When Roberts Creek artist Gordon Halloran described his latest ice painting project at a 2010 Legacies Now arts meeting last February, it all seemed wild, marvellous and far in the future. But this weekend, in Torino, Italy, Halloran launches Pitture Sotto Zero/Paintings Below Zero, a display of his innovative ice art, prior to the opening of the 2006 Olympic Games.
When reached by phone in Italy Tuesday, a tired but happy Halloran said that the art aspect of the project was going very well. He and his team were putting in long hours - from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. last Monday, but he hoped to unveil one of his largest projects to the world, on schedule, by Jan. 28. Thousands of visitors are expected to tour the show throughout the Olympics,Feb. 10 to 26.
In 2004, Halloran was officially invited to represent Canada at the Cultural Olympiad that surrounds the 2006 Games where he would install one of his unique ice creations. The exhibition would not only be different, involving the Canadian preoccupation with ice, but would be held at a most unusual site: La Fortezza di Fenestrelle, a huge, 450-year-old military fortress, in the heart of the Olympic valley. Prior to this project, Halloran had exhibited his work at the World Figure Skating Championships in Edmonton where he had caught the eye of the Canadian consulate in Rome who was instrumental in making contact with the Italian Olympics. Halloran has also exhibited this style of work on home turf, at the Sechelt Arena, where an ice painting challenge took place on New Year's Eve two years ago.
His background as an artist includes cover illustration for major magazines and international exhibits of his abstract paintings. In the fall of 1991, while watching a hockey practice, he realized that making an ice rink was probably his first artistic experience. As a child in Trenton, Ont., he spent many hours in sub-zero temperatures laying down sheets of backyard ice with his dad's old garden hose.
"Playing hockey seemed to be the rationale for going to all the trouble," he says. "But I remember being reluctant to allow anybody to use the rink -lest they scrape this magical, shiny, newly-flooded creation. Thirty five years later, I began to imagine the entire surface of an ice rink exploding with colour, a Zamboni used as an etching device, a flood of water over the surface."
When the call came to produce the Torino display, Halloran and the whole family (partner Caitlin Hicks and son Jaz Halloran, an Emily Carr art school graduate) departed for Italy to spend Christmas in preparation. Donning a hockey sweater, the artist set to work - first producing giant wall paintings within a workshop - a centuries-old church inside the fortress. The church is a great backdrop, Halloran says, because of its greyish tones that form a contrast to the bright colours of the ice.
He was joined by others: assistant Peter Braune, a Vancouver printmaker, Erik Olson, another Emily Carr intern, a refrigeration expert (the exhibit uses a portable refrigeration system to freeze and re-freeze the ice), and later, Jeff Harrison, a lighting professional.
The project has not been without difficulties. As Hicks describes on a public blog (www.paintingsbelowzero.blogspot.com), one of their first tasks was to find the right water. Apparently, making ice is more difficult than one would think and the water of the area would cause bubbles to form.But by Jan. 14, they had ice. "Colour everywhere and huge slabs of ice!" Hicks reported.
"Eric and Jaz are pouring a sky blue into large rectangular ice forms in the centre of the church. Gord's at the back, sawing through layers of azure ice, revealing bright yellow underneath. He says it's like mining, and you find a treasure. Everyone has paint on their clothes, their hands, their faces. One piece of plain ice on the far wall under the window, a neon yellow slab centred on top like a glacier."
But the challenges were not over. Every so often, a large slab of ice painting fell to the floor and shattered - although Halloran is keen to reuse the pieces in some other way in his giant, multi-coloured abstracts. The ice workers realized this type of art is fleeting; the creations won't be saved but will ultimately melt and be gone forever.
When the first wall paintings were up, the foreign journalists arrived; coverage of the show is planned on Global TV and CBC before and during the Olympics. Then, to the team's dismay, the temperature started to rise. On Jan. 19 with only 10 days to go before the official opening, the weather was warm and sunny. On the ice plates it registered 10 below, but at the top of the church columns it was only minus one - nerve-wracking for the artist. A gorgeous circular window had to be blacked out to prevent the sun from beating on the ice.
"The stress is in keeping the system in balance," Halloran said, "between what we're creating and the building's environment."
For example, on Tuesday, construction workers on the fortress site wanted to shut down power, with consequent loss of refrigeration. "We're learning to say no, firmly, the way the Italians do," Halloran said.
Visitors often drop in to the work site to watch. Because the Canadian crew has been there for weeks now, they've come to know the community. They've eaten well at the local trattoria, hiked, photographed, enjoyed the cold, sunny weather, and when the display finally opens on Jan. 28, they hope to attend Olympic events.
On Feb. 8, the icework will be featured at a grand opening reception of the Canadian 2010 Olympic committee presided over by the Minister of Tourism, Sports and the Arts, Olga Ilich, at B.C./ Canada House in Torino. Halloran has created the committee's logo in ice as a special effect, and he will show slides of the work in progress.
Sponsors for the ice project have included Vancouver 2010 and Legacies Now funding, though money for everyday necessities still comes out of the couple's own pockets. "It's painful," says Hicks, "but happy painful, because we know this project just has to be done."
