I am delighted to be one of the 30 winners of the SAW Prize for New Works which will lead to public presentations at SAW in 2021.
When SAW reopens to the public, the winners will gain access to the centre’s various spaces for rehearsals and testing out new ideas, including its exhibition spaces, the Nordic Lab screenprinting and production studios, and the Club SAW performance venue.
I look forward to seeing what will happen.
excerpt:
"The artwork chosen for the front cover of the book is a 2016 piece by Ottawa-based artist Kenneth Emig titled “A View from Two Sides,” on the Adàwe Crossing on the Rideau River, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (Figures 1, 2, and 3). Adàwe is an Algonquin word which means trade. Emig defines the piece as a kinetic observatory, and in his own words:
“The original call for submissions required an artwork that would connect both neighbourhoods, both sides of the Rideau River. The spheres reflect into one another. There are many contrasting scenes and views available, for example, comparing the surrounding environment to the concentrated image of the environment in the spheres or the sky and the water. There are also no sides on a sphere. What are the two sides?”
Indeed there are no sides to a sphere and what conversely emerges is a kinetic contiguity of place and continuity of time suggesting that we cannot fragment or segment the land or its people from the stories in place; there is however a multidirectionality, as a result of a multicultural society and diversity of backgrounds."
book description:
With the continued growth of PhD programs in architecture and the simultaneous broadening of approaches, InterVIEWS: Insights and Introspection on Doctoral Research in Architecture begins a timely survey into contemporary research at academic institutions internationally, in the context of the expanding landscape of architectural inquiry.
“A View from Two Sides” is a City of Ottawa public art commission located on the Adawe Crossing Pedestrian Bridge. The artwork features two 1.5m diameter reflective stainless steel spheres, suspended at eye level above the water. Each sphere presents the observer with an ever-changing panoramic view that includes the sky, river, shores, bridge, pedestrians and cyclists. The artwork is an “Urban Element” on a major pedestrian and cycling connection between the Vanier and Overbrook communities with Sandy Hill, the University of Ottawa and Ottawa’s downtown core.
The bridge provides access to the natural beauty of the surrounding parks, river, and community from the middle of the river. “A View from Two sides” condenses that broader visual experience into two locations and places the viewer in the middle, both visually and figuratively, enhancing the human experience of a beautiful location. The artwork offers a place to meet the surrounding environment and experience the sensuality of engagement.
Project Team
Jury Comments
"The project offers a focal point along the new pedestrian route that emphasizes an interaction of space and allows us to become part of the view. It is a simple idea that is bigger than what it is. A clever play on perspective"
Sunday was mainly sunny, with moderate winds and a high of -18 C, leaving residents shivering in the wind chill equivalent of about -40 in the morning, and -33 in the afternoon.
The cold didn’t stop the installation of an art piece called A View from Two Sides by local artist Kenneth Emig on the Adawe Crossing on Saturday.
Photo by James Park
from the article:
"A safer flirtation with perception comes from Kenneth Emig’s installation Convex Red. The hanging is not ideal, as lights from the gallery reflect the viewer into the work, but even without a darker setting this lightbox with mirrors screws with the mind. I felt as if I was falling into the work — which, figuratively speaking, is what a good piece of art should do."
In the summer of 2012, in celebration of the 100th edition and 25th anniversary of Espace magazine, twenty-five authors from various backgrounds and of different generations were asked to propose five outstanding sculptural exhibitions or public artworks from the period of 1987-2012. Artist Mathieu Beauséjour designed the front cover of this special edition, which enclosed a do-it-yourself sculpture created by the team of Doyon/Rivest – a nod to the do-it-yourself sculptures featured in the magazine’s earliest editions, published in the late 1980s.
Francois Chalifour selected Kenneth Emig in his five outsitanding sculptural exhibitions from 1987 to 2012 and commented below:
"Kenneth Emig: excavating the surface. Cube was hung at mid-height in the gallery, inviting the viewer to lean towards it. On doing do, a gaping abyss suddenly opens up in the middle of the nonetheless solid floor through a plat of neons, reflecting endlessly in the mirrored surfaces. Hades!"
At the CDF 2008, I had the pleasure to be working in a number of different capacities. In addition to reviewing the festival for this publication, I was also one of the post-show moderators for the Dance Dialogues program, as a representative for the Society for Canadian Dance Studies in their collaboration with the festival and The Dance Current. Readers may also know me in my capacity as company manager for Toronto Dance Theatre. It began with a lot of red tape... Kenneth Emig (Ottawa), June 7th-14th, NAC Terraces Red arrows fixed to the sidewalk led the audience from Elgin Street to the terraces atop the National Arts Centre (NAC) for the premiere of Ottawa-based performance artist Kenneth Emig’s site-specific work at the Canada Dance Festival 2008. In the scorching heat, accompanied by a live sound artist, Emig performed on all the vertical and horizontal surfaces of the delineated site. At once tactile and elemental, Emig’s thorough exploration made this reviewer appreciate the architecture of the space – the building is a continuous mosaic of round-edged triangular tiles. Three of these tiles had been removed and filled with sand, gravel or metal. Each was mic’d and provided some wonderful sonic material for the sound technician to manipulate. The twenty-minute work was simultaneously filmed from multiple angles and projected onto the walls surrounding the fountain one floor below in the foyer of the NAC, offering audiences another means to view Emig’s work. Emig’s choreography centred on an inventive use of space – leaving no stone unturned.
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Until October 28, AxeNéo7 presents the Continuum exhibition of multidisciplinary Kenneth Emig. This Toronto native has many strings to his bow, including a public art commission for the Eva-James community center in Ottawa, a series of dancing performances at national festivals, several years of experience in the audio design division. from Nortel, the establishment of the World Forum for Noise Ecology, an artist residency at the National Research Council of Canada, and more! This multifaceted baggage is easily discerned in its aesthetic practice, where sculpture, optics, dance, sound and technology collide for the pleasure of the spectator.
It goes without saying that the immense rooms of the Spinning admire the creator's installations admirably. Three rooms, so three assemblies which, at first glance, turned out straight out of a science fiction world. There is a certain coolness due to the industrial reference evoked by the preferred materials, among others the neon light tube, steel and reflective glass. The geometrical recall of the constructed objects also has something to do with it: it is indeed a "round" saucer, a "rectangular" window, a "cube" suspended. Their masterful size allows spontaneous awareness of the surrounding place and at the same time introduces the interaction between the work and its viewer. This one approaches, observes, moves back, circulates around the composition, in short, it plays with it of its body and its spirit.
Kenneth Emig's cube, 1998, mirror, fluorescent lights, steel, 100 cm x 100 cm x 100 cm.
Facing Cube, a closer investigation of the central prism leads to the discovery of an infinity of returned images thanks to a skilful game of mirror reflections. Amazing that such a simple structure could seem to contain so much! And in the room, even the window, usually caulked to the taste of the exhibiting artists, fits easily into the layout of the premises. As for Convergence, it is a satellite saucer with a shimmering surface that reproduces the true portrait of the one who contemplates only if he is placed at certain precise angles. The changing acoustics are also dominant, the ambient tones becoming more accentuated or fading with each step taken.
The sculptor's approach is empathetic towards an audience challenged to be moved by the space that surrounds it. The innovative man thus wishes "that visitors leave the gallery with a renewed curiosity that will accompany them in their daily lives". Obviously, it was successful.
Ah yes!… It should be mentioned that Emig is part of the Enriched Bread Artists Center, located in the Little Italy district of Ottawa, which opens its doors to everyone for the 15th consecutive year starting on October 18. His studio is also a place to discover!
Until October 28
At AxeNéo7
See visual arts calendar
To see if you like / The works of James Turrell, those of Dan Flavin
