CWF Olympic Art Installation Focuses on Water Conservation

The Canadian Wildlife Federation’s new and innovative art installation about water conservation will be included in the 2010 Cultural Olympiad and installed at Whistler Canada Olympic House for the duration of the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics. 

“As the world’s eyes turn to British Columbia for the Olympic games, we have an opportunity to highlight some of the most pressing conservation issues that impact not only winter sports, but also healthy wildlife and habitat in one of the most beautiful and popular vacation destinations in the world,” says Wade Luzny, Executive Vice-President of CWF. “CWF is thrilled that its new work, Waterfall, will be included in the ‘Whistler Live’ section of the Cultural Olympiad that surrounds the Olympics and promotes a variety of forms of cultural expression.” 

Waterfall was created by four Canadian artists: Kim Morgan, David Clark, Rachelle Viader Knowles and David Ogborn. This new piece was commissioned by CWF in order to engage new audiences through contemporary art. The artists were asked to address the urgent environmental issue of water use and to create a piece that would work within the context of the Olympics.  Waterfall will be on display at Whistler Canada Olympic House, located in the Whistler Public Library building. This village venue will serve as an accredited hosting facility for the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Government of Canada, the Government of British Columbia and the Resort Municipality of Whistler. Whistler Canada Olympic House will host public events during the games on three Saturdays: February 13, 20 and 27. 

 “Passing itself off as a vending machine, Waterfall is, in fact, an elaborate interactive video sculpture, an intervention into public space that reminds its audience that water is a limited and valuable resource in our world,” says Morgan. “The audience finding themselves in front of the vending machine sees that the usual array of candy, chips, and chocolate bars has been replaced by videos showing the way we use water on daily basis. Pressing the buttons causes each of these images to fall away, revealing a thundering waterfall, a powerful reminder of the force of water in the natural environment that is threatened by easy access to available water resources.” 

The seed of the project was planted through a series of conversations between Morgan and CWF, one of the oldest and largest conservation organizations in Canada. The non-profit charitable organization wanted to use art to reach a wider audience and Morgan’s public practice involves working with engineers and scientists to create critical temporary public art installations using the methods associated with New Genre Public Art. 

The project grew into a collaborative process involving four diverse artists who drew on their backgrounds in public sculpture, performance, filmmaking, interactive digital media and electronic music. Living in different cities and teleconferencing through Skype over a period of eight months, the artists also developed their ideas through interaction with environmentalists and members of CWF.  

"Water is a precious resource that supports fish and wildlife populations, provides important ecological functions and is used in agriculture, industry and recreation, not to mention the main source of drinking water for many Canadians," Luzny said. "Commissioning this unique art installation is just one of the many ways that CWF is emphasizing conservation before, during and after the Games."

 About the Canadian Wildlife Federation:
The Canadian Wildlife Federation is a national non-profit organization dedicated to fostering awareness and appreciation of our natural world. By spreading knowledge of human impacts on the environment, sponsoring research, promoting the sustainable use of natural resources, recommending policy changes and co-operating with like-minded partners, CWF encourages a future in which Canadians can live in harmony with nature. Visit CanadianWildlifeFederation.ca 

Contacts: Heather Robison       Kim Morgan
Media Relations Officer            Waterfall Artist
Canadian Wildlife Federation     (902) 442-4202 (office)
                                          (306) 550-4155     
                                          (902) 492-1434 (cell)   
heatherr@cwf-fcf.org             kmorgan@nscad.ca

Artist Bios: 

Kim Morgan is a sculptor/installation artist working in multi-media. Her research involves the creation of public art installations combining art, science, and technology. From 2005 to 2008, Morgan was the artist-in-residence for TRLabs Regina, where she collaborated with scientists and engineers to create interactive public art.  Such projects include: Data S p a c e d and Time Transit.    Morgan’s work has been presented and installed both nationally and internationally and has been supported through funding organizations such as the Centre for Sustainable Communities/Communities of Tomorrow, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Canada Council for the Arts, and Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage.  Morgan received a B.A. from McGill University, a B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and an M.F.A. from the University of Regina. Kim Morgan is an Assistant Processor at NSCAD University in Halifax, where she teaches sculpture, installation, and public art. She is also a researcher at the Cineflux group.

David Clark (http://www.chemicalpictures.net/)  is a media artist interested in experimental narrative form and the cinematic use of the internet. Recent works include  interactive narrative works for the web, interactive film, interactive public sculpture, and interactive installation. His work has played at festivals around the world including Sundance, SIGGRAPH, EMAF, Transmediale in Berlin, and the Museum of Moving Images in New York. His work 'A is for Apple' won the top prize at the 2003 SXSW Interactive Festival and the FILE2002 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is an Associate Professor at NSCAD University in Halifax where he developed the film program and is a researcher at the Cineflux Research group. 

Rachelle Viader Knowles (http://uregina.ca/rvk) is a visual artist working in a broad range of contemporary media including lens, time, text-based installation. Her works have been performed, screened, exhibited and installed in galleries and festivals across Canada and internationally in the U.S.A., South Korea, the U.K., Germany and Argentina. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Trinity Square Video in Toronto, the Braziers International Artists Workshop in the UK, the Atlantic Centre for the Arts in Florida, the Hungarian Multicultural Centre in Budapest, Residencia Corazon in Argentina, the Canada Council Studio in Paris and the Elsewhere Museum in North Carolina. Originally from the U.K., she holds a B.A. (Hons) in Interactive Arts from the University of Wales and an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from the University of Windsor in Canada. Rachelle Viader Knowles is Associate Professor of Visual Arts Intermedia at the University of Regina.

Dr. David Ogborn is a creator, performer, and producer who combines the traditional performing arts with electronic media — whether these be recordings of diverse outdoor environments around the world, improvisations on a laptop or altered guitar, video projections influenced by live musical gestures, or massive synthesized sounds on immersive arrays of loudspeakers. Recent  highlights have included Metropolis (live electronic music for the silent film, New Wave Festival, 2007), Opera On The Rocks (included in the Toronto Star's 2008 list of "boffo opera") and Emergence (songs for singing robot and electric guitar, 2009). He teaches digital audio, sound+image, and interaction at McMaster University, and is the president of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC) as well as an Associate of the Canadian Music Centre. A habitual instigator of collective art initiatives, he is a founding member of the angelusnovus.net (Toronto), holophon.ca (Regina) and imaginary landscapes (Hamilton).