Gordon Halloran's Ice Gate

March of the Penguins-Toronto Feb 21

2011-02-24T11:23:00.000-08:00

It’s winter everywhere in Canada, and in Ontario, it’s Family Day. We’re here – very last minute – to add a sense of play to the hugely popular outdoor rink at Colonel Samuel Smith Park in Etobicoke on a bitter but sunny Monday in February.

The painting is a fun take off on the road, with yellow stripes, blue and red dashes, green center lines gone curlicew on top of the white ice of the sinuous rink outside the old power plant there. Jenn G had phoned us a week or so prior wondering if we had anything to offer on such short notice. Gord, who is all about rising to the challenge, accepted, and so we were off Friday flying across the country and into another time zone, with last minute squash & hockey cancellations.

We had less than eight hours to do the painting. Warm record temperatures the day before had closed the rink. Small family groups and disappointed young couples trailed in all Saturday long, skates slung over their shoulders and bundled up appropriately, hoping to swirl around this charming outdoor path. But the surface was being set from yesterday’s melt, and we were holding ourselves upright in the gusty wind and -17 degree wind chill.

We met Charlotte, wild-haired Zamboni driver and big hearted gal in Gumboots. An old soul with a Creeker heart who (gasp!) still smokes and makes a mean and yummy organic salad. She worked right alongside, sometimes on her hands and knees on that hard ice, pushing the paint bucket while Gord dipped the roller and applied the paint in the few seconds before it froze outright.

Alison D scraped paint splotches (also on her hands and knees) off the pristine surface while the young crew volunteered to help us stirring paint in the relative warmth of the zamboni room.

I ran back and forth on the ice to the paint room, providing whatever equipment was lacking, and cleaning the roller. It was beyond cold out there; the ice cracked beneath our feet under a full moon; Gord threw the last bucket down as a signature, along with Charlotte’s ‘baby foot’ and we came into the warm.

Today, Monday, I put on a size too large pair of black skates (provided by Charlotte) and went around on the ice path to see the painting first hand.

Family Day is an understatement of sorts, and a true holiday here. It was March of the Penguins. The only ones who could really skate were the little kids who whipped around under foot, falling and sprawling spectacularly while the rest of us tried to stop short gracefully without causing a pile up.

We met Lea Parrell, professional Arts Producer and Marketer and she showed us some waterways and sites for LOTUS. Back at City of TO offices, Gord and Julian Sleath hit it off on Tuesday, amid more discussion about LOTUS. In Vancouver, we met with Deborah Jones, of Sponsorship Central to hammer out an approach for the upcoming LOTUS at Van Dusen Gardens this summer.

MIAF - Lotus in Motion

2011-01-15T07:29:00.001-08:00

We've opened at the Miami International Art Fair. Please have a look at www.lotusinmotionproject.blogspot.com for pics and stories of our adventures in Miami. Tell your friends. Sign up to be notified of new posts. Send us your comments.

2010 ‘ICE GATE’ ARTIST switches to LILY PADS

2011-01-03T16:52:00.001-08:00

Here is our most recent press release. Please visit www.lotusinmotionproject.blogspot.com and sign up!

GORDON HALLORAN to represent Canada again

International artist Gordon Halloran, invited to be the feature artist in Public Art at the Miami International Art Fair and Art Palm Beach announces the installation he will create there, Lotus in Motion, The Watercolor Project. The art fair opens January 13th at The Miami Beach Convention Center. Art Palm Beach opens January 20th.

Lotus in Motion – The Watercolor Project is series of floating paintings whose form is inspired by a familiar shape, the lily pad of a lotus flower. Each floating painting is approximately 4 to 8 feet in diameter and is uniquely designed to work in harmony with an unlimited number of others as they are set afloat in a river, lake or large pond and allowed to flow and interact in an ever-changing montage of vivid, overlapping colour. At the art fairs, the paintings will be displayed on the floor and set into gentle movement by motion sensors activated by viewers.

Mr Halloran, whose most recent work ICE GATE, was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, takes his inspiration for Lotus in Motion – The Watercolor Project from the water lily paintings of Impressionist painter Claude Monet as well as floating shards of Arctic ice that break free onto the surface of water in the winter. The Lotus project evolved from his work over the last two decades in ice. (www.paintingsbelowzero.com).

Lotus in Motion – The Watercolor Project is an interactive installation. The movement and flow of the floating works are activated by motion sensors that take their cue from movement along the shoreline of the lake. As the audience moves at the edge of the water, the work slowly turns and slides over, creating new shapes and color relationships. This interaction creates new compositions every day the installation is on-site.

After the public installations in Miami, the installation will be moved to Art Palm Beach, January 20th – 24th. Singular paintings from the installation Lotus in Motion – The Watercolor Project will be available for sale on an individual basis.

THE ARTIST Gordon Halloran is a Canadian artist, well known to world audiences as the creator of Paintings Below Zero. His monumental site-specific public art installations of non representational paintings in ice have fascinated audiences: in Chicago, 176,000 people came out to see his 200' long x 14' high Museum of Modern Ice; at Toronto City Hall, 50,000 people saw Paintings Below Zero an 80' long x 10' wide installation. In Turin, Halloran was Canada’s official representative to the 2006 Cultural Olympiad; his project filled an entire church with Paintings Below Zero. At the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games he created Icegate, a 100' x 14' frozen installation.

THE FAIRS:
MIA is host to 80 prestigious international dealers featuring contemporary, emerging, conceptual and modern art including photography, installations, performance and video. Miami has become the hottest global destination for the business of art; MIA is organized by IFAE, the largest and most experienced US- based art fair exhibition company with a successful track record of over 70 international fairs. IFAE has established partnerships with museums, universities and other art-related institutions to ensure a fully integrated fair with innovative curatorial projects. MIA is directed by dealer and curator Aldo Castillo.

Meditation on ice

2010-11-13T09:48:00.001-08:00

Here are some images created from the installation in the church at Fortezza di Fenestrelle for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Italy.

These images were created from raw photography of the installation. They were layered, cropped and enhanced by the artist. Each piece of artwork is proofed by the artist, printed on archival paper using archival inks and transmounted on acrylic Sintra Ground.

With these images, the artist focuses on the migration of the crystal structure of the ice and its interplay with pigment.

ICE in Miami in Winter

2010-08-24T17:04:00.000-07:00

Here's the letter of invitation for MIAMI INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR and ART PALM BEACH, from the Associate Director, Aldo Castillo. We met him in Chicago in 2008 at the Consular Ball:

August 18, 2010

Mr. Gordon Halloran

RE: Exclusive Invitation to Gordon Halloran to represent Canada at MIA and Art Palm Beach 2011.

Dear Gordon,

It is a privilege to invite you to be the exclusive public art installation artist to be featured in the upcoming MIA—Miami International Art Fair and Art Palm Beach fairs in January, 2011. Given the fact that your work is a strong representation of current international trends within worldwide public art, we believe that your participation will highly promote “the Arts of Canada” and would be an excellent addition for our art fairs. Your installation ice works reflect the very best in contemporary international art of today.

We propose that your exhibition space in each fair be approximately of a 700-1000 square feet. Because of your importance, we also would be delighted to invite you to be part of a panel of the fair’s lecture program entitled “Artists Conversations” scheduled throughout the fair and around your exhibition.

Prestigious American & international galleries and collectors gather in exciting Miami Beach for MIA and Art Palm Beach. A fair featuring one-artist shows, group exhibitions, photography, projects, installations, video art, symposia, featured country sections, and numerous fair related social activities attracts collectors from throughout the US, Latin America, and Europe.

In January 2010, MIA attracted more than 17,000 visitors, Art Palm Beach, 24,000. Each fair has garnered positive reviews from exhibitors, collectors, curators and press. January commences the high-season in Miami Beach as Latin Americans, Europeans, Canadians, and winter residents from throughout the US return each year.

Organized by IFAE, (founders of Art Miami in the same venue in 1991), the dealer-oriented management team has more than 20 years experience producing major international fine art fairs throughout the world including major fairs in Palm Beach, Chicago, New York, Los Angles, Dallas, and Hong Kong.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any additional questions you may have regarding this privileged invitation.

Best Regards,

Aldo Castillo

Associate Director, MIA

Sponsorship Central

2010-06-28T13:52:00.001-07:00

Great news, latest news:

We are working with a sponsorship guru, Deborah Jones to fulfill the prestigious invitation to Miami International Art and Art Palm Beach.

Sponsorship Central is one of North America’s fastest-growing sponsorship consulting groups, with decades of experience linking over 100 events and thousands of sponsors in Canada and the United States.

Led by Deborah Jones Sponsorship Central is backed by an enthusiastic team of assistants, marketing professionals and researchers.

Best is, she’s really easy to work with!

Invitation

2010-06-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

MIAMI INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR and ART PALM BEACH have invited Gordon Halloran to create a feature installation at the January 2011 event. MIA is skedded for the 12th to 17th, ART PALM BEACH takes place the following week: 20th - 24th.

This past January 2010, MIA attracted over 17,000 visitors and collectors from around the world, in a city that has become an established international destination for the business of art.

24 - 30,000 people attended ART PALM BEACH in 2010. The fair brings together galleries, affluent international art collectors & cutting edge art projects, tours, lectures and symposia.

Go to: www.posticegate.blogspot.com for more info about the artist since ICE GATE at 2010 Olympic Winter Games closed.

A toast to our sponsor

2010-05-03T11:23:00.000-07:00

See www.posticegate.blogspot.com

for "A toast to our sponsor" and other stories of ICE GATE after ICE GATE. Al Burns photo.

Thank you!

2010-04-20T11:14:00.001-07:00

COAST REPORTER Ian Jacques, Cathie Roy, Jan de Grasse, Brent Richter, Peter Kvarnstrom

CITY OF RICHMOND & Ann Phelps

COAST CULTURAL ALLIANCE

DISTRICT OF SECHELT & Connie Jordison

RENEWABLE POWER CORP

SECHELT TORCH RELAY TASK FORCE & Hammy McClymont

SUNSHINE COAST REGIONAL DISTRICT

2010 LEGACIES NOW

Claytons, Extra Foods, Tim Hortons, Starbucks, Sechelt Downtown Business Association, Sunnycrest Mall, Sunshine Coast Bed & Breakfast Cottage Owners, Sechelt Information Centre, Sunshine Coast Tourism

VOLUNTEERS: Al Burns, Duane Burnett, Gary Gronlund, Pete Mason, Brett McGillivray, Thor Olsen, Brenda Sopel, Sanober Nair, Steven Tang, Krisha Lim, Joey Lo, Tony Mok, Tracy Stefanucci, Jaz Halloran, Sheryl Latimer.

OUR CHOREOGRAPHERS: Gerardo Avila, Maggie Guzzi, Jean Pierre Makosso, Brittany Robertson and coordinator Shelley Harrison-Rae

LOCAL PRESS: COAST CABLE , COAST REPORTER, ZOOM Magazine, JUST BUSINESS

Ice Box

2010-04-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

Gord's new working design for ICE BOX, the next installation. Images from interior (below) would be projected onto the surface of the box. The new box would be easy and cheap to assemble, a fraction of the cost and effort of the wall for ICE GATE.

Working on filling that 2010 and 2011 calendar now, with a potential for a New York installation as early as October.

Just the other day, Performance for Ice Gate coordinator Shelley Harrison Rae sat me down with Cheryl Latimer and had me open a wonderful THANK YOU box, so artfully and lovingly created - an artistic masterpiece in itself. This delightful gift was discovery of all the dancers - signatures of many popping out of an accordian style hand made card with images from the event. Truly a community event! Thank you Cheryl!

For story & pics of take-down of ICE GATE go to: http://posticegate.blogspot.com/.

2010-04-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

Just came across an editorial written while we were working on ICE GATE ..

IAN JACQUES/EDITOR
If the photo on today’s front page of Jean-Pierre Makosso embracing Roberts Creek artist Gord Halloran in a huge bear hug doesn’t scream Olympic spirit, we don’t know what will.

Halloran’s golden Olympic vision, his gift to the Olympics, opened to much fanfare and praise Tuesday night at Richmond’s O Zone. Halloran and a team of volunteers have been working long days and nights for the past several months creating Ice Gate. The monumental ice structure is impressive, not only in stature, but also in the amount of blood, sweat and frozen tears that have gone into creating an enduring image of all that is good about the Olympic Games. Halloran is an artist of great passion and vision, and his work is a testament to the heart of the Olympic spirit and his love of the Sunshine Coast. An estimated 400,000 visitors could pass through the O Zone during the two-week Olympic Games. These visitors will come from all over the world and be left with a lasting impression of their Olympic experience, and also an amazing artistic experience. We’re so fortunate to have an artist of such talent as Halloran on the Sunshine Coast. He is indeed a champion and one we should celebrate.

After

2010-03-03T19:58:00.001-08:00

For the story of the STIKE, go to: www.posticegate.blogspot.com

With glowing hearts

2010-02-28T22:21:00.000-08:00

The clouds parted, the sun broke through and we spent our last day in the streets wearing Canada red and celebrating our athletes, ourselves, our fellow human beings, our country.

The Olympics were just an excuse. The media seemed obsessed with 'Own the Podium', but for most people, being a proud Canadian was all about celebrating our us-ness together in the streets. We were proud to host the world, to show them our country, to share and to be seen.

Today, everyone wanted to pose in front of ICE GATE.

At noon, we all gathered in the square to watch Canada vs USA men's hockey gold medal game. The streets emptied for this one, we were glued to the screen.

It was a sudden death pass by Iginla and a quick shot goal by Crosby and across the country you could hear a roar, collective happiness -what a way to end the games!

Afterwards, the little boys in the streets couldn't wait to become Olympic champions.

The rest of the afternoon cars honked incessantly in the clogged streets, flags still waving.

After the Closing Ceremonies - Katy Halloran was one of the dancers in white with the snowboards - we visited ICE GATE as fireworks exploded in the sky over the OZone.

A photographer tried to capture its essence as Gord turned off the lights, one by one.

NBC comes through

2010-02-25T11:54:00.000-08:00

News from NBC producer Mary Murray: "spot going out today to 200 local affiliates and web extra. I'll send you link when it gets in."

Our docents and crew fill in on site, maintaining the exhibit during opening hours. Back on the coast, we're paying bills, planning for the strike; sending info to next gig venues; trying to decompress.

And there's a lot of Olympics on the tele. Canada's young ice dance couple used a favorite piece of music and swept me away: Mahler's 5th symphony - it was a moment of pure transcendence and they deserved the gold for it. To be that beautiful, that talented and . . . that young!

If you live nearby, you can come early to the site on March 1st and pick up a bit of frozen artwork before the crew must destroy it - and take home a piece of Olympic history! Photos by Al Burns today.

Canada Red

2010-02-20T18:35:00.000-08:00

We had to go to an event, just to say we were at The Olympics.

You can go to the concerts and freebies, you can walk the streets and sidewalks, you can be part of a featured exhibit, but there is nothing like a competition.

We had tickets to a Women's Hockey games game; Canada vs Sweden. In the first period, Canada scored six goals.

Amidst nutballs, babies, and a lot of Canada Red, in the second period, Canada scored four goals before Gord got back from the men's room. Next to us, one voice, then a few more, then many, shouting, "Go, Sweden, go!" Only in Canada do you root for the other team when they're down.

We left when it was 12 - 0, not being able to stomach the slaughter. Then it was back to Ice Gate for an interview for CBC's North by Northwest.

Jaz opened up the exhibit.

Brett visited with Jake & friends. Debi Pratt took us to dinner, and the next day, we finally had the delayed Inniskillin/Vincor letter in hand.

Orientation for some new docents included a wine tasting with those yummy ice wines from Inniskillin: Tony Lo, Joey Mok and Sanober Nair.

Moira, a friend from New York's Ice Dance Theater treated us to dinner and I gave her my red Olympic mittens. She wants us to create some paintings for their 25th anniversary at Rockefeller Center, so we wrote some lists for swift action - it would be October! We watched Men's finals in the bar as Evan Lysacek won the gold; with commentary from Moira, a real, live figure skater who knows all the players.

It's a roller coaster ride - teaching us to breathe, to let go, to be present.

A day of

2010-02-16T18:50:00.000-08:00

All that adrenaline means only one thing: there will be a day of reckoning.

But first: what have we been doing since last week? Everyone asks.

The day after we opened, Heather Hiscox interviewed Gord for a short segment on CBC - we met Ian Hanomansing and Bob Nixon again in the newsroom.

On the way out, got nabbed by a producer for Mark Forsythe radio show.

Two days later we came back for the opening of the games. A rainy day. Gord and Ari worked on the fan/blower system - now it works.

At ICE GATE, the excitement of the games was everywhere. Here's Marjorie Johnson, working with the Richmond School District Olympic Ozone Choir, 3,500 voices strong in grades one to 12 from all the schools in Richmond; including 160 band students.

These kids are from Walter Lee Elementary and McNair High School. But the story that's soooo cool is someone in Richmond donated $300K to have those spiffy uniforms made for all 3500 of those students! I thought they were an Olympic team! And it turns out they were.

Then some sprightly characters from the Canadian Olympic Committee Cheering Squad wandered past ICE GATE, on their way to 'painting the town red', and spreading Olympic cheer, which was in ample supply, however cloudy the skies.

In the process I got the Canadian maple leaf painted on my cheek.

On the big screen outside City Hall, we watched the torch passed from a canoe in False Creek. A magician entertained crowds waiting in line for the OZone.

James Shih, from Japan Broadcasting Corp, stopped by and shot some pix of iCE GATE from the inside. Gary Young brought a couple of visitors from London, the host of the next Olympic (summer) games. They talked about legacies for businesses, and I had to ask myself: how about a legacy for the art? How about we preserve a section of ICE GATE for the next venue which hosts Paintings Below Zero.

We watched the opening on the tv back at the small apartment - KD Lang took down my house - and I loved the R&B version of 'Oh Canada!'

Back on the coast for this Saturday, we attended the wrap-up party for the dancers in PERFORMANCE FOR ICE GATE. Like millions of others around the world, we watched the athletes in ice skating, mogul skiing, snowboarding & hockey on television. Delayed, so we could wind past the ads. I paid some bills, did the laundry, talked on the telephone.

Today it hit and we finally had to ask ourselves, how long does tired last?

When the phone rings, I look at it and wonder if I have the energy to answer it and say 'hello' before it goes to voice mail.

Photographers contributing to today's post: Kent Kallberg, Caitlin Hicks, Brent Richter.

Opening!

2010-02-10T17:07:00.000-08:00

First: some of today's coverage in the press:

The Province: Beautiful, bold Ice Gate takes life

Photo by Les Bazo.

The Vancouver Sun: Big Colourful wall of ice rises in Richmond

Photo by Ward Perrin.

The day began with an interview on Global TV; who'd been on the site since 4 AM, filming all the preparations for the opening of the OZone & the Torch Relay. In the plaza behind ICE GATE, a huge screen, under construction since yesterday, began flashing its colours and a whimsical art installation was placed above the steps. Everyone was in on this day.

Deliveries came and went with a frenzy to the Inniskillin tent across the laneway; we completed all the unfinished jobs: black skirting around the base; unwanted ice back in the reefer truck; squeeging, sweeping up, tucking under.

Ari, who drives the reefer truck, nearly hit a pole and then nearly knocked over two speakers with that huge truck. To say there was an air of excitement and a sense of exhaustion is an understatement.

By three o'clock Sunshine Coast dancers arrived en masse. About an hour later, the press began to set up.

Discovery Network, French-language CBC-TV; Coast Cable, Coast Reporter, photographers from The Vancouver Sun and Province, a contingent from the network that feeds footage to the international press.

Crowds gathered. The painting began to glow against the dusk. You could hear exclamations from people as they first had a glance at the colors.

As darkenss fell, Ted Townsend gave the signal that everything was ready.

Gerardo turned the music on, and the dancers began their flash mob creation to a joyful audience. In a spontaneous moment of pure joy, the dancers picked Gord up on their shoulders and carried him aloft the crowd.

When things settled down, Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie made the introductions.

Gord was clearly moved by the outburst, and thanked his friends on the Sunshine Coast, the dancers especially. Then he thanked the crew, forgetting to mention Ari.

After the ribbon cutting, the crowd mingled - we saw lots of familiar faces; friends & family who had come to celebrate.

Inniskillin hosted wine tasting across the laneway.

Thousands of people streamed through past the artwork, pushing strollers, snapping photos.

The painting held up.

We turned right out of the parking lot and found ourselves in the Torch Relay parade! Here's one of the torch bearers, who posed in front of ICE GATE after her moment of handing on the flame.

At the crew dinner, Gord made endless toasts, hitting the glass with his spoon, as if he were at a wedding. The first was a double toast for Ari.

Thank you to the photographers who contributed photos to this day's blog: Al Burns, Kristy Stefanucci, Darcy Lawrence, Conor Halloran, Caitlin Hicks.

Last minutes

2010-02-08T22:14:00.000-08:00

We started the day with an NBC film camera crew at the cold storage. I rode my bike to the City Hall, arriving as Coast Cable TV’s Susan Brinton was setting up to interview Gord in front of ICE GATE. Finally the sun was out, a dry afternoon.

The crew loaded and unloaded ice from the reefer truck for the final touch up. I squeegied windows;

NBC and Daily Planet interviewed.

Met Mary Murray from NBC, and Debi Pratt, an old friend from Inniskillin here for the opening. A reporter from the Vancouver Sun phoned an interview as spring flowers were budding.

"If the glass is below dewpoint, you’ll get condensation, “ Art said at an afternoon break, “44 degrees is dewpoint today. Either you warm up the glass, or warm up the temperature inside the glass.” Then he taped off half the holes on the duct system that Allan May had put together with Mark Stitt over the past couple of days, to increase the force of the heat blowing onto the glass. The crew tidied up.

Emmanuelle brought in yards and yards of black cloth to cover the bottom of the wall and she and Becky and I cut the cloth and stapled it to the base. By that time, it was dark.

Scheduled for six o’clock were four photographers: Kent Kallberg for Inniskillin’s poster, Al Burns, Jim Hollander from The European Press Agency and Kristy Stefanucci, photographer-at-large. A crew of sound engineers began to back up their equipment truck -- they were scheduled for 6 o’clock and wanted to set up in front of the wall. The plaza was full, the artwork brilliant as the cameras clicked. Al Burns took this one.

Below, a photo by Jim Hollander, he says news outlets around the world will have his images this evening - for Tuesday's paper - New York Times, Los Angeles Times . . . have a look.

Shelley Harrison Rae emailed a You Tube url for the dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtPmrkMRRcc&feature=email

1 more day - we open!

2010-02-08T08:28:00.000-08:00

Winter came this weekend, just like in Turin, just in time for the games. Still feeling weak and sick, I drove home at dawn Saturday to sort out the home-front sort-ables. The day shot past - one phone call led to another to the next - the international press has arrived and ICE GATE has been discovered. Rotating at high speeds with the excitement of it, I stole one point five hours on Sunday morning for a yoga class, so I wouldn't just blow up.

Not enough time for everything and I was back on a return ferry to meet Gord in Vancouver, where he had spent the morning, mixing with the people crowding the streets who have arrived for the Olympics, and planning the final artistic and technical decisions on his oeuvre. We haven't solved everything yet.

We met Diode Rick at ICE GATE, who had focused lights on site last week, but had to do so again, as they had been removed from their perch on the Inniskillin tent across the laneway.

It was magical, the night at City Hall.

I saw the painting - almost complete - for the first time.

Citizens of Richmond, out for a night stroll or walking their dog, were curious, astonished - and began to take photographs. Rick chatted excitedly about the deep shadows his lights made on the wall of the painting. We investigated the air ducts; the efficiency of the window solutions; I squeegied; we made a plan for tomorrow's challenges. NBC begins the day with their arrival at the cold storage at 9:45 AM, and there is much to do. This evening at 6 PM, a number of photographers descend to take the first shots of ICE GATE.

It was a moment - Rick's generosity of time, Gord holding the lights while their casual conversation rose and fell; a palpable quiet in the night, the beating of our enthusiastic, excited hearts in anticipation of tomorrow.

Big Day

2010-02-05T12:48:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was a big day.

I took the Canada Line downtown (about 25 minutes!) to distribute invitations to the hotels where everyone from out of town is staying. The sun, the blue sky, the crisp, clear air.

Every where you look, it's Vancouver Blue, and every other person seems to be ready to welcome the world.

I rode back with Diode Rick, who was volunteering his time installing the lights. Back at the wall, Ice Gate was taking shape. Mark Stitt put together the de-humidifying ducts for air flow over the glass.

Met Christa Lee McWaters-Bond under the recently-installed signs for BC House.

The squeegie worked this time and windows on Ice Gate were as clear as the sky.

Becky left early - her "The Choir is Singing" debuted at a coffee shop. The rest worked til dark.

We watched coverage of The Sechelt Torch Relay and Performance for Ice Gate dancers on CTV. (See icegatedance.blogspot.com for more pix). I got food poisoning, I think. Probably too much bragging that I never get sick. Saw the show, anyway heard Becky sing, left early - it was worth it!

Today's photos by Al Burns, Caitlin Hicks and Frank Sciberras, City of Richmond

Sechelt Torch Relay - we danced!

2010-02-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

Photo by Shelley Harrison-Rae

Spring Olympics -6 days to go

2010-02-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

Today is the Torch Relay in Sechelt, and our band of dancers are being featured with Performance for Ice Gate at the relay - watch for it on C-TV. We won't be able to be there - but can't wait for the photos! Break a leg you guys!!! I talked to Ian Jacques, editor of Coast Reporter, yesterday sorting details about covering the opening of Ice Gate here in Richmond, and I detected excitement in his voice - he said the Olympics are very big for the coast!

Al Burns got this one (above) reminiscent of that famous statue of the American flag being raised on Iwo Jima. Al has turned out to be our guy on the ground, showing up and snapping photos - then sending me these surprises!

Today the last load of ice paintings comes out of the cold storage. Here's Ari, driving the reefer truck. Just Business Magazine came out on the coast, Sharron Bates of Global TV was back at the wall, yesterday, filming and Emmanuelle spoke to French CBC-TV about Ice Gate in an interview. It rained and rained and rained. The Winter Olympics have turned to spring. This is just like it was in Italy!

Yesterday Allan May arrived with the lighting and pretty much had the whole thing done in a matter of hours. Gord was impressed with his efficiency, noting with a bit of happiness, that the warmth of the light on the glass softly melted any condensation. Allan left like Zorro, though, quietly off to the horizon, after having saved the day, leaving his steed behind. (read horse trailer). ( I got in trouble for saying 'moments of outright despair' yesterday - condensation IS a topic which has been thought about and planned for all along). So - a thank you to both Al and Allan today!

Neil Thomas of Discovery Network will get footage today and Sunshine Coast CKAY Radio host Sean Eckford is interviewing Gord by phone this morning.

7 days 'til opening

2010-02-03T14:32:00.001-08:00

And it's getting really, really exciting. Signage, phone calls, visitors to the site. White tents up everywhere; construction workers high up on scaffolds, photographers, press calling all the time. Emails with all the plans. Quotes required from the artist, sponsor, mayor. Crew at it until dark lifting those huge bergs.

Yesterday I biked to the site from south Richmond only to find the windows on the wall fogged up.

The squeegie only worked for 15 seconds, so I wiped them down with a window chemical - which seemed to work! All that trouble and expense - the world about to break down the doors to see what we've got and -- the windshield fogs up!

Luckily it's an anticipated and easily-remedied challenge. Not that there weren't a few moments of outright despair before Art Sutherland, Mr. Refrigerator guru, came up and said, "Oh, I knew that would happen."

Emmanuelle brought her seniors out to the wall; four groups visited who had heard the interview with Fanny Kiefer on Shaw-TV and made a special trip to see the installation going up.

How many crew can you squeeze into Ice Gate?

Seniors photos by Al Burns.

Google alert: Paintings going up

2010-02-02T12:17:00.000-08:00

Everyday Cat sends me another Google alert on Gord Halloran and Ice Gate. Click the link on the right for Ian Hanomansing's piece for CBC-TV's The National - it aired a few times on Saturday across Canada and got picked up by Yahoo and AOL!

Today's alert: "Gordon Halloran’s ICE GATE is already generating tremendous media buzz as one of the must-see attractions of the 2010 Olympic Games. Exclusive to the O Zone, ICE GATE is a mammoth and spectacular ice art installation . . . ."

Our first day on site at the wall. Myung Sook Lee of Diverse Magazine and Monia Blanchet of CBC-TV came to finish up their stories on ICE GATE. We missed Susan Brinton; crew was at lunch while Shaw's camerman filmed - as Becky played interviewer just across the plaza and indoors. The rain was incessant.

We worked well past dark.

Art Sutherland worked on site today, and Diode Rick, who has come up with a more economical solution for lighting the wall, squeegied the glass. Meanwhile, we have invitations in hand - they're beautiful!

On the weekend, we watched dancers in Performance for Ice Gate rehearse their final time before the Torch Relay in Sechelt.

See more at icegatedance.blogspot.com

8 days left and the big news story was how long people are going to have to wait to get through security at the venues prior to seeing the event, for some, 2 hours! Word of the day: gelid: extremely cold, icy. Do 'comment', sometimes I feel these things go out into the void.

Tomorrow: the paintings go up

2010-01-31T10:07:00.001-08:00

From last day in minus 28 degrees:

Erik Olson and Jaz Halloran photos: tribute to cold storage experience and a sneak preview of one section of the wall.

They've begun to arrive!

2010-01-30T10:22:00.000-08:00

The international press has begun to arrive in town. Thursday night we met the 'equipe' France Television at a restaurant in Gas Town; I was proud to say 'bienvenue au Canada" and to be able to address them in their native tongue - sharing the french language that is also part of the heritage of Canada.

Then on Friday we saw a group from Australian Television queueing up - they've got their official black jackets with their country emblem embroidered into the sleeves.

There is just nothing like the excitement of recognizing citizens from other countries in a situation like this - they're guests of our country, our province, our city - and no matter what our involvement with the Olympics, when we say "Welcome!" it's a celebration.

My writing skills fail me here to describe this experience - a recognition of another, the thrill of pride of country, it's a recognition that each of us belongs to the world. We're all here to share this unique experience -- where representatives of all its countries step out with pride and show off their young, their strong, their best. I'm gushing, perhaps and oversimplifying but it's an unmistakable thrill, a 'namaste', just extending that welcome. It's their experience too, their little moment, part of their memory of their stay here, just as it is mine.

The hotel has been undergoing a transformation - everything wrapped in the blue Vancouver 2010 signage from the indoor pillars to the new, outdoor fences and every other person has a badge with VANOC on it.

The artwork arrived; was hung on the wall and my camera failed me; I think it conked in the cold storage, so I wasn't able to get pictures of all the faces of the men and women at the hotel who helped us these past six weeks.

Monday we move to Richmond and begin installing the paintings. Friday the crew took the day off in preparation, and Gord began to display a bit of energy towards the end of the day-not-in-minus-28-degrees.

Today - CBC TV will broadcast Ian Hanomansing's piece on Ice Gate. At Sunnycrest Mall in Gibsons at 1 PM tomorrow, the dancers of PERFORMANCE FOR ICE GATE will do the dance for the first time in public!

There were five mentions of Ice Gate today on Google Alert. Look what we got on C-TV Calgary, reprinted online

You can’t have an Olympic Winter Games without ice, especially in the home city of the Richmond Olympic Oval, the premier venue of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Exclusive to the Ozone is the Ice Gate, a mammoth and spectacular ice art installation by Paintings Below Zero artist Gordon Halloran. The Ice Gate is presented by Inniskillin Wines, an Official Wine Supplier of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Inniskillin will also present a 60-foot tasting bar, the Icewine Gallery, where wine lovers can sample Icewine (including Inniskillin’s Commemorative Icewine), with proceeds benefiting Canadian athletes).

Al Burns photo at the top.

The Shining

2010-01-27T15:00:00.001-08:00

12 more days ‘til opening. We're laying out the paintings in huge sections as they will appear on the wall. This is my favorite part - the shining up of the surface to glistening.

Today, at the freezing studio warehouse, amidst the buffing, scraping, sweeping and rearranging of ice paintings in preparation for Monday installation, CBC-TV anchor Ian Hanomansing visited, covering our story for the national news on Saturday.

It was one of those chill-to-the-bone days -- indoors, that is.

His intrepid videographer Alan Stewart suited up and exposed his camera to the elements.

Ian, originally from Nova Scotia, seemed oblivious to the cold and Al stayed in the longest of anyone I’ve seen.

Finally, his fingers on the verge of frostbite, he’d had enough.

Katie, Jaz and Becky. Sometimes you just have to get them to take off the goggles.

Everyday we pass the changing city landscape in preparation for the Olympics. Looking forward to being here - on the streets closed off to traffic.

Yesterday, we approved a proof of the artwork and the invitation for ICE GATE. Here’s Erwin in that wonderful blonde lobby, checking the color saturation in a sample of a portion of the reproduction which will hang on their walls through the games.

Looking for creative ways to bring the budget down on the lighting and its install - also making of the base of the wall, and take-down. Pressure, pressure, pressure. My mother used to say, often: necessity is the mother of invention.

Gord on CBC radio

2010-01-26T11:05:00.001-08:00

This just in -- Gord Halloran quoted on CBC in a discussion re: Olympics, artists

“For me, it’s an amazing opportunity offered to artists to have an international audience in their own home city,” says painter Gordon Halloran, who participated in the Cultural Olympiad at the 2006 Games in Turin. For 2010, Halloran has a VANOC-sponsored installation outside the city in Richmond, which is not technically part of the Olympiad. ~ CBC.ca

For the full article: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2010/01/26/f-vancouver-cultural-olympiad.html

Frangible

2010-01-25T14:10:00.000-08:00

February lst, next Monday, the paintings start going up on the wall.

Today, the crew begins arranging the berg-like and flat paintings side by side on the floor according to the artist’s drawings as they will go up on the wall.

and frangible was the Word of the Day. frangible \FRAN-juh-buhl\, adjective: Capable of being broken; brittle; fragile; easily broken. Al Burns photo below.

Last week they cleaned up the workspace, preparing for the next stage. Paintings that didn't make the cut were broken, smashed, swept up and forgotten.

Katie Williams- crazy, rambunctious and outspoken Katie is here from Chicago to help out in the crunch!

At the front of the hotel, the big white tents are finished and fences around the perimeter are completed. At the Vancouver Convention Centre, where the press will be for the duration of the games, I walked past VANOC employees giving info talks to hired hands. We got a proof in today from Lorenzo for the image of Pitture Sotto Zero, the Paintings Below Zero installation for the 2006 Winter Olympics - framed, it will hang on the wall at the hotel during the games. Our invitations go out to the printers tomorrow.

Still, it rains and the float planes cross past my window, splashing into the water below. It's still light at 5 PM. 15 days to go!

Inniskillin, French CBC

2010-01-22T09:21:00.000-08:00

Inniskillin has made an official announcement that the company will be the Presenting Sponsor for ICE GATE for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games at Richmond City Hall. 'Beauty' shots by Al Burns below:

The City of Richmond has been working a long time to realize this sponsorship, which will help them pay their costs of producing this enormous and complex installation, as well as their costs in The OZone. Check out the story in Dine Out magazine: http://dinemagazine.ca/articles/post/inniskillins_icy_greeting_welcomes_the_world/

We met yesterday on the site to talk about their plans - a 60' tent right across from ICE GATE which will serve as host to their wine bar, to be open throughout the games. Viewers of ICE GATE can sample wines while viewing the installation. I finally met Ted Townsend, Lisel Jauk and Shivauna Brown. Also Eric Doucet, audio/visual tech.

They're also commissioning the creation of a poster of the installation - a gorgeous image of ICE GATE - which will be sold at their tent for $10, with proceeds going to support Olympic athletes. I'll quote this from their press release, because it is so apt: Inniskillin’s association with Gordon Halloran came about from a chance meeting between the artist and Inniskillin founder Donald Ziraldo at the 2006 Torino Winter Games. Their joint appreciation for art, ice crystals, Icewine and the changing temperatures that impact both provided the basis for the relationship to grow.

Last year Inniskillin (an official sponsor of the games) released a Commemorative Icewine, which features Halloran’s unique artwork on the label. A portion of the proceeds from every bottle sold supports the Canadian Olympic team and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

CBC-TV, Radio Canada came to visit yesterday, just before the last few pours,

interviewing Emmanuelle, who speaks French wonderfully (as she is from France!)

She was gutsy and intelligent taking on all the questions for the artist in French, while the crew carried on around.

Here they are just before the 'wall of cold': Moina Blanchet, journalist and Jonathan Bierman, camerman

Ice Gate goes Global

2010-01-21T22:15:00.000-08:00

This just in - the Global TV piece will air this Friday January 22nd on Channel 11 from 6 - 7 PM. PRIME TIME! Also there is a feature in the Coast Reporter which comes out today. More . . . .

Glass

2010-01-21T12:56:00.001-08:00

Bob Nixon's TV piece made it to aol video:

http://video.aol.co.uk/video-detail/cbc-featuring-ice-gate-paintings-below-zero/3836257949

SHAW STUDIO 4 interview with Fanny Kiefer on Wednesday January 13, 2010

http://www.studio4.ca/shows_0115.shtml

Photos by Allan May, Jaz Halloran and Al Burns

Broken cuts - 21 days to open

2010-01-19T15:22:00.001-08:00

Art has all but finished hooking up the refrigeration, and the insulation should be on the back of the wall. Nail biting while we wait for the wall's completion, as everyday its construction goes further over budget, a reality we have to somehow absorb. Gord says it's a Cadillac wall, when from the beginning, our budget was for a Ford.

I guess it wouldn’t be interesting, if we didn’t have any white knuckle anxieties on these gigs. Add to that, my laptop crashed on Friday, and the house up the street was burgled in broad daylight. Then I turned on the tele, for mindless distraction, and the gut- wrenching human tragedy in Haiti dwarfed my civilized concerns.

It reminds me of the opening of Pitture Sotto Zero in Fenestrelle for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. There had been no snow since December; people were wondering how do you have the winter Olympics with no snow? We were similarly stressed with the never ending expenses, mounting against our finite personal funds, not to mention the creative challenges of the ‘mostra’.

And then, the night before we opened, it started snowing. It was absolutely magical. Sasa Petricic arrived in our little town just before the big snowfall, and we were all trapped together in the storm.

After what seemed like hours in the cold church while Sasa filmed for The National, we packed into the local pizzeria, shivering and hungry in the dark, but comforted by candlelight on the table and the smell of Italian cooking upstairs. Sasa had just gotten back from Banda Aceh and spoke of the devastation of the December tsunami there. I remember him talking about bodies hanging in the trees, boats upside down on top of houses, an entire world helpless, homeless, without family, or food, mourning their beloved.

We do have our own real challenges - the world is coming to our doorstep to see what we're presenting and they're expecting it to be beautiful and go off without a hitch. Since last week Gord's been holding the tension of all this on his shoulders in the determined way that he does, always working out some alternative to make it bearable before he says a word.

He steals himself against the angst as he needs mental space for the explosive creative. Which right now, is urgently necessary and very exciting. Here is a photo Al Burns took last week, which shows the focus of the work now.

This morning for the first time they talked about ‘the move’ to the site. They’ve begun cutting: 'thinner cuts', ‘off cuts’, ‘cracked cuts’, ‘broken cuts’ - the kind that make the work shimmer. They’re solving the installation problems before the move, and Erik is teaching others how to use the portable circular saw. Below: does art reflect life? Or life, art?

Emmanuelle Renard, our new recruit, just sent some photos of Ice Gate at the Senior's Center - where she works on Tuesdays in a program called "The Arts, Health and Seniors Project". The seniors loved the extra Ice Gate shards. Learn more about the program: http://vancouver.ca/parks/arts/artshealthseniors.htm

We’ve uploaded Bob Nixon's CBC-TV to UTube. Check it out on the right side of this blog. Also look for Matt Hoekstra’s article in The Richmond Review this week.

Catch up - 24 days to open

2010-01-16T10:18:00.000-08:00

Inniskillin is going to officially announce that it is the Presenting sponsor of Ice Gate. This is a partnership based on a parallel love of and fascination with ice. In 2006 Gord met Ziraldo (founder of Inniskillin) at the Turin Olympics where they shared their passion for ice, it’s crystal structure, and the ever-interesting challenge of dealing with an art form that cannot be fully controlled, but when you can get it right - you have something unique, exquisite, ephemeral. Lots more to tell on this as we go along. (Linsey Hulls photo above).

Al Burns took this wonderful shot Wednesday. (below)

On Thursday we met CBC-TV’s Bob Nixon and his famous moccasins.

Week-long, the wall kept going up – Graham Rae snapped a shot of Shelley Harrison Rae in front of the wall - between downpours.

After hours, we were hosted first by Art Sutherland (here we are with Perry Coleman, Art, Eve Marshall, and Mark Stitt – Arts friends and co-workers) – delicious meal and as usual, gracious company.

Thursday, foodie and stand up/sit down comedienne Denise Leung & her partner Kyle hosted us at her loft – featuring the company of a beautiful & mellow rescue dog, and a sumptuous vegetarian meal extraordinaire. Denise is so hip and funny, she fills up the room.

And, at the end of the day Friday, it stopped raining and a bit of sunshine peeked through!

Now, rest for the wicked.

Vancouver Sun article is in today’s paper. On Sunday at 11 PM on CBC, the piece by Bob Nixon and Shaw Cable airs Feb lst 3:30 and 8:30 PM. Also we were just put on Tourism Sunshine Coast website: http://www.sunshinecoastcanada.com/sunshine-coast/olympicartists.php?preview=true Unless otherwise noted, today's photos by Caitlin Hicks.

Fast and furious

2010-01-12T11:27:00.001-08:00

Now it's happening fast and furious. Tuesday the crew went out to see progress on the wall, arriving at dusk. (Erik Olson photos).

Wednesday Fanny Kiefer hosted a live-on-tv interview with Gord at Shaw Cable in her Studio 4 program, and just outside the window, the Vancouver Convention Centre buzzed with activity, while back in Richmond, the crew carried on.

Google alert showed us Kevin Griffin's blog - with the article he's penned on Ice Gate for this weekend's paper. It starts out 'Gordon Halloran creates art in a Blade Runner deep freeze.'

Art Sutherland is in town, hooking up the refrigeration to the wall and the paintings are getting thicker and more glacial.

Sunshine Coast photographer Linsey Hulls visited the cold storage and shared her photography with us. (these 3 & gorgeous opening photo). Al Burns was there on Wednesday.

Both Inniskillin (who is now the official sponsor of Ice Gate) and the City of Richmond are each nailing down more details about the opening, the poster, their Ice Gallery on site. We're still not sure about lighting for the opening.

Vancouver Sun published a map of the road restrictions during the opening and closing ceremonies, saying 50,000 people will have to find a different way home on the Big Day. The IOC tent outside the hotel is daily surrounded by workers in neon striped vests and the sign on the wall says we've got less than a month to go. It's more and more evident that so many people are contributing to this international event and I can't help but feel the excitement: we're an important part of it!

CBC's Kevin Chong interviewed Gord for an article on their website re: artists & the Olympics.

And, it turns out that Anna ( perpetual smile behind the counter at Artigiano), knows Katie Cooper - an intern from the 2008 Millennium Park Installation! (www.paintingsbelowzeroaatmillenniumpark.blogspot.com)

Wall goes up; pressure is on

2010-01-12T09:26:00.001-08:00

Allan May and his construction crew showed up on time yesterday in full force on the site at Richmond City Hall, to begin building the wall.

The rain came pelting down, with spring warmth.

Emmanuelle, our new recruit, brings lots of energy to the crew at cold storage.

A story in The Tyee headlined: "NBC expects to take a bath and VANOC, rocked by recession, still has its hand out." It's only somewhat consoling that we're not alone: we're doing the usual, juggling budgets with cost over runs and unexpected expenses.

Keep an eye out for tomorrow's ICE GATE PRESS:

Shaw Cable TV - “Studio 4” with Fanny Kiefer this Wednesday morning 8:30

Vancouver Sun - article by Kevin Griffin, Saturday, January 16th

CBC RADIO "ON THE COAST" with Stephen Quinn WED at 4:20 in the afternoon on 690 AM

City hall site photos by Allan May. Others by Jaz Halloran and Caitlin Hicks.

PRESS ON! 29 days to go

2010-01-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

Listen up, tune in, turn on as Ice Gate is interviewed, filmed, recorded by the media. Here’s what to look for this week:

Shaw Cable TV - “Studio 4” with Fanny Kiefer this Wednesday morning 8:30

CBC – TV - Sunday night 11 PM and again on CBC News Network on Monday, as well as the CBC website

CBC RADIO "ON THE COAST" with Stephen Quinn WED at 4:20 in the afternoon on 690 AM

This week and next week, publication/broadcast times to be announced:

CTV- Peter Grainger

Vancouver Sun – writer Kevin Griffin

Shaw Cable –TV with Peter Kim, airs February lst @ 3:30 & 8:30 PM

Global TV with Sharron Bates

Ice bergs

2010-01-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

How many layers of socks do you wear in -28 degrees? Multiple choice: 1. Single wool sock. 2. Cotton lst layer, wool second. 3. Same pair all week

Important discussion bandied about Thursday over coffee at Artigiano when Sharron Bates of Global TV came to interview the crew, first thing in the morning. She had been to the hotel for a proper interview the night before.

City-TV braved the cold on Wednesday,

and the next day, we got some magnificent iceberg looking stuff with Sharon and her one woman crew, Carmen.

But first, past the spring salmon on the loading dock.

The work was magnificent, really getting thick and berg-like.

And they had to come out and wrap their cameras, which were 'ghosting' due to the cold.

Scott Wilson at Leader gave us very good seats to the Canuks game with the Coyotes – (who had sojourned at the hotel the night before the game). Gord saw them filing into the bus outside the Olympic tent in front of the hotel

just prior to the game and this morning the headlines “Canuks leave Coyotes howling” and “Another hatty for Burrows” confirmed Vancouver’s win. We sat in row #2 up close to those quick goals, blood on the ice when Salo got his eye poked and 18,000 fans goading players into fisticuffs.

The big buzz on the street is, how crazy is it going to be? : walk, bicycle or transit? One paper said line ups for transit will be double the first day of Canada Line’s opening, which I heard, were . . . long. Another headline: “Who owns the podium? Sponsors save the day and now rule the roost.” Everyone’s talking.

Meanwhile, Allan May and crew are busy bracing the wall at the back. Next week it goes up on site.

The days slip past.

2010 Press in the cold

2010-01-06T16:07:00.001-08:00

Finally, we got on NBC’s radar.

“. . . visitors can also view the Ice Gate, an ice art installation created by renowned west coast artist Gordon Halloran...” ~ NBCOlympics.com. It wasn't much, but our VIDEO got picked up by AOL, (Peter Grainger’s/CTV now on You Tube -- see sidebar), and the local press is all over the project.

In Olympic news, Translink to audition buskers for the games; the Torch Relay ran in Thunder Bay Sunday at the post mile 3339 of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope; Anna Goodman of Pointe Claire, Quebec tore her ACL during the FIS slalom race at Zagreb, Croatia, and is out of the competition for Team Canada.

It was Tuesday of Brianna's first week as paid staff and my first visit to the cold warehouse studio in Richmond. Peter Kim of Shaw Cable, his cameraman, Kenny and I, were just in time for a big pour.

Leader’s Scott Wilson took us down the halls past boxes of mandarin oranges and stacks of pallets.

We were bundled up and it started snowing as we stood outside the plastic stripes-doorway. Inside, the slippery floor stretched out with rows of flat paintings.

Erik pointed out the ‘fat boys’ – in cross-section

and I found some glacial pieces beginning their arctic-like fissures.

Gord gave instructions to Jaz, Erik and Becky, each with a different color of paint in their full buckets.

The place closes @ 3:15 sharp every day and so we were booted into the parking lot where Peter completed his interview and the crew began to stretch after a long day of lifting, pouring hefting.

This week: City-Tv and Global.

Extreme Painting

2010-01-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

We stepped out of the elevator this morning and the Olympic sign in the lobby said 39 days, which for us means 35. Yikes! New Year’s. In the interim, Canada’s Olympic hockey team was chosen (with Iginla and Crosby in Canada red on the front page), the grandson rolled over for the first time and The Province published an article with several full color photos of the Ice Gate gang. These photos by Les Bazso.

Damian Inwood opened aptly with: “Gordon Halloran and his crew look as if they’ve just stepped off the set of the sci-fi movie The Day After Tomorrow.” And he coined this great term, “kaleidoscopic wall of ice”.

It’s nothing if not Extreme Painting.

On the last day of 2009, Gord spilled a bucket of blue paint, which froze instantly; today I got some ‘aerobic oxygen’ because we suspect we’re not getting enough oxygen in that extreme cold – (now that the fans have been turned down). Symptoms seem similar to altitude sickness, and we're going to suggest more frequent breaks outside, water laced with 'aerobic oxygen' and co-enzyme Q10. Thanks, Eliya!

Gord spent the few days on the coast sketching his plans on paper print-outs of the plates/wall. Brianna came to work full time today. This morning Vancouver Sun headlined: “2010 Winter Game Resident’s Guide”; a huge white tent is being constructed in front of the hotel in preparation for the IOC who will be staying here for the duration. Jaz sent us designs for the invitation; Global-TV, Shaw Cable and City TV are visiting the gulag with their cameras this week.

Just got a call from The Discovery Network. It’s dark at 7:30 AM and the rain is still coming down, but I can feel the excitement gathering - about the event - and about the work itself.

At Artigiano, discussion centered around the ‘hefty’ pieces the ‘jagged edges’ and the ‘fat boys’ – poured before New Year’s; Erik couldn't wait to see what the cold had done to them.

Check out the YouTube coverage from C-TV at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyufIJ5Acrk

Photos by Jaz Halloran and Les Bazso.

Like glass - 43 days til opening

2009-12-30T12:00:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, Gord opened The Globe & Mail to Marsha Lederman’s article on the front page of the Arts Section.

"PUTTING OLYMPIC ART ON ICE", it headlined . . . . . "Gordon Halloran and a crew of craftsmen have been busy preparing a painted frozen artwork that promises to be a monumental addition to the Winter Games."

See the whole article at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/putting-olympic-art-on-ice/article1411782/#

Now as the earth turns, minutes are added to the sunny side of each day. At the hotel, the Christmas trees were whisked from the lobby over the holiday weekend, and there’s an eerie silence – no more dreaming of a white anything. Instead, there is a huge sign beside a tv screen on the wall announcing that this is the official hotel of the International Olympic committee. And Wang Shu Gang's 'Meeting' outside on the lawn as if it were already spring.

We celebrated those cozy, sentimental, hyped-up several days of gift giving and merrymaking, surrounded.

Christmas Eve, Tracy’s ‘Nonno’ her Italian grandfather, his three sons and their open-hearted families hosted us in a small kitchen in East Vancouver.

Home grown tomato sauce, Abruzzo fish and home made wine. We couldn’t help but remember our 2006 adventures in Turin. www.paintingsbelowzero.blogspot.com

Christmas Day, after our time-honoured tradition of ball hockey on icy tennis courts, after festive hats around the family table, we toasted to Patrick – who spent his first Christmas in Afghanistan.

After turkey and sweet heirloom confections,

after phone calls to family in other parts of the world, after lights on the tree melted into darkness, that weird feeling of nostalgia and sadness crept in, an unshakeable, mortal feeling, profound and unsettling, like waking up at dusk after napping too long. A shared but dreaded let-down; at Christmas we witness our loss of innocence even as everything conspires to bring us back to that child-world of hopeful, eternal days when everyone you loved was alive, when Santa Claus still existed and anything dark was held at bay by the soothing words of a capable parent and a lifetime yet to be lived.

Monday, the engineer’s signature for the wall finally inked the paper after a year of planning, designing, constructing. Kudos to Allan May.

Today, after our first day back in the gulag, all admitted to being ‘stuck on the sofa’ and ‘totally wiped’. Talk at our Artigiano table was reflective and constructive.

Erik and Jaz have worked as crew since the 2006 installation and are beginning to understand the complexity of creating works in this scale - works which are truly ephemeral.

Erik admitted relief to work the rest of the year as the author of his own creation, but now enjoys being part of the team, as the ‘pressure is off’ and full responsibility is not on his shoulders. “In Chicago,” he says, “the skyscrapers were watching.” "There are days, " Gord admitted, "when the importance of it all escapes me."

Here, the ice freezes so fast, it makes bigger, thicker pieces of sculpture possible.

And, unlike ever before, here there are clear pieces, which freeze like glass.

Photos by Jaz Halloran, Caitlin Hicks and Allan May.

2 days 'til Christmas, 48 to opening

2009-12-23T11:46:00.001-08:00

We kicked off the longest night of the year at the Lantern Festival at the Roundhouse in Yaletown. Ari was the master of ceremonies in a yellow vest, and Becky and Erik waved red and saffron flags onstage.

It was a magic event with hundreds of people watching fire dancers in the cold and an array of amazing events, including a Whirling Dirvish, and from the Sunshine Coast - Twisted String!

The word of the day is clinquant - glittering with gold or silver, and it's all around us -- everything that illuminates these dark days and nights - all in anticipation of Christmas, just days away.

On the way home from an excellent & fun holiday dinner with crew (Becky wore a dress! and Bri brought her boyfriend!) we passed huge cranes between the skyscrapers glowing with Christmas lights, and glimpsed the Olympic rings in the water, this time green.

At the gulag today The Province's Damien Inwood interviews Gord for an article.

Yesterday Allan May visited Minus 28 degrees, and snapped some photos - the work is so complex & layered, with things I have never seen before in the structure of the ice. Yesterday Gord said, "Every once in a while, I'm thrilled." It's part of his usual creativity see-saw, a combo of haunting doubt, necessary confidence and healthy skepticism.

Phase Five deliverables were due yesterday; this morning the lighting arrived on the coast and Allan May got the B-1 form stamped by the engineer for the wall itself. After the holiday, it's all systems go.

Last night I heard the hotel will most likely host a show of the Paintings Below Zero Turin installation during January and February for their 'Westin Unwind'. More on this later.

These short days melt into darkness so quickly.

Muscular

2009-12-21T14:51:00.000-08:00

The ski goggles were a hit, a bucket of paint spilled and froze instantly and it was, by all accounts: “the hardest day”, the lifting, pouring, carrying buckets full of paint and water, chopping, sawing. And for Gord, making decisions. No more t-bars, for instance.

“The scale has been decided, the colors, the forms, but we don’t know what the final situation will be, exactly. Right now it’s exciting to be in the moment. The possibilities are open for us.”

“This is where it all comes together instinctively; it’s like stick-handling, you trust the moment, and go with your instincts. If you were a control freak, you would fail. The environment has its own measure of control; you just can’t have a pre-determined concept. You have to adapt to the qualities you find.

“With brittle ice, you get really interesting breaks; now we’re layering it; it’s somehow more muscular - and the separation of colors is more pronounced.”

“Gord doesn’t like pickles, unless it’s in a tuna sandwich,” Becky informs us with a smile, “I found out yesterday."

"The goggles are pink! Erik got the only pair of gray goggles, I guess he’s the ‘saw man’ so he deserves more manly-coloured glasses. I’ll get over it; now I’m embracing the pink." Becky is the only rookie crew member among us today, and I ask her impressions.

"Riding my bike through Vancouver, it seems tropical, it’s easy after working on Ice Gate,” she says.

“I knew I’d be cold, but I was open to whatever it required. It’s very physical; it’s hard, heavy work, but I’m toughing up,” she says, flexing a bicep. “It’s gender-equalizing.”

On the home front, Allan May’s crew has installed the first bank of lights and the Kingspan insulation on the back of the wall.

He begins rebuilding the wall on the site at Richmond City Hall on January 7th.

Check out the O Zone website! http://www.richmondozone.com/programming/element/ice_gate/

50 days until we open.

How cold is cold?

2009-12-17T11:35:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, the thing was solved. “It was a good day,” Gord said, upbeat. “As if everyone knew exactly what to do – we were a team.” And essentially, the ice set well. On the way home, everyone fell asleep in the car.

That night we went to see Musica Intima, in a show called Noel at the West Vancouver United Church.
Twelve performers with gorgeous voices singing ancient melodies and carols from different locations across the world. Poetry in voice. We closed our eyes in the warm church and let the melodies float over us.

It was absolutely refreshing to sit in the same room as an ephemeral art form and just be with it.

Then yesterday, Gord came back, exhausted, yet on edge. His eyeballs were hurting from the cold. We went out – he seemed driven to get to the store before it closed, resolutely determined to get some goggles for the next day’s work. How many different ways can you say it’s cold? It’s really cold, It’s super cold. Scary cold. How long can you work in minus 28 degrees? With fan-induced wind chill? So we stocked up on goggles – who knows how long it takes an eyeball to freeze?

And, unlike the one-day reprieve on Tuesday, yesterday the ice was brittle. 70 per cent broke when they pried it from the trays.

“On the first day I could be in that space without a hat. Yesterday, it was impossible.”

I consoled the crew that we’re still ahead of the game. For Turin, the other winter Olympics, it wasn’t until January 5th that we had ice. And Gord got reassurances from Scott that they would concentrate the cold at the back of the building, not in the studio. “They’ve been helpful in terms of everything,” he says. “They made a ballet of carrying the plates on those forklifts, with two of those things backing up and moving forward. I had to stop and watch.”

Becky brings Gord a sandwich and they spend the time it takes to eat the sandwich in the warm room before heading back to the cold studio. Jaz took pictures yesterday – they reminded me of the inside of the church at Fenestrelle, before they figured out how to get ice from bubbly water.

This morning, Gord drew the solution he free-associated yesterday: a different way to cut the ice prior to removing it from the tray.

We discussed the benefits of petting the cat for one minute, how the cold studio warehouse is Not a church! And how Sleep Won. Maybe we’ll see Becky tomorrow at the best ever place for coffee on the west coast of Canada.

It's in the water

2009-12-15T11:45:00.000-08:00

Countdown update: 12 days to Christmas, 60 days til the opening of the Olympics, as round tiny snow balls flurry past us.

World leaders meet in tension in Copenhagen, and a blizzard is expected to blanket the lower mainland for tomorrow. We are up at 5 for the first ferry into Vancouver. Early dawn stretches into darkness past 7:30. All weather stations predicting 10 centimetres of snow Monday afternoon and freezing rain on Tuesday for the rush hour drive home.The globe seems to be cooling on the West Coast. I say Let it Snow!

That was yesterday. A dusting of snow - then, nothing but rain since.

“Lots of things were happening today,” Gord reports at the end of Monday's work, “some of which were interesting, some of which were not. The process can be humbling; you’re at the mercy of unknown elements. I have to remind myself to be patient.” The ice isn’t coming out of the plastic trays cleanly; it’s sticking in certain areas. “I’ve never seen it before,” he said.

“It’s a lot colder in there than the other location ( in Chicago); there are technical differences. We did some tests on Thursday last week. Friday we poured a whole batch; only half were usable.”

At Artigiano, the day's work is laid out. Erik: “We ran into a few bumps; it’s really really cold in that space. We’re in the experimental stage, given the circumstances.”

“We know a lot about the variables that are at play,” Gord says. “the water on the site is unique to us; it’s mineral content; whatever is in it . That and the kind of freezing. This place uses air circulation to freeze, unlike Chicago." In Fenestrelle the water came down the mountain in streams, was very oxygen-rich, so it bubbled. Initially that slowed them down. (See http://paintingsbelowzero.blogspot.com/2006/01/we-have-ice-sitting-onstage-in-chiesa.html)

“It’s Improv, " I suggest. "Improv/Science,” Erik counters. It's the creative process, I think, confident in Gord's determination, the same he uses to excel in tennis, in hockey, in squash. Observe, be patient and disciplined. Because of intense cold, the plastic trays are super frozen when the liquid is poured, so that early liquid freezes too quickly. When the second layer is poured on top, it freezes more slowly. Both ices are different in structure and don’t adhere to each other effectively.

“You have to discover how to work with water – you might heat it before the pour to slow down the freezing. Or make sure the entire pour is done at the same time, so everything freezes uniformly.” Put the metal plates on the floor, so the freezing happens both from the air and from the plates. Put trays on pallets to see how that would change the consistency of the ice. It’s as unpredictable as the weather.

I sent them off to the gulag, this morning, all of them hopeful.

“We’ll see the results today.”

Below zero studio warehouse

2009-12-11T11:50:00.000-08:00

“You don’t want to know,” Gord said last night over supper.

Jaz and I sat across from Erik and Gord at a corner table in a family-style Mexican restaurant on Denman. Lights of every color were strewn around in homage to the season; the place was jammed. Minus something-or-other degrees outside and we had begun to thaw.

We were asking about the safety tour the crew experienced the first day at the cold storage warehouse in Richmond.

But Erik and I pressed and the details came out: the place was spic and span clean, really bright and somehow colder than The Fulton in Chicago. With a breeze that sends chills to the bones faster. The smell – not so pungent. They do fish here, and the building doesn’t have the history.

“I’ve seen these places, I know what they’re about,” Jaz had said, taking inventory of his remembered experience.

These warehouse facilities –where foods are temporarily stored as they travel from harvest to truck to warehouse to supermarket– are part of all our lives, but we don’t see them, or even consider them. We were talking about the danger of this particular place. Jaz noted that the fork lifts, those speedy, turn-on-a-dime vehicles carrying thousands of pounds of stuff – which suddenly materialize around a corner -- are bigger here than at The Fulton. But they're just as fast.

“Don’t for one second think I can see you,” the driver of one had said to Gord, after whipping around him with a heavy stack of boxes towering above them both. “Think like a mouse,” he said, “mice are almost never in the center of the room, they wander exclusively on the periphery.”

But the worst was the caveat, “If you smell ammonia, get the hell out of there - fast. It will suck your body of oxygen and you’ll fall to the floor.”

“What does ammonia smell like?” Jaz asked. I imagined the alarm going off – as it did only twice in the past 30 years in that space. Wondered how quickly and how much ammonia it takes to drop someone to the floor, and once down, do they ever get up?

For your own safety, you’re always anywhere with a buddy.

You wear neon yellow and orange outfits. I suggested bringing your cell phone, in case you get shut into a space but they freeze into uselessness within a few moments.

On the ferry we had talked to a friend, caring for her 90-something year old mother. “It’s a beautiful day,” her mother had said, looking out the window at the snow-capped mountains from her hospital room in Vancouver. “That’s Switzerland.”

“We’re all subject to this, “ she had said, “no one gets out alive.”

That and the newspaper articles about deaths by drunk drivers needled into my sense of holiday euphoria and the excitement of beginning this new endeavour.

I felt like a child again, waking from a nightmare, or understanding for the first time what the phrase "putting the dog to sleep" meant. Or that dark sense of luckiness and dread - when you step into an intersection and the car whizzing past doesn't quite hit you. I looked into the faces of these men, whom I love, taking inventory of my attachments. Trying to understand how we got here, and what we’re doing.

The Globe & Mail photographer came today and Gord laments that we have nothing to show yet.

Photos by Jaz Halloran.

On a schedule

2009-12-10T16:36:00.000-08:00

How many days until the Olympics? And did anyone catch the bit on CTV? This morning we opened our email only to find that Peter Grainger’s piece had aired last night around the dinner hour.

A song loop served as background "Have yourself a merry little . . . " for our first crew gathering in the cafe at Westin Bayshore. Missing Erik and Becky, we handed out checks and PBZero jackets and planned our daily travel across the city to the cold studio warehouse. Here they are, Gord, Jaz, Briana and Ari, rough and ready, against the golden lobby, bedecked with sparkling evergreens. Then, a surprise: a voice mail message from the office of the Governor General of Canada, replying to our invitation with a question: what time is the opening of Ice Gate?

Forgot to mention the weather. Brilliant sunshine, arctic blast of air; the mercury hovering between minus 4 and minus 7 celsius.

Yesterday in conversation with the Western Arts Correspondent from The Globe and Mail, (Canada’s national newspaper), Gord observed that around the world, there are places where snow and ice are rarely seen. Countries, where fierce, white winters - once commonplace - are less predictable, occasional, or not at all. That in our warming world, the experience of big ice and snow is becoming precious and memorable.

He was also talking about Paintings Below Zero. Jewel-like, mysterious and beautiful, the work is also fragile, much like the planet on which we live. It’s just a matter of one degree – a slight, seemingly insignificant, silent degree, which is the difference between a thing of beauty and a big, slushy mess. The bird’s eye view from the space shuttle springs to mind, our world, spinning round and round.

"You don't have much time," Marsha Lederman said, referring to the unknowable nature of the work, the breaking, the melting. "You’re on a schedule.” And he said, “I have to be relaxed about it. The medium I’m working with is fragile and ephemeral.” As we are.

This is Erwin Mah, a very capable and intelligent gentleman who hosted us for breakfast at the gracious dining room at The Westin Bayshore upon our arrival. A good meeting, lots of exciting ideas. Now homework.

Erik Olson arrives from Calgary tonight. He and Jaz have been with us since 2006, Turin. see: www.paintingsbelowzero.blogspot.com

The adventure begins

2009-12-08T22:43:00.001-08:00

Linsey Hull took these photos, and I just love them. Here they are at Northwest Contracting during the CTV interview, which hasn't aired yet. Allan May has been so resourceful and professional and just downright affable - easy to work with - thorough. And best, excited about the challenge, loving the work. The wall is as sturdy and tight as it can be; now it's just the engineer to sign off on it. It's December already. Tomorrow, we begin in the city.

Early ferry. A breakfast meeting. Afternoon, an interview with The Globe & Mail. Last minute logistics - a cell phone, setting up our transportation across town with the crew. I'm bringing our embroidered black Paintings Below Zero jackets. Checks and contracts. Squash racquets. Just heard today that our lodging in Richmond for February will work out. Eight weeks 'til opening. I'm excited.

Press on

2009-12-04T12:21:00.001-08:00

At the last rehearsal for Performance for Ice Gate Sunday, Judith and Julien Mathieu, two of the dancers, presented us with Westworld Magazine, where a full color photo of Paintings Below Zero at Millennium Park in Chicago (above) promoted the upcoming Ice Gate. Ten weeks to go - the excitement is palpable. (Photo by Patrick Pyszka).

Yesterday CTV's Peter Grainger interviewed Gord for two and a half hours in his studio for a special documentary report on Ice Gate. He's going to follow the process - from the making & breaking of the paintings - to the installation of the wall on the site - to the installation of the paintings on the wall - to the opening. Then we got an email today - the piece will probably air on Monday, December 7th on CTV. Tune in!

He brought Adrian Goldberg, who is CTV's Olympic lighting director to light the set and Ron Fisher, cameraman. We met Peter in the nineties, when he worked for CBC and created a short doc on the early ice paintings - he was the first television reporter to do a story. So it was great to see him -- and Adrian, our lighting guy from Chicago's mammoth installation, Ice Wall.

Then they all piled up to Northwest Contracting across the highway where Allan May's crew has constructed the housing which contains the wall.

Linsey Hulls took this photograph for another article. (See selectphotography.ca)

We just found out where we're going to be staying for December and January - what a relief! Now we can figure out the logistics of so many things: crew transport, cell phone requirements, food, crew meetings, even fitness! With only one weekend to go before we're skedded to begin the project in Richmond, it couldn't have been more welcome news.

Everything, poised to begin

2009-11-27T15:08:00.000-08:00

THE PRESS HAS ALREADY BEGUN: Science Magazine in Washington, D.C. used an image from the Ice Wall installation to illustrate crystalnucleation. The 2010 official souvenir program was published with a color photo of the artist installing yellow shards at Millennium Park.

Two weeks ago, Gord was interviewed for an article in Coast Life by Jan de Grasse. And this week Sarah Nicholson is gathering info for an feature in Just Business. We got calls from CTV and The Globe & Mail.

We met with San Francisco, that magical city. And after all the conversations with interested parties, it was City Hall that captured our imagination for a future installation. Thankfully, the sun shone the whole week.

Nothing wrong with that. Because back home on the Sunshine Coast, where the crew was putting together the structure, it was raining pole cats and dogs, stair rods and old wives. It was pouring to beat the band. The devil was whipping his wife. It was raining ropes. And when the skies parted, the crew went back to work.

Now the whole structure is shiny, designed to be air tight once the glass is installed. We're waiting to hear back from the engineer, who'll put his stamp on the plans. Then - believe it or not, the whole kit and kaboodle will be disassembled - and carted to Richmond, where it will be re-installed on the site.

The date for the opening of ICE GATE has been changed to correspond with the Olympic Torch Relay in Richmond, and is now February 9th, in the early evening.

In Vancouver, Ari worked out the important agreements with the cold storage location where we'll make the paintings. We're being inundated with INTERN replies to a Craig's List ad for help with the project. Erik Olson is in town; the painting Core Crew is gathering.

But there are questions: among them: we still don't know where we're going to stay in Richmond, and the time for the opening of ICE GATE has not yet been determined. Meanwhile, local dancers are cutting a rug at The Seaside Center rehearsing for Performance for Ice Gate. See www.icegatedance.blogspot.com

Ode to fall

2009-11-06T16:36:00.000-08:00

We ventured into the city for a meeting with Adrian Goldberg, primo lighting guy (he's doing Olympic lighting for C-tv but that's certainly not his only claim to fame). And we encountered this ukulele player and singer Ralph Shaw, who brought me to tears singing "Somewhere over the rainbow . . ."

It was a day that made you ache just to witness it - the bright yellows and oranges, the blue water along Coal Harbor and crisp, cool air.

Below: Adrian and Gord, at the bar, working it out on napkins.

It's up and it's skookum!

2009-10-29T14:33:00.001-07:00

The back of the wall.

Check out those details: the topic of discussion in the endless conversations with hands going this way and that, with scribbles and crude drawings on envelopes, napkins, pieces of plywood -- the details -- to ensure that the structure will be air tight, water tight, strong enough to hold the weight of the glass, the metal, the ice -- here they are.

Plates

2009-10-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a blast from the past: Erik Olson and Gord Halloran in the square at Fortezza di Fenestrelle, waiting for the plates to be set up in the church -- for the installation for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Check out the alps in the background, the snow everywhere. www.paintingsbelowzero.blogspot.com

These same plates - they've been to Italy, Toronto, Niagara-on-the-lake and Chicago.

Now, they're on the Sunshine Coast at Northwest Contracting, where it's fall, it's sunny.

The barn's been raised

2009-10-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

We got there at the last minute, after all these small considerations had been carefully thought out.

And realized.

Just in time for the last frame to be raised.

Mind you, all this is coming down again, piece by piece, shipped to Richmond, and re-assembled on site.

The crew gave me their contact info, written in pencil on a piece of plywood. The next few days, they'll be attaching the plates to the structure. Here they are, our trusty friends, the refrigeration plates (who have gone with us from Italy, to Toronto, Niagara-on-the-lake, Chicago) all stacked up and ready to go again.

Then when we went to the post office, there was a package - from Erik Olson - with photos of all the past installations. Just to remember, here's one of his treasures:

Does anyone know what installation this one is from? Send me a note! (include your email; if you're the first to guess right, I'll send you a poster! Hint, hint:)

www.paintingsbelowzero.blogspot.com (Italy)
www.paintingsbelowzeroinontario.blogspot.com
(Toronto, Niagara-on-the-lake)
www.paintingsbelowzeroinmillenniumpark.blogspot.com (Chicago)

Yesterday

2009-10-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

You know that saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words" ??

In the Details

2009-10-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

Things are coming together in a hurry at Allan May's Northwest Contracting.

Faster than the leaves are falling off the trees. It's all about the widgets, drill holes and fittings that will make or break us when the heat is on:

the o rings, the Q decking, the flush bolts, the valve fittings.

I saw the horses in the fields, met the crew, (including 'The Welder') and learned they've just drilled 480 new holes in the refrigeration plates and the t-bars. Brian Kane is making the plywood deck upon which the structure will be based.

In spite of the fact that we're one t-bar short, the frames will be welded together tomorrow. Here it is - the length of it.

115 days until the opening of the Olympics, and we open two days prior.

Follow Performance for Ice Gate at www.icegatedance.blogspot.com

Diwali & drawings on a napkin

2009-10-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

It's happening here on the Sunshine Coast! up at Allan May's where the structure to hold the Ice Gate is being constructed.

It's an exercise in discovery: they're making the wall and will dismantle prior to rebuilding it at Richmond's City Hall - and in the process find out any unforseen details prior to the final approval of the design.

Check it out: here is (almost) the length of the Ice Gate !

Sandi Swanigan was our hero at a meeting with the City of Richmond, where David, Ann, Alan, Gord, Doug and even Ari (on the phone) were present.

We covered accommodation, cold storage space, budget, and other essential topics in the wake of Ann Phelps' absence, and now we're back on track. I still can't wait to meet Ted Townsend.

Here are some pics of our adventures; an excellent restaurant with every kind of vegetarian curry; that's Gord and Allan drawing on a napkin.

They're always at it, penning in new details, sorting out the creation of the wall structure. It's going to embody the word "skookum" as far as I can tell.

Here's a tardy pix from Allan's camera: unloading the container prior to loading it up to go to the Sunshine Coast.

Had our first rehearsal of Performance for Ice Gate in Sechelt's Seaside Center. Check it out:
www.icegatedance.blogspot.com

Improvisation!

2009-10-06T16:19:00.000-07:00

We're setting up an Ice Gate Central on the coast where we'll build the first section of the free-standing freezing wall with a very capable Allan May. In Richmond, our Production Manager, Ari Lazer, is on the hustle for the freezer/cold storage space.

Meanwhile, luckily there is something absolutely joyful happening to distract us all - Performance for Ice Gate. We had our first rehearsal last Sunday, and gathered in Frank West Hall in Gibsons. Keep up with the dancers, choreographers, the fun at:

PERFORMANCE FOR ICE GATE BLOG:
www.icegatedance.blogspot.com

Scaffolding & Dance

2009-09-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

Scaffolding has arrived on the coast and we’re setting up at Allan May’s place. JC reports back on newly manufactured trays to hold the new ice configuration;

Here they are, only 4 were successfully constructed with no ‘wrinkles’. Gord designed one for aluminium and a local metal studio created a shiny new prototype for the now-taller cookie cutter form.

Performance for Ice Gate had its 2nd Call for Participation. Check out the fun at www.icegatedance.blogspot.com

Catching up

2008-11-25T21:47:00.000-08:00

From Chicago, the final tally: Over 176,000 visitors came to Millennium Park in the bitter winter to see Gordon Halloran’s Ice Wall.

And in the end, Museum of Modern Ice garnered 1.8 million dollars of free publicity with Paintings Below Zero on Chase Promenade.

On October 3rd we took the ferry to the mainland and finally signed the letter of agreement with the City of Richmond for The Ice Gate at the Olympic Oval. We’ve been working on getting this gig – meetings, emails, presentations -- for probably two years. Good things take time.

There is a sign on Ann Phelps door which says: “Good, fast, cheap – pick two”.

Here she is with Gord just after the contract was signed. She’s probably making some kind of zany joke. Her straight man delivery is impeccable.

Here’s what our press release says:

"Gordon Halloran, the B.C. artist who invented the new art form of paintings made in ice, Paintings Below Zero, has been recently commissioned to create a monumental installation for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The City of Richmond, which hosts the Speed Skating Oval has contracted with Halloran to create an enormous “Ice Gate” at the entrance to the Oval for the duration of the games.

"This dramatic installation in ice will serve as a stunning visual tribute to Canada, the City of Richmond and the Province of British Columbia throughout the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

"Made with a uniquely Canadian art form, Paintings Below Zero, The Ice Gate will be the largest installation the artist has created to date, measuring over 100 feet long and 14 feet in height.

"Inspired by a glacial wall in its final stages of movement toward the ocean, the installation will evolve over time with natural and planned changes, encouraging visitors to return frequently to observe the activity.

"The installation, enormous in scale yet intricate in detail, will reveal stunning patterns created by the interaction of pigment with the crystal structure of the ice."

Kiri McLeod helped midwife the contract, wrestling it from the lawyer’s office and delivering it to us numerous times and back again. Here she is with marketing assistant David Chinn, in front of a map of the “O” zone. This is where it all going to happen, come the big two weeks in February of you-know-when.

Then on November 5th, with 464 days left to countdown to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Inniskillin Wines, an Official Wine Supplier, officially launched the exclusive Inniskillin Vidal Icewine Commemorative Edition in Vancouver.

"Each commemorative bottle features the stunning artwork of Canadian artist Gordon Halloran, who made his Olympic debut with his Paintings Below Zero installation as Canada's official representative at the Cultural Olympiad of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy. Using ice as his canvas, Halloran paints spectacular abstract images that, like Inniskillin Icewine, have garnered worldwide acclaim." A portion of the proceeds from every bottle sold will support the Canadian Olympic team and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Here's Gord with Scott Starra from Inniskillin Wines with Deidra Dionne and Steve Omischl, who are each two-time Olympic competitors. At the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Dionne captured a bronze medal.

Last weekend we went into the city to meet with Rafael Santa Ana of Studio Elemental. He and Gord discussed architectural elements of the design for The Ice Gate.

News from the crew: Jaz Halloran finished his design project for the Diwali Festival, and we caught up with him next to one of the posters he designed - on display all over the city of Vancouver.

Production Supervisor Tim Furness & crew Jaz Halloran unpacked ice equipment from storage to a new ice studio on the Sunshine Coast. Two days later here he is, bon voyage, Tim!

Photo credits: Hamid Attie (Inniskillin photos) and Caitlin Hicks