11.05.09 kulturnatib

From short to top

June last year I wrote about being shortlisted – two entries -- for the Bank Street North Rehabilitation Project Bike Rack Art competition.

Not much longer after, those two were in the finals list, which, among other things, kept my correspondence with the Ottawa Public Art Program going, mainly from their end regarding my entries that by then had moved into the implementation phase in this project's Gannt chart and from then on the works' movement on this chart.

It was not so one-sided though. I wrote to ask if it was possible to document on video the works as they were to be worked on by the metal-working contractor. I had heard (or maybe read) that there is this new metal cutting technology whose cutting blade was not solid as a rock, rather, liquid as water, sprayed pinpoint at extreme high pressure.

After some back and forth, I was turned down. Citing proprietary technology, the contractor, I was told, demurred. How so, I wondered, at a time when even the recipe for making a nuclear bomb in one's basement is easily accessible in the internet?

But, I did not insist.

Also, I sent invitations to my shows and other art events. The program administrator, Melissa Ramsden, while an ordinary functionaire in the French sense of being a government worker or official, was not just an ordinary functionary in the English sense of a mere bureaucrat.

She was into the arts even after office hours. Or, maybe, being in her position, her office hours were like artist's hours. All hours, in short. It was during such times, after regular office hours, that we bumped into each other at exhibit openings and other art events.

Yet another of such events was to take place today, which I had somewhat forgotten about even if I had mentally written it in big bold red letters in my mental white board – really more like a magic slate that empties as soon as the writing surface is lifted with the next thought – as soon as I received the email invitation the other week.

But, the other day, I received a phone call while cooking a late and hurried lunch. A bit irritatedly I picked up the phone, my mobile which is a tricky instrument to jam and balance between shoulder and ear while the hand attached to the engaged shoulder is busy.

Ms. Ramsden was on the other end, asking, first, if I had not forgotten about today's event, second, if I was going to be there, and third, if they could use one my works for the symbolic unveiling of the entire 60 or so bike racks in the whole project.

We thought the bike lock cum biker glyph was an appropriate symbol for the unveiling, unlocking the whole project to the public as it were, she said. Even if, as you know, this is really just half-way finished with the rest of the racks still awaiting installation, she continued.

I don't mind, I said, while thinking, personally, I find the other design more visually and thematically appealing with its meshing of gears that turn to flowers and vice-versa.

In last year's column referred to above, I ended by saying, like the British Booker Prize for literature, to be shortlisted is prize enough. Now, a year later, it appears that, toplisted – though this is strictly a manner of speaking as there is no ordinal scale in this competition -- I have more than enough.