AmiskwacÎw Wâskâyhkan Ihtâwin

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Title: AmiskwacÎw Wâskâyhkan Ihtâwin
Photo Credit: Shirley Tse - Girl Named Shirl Photography
Lead Artist(s):

Description:

AmiskwacÎw Wâskâyhkan Ihtâwin is immersive wayfinding that celebrates Edmonton’s people, history, landscape, and wildlife. Walkers are led from park to park by a flock of Bohemian wax-wing birds. 150 copper silhouettes capture the birds in all stages of flight and are decorated with storytelling patterns created in community workshops facilitated by Métis artist Destiny Swiderski. Knowledge holders and Elders supported the artist throughout. Flight studies inform ten different shapes featuring the wax-wing from takeoff to mid-flight and beyond. This procession is further accentuated by an aerosol painting depicting the edge of the boreal forest – Edmonton’s natural context and the landscape that is true to “this place”. AmiskwacÎw Wâskâyhkan Ihtâwin is immersive wayfinding placing Cree–the Indigenous language of the Edmonton area–in the heart of downtown. The syllabics and translation express the Indigenous roots of this special place; a place to gather and share stories about the past, present, and future.

PROJECT LOCATION

Park
Michael Phair Park is an urban green-space/pocket park abutting Edmonton's 104 Street Promenade, the site of outdoor markets, events, and a thriving community of urban dwellers.
Michael Phair Park
10124 104 St NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 1A7
Canada

click the map to enlarge
PROJECT TEAM

Edmonton Arts Council
City of Edmonton
Robert Harpin

Katherine Kerr
City of Edmonton
Edmonton Arts Council
AJA Louden, Art of the Move, Special Metal Fabricating
Adrian AJ Louden, Fred Nash
PROJECT DETAILS

Permanent
86,112
Percent-for-Art
Gateway, Mixed Media
Metal, Mixed Media, Mural, Painting
2016
2017