-development in Kelowna: Heron's Landing - like Kutenai Landing or Johnson's Landing. Meaning: some place at the water. This group - as developers tend to initially - throws a lot of money around, even before the project gets off the ground. So they order a Look-At-Us-We're-Heron's-Landing marker - sort-of what a barbershop pole used to be to barbers - to the tune of $200.000, from an internationally recognized artist with a padded resume, based in Kelowna. Jock Hildebrand.
This is a commercial contract for a heron-post with a specific purpose: name-recognition/branding - PR/advertising. Having it done by a sculptor has certain cachet, but the piece is never meant to be a piece of art for its own sake. Instead - it is put together following specific requirements.
The sculptor produces the piece, hands it over, gets paid, totally leaves the picture - and the development is dropped! So - the developer is stuck with this bird - moving it to Calgary - and tries to just get rid of it. But finds no takers.
Like Kelowna. It says no, thank you - even though the piece is now offered as a give-away. In return for a $200.000 tax-receipt (as in corporate tax write-off No. 2). But Kelowna's Art Folks aren't convinced of its artistic merits, and their City Council says that installation-costs would be prohibitive.
Hatched
Trumpets! Our Donna to the rescue! Hearing about this heron-deal, she gets right on it! Bypassing the CDC which - if anyone at all - should run this, and of which she is just another member: leadership issues. Taking this on by herself being against nailed-down City rules. With time clearly not being of the essence either: after all, we're talking unwanted discard here! But she pulls the Council-card and shops the bird as a world-class piece of art to go public in Nelson: here for the taking and a tax-receipt! Such a deal!
Yet the $200.000-value the councillor is excited about is not based on any art-market considerations: the piece has never been on the art-market. It's simple business-arithmetic: idea + design + materials + labor/time + profit.
Why the developer would give away a world-class piece of art, or even just a major art work: it eventually is toned down to - instead of selling it - is not questioned here. I mean: these people do money!
Council - either not asking questions about CDC involvement or here not concerned with due process - approves the deal just like that! Possibly partly blinded by this obsessive need to find something - anything - to substantiate Nelson's claim to being the cutest, most artistic little town in the whole universe!
I provide Nelson Council with the link to a CBC interview: Kelowna Council explaining their reasons for not wanting the bird. The Nelson-end hadn't known! Hadn't thought to ask Kelowna: why not?
The lure of free stuff!
Bits of egg-shell
Over time, the public has not necessarily always been given coherent and reality-based information about the hatching-process by Councillor Macdonald and the Nelson Star. The Star - while doing little digging into the matter - has largely relied on recycling previous articles and recalling/telling what our art-expert/dealer extraordinaire has put out, maybe. Dressing that up with the same picture in 4 different write-ups!
City Hall's feeding-frenzy approach to raising its profile with this project is self-defeating: it clearly shows we are not ready for primetime!
As for Heron's Landing a week later. Footwork: Concrete has been pasted somewhat haphazardly around the gaps between brackets/base. Which begs the question: does this significantly add to the structural integrity of the whole - or is it cosmetic? Regardless - the whole is ready to be adored by all forever and to be insured until then as well, just in case: not because someone may steal it (all that metal!) - but because it may fall over! Not only adored as is - but also as a high-end prop, made irrelevant and discarded within corporate strategizing. Now, how 1%-cool is that?
There will be a new CDC: this one a committee instead of a commish. Whatever that will mean. But - with the new version also getting new members - it will be meaningful indeed to lock-in clear directives for the leadership of the group! And follow through!
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can fool all of the people all of the time.
Yes?
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