Finalists for Pier 3 Gateway sculptures revealed

Thunder Bay’s waterfront has and continues to be a nexus of movement by land, lake, air and rail, said the city’s public art coordinator.

“This was a site people were meeting each other, saying goodbye to each other waiting for somebody looking over the shoreline,” said Reana Mussato.

That’s the feeling the city wants to convey with public art installations at Prince Arthur’s Landing. They unveiled the three finalists for the Pier 3 Gateway sculpture at the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Thursday afternoon.

The first piece for consideration by Alberta’s Andy Davies is titled Traveller’s Return and involves a cluster of three stylized water droplets and a one single droplet.

The cluster represents Thunder Bay and the single droplet is the traveler either leaving or returning to the city, said Mussato.

Watching Over, Awaiting was submitted by Vancouver’s Jacqueline Metz and Nancy Chew; their work is a youthful figure cast in bronze standing on top of a cluster of oars. Mussato said the figure represents either a youth waiting for family to return or waiting to take a journey of their own.

The last finalist is Ernest Daetwyler’s Probing into the Distance, which depicts a stack of various types of luggage used throughout history with a golden eagle sitting on top.

Mussato said the battle is now on between the three pieces of artwork and it’s now the public’s turn to provide input on which piece they’d like to see on Pier 3.

People are welcome to view models of the shortlisted works at the Museum until March 25 and submit their preference and any comments on the art.

That input will be given to the public art jury that will decided the winner. The jury is comprised of a minimum of three public art committee members, a rep from the waterfront development office and a cultural services representative.
 
Mussato said that no matter the winner, it’s a credit to these artists to have come this far as the selection process is rather rigorous.

“It’s a standalone piece of work so for an artist it’s an incredible thing for your portfolio,” she said, adding they received more entries for this public art competition than any other.

“The waterfront is a sought after place and we’re getting a lot more interest from more artists as this project grows,” Mussato said.

Surveys on the finalists are also available online at www.thunderbay.ca/publicart.