Alison Norlen, “Cornet,” 2018
Coroplast and screws, 4.5’ x 4.5’ x 18’ (photo by James Seibel)
The latest tourist attraction in Estevan, a small Saskatchewan city near the American border, is a glowing, 18-foot-long ice cream cone. You won’t be getting a taste – it’s made from Coroplast, a type of corrugated plastic. But this interior-lit sculpture is irresistible all the same. Created by Saskatoon artist Alison Norlen, it honours Estevan’s much loved Dairy Queen, one of the first to open in Canada.
Cornet, as Norlen’s work is aptly titled, sits outside the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum. As you might guess, visitors love to take selfies with the giant treat. Some people, says gallery director Amber Andersen, even pretend to lick the cone. Talk about engaging with art!
The sculpture is part of a public art project, Roadside Attractions, organized by the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina in conjunction with nine other galleries across Saskatchewan. Each gallery commissioned works with the help of $375,000 in funding from a special fund set up by the Canada Council for the Arts to help mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation. Saskatchewan Tourism tossed in another $20,000 to encourage visitors.
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Kelly Litzenberger, “Yorkton CPR Station,” 2018
Lego, 30” x 20” x 9”
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Kelly Litzenberger, “Hudson’s Bay Building, Yorkton,” 2018
Lego, 26” x 15” x 10”
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Kelly Litzenberger, “Yorkton City Hall,” 2018
Lego, 17” x 11” x 6
The projects include an oversized rear-view mirror in Prince Albert created by Heather Benning and Tim Moore as a reference to job-seeking migrants who leave the province. Joi T. Arcand’s large banners in Cree syllabics detail Indigenous history in the place settlers now call Moose Jaw. In Yorkton, Kelly Litzenberger built Lego replicas of historical buildings and, in North Battleford, an Indigenous drum by Lionel Auburn Peyachew uncannily resembles a wheel of cheese.
In all, 15 Saskatchewan communities are part of the project, including whistle stops like Montmartre, Birch Hills and Imperial, which are hosting works commissioned by the Dunlop. Some of the artists are local, while others are based in different provinces.
Michel Huneault, “Untitled 2, Roxham Road,” 2017
photograph on flag fabric, 78" x 118”
In Saskatoon, the AKA artist-run centre commissioned Montreal photographer Michel Huneault to install four giant photographs in Victoria and Diefenbaker parks. His images focus on some of the thousands of asylum seekers last year at the unofficial Roxham Road border crossing in Quebec. Through the magic of Photoshop, they are seen only in silhouette, thus remaining anonymous, and are covered in colourful blankets worn by asylum seekers Huneault photographed earlier in Europe.
Visitors can use cellphones to tap into audio of their conversations with Mounties as they negotiate this “irregular” – Huneault abhors the term “illegal” – crossing. He hopes his work helps people understand the plight of asylum seekers. Soon after installing the work, however, it was vandalized. AKA said it was repairing the damage so the work could be reinstalled.
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Joi T. Arcand, “nitōhtaw kikāwīnaw-askiy kika-wihtamāk namōya ka-pōnipayiwa kihci-asotamākēwina / Listen to the land (Mother Earth), she will tell you that the sacred promises will never cease,” 2018
vinyl banners, 99” x 192” (photo courtesy Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery)
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Joi T. Arcand, “nitōhtaw kikāwīnaw-askiy kika-wihtamāk namōya ka-pōnipayiwa kihci-asotamākēwina / Listen to the land (Mother Earth), she will tell you that the sacred promises will never cease,” 2018
vinyl banners, 99” x 192” (photo courtesy Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery)
Meanwhile, back at the ice cream cone, Norlen says she constructed Cornet using the surprisingly inflexible plastic cardboard with two helpers during Estevan’s annual two-day fair in June. Her exhibition of drawings and sculptures, Eccentricity, is on view inside the gallery until Aug. 24.
“It was really, really a challenge,” says Norlen, best known for large-scale drawings, which can be found at the National Gallery of Canada and in other important collections.
“Let’s use very flat materials that don’t bend, and materials you’ve never used before, and then give your self the shortest time you could possibly think of, and then make it happen.”
Well, she made it happen. But why a giant ice cream cone?
It turns out Estevan is very proud of its Dairy Queen, which opened in 1954 and, depending whose records you want to believe, was either the first or second one in Canada. When the business offered to donate a day’s sales to the Humboldt Broncos this spring after the hockey team’s tragic bus accident, the blocks-long lineup raised more than $20,000. Not bad for a community with a population just over 11,000.
Amber Andersen, at the art gallery, was not surprised at the Dairy Queen turnout. Estevan, she says, does like its ice cream. ■
Roadside Attractions runs all summer and, in some cases, beyond. The full circuit takes about 20 hours to drive. Along the way, you can listen to podcast interviews with the artists. For information, go to skroadsideattractions.com.
Updated July 6, 2018 to add information about the vandalism of Michel Huneault's work in Saskatoon.