Ice Follies 2006

Simon Frank, Hut, 2006

Materials: Borrowed ice hut, cedar branches, spikes, and snow

For his Ice Folly, Simon Frank constructed his shelter out of both natural and man-made materials. Using the remains of a fishing hut as a substructure, the artists created a hybrid igloo using cedar branches and piled snow. Only accessible via a ladder at the top of the structure, as you descended the small of free cedar boughs proved enchanting and the interior turned out to be unexpectedly warm and lodge-like. Sitting inside, a was reminded of exhilarating hours spent making snow forests as a child. The smell of the interior also had a meditative effect that reminded me of indigenous traditions. Like most of Frank’s work, his hut incorporated neural elements and was respectful to its native environment.

About his Ice Follies project, Frank said: “I really want to work with cedar trees – the kind mass harvested for the production of farm posts. I like working with trees that I don’t actually cut down myself for the purpose of art-making and the trees cut got fences are perfect – I would like to use the trees in their raw state before they are defoliated and de-branched… I am also extremely interested in using water and ice to make a work –  essentially cutting a hole in the ice and pumping up water to spray on a hut – to encase it in think diamond light refracting droplets of ice – perhaps over armature forms attached to an ice hut”

Artist Bio:

Simon Frank is a Hamilton-based environmental artist that began his artistic career as a poet. Simon now works across the country on installations and artworks that include natural or organic elements and that always contain direct references to our boreal consciousness, our connections to the forests we live in. Frank was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and now lives and works in Hamilton, ON. Frank’s sculptural work utilizes natural materials culled from numerous hikes and excursions around his home. The forms he makes with these materials immediately reference architecture, furniture, art, and those things which relate to the ritual of everyday human life. He has exhibited at the Deleon White Gallery (Toronto), the Niagara Artist’s Co (St. Catherines), the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and the Forest City Gallery (London).