Michael Belmore, Solace, 2010

Michael Belmore’s Solace made use of a smaller used ice-fishing shack sealed and wired to display gold-leaf inlayed river stones. “Grandfather” stones that were viewed from the outside through windows and a glass panel in the door of the shack. Much of Michaels work explores the use of technology and how it has affected our relationship to nature.

Artist Bio:

Michael Belmore, who is of Ojibway heritage, born north of Thunder Bay, graduated in Sculpture/Installation from the Ontario College of Art in 1994. Belmore has shown his work extensively in Canada including exhibitions at the Woodland Cultural Centre, Brantford, the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto and the Toronto Sculpture Garden. His works are included in the collections of the Indian Art Centre, Hull; the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinberg; Thunder Bay Art Gallery and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, among others. Barkhouse and Belmore, recently completed the sculpture Esker for the Millennium Park in Peterborough.

Andy Fabo, Van LaPointe and Kevin O’Byrne, Luv Shack, 2010

On one side viewers will see a digital mosaic of people in the North Bay art scene that have been stitched together from portraits by kevin from 2 nights of openings at the W.K.P Kennedy Gallery & the White Water Gallery.

Artist Bio:

Andy Fabo is an artist, art critic, independent curator and art educator. In 2005 he was given a retrospective at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, an exhibition that featured his work over thirty years in a diverse range of media. The art ranged from the first mixed media paintings that he showed in his 1979 A Space exhibition that was a landmark for Queer Art in Toronto, to the work he was making as a founding member of the influential ChromaZone Gallery (1981-85), to his collaborative videos work created with Michael Balser, to his current evolution into the digital media.
Their early collaboration, Survival of the Delirious (1988), won numerous awards including Best New Narrative at the Atlanta Film Festival and Kijkhuis Festival in Holland and it is included in the Art Against AIDS anthology that VTape and Video Data Bank in Chicago co-produced.

Of late, he has shifted the content of his work lately to create series that document art communities (Hamilton, North Bay) and the tangle of friendships within those communities. Working in collaboration with Kevin O’Byrne, a friend of twenty years, the series will be shown at b contemporary in Hamilton and Skew Gallery in Calgary.

Van LaPointe is a graduate of the Ryerson Polytechnical University and a digital artist based in Toronto. In 1991 he produced an innovative media work titled fz-976. The tape used early digital effects and complex layering to generate an alternate world defined by an apocalyptic image barrage of movie and archival footage. Rapid editing, repetition and meshing of imagery and sound are the identifying factors of LaPointe’s work.

Developing his skills as an online editor, LaPointe continued to work in both alternative and mainstream media throughout the 1990’s. He was an active board member of Trinity Square Video and was a key played in bringing that organization to a new technological level from 1993-1996. He has also completed ouvre for the new millenium: a short super-8 project, fz-978 – Apollo 2000. This film is a lament for the future that failed to materialize from the promise of the space program.

Kevin O’Byrne has his own practice as a sculptor, photographer,artist assistant and colour consultant. He also has an extensive history in residential and commercial projects. This includes folly and contemporary environmental installations, furniture design and fabrication, wall and ornamental plaster restorations, colour consulting and full spectrum paint colour mixing. He also has extensive knowledge in mold making techniques and casting in various mediums. Kevin has worked on large and small scaled projects. His involvement in projects include George Brown Mansion for the Ontario Heritage Foundation, the Gladstone Hotel restoration in 2005 and several large scale residential design projects in Toronto.

Amy Switzer, Ice Heads, 2010

Amy Switzer is a well known sculptor and artist from the Barrie area who was a North Bay resident for many years. Amy will construct a series of ice sculptures on the lake. These large-scale “swimmers” will read as fins rising from the frozen waters as well as human swimmers frozen in mid-stroke. Her sculptural work will bring the world of ice and snow sculpture to the exhibition and allow the artist to create a performance around the making of the artwork.

Artist Bio:

Amy Switzer lives and works on the ancestral Mi’kmaq land in Sackville, New Brunswick. She holds a BFA from the University of Guelph and an MFA from the University of Waterloo. She is a recipient of the Patricia and Lou Odette Award from Sculptor’s Society of Canada, Odette Best Sculpture Award from the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Protégé Honours Award from Arts Toronto Protégé Honours Program and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant. She was also awarded the Keith and Win Shantz Internship Award from the University of Waterloo which enabled her to study with Nicola Hicks in England and Switzerland. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Whitewater Artist Run Center, and the MacLaren Art Centre. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Donovan Collection (University of Toronto), The Royal Victoria Hospital and The Redpath Collection. Her public commissions include sculptures for the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority at Humber Bay Shores East Park, in Etobicoke and Milne Hollow Park, located in Don Mills, Toronto.

Steve Sopinka, Out[Side]In, 2010

Architecture, now more than ever, needs to be sustainable by default, ecological by necessity, and as a result, connect humans with their environment. This could be an architecture that reconnects people with the processes of nature that define their surroundings. This architecture could be less about what is inside and more about what is outside. Maybe everything is exposed – architecture and landscape – letting the architecture disappear and the landscape, the open frozen wind blown snowy expanse of frozen Lake Nipissing, filter inside.

There is always the possibility that architecture may be over-powered by such a sublime landscape. Perhaps the most successful architecture would somehow interpret the vastness of landscape, decipher it, translate it through the interface of the building which would transcend our perceptions of what we actually thought existed. Instead of seeing what we think we see, perhaps architecture could slow down perception, and enable us to see what we really see.

Can we learn more about a landscape through architecture? Can architecture enhance the interpretation of landscape?

The slat hut attempts to act as both filter and lens. The intention is to create a built form that dissolves into its surroundings – using architecture as a device – to allow the inhabitants to interact unobstructed with the immediate environment. It is a shelter that allows light to filter in through a layering or strata of solid and void. Horizontal sections of the structure are methodically peeled away to emphasize the distant horizon; an unmistakable reference point while orienting one’s self on the frozen lake. Its simplicity is a direct response to the seemingly endless frozen open expanse of ice and snow.

Within, you are aware of your surroundings – interacting with the immediate environment – yet connecting with the distant shoreline through framed views within the structural shell. It is in many ways an architecture that dissolves into the landscape and appreciates the willingness and force of climate and weather to fine tune any obstruction in its path. As the landscape appears through the architecture, likewise the architecture appears through landscape.

Artist Bio:

Steve Sopinka has spent most of his life in Ontario, but has lived and worked in the Yukon, the U.S, Asia, New Zealand, and Iceland. With a degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Guelph and a Master in Architecture from the University of Toronto, his combined academic and professional experience has fostered a passion for design that is aligned with both architecture and the landscape beyond. Integrating building and construction experience, he has designed and built a variety of furniture, including a plywood chair that was featured in the Toronto Interior Design Show (2003).

Outside the conventional practice of architecture, his involvement in community-based design, various design charettes, competitions, as well as research on several different topics, have allowed him to engage in the design process at a variety of scales – within a variety of contexts. Interests in compact architecture, transparent landscapes, high quality, low- cost innovative designs, and northern architecture inspire his work He is published in On Site Review magazine (Spring 2009, Issue 21). He is currently living and working in North Bay Ontario where he has become intrigued with the culture of ice fishing and the resulting ad-hoc temporary shelters.

Andrew Van Schie, The Auger Project, 2010

For Andrew Van Schie’s Auger Project, “the artist will organize a small group of volunteer workers to auger 1500 holes into the ice of Lake Nipissing. The holes will be randomly arranged and will be completed on the day of the opening of the Ice Follies. The holes will be cleared and marked with bamboo poles upon which are attached solar-powered LED lights.” During the day, the orange plastic flags flutter loudly with the wind, and at night, well, that glow was magical.

Artist Bio:

Andrew Van Schie is a painter and site-specific installation artist and a video artist living in North Bay, Ontario. His work can be seen in collections across Canada and in Europe. Andrew’s Ice Follies creation will consist of a very large wooden “pyre” and an iceblock wall. He will document the process of constructing the wall and the structures placed within the wall. Several days after the opening of Ice Follies Andrew will be setting the wooden piece ablaze to again document the act and to allow the piece to become a “spectacle”.

Barry Prophet, Sound Booth, 2010

Sound Booth is a site-specific wind sensitive sound art installation created by Barry Prophet for Ice Follies 2010 in North Bay. An 8ft x 8ft x 8ft high Ice Fishing Hut type structure will be modified to receive four 16ft long resonators, one extending off each wall. The interior of each resonator will be structurally enhanced with materials that are vibrated by wind to produce flapping, buzzing, whirring sounds, and by using the wind’s energy to mechanically activate sound generating devices such as the Aeolian harp, siren, whistle and rotary clapper drum. Visitors to the installation will enter the hut to hear the wind transformed into sonorous scapes of the Northern Winter.

The North and South resonators will be fastened to 6in. square internal wall openings flaring to 4ft. square external openings 16ft. out from the hut. The East and West resonators will be fastened to 4ft. square internal wall openings tapering to 6 in. at the 8ft point and then flaring to 4ft. at the external opening. (Please see Sound Booth PDF) The final compass orientation of the structure will be decided once specific sound generators have been determined and assessment of prevailing winds is complete.

The logic behind the 2 stage shape of the East/West resonators is to capture a large volume of air at the exterior opening and channel it into a narrow focus onto sound generators before distance and surface friction has diminished it’s force. Once sound is generated at the resonators’ midpoints (8ft.), the resulting sound will be amplified by the megaphone effect of the resonator’s opening flaring to 4ft. square at the hut’s interior wall openings.

The North/South resonators will have sound generators positioned near the exterior openings to take advantage of maximum wind power. The sound will then travel a narrowing tunnel of approximately 14 more feet through to the interior wall openings (6 in. square), which should produce interesting reverberations and other acoustic phenomenon.

The East/West resonators will be centered off the 10ft. walls. Doorways will be on the North & South walls. Resonator construction will be of ½” G1S SPF plywood and 2”x2” SPF. Resonator bracing will be 2”x4” SPF. The exterior of Sound Booth will be painted black, the interior of the resonators and the hut will be white.

Some visitors to Sound Booth may want to explore the acoustic properties of the installation using voice and banging on the sides of the resonators. With this in mind, care will be taken to ensure the structure can withstand the rigors of public exploration. Sound Booth is a sound sculpture to be enjoyed through interaction and observation aurally and visually, inside and out.

Artist Bio:

Barry Prophet is a composer, percussionist, instrument maker, sculptor, poet and playwright whose sonic creations have appeared in galleries, theatres and concert halls in Canada, United States and Europe. Creating unique sounds since 1979, he has composed and performed for.45.3, Jabberwok Full Theatre Co., Basic Elements and Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble (USA) and Necessary Angel Theatre Co where he was also the resident playwright from 1979 – 1981.

Since 1983 he has exhibited and performed upon his percussion sculptures at the Ontario Science Centre, Science North, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Rendezvous International Sculpture Symposium, Algoma Gallery, Thunder Bay Art Gallery , Pekao Gallery, Astrolab Theatre, Art Gallery of Windsor, Harbourfront Gallery, Mississauga Living Arts Centre, Canadian Sculpture Centre and Hart House. His micro tonally tuned glass lithophones have been featured in performances at the Ontario Crafts Council, Music Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum , The Tree Museum, and numerous schools and festival venues.

Barry has led traditional and experimental percussion and world music programs for students and educators across Canada for over twenty years. He is the director of the Music Gallery Institute, the educational wing of the Music Gallery, Toronto , one of Canada ‘s longest running presenters of new and unusual music. MGI offers courses for adults and families in Creative Percussion and Computer Assisted Music, and special Professional Development programs for school teachers every summer.

Aidan Urquhart, Sunshine Thoughts, 2010

Knowing that his installation would be in the middle of a frozen lake with white all around it, Aidan Urquhart came to Ice Follies with an idea in mind, to recreate the thoughts of summertime in the bitter cold environment.

Using hundreds of yards of fabric and a supply of 3000 staples on both the interior and exterior, Aidan was able to succeed in his goal by turning a simple ice-fishing hut into a summer getaway on a frozen lake in the middle of winter. Inside the hut Aidan included imagery of summer, adding a green indoor/outdoor carpet in order to simulate the idea of grass while also showcasing items that you see in summertime like napkins, bbq tongs, and flip flops from the beach.

Artist Bio:

Aidan Urquhart has exhibited across Canada since the mid-1990s and has work in the collections of the Canada Council Art Bank, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Museum London, the McIntosh Gallery-University of Western Ontario, St. Thomas-Elgin Art Centre , The National Archives-Ottawa as well as numerous private collections in Canada and the USA. He lives and works in London, Ontario.

Aidan Urquhart’s creation of Sunshine Thoughts would eventually pave the way to an exhibition at the St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre (July 1- 30, 2016), entitled New Canadian Cabins.

“It started with a dot, a small circle on a sheet of white bleakness — that dot being an image of a wooden ice fishing hut covered in patterned pieces of cloth like a patch-work quilt placed against the desolate, snow-covered shore of Lake Nipissing — the result of a submission to the KPW Kennedy Gallery for its 2010 Ice Follies Competition.

Six years later, that far-away, miniscule dot has exploded into an exhibition of twelve, 4′ x 4′ acrylic paintings/collage works, and two large geometric floor pieces. The exhibition in its entirety is bright and appealing in its wide use of warm yellows and reds, vibrant circles and patterns, and sporadic images of Canadiana (patch-work quilts, nationalistic decals, a beaver, icebergs, Canadian beer). The paintings as well as the floor pieces hold together well in their solid compositions and finished application of paint and collage.” – centred.caell in their solid compositions and finished application of paint and collage.” – centred.ca

Dieter Schmeiger, Lympische Hausen, 2010

Wind Hausen is the working title for a large colourful sculptural piece by Wernemunde artist, Dieter Schmieger. Schmieger will create a multi-colored “tentacled” form on the ice that will catch the winds in fascinating ways and will at some moments look like huge flames. Windhausen is also designed to be somewhat monstrous in its final form and to move with the prevailing winds of the lake. Says Schmieger, “I really love the drooping, supported fabrics in Dali’s paintings and I think my work may be reminiscent of that and of the dream sequence in Psycho which is my favourite Alfred Hitchcock thriller.”

Artist Bio:

More info coming soon