Towering, surrealist-style candle chosen as new public art piece at The Forks' Railside development
The Candle, by Métis artist Ian August, was unveiled on Thursday as the chosen artwork for the upcoming mixed-use development.
The whimsical sculpture will be an off-white candle form that bends and curves along the ground.
One end will come out of a simple candle holder and the other will stand almost four metres high, topped by a light that mimics a flame, according to a news release from The Forks North Portage.
The piece, whose shape takes inspiration from surrealist paintings and comic books from the 1970s, will be a focal point within the courtyard of Railside's public spaces.
Construction of the development is set to begin this spring and a spokesperson for The Forks said installation of The Candle will take place when the public spaces of Railside's phase one are ready sometime in 2027.
The planning for Railside has been in the works for nearly a decade.
It will turn a 5.9-acre parcel of land, including two surface parking lots, into a residential and commercial neighbourhood with public spaces, courtyards, alleyways and artwork.
A request for an established Manitoba-based artist to create a piece for Railside was launched in September 2023.
A total of 19 submissions were received and a selection panel shortlisted that to four finalists, who were then commissioned to develop a conceptual proposal to present to the panel.
August's candle was ultimately chosen as the winner. His other public art pieces include the copper-coloured Rooster Town Kettle on Hurst Way, near the Beaumont Station of the rapid transit corridor, and the nearby silhouettes named Fetching Water.
Both pieces honour the former Métis road allowance community that existed in the area before being its residents were evicted to make way for Grant Park Mall, Grant Park High School and the expansion of the Fort Rouge neighbourhood.
The Forks plans to put out another call, this spring, this time for an emerging artist to work in mentorship with August, to create a second public artwork for Railside.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
16 hours ago
- CTV News
Second annual gathering celebrates Métis heritage
A crowd gathered for a market and live performances at Heritage Park on July 26, 2025. (Galen McDougall/CTV News Edmonton) A celebration of Métis history, artistry and contributions saw its second year in Stony Plain on Saturday. Heritage Park hosted mâmawihitowin to highlight the Lac Ste. Anne Métis community. Mâmawihitowin is the Cree word for 'a gathering of peoples.' 'I think Métis history generally is not well known, and particularly when you get to specific communities like ours,' said Tracy Friedel, president of the Lac Ste. Anne Metis Community Association. 'We're really trying to help people better understand Alberta's very distinct, unique history and also our contribution to the building of this province,' Friedel said. Friedel said the celebration was a way to make people aware that her community was more than a recreational site or site of pilgrimage. 'The community has been there for many decades prior to any of that,' she said. Indigenous artisan market The Indigenous artisan market in Heritage Park on July 26, 2025. (Galen McDougall/CTV News Edmonton) The day was filled with kids' events like horse and wagon rides, face painting and games. Entertainment for the parents includes an Indigenous artisan market including traditional foods. Friedel noted that the Lac Ste. Anne Métis community was awarded a Federal Lands Initiative property in Stony Plain. That means a 52-unit, multi-family development is coming to the area around 2027. 'We're very honoured to be able to lead those projects for the community,' Friedel said.
Toronto Star
a day ago
- Toronto Star
One of Toronto's top indie film venues was facing eviction. Here's who saved it
Toronto's many cinemas can be entered in all kinds of ways — by walking through the street-facing facades of the Revue and the Fox, by riding the long escalators up to the Scotiabank Theatre, or by parking next to the Queensway Cineplex in Etobicoke. But for CineCycle one must walk down an unmarked laneway off Spadina Avenue, just south of Richmond Street, and through weathered green doors hand-painted with the sign 'CINE CYCLE WORK TO RULE.' Eric Veillette is a Toronto-based journalist who documents the history of Toronto film exhibition on Instagram (@thedowntowntheatre).
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Wartime jewel thief's story a fab summer read
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau is the perfect summer read for those who want to engage with important subjects but still enjoy a light-hearted story. Its author, Florida-based Kristin Harmel, is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen novels translated into more than 30 languages. Her latest is part historical fiction, part mystery, part romance and part family saga. It delves into the lingering grief from the Nazi occupation of Paris during the Second World War through the lives of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and of former French Resistance members. When the novel opens in 2018, Colette Marceau is an 89-year-old retired librarian living in Boston, and still active in her calling as a jewel thief. The last known descendant of Robin Hood, she was raised by her mother since the age of six to see stealing as her destiny. The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau The family code requires she steal only from people who are evil or corrupt — in this case, Nazis and neo-Nazis — and that she must use all the money to do good in the world. As a teenager, Colette's thefts supported the French Resistance in purchasing safe passage for Jews in hiding, and as an adult, she is an anonymous patron of numerous charities, most notably the Boston Holocaust Education Centre. However, all is not well with Colette — her life is 'stolen' both in the sense that she has spent it stealing, and that a normal childhood and family life has been stolen from her by the war. She is haunted by her memories of her childhood in Paris, where she was raised as the daughter of an English mother and French father. During the Second World War, she lost her mother, her sister, her mother's Jewish friend and the Jewish boy she loved, as well as her father having abandoned her. As a result, she found herself too emotionally damaged to marry or have children, which she now regrets, though she does have a surrogate daughter, Aviva, who she took into her home when she was orphaned at 18. Colette has in her possession half of a stunning divisible diamond bracelet that was created especially for her mother's Jewish friend, Hélène Rosman, to celebrate the birth of her twins. When Hélène was arrested by the Nazis, they took the bracelet from her, but Colette's mother stole it back, intending to return it to her friend after the war. She hid half of it on Colette's person and half on the person of Colette's sister, Liliane, but that half disappeared when Liliane was murdered. Hélène subsequently perished at Auschwitz. In 2018, the other half of the bracelet surfaces in an exhibition in Boston, loaned by an anonymous donor, and this sets in motion Colette's quest to learn the donor's identity and thereby also discover who killed her sister. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. The novel switches between 2018 and 1940s France, showing the devastation caused by Nazis and those who collaborated with them. Harmel delves into the moral complexity of those tasked with upholding standards and serving the public (police officers, schoolteachers) who instead support and do evil, while those deemed to be wrongdoers — thieves — are the characters who stand for goodness and have principles. Colette and her eventual romantic partner, Daniel, are refreshing to read as older characters around the age of 90 who are not stereotypes — rather, they are full and nuanced personalities who fall in love and experience passion. They use cell phones with ease, live independent, full lives and take centre stage in their own story, though they also feel their mortality, regret aspects of their pasts and use their age when convenient to avoid certain tasks. The novel is fast moving and well-paced, with the 1940s and 2018 sections holding equal interest. The clues to the history of the bracelet unfold along with two budding romances — those of both Colette and Aviva. The way things wrap up is perhaps a little too convenient, coming by way of a series of large coincidences, with the last reveal apparent several chapters earlier, but it will satisfy those readers who crave a happy ending. Zilla Jones is a Winnipeg-based writer of short and long fiction. Her debut novel The World So Wide was published in April.
