Public Artworks by Hosaluk Art – Laura & Michael Hosaluk
Installation Located on the 200 block of 17th Avenue, Calgary, AB
‘Connect’ is a transitory installation created onsite through the fabrication of wooden spin- dles created with the use of a treadle lathe, powered by social engagement.
Like the spindles formed in cytoplasm during cell division that move diametrically apart, gather, and attach, as they actively engage, this installation also has the ability to grow and travel along a straight line, circle, or sphere.
Original Concept Drawing Below – L.Hosaluk
CONNECT: This experiment in public furniture making involved live woodturning and the use of a bicycle-powered lathe. The week-long residency included designing, building, turning, joining and installing a new handmade public bench and a community meeting place for people to interact with.
This live woodturning furniture installation by Saskatchewan-based father/daughter artist duo Laura & Michael Hosaluk. The pair have set up a street-level generator-powered workshop which includes a wood lathe, bandsaw, drill press, and 1512 lbs of yellow cedar material to be used in the public construction of a seating structure on 200 block of 17th Avenue from August 11-18, 2017.
See video here! https://vimeo.com/410847805
This project was made possible by the cREative Realm, a reconstruction project along Calgary’s 17th Ave SW. from Macleod Tr. to 14 Street. SW.
The cREative Realm contracts artists who will conduct short term, temporary and site specific art projects that engage the unique communities that touch on the corridor.
The overall framework for developing projects for the cREative Realm is one that is based upon adaptability. Individual projects need to respond to construction processes and scheduling. Artists/artist teams will work in a “block-by-block” manner, responding to the unique conditions of construction and the characteristics of each block along the 17th Ave corridor.
Execution of Concept Drawing #2. by M. Hosaluk
Artist Statement
The nexus of this creative force will come through the social engagement, thru the under- standing that the pictorial space is influenced by the viewer’s intentions and interaction. Connection, whether brief or long, help join together, as to provide access and communi- cation, providing insights to the difficulties and the possibilities of ‘making things well.’
The ability to engage and create narratives with the audience will create the opportunity for many people, to feel part of something larger, making statements about our relationship with the earth and as human beings and the state of affairs that we are presently experi- encing in all respects; land use, beautification, waste, creative possibility and inter- relatedness. L.Hosaluk
Bridging Whirlds: a Wandering Island Project
The WANDERING ISLAND is a site-specific, collaborative art project conceived for Elbow Island, a Calgary/Mohkínstsis park balancing precariously between city + nature, land + river, public + private, camouflaged + forgotten. The Wandering Island has a mandate to create slow art for the audience of birds, bats, beaver, fish, and the occasional curious wanderer.
Hosaluk Art, ( was invited by local artists Lane Shordee, Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett, The Wandering Island was commissioned through The City of Calgary public art program and funded through the Elbow Island Park fish habitat restoration and flood mitigation project.
Artist Statement:
A Creator’s core desire is to create things of enduring value not only in form but in formlessness. A bench acts as the vehicle for one or more to gather; an opening to belong in the interconnectedness of life. A place to sit in the experience of inner expressions combined with the outer world that surrounds. How can the viewer influence the space? How does the space influence the viewer? How often do the two exist at once?
This installation represents imaginative environments that bridge the conditions to invent creative possibility found in viewing our Earth as truly ‘ours’ rather than “mine”.
L.Hosaluk
Original Concept Above
Filmmaker Ramin Eshraghi-Yazdi and photographer Mike Tan are building an archive of imagery to supplement the real-time experience of the space, gently challenging the silent voice of Public Art in Calgary.
Artist Call for Phase Two of the WANDERING ISLAND HERE: https://https://wanderingisland.ca/newsletter/