Calgary public art piece that scorched visitor's jacket to be reinstalled in new location
The Wishing Well sculpture, a reflective piece of public art that burned a hole in an onlooker’s jacket, is getting a new home in Calgary.
The piece was originally installed at the Genesis Centre in 2012. In January 2013, a visitor was standing inside one of the sculpture’s reflective dishes when she noticed that her coat had been scorched by the reflecting sun, as reported by CTV Calgary.
Following this incident, a fence was put up around Wishing Well as the artists tried to resolve the issue, but they were unsuccessful.
It has been in storage ever since; however, according to a release from the City of Calgary, Wishing Well will be installed in a different location in the city this June, with some upgrades.
“Due to safety concerns related to concentrated reflective sunlight,” says the City in the release, “the piece was removed. Since then, the City has worked with specialty engineers to mitigate risks.”
The City of Calgary has partnered with JEMM Properties, a local community developer, to relocate the Wishing Well public art piece at no cost to taxpayers. The sculpture will be situated at the Bridge development (950 McPherson Square NE) in the city’s Bridgeland community.
“Relocating public artwork takes significant planning and relationship building,” said Jennifer Thompson, Manager of Arts and Culture at the City of Calgary, in the release. “This partnership with JEMM Properties is a good example of our new direction for public art and paves the way for more collaborations with our local private sector.”
The City says that installation of Wishing Well at the publicly accessible square outside the new multi-family rental living space and retail plaza, Bridge, is slated for June 2022.
To prevent future incidents, a non-reflective coating has been applied to the interior of the sculpture to eliminate the possibility of the inside curve of the sculpture concentrating reflective sunlight. The new location and orientation of the sculpture also greatly reduce the sun’s reflections for drivers and pedestrians.
By placing Wishing Well at a 20-degree angle facing west-east, the City says that the sculpture will receive the least amount of sunlight exposure, adding that “sunlight exposure will further be minimized with the sculpture being placed next to a high-rise apartment building.”
Additionally, the City is working with a local IT company to upgrade the interactive multimedia component that lets visitors send Wishing Well a text message, which it then converts into light and sound. Each letter of the alphabet is assigned a different sound, so every text message produces a distinct light and sound pattern for onlookers.
The $559,000 Wishing Well sculpture is made of stainless steel and weighs 2,200 kilograms. It is 3.88 metres tall, 5.36 metres wide, and four metres deep.
Learn more about Wishing Well at calgary.ca, and view a digital flythrough of the piece at Bridge in Bridgeland here.