Local Publicity

We were recently contacted by the Richmond Review in regards to an article on the Hugh McRoberts Public Art Project they were covering.  Specifically they were covering the official endorsement of the project by Richmond City Hall.  Unfortunately this meeting occurred over spring break so we were unable to supply them with a student or teacher perspective.  However, The Richmond Review has kindly offered to cover the story of our cement pour and demolding.  We are so pleased to have them share in this exciting process.  Here is a link to the first article:

http://bit.ly/116Fvls.

Casting the lockers and objects

Here are some images of the change room lockers and the objects placed on top of them for casting.  The beauty of the casting portion is that we can cast almost anything using a similar compound to the "mini locker" exercise the students participated in previously.   All of these images were taken by Jasmine in her studio.  We decided since the compound required to cast such a large surface had some levels of toxicity (unlike the mini locker compound which was non-toxic) that this portion ought to be completed without students present and with the proper safety equipment in the studio. Jasmine was careful to keep to student ideas in combination with her own designs.  We now have funding for a potential 6 benches.  The two benches featured here are the lunch and book benches.  The books came from our art department in the form of collected cast offs and the lunch was Jasmine's selection.

Notice the incredible detail here on the books - including the embossed text on the spine.  The sandwich stuck to the casting material, however now inedible, will be forever remembered in concrete in perfect detail.  Once the initial mold is made of the exterior (pink part), then the mother mold is cast to strengthen the outer layer (white part).

We are now preparing for concrete casting day.  Jasmine has spent a fair amount of time researching what kind of concrete to use and how best to cast our design with longevity and structural integrity in mind.  One detail different from the original design is that all benches will be cast in the same tinted colour as opposed to each being a different colour. Through industry experts, Jasmine discovered it was not practical nor effective to try and hand tint the concrete ourselves on such a large scale.  As such, when the concrete truck arrives on site it will contain a uniformly coloured - the vote was for yellow - concrete material. Jasmine has researched coloured sealants that will also do the double duty of protecting the benches and enhancing the colour intensity.  We have not ruled out spot colour (i.e. tinting the object a different colour so it will stand out).  Skala has designed benches for the rest of the space that will be simple, elegant and smooth rectangular grey concrete forms - a perfect foil for our pop of colour and texture.

We are now at the point where we will are planning the details of the pour and demold on school property.  We do not yet have a confirmed pour date, but it will be soon.  Stay tuned!  

All in one day!

Things seem to be moving very quickly now.  In March we met with school district representatives regarding the design and installation of the benches.  We discussed the process, potential issues and problem solved around it.  We are so very lucky in that we have met with such support and encouragement. Michael Palmer, our Assistant Manager of Transportation and Grounds provided sound advice and offered additional maintenance staff to help where appropriate. It was a very positive and encouraging meeting.

We also decided on which locker forms might be best for the project.   We had already acquired a locker bank from a local high school that had closed (yellow lockers pictured), but the design of the locker was partially raised in the middle, causing concern regarding the comfort of the benches should someone sit on a very narrow raised portion.  We had some fantastic older style lockers (green lockers pictured) but they were too narrow to be comfortable to sit on and as they were installed in the school, removing an entire bank to get the surrounding metal frame would cause issues with gaping holes in the hallways, not to mention the students who would be displaced and asked to use another locker.

We began a new search (we desperately wanted to avoid taxing the budget by paying for new ones) and as luck would have it, two doors had come loose from the student change rooms and were sitting in the PE office awaiting rehanging. They were half lockers, meaning they they were organized on the same vertical plane so that one student would have the top locker and another the bottom, but they were wide and flat, and most importantly available,  solving our problem beautifully (pictures of casting and final lockers to follow in future posts).

We met with the students next to provide feedback to Jasmine regarding her final designs and brainstorm objects to add/affirm/change.  Students were very happy with the designs and quickly amassed a list of objects for her consideration in creating the mother mold. As fast as I could type it, here is their list...

Objects for locker tops:

Pencils

Markers

White out

Eraser

Ruler

Geometry set

Headphones

Change

Wallet

Make up

Scarf

Mittens

Playing cards

Tape

Juice box

Glasses

Sandwich

Banana peel

Chips

Big gulp

Cheeseburger

Wraps

Hot dogs

Fries

Sock

Chocolate bar

Sneaker

Test tubes

Paintbrushes

Laptop

Paper airplanes

Agenda

USB key

Coins

Snack shack

Gum

Cell phones

Duffle bag (textile project all students would have done in gr. 8)

Empty cans

Calculator

Magnifying glass

Camera

Hats

Pinwheel

Report card

Crumpled paper

ipod

ipad

Water bottle

Eating utensils

Binders

Notebooks

Backpack

Lunch box

Lunch

Backpack

Wow, that was ONE day.  I am so encouraged by all the positivity of our process in such a short time frame that I am very eager for the next step.

our landscape design

The Public Art Project has always been designed to be installed on school property.  Ideally, we have envisioned this project to dovetail with the RE[3] Project where the school community re-imagines, re-claims and re-creates an underutilized asphalt patch to the south of the school. As part of this exciting process of re-imagining what could/should/might be developed for our students, teachers and outlying community, the public art project has always featured prominently in the plan.  Our landscape design firm Skala has worked on creating ideas that would meet many of the criteria and site restrictions on the space.  As the school is located beside the South Arm Community Centre it whares property lines with the city of Richmond.  Working alongside City of Richmond, School District, Community Centre, student and community representatives,  a working committee of stakeholders has been formed.  Skala has met with our artist Jasmine and more recently a contingent of public art students as well to help situate the work appropriately.  Here are two of their final designs (the Public Art Benches are featured in red):

Jasmine's new bench designs

After our last meeting, Jasmine drew these images in response to student input that the public art piece have some sort of seating component combined with the lockers and the notion of student life. The designs will be made from tinted concrete and steel.  Students, please consider these designs for our next meeting with Jasmine.  Do these designs reflect your intent?  Jasmine has asked that we collect the objects to be cast as part of the piece.  Can you suggest any objects that might be added or are missing?  We will likely not be able to create all of these designs at once, therefore which ones do you like the best? Are there any aspects of student life you would like to see that is not yet represented? Bring all your ideas to our next meeting.  Look for more postings later this week with the updated landscape designs so you can consider how these might be placed in the space.

plaster reinforcement to "mini lockers"

Jasmine visited us again at the beginning of February to show students how to reinforce our "mini locker" molds.  She began the demo by having students place pins along the back and into the rubber casting they had created already. She then applied some packing tape to create a barrier between plaster pieces.  This will allow for two halves ensuring support but ease of release after the concrete sets.  Students learned to mix plaster appropriately and apply it when it was ready to one side.  While we waited for the first side to set, Jasmine showed the student the designs that our landscape company, SKALA had put together for us. We then discussed how the design would work with what we had planned and narrowed down our original sketches to focus on seating and student life as the main aspects for design inspiration.  This was a critical juncture as SKALA's design included seating and students might have easily considered the locker cement molds as stand alone art pieces rather than functional additions to the space.  It seemed unanimous that students wanted something they could use as seating in particular within the design.  Jasmine suggested "bench tops"that we could create out of concrete using the locker form and using the everyday objects we had practiced casting.  This concrete could be cast in any variety of colours and therefore stand out against the comparatively plain rectangular seating forms that SKALA had suggested as part of their beautiful designs.  This was an exciting and interesting way to mimic the final process of casting.

Casting Demo

Jasmine visited us again for the casting demo that began at lunch and ran into last block for those who could stay.  We had about 25 students in attendance.  Jasmine brought with her the components to make rubber molds of "mini lockers" that students constructed.  These were basically cardboard pieces with low relief objects glued to the surface like wrappers, pennies, pencils etc.   Jasmine was careful to structure the workshop so that everyone understood how the process would work and we as teachers took note and discussed how this kind of casting might be employed in the classroom.

After gluing items down on the cardboard, students were asked to coat the items and the cardboard with a very thin layer of petroleum jelly to act as a resist.  Jasmine then asked that they "build a dam" of plastercine around the  objects to prevent the casting material from flowing off the edges.  We carefully applied a thin layer over the top of the surface with a soft brush being mindful of bubbles and being thorough in order to get the best detail.  After the first layer stiffened up we added a more liberal coat that was poured on.  We were cautious of bubbles again and either popped ones we could see and tapped the table to bring embedded ones to the surface.

In between coats, Jasmine lead the students in a discussion about ways they could extend the design (she suggested a weather resistant canvas to provide shade for example) and students continued to fine tune their ideas.

Students were very engaged in this process - it was fun, engaging and meaningful to the project. The final coat was added over a separate lunch time as we simply ran out of time that day.  Jasmine is set to return in February to lead the students in actually using their molds to create a plaster replica of their "mini lockers".  It is likely that Jasmine alone with create the mother mold for the full size locker - especially as this may require a different casting material that is toxic and best left to be created in safe conditions in the studio. However, we know that we will find many other ways to continue student experience and voice as this project rolls on.