The National Capital Commission’s (NCC) new public art installation is being roasted by Canadians on social media – with many calling it ugly and comparing it to trash.
The modern artwork in question was made by Prince Edward Island artist Gerald Beaulieu, who is described as “an artist who uses familiar materials to examine the boundary between what is natural and manmade, helpful or harmful, always returning to his larger questions about how we live in the world, and what the consequences and compromises might be.”
The piece of art is a crow made from recycled rubber tires and is titled When the Rubber Meets the Road.
“By turning our garbage, discarded old tires, into a carrion consuming corvid, that just happen to be the collateral damage of our commuter culture. I hope to have effectively commented on how our habits affect habitat and the creatures that inhabit our shared spaces. [The sculpture] is literally a collision between wildlife and our domestic lives, a theme that I have explored often in the past,” said Beaulieu.
The NCC’s newly installed artwork alongside Ottawa’s LeBreton Flats pathway has garnered criticism on social media.
True North’s Rupa Subramanya said the art piece “looks like a dead bird or someone left a garbage bag on the curb.” She added “I know this route quite well and this area is screaming for better lighting in the dark. Definitely not this!”
Journalists Matt Gurney and Bryan Passifiume both said the artwork looked like a giant dead bird. “It looks like an enormous dead bird that hasn’t been cleaned up yet,” wrote Gurney. Passifiume wrote “Gigantic dead raven lying in the grass — anybody know if they’re still running that West Nile Virus hotline?”
Former CTV News anchor Don Martin said, “this has GOT to be a joke. Either that or the NCC is a joke. This is nothing to crow about.” Former Conservative industry minister James Moore said, “please tell me the art is a thought provoking poem on the blue sign and not the dead crow/tire fire fusion thing in the foreground.”
The Hub author Howard Anglin asked, “is there *any* public art anywhere in North America from the last 40 years that isn’t worse than empty space?”
Other Canadians on Twitter also criticized the NCC’s new public work.
“Public art is great, cities always need more of it! But a statue of a pile of tires that looks like a cross between a dead bird and trash someone forgot to clean up, not so much,” wrote one user. Another said “if they hadn’t told us this is art, I’d have assumed that some neglectful construction company had left blasting mats on [NCC] property.” Another user wrote, “at first glance, I thought it was a giant pile of manure.”
A user noted that the place where the artwork was installed was once a landfill, while another asked how much it cost the NCC to install the piece.
One man joked that “they finally got the culprit that has been leaving skidmarks on Pride crosswalks.”
Some people did have positive things to say about the piece of art.
One user wrote, “it’s odd and it’s fine. Small to medium sized pieces that hit both those marks are ideal for dropping around a city. It’s contemporary art. You want a Renaissance painting along a bike path?”
The NCC says the When the Rubber Meets the Road art piece will remain along the LeBreton Flats pathway for the next 12 months.
The NCC communications official responsible for public art did not return True North’s request for comment in time for publication.
