High Water, 2012

Will Gill - St. John's, Canada

Installation

Blending the strange and familiar, artist Will Gill is known for his use of basic elements, like wood, water, and fire, to create work that is infused with a narrative imagination inflected with the whimsical, mythical and ominous. Situated on the pond at Roy Thomson Hall, a trace of the course of a lost river that once flowed beneath the city to empty at the lake’s edge, High Water plays off of our collective histories and deepest memories. Ghostly objects float by – bits of clothing, a bicycle, a fuel container – each imbued with loss and its own oddly spiritual quality, as if the residue or the aftermath of a disaster, markers of past human presence.

At once poetic and probing, the result is a vivid tableau that evokes universal images of natural catastrophes that are part of all of our living memories while also hinting at the rich mythology and folklore associated with Gill’s home in the Atlantic region. Sparking memories and myths that shape our perception at every moment, High Water draws attention to the vanished landscapes within our everyday surroundings.

Will Gill studied Fine Arts at Mount Allison University, graduating in 1991. He moved to St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1997 and has since exhibited sculpture, paintings and video in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Working across multiple media, Gill’s work often explores the powerful interplay of imagination, wonder and dread in everyday experience. A national semifinalist in the Sobey Art Award competitions in 2004 and 2006, his work is in private and corporate collections in Canada and the US.

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Roy Thomson Hall, pond, King Street West & Simcoe Street (To view from PATH level or Roy Thomson Hall patio take Simcoe Street stairs)

This project is outdoors.