Leap of faith delivers
Motorists driving along the west end of Sherbrooke Street next year will see a striking series of brightly-coloured figures integrated into the glass facade of the soon-to-be completed PERFORM Centre.
“It’s always a great moment when we get to build or introduce something so innovative,” said President Judith Woodsworth at the unveiling of the artwork on November 26. “Today, we’re doing both.” The work will cover the 7-by-30-metre front of the research centre, which will be a hub for fundamental, behavioural, pure and applied health sciences.
Adad Hannah is the internationally recognized artist who created Leap. The photo-based work integrates 17 different figures walking, crouching and apparently flying across the building’s face.
Robert Kilgour, chair of the Exercise Sciences department associated with the PERFORM Centre, spoke at the unveiling about the appropriateness of Leap. “This whole project was a leap of faith,” he said. “We are Concordia and we are risk-takers.” He added that the centre will also serve the broader community, supporting people in their decisions to improve their fitness by setting goals and tracking progress. “The work represents the people ready to take a leap and do something about their health.”
Kilgour and Woodsworth both expressed their appreciation of Hannah’s work, and their pleasure at being able to showcase a Concordian’s talent and vision through the jury’s selection. Hannah graduated with an MFA from Concordia in 2004 and continues to study here in the PhD in Humanities program through the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture. “This monumental work is a major addition to Concordia’s public art collection and to the Montreal landscape,” said Woodsworth.
The in-demand artist, with works currently on display at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, was modest in the face of this praise. Taking the podium at the unveiling he joked, “Concordia has done a lot more for me than I have for it. I hope to hand in my PhD thesis one day as a token of my appreciation.”
Hannah was inspired by the work of Eadweard Muybridge, who used the nascent field of photography in the 19th century to explore humans and animals in motion. His studies predated the invention of moving pictures.
But while Muybridge’s art featured anonymous models repeating gestures and actions, Hannah decided to use a variety of familiar figures captured in different stages of leaping, running and moving. Hannah often includes models with a direct link to his work. He enlisted Kilgour and Liz Fradette, the Exercise Science Department’s Assistant to the Chair, to recruit students, staff, faculty and administrators who “will work in, will train in and will have some kind of connection to the building,” said Hannah. “I don’t create work in a vacuum, context is always of utmost importance.”
The models were photographed in Hannah’s Montreal studio over the summer and were combined in a twostory tableau. The six foregrounded figures will be nine metres tall, with 11 life-sized figures moving across the centre’s second floor.
Also in keeping with the building’s health sciences mission, Hannah chose bright, acidic colours for the figures reflecting the artificial colours used by health professionals to tint MRI and CAT scans.
Since the images are on glass, they will be visible from inside and outside the building, not unlike the untitled leafy mural produced by Nicolas Baier and Cabinet Braun-Braën on the east face of the EV Building. This piece formed the backdrop of the Leap unveiling.
In the seven years since the Baier mural was presented, the technology has evolved. While researching a technique for transferring the final work onto the PERFORM Centre’s facade, Hannah searched for a process that was cost effective, would minimize waste and remain durable enough to withstand Montreal’s weather. Hannah learned of a process, developed in Israel, called DIP Tech. This work marks its first application in Canada. He described how tiny particles of glass are sprayed onto a glass sheet with the use of a machine resembling a room-sized inkjet printer. The glass particles are then fused directly onto the large glass panels, creating a printed pane of tempered glass. The panels, printed in British Columbia by DSG Custom Glass under Hannah’s supervision, are now in a Quebec facility being thermally treated. He, like everyone else, will see the finished product for the first time when it is constructed.
The work is the latest addition to Concordia’s public art collection, which now includes 36 works, some commissioned for the university, some donated by Concordia’s faculty, staff and supporters and some rescued from existing structures.
Leap was made possible through the provincial government’s Politique d’intégration des arts à l’architecture. which ensures that 1% of the budget for any publicly funded building is set aside for a jury-selected artwork designed to harmonize with the purpose and location of the construction. The work also fits into Montreal’s year-long City of Glass event intended to promote the industrial, scientific and artistic use of glass in the context of the city. Earlier this year, Concordia unveiled another glass artwork as part of City of Glass, a series of panels entitled The Four Seasons in the tunnel connecting the EV and MB Buildings.
Related links:
• Adad Hannah
• DIP Tech technology
• Concordia’s Public Art Collection
• Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts
• Concordia PERFORM Centre