Integrating Art with Architecture

Compiled by Savitha Hira

Photography: Marc Cramer; courtesy Linda Covit

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Addressing social issues, reviving cultural elements, building key dialogue... are only some of the multi-faceted points-of-contact that foster public art projects. Quebec-sculptor Linda Covit is all set to bring on a pseudo-emotional member for a new hospital coming April'15...

The MUHC (McGill University Health Centre) is one of the world’s foremost academic health centres due to open in April 2015 at the Glen site, in Montreal, Canada.

 

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Completed in November 2014, the hospital complex houses eleven public art commissions – the largest being Havre - incidentally, also the largest commission of the Quebec government’s integration of art to architecture 1% policy realized till date.

 

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Primarily installed to act as a beacon for the hospital, the art installation stands loftily at a height of 42’8” with a diameter of 51’8” at the entranceway ground, clearly visible to commuters in nearby trains and the general traffic. It is scenically positioned amidst a lush landscape with its many public gardens; while it is more individually juxtaposed with a personal feel at close quarters.

 

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The painted aluminium sculpture fitted with LED projectors and programming equipment invites an intimate experience, conveyed as a “sculptural embrace” as it welcomes patients, visitors, staff and passers-by into the artwork through its three "doors”. Formed like a voluminous tulip petal, the individual aluminium strands cast intriguing shadows, changing perspectives with the sun’s shifting position; while the evenings see the entire sculpture come alive in a pre-programmed schedule of 30-minutes each in shades of blue and blue-green - colours that evoke both, air (sky) and water elements essential to life.

 

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The artist-sculptor Linda Covit, renowned for her public art commissions is a recipient of several grants and accolades and is especially sensitive to the emotional ethos that binds the communiqué between an intellectual musing and the hoi-polloi.