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Location: BLVD Beltline development project in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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Material: Cast Bronze, Satin and Clear Top Coat

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“Step right up!” to Balancing Act, a new public artwork by Robin Arseneault, installed at the front entrance of BLVD Beltline. Imagining a future within the redeveloped Victoria Park neighborhood and the pedestrian-only festival street that connects with the Stampede grounds and new events center, Balancing Act fits right in as one of many sites for imagined spectacle and show-stopping performance.
 
Balancing Act comprises three unicycles perched precariously atop rock-like formations that frame the front entrance of BLVD Beltline. The unicycles look to be handmade out of nailed timbers and whittled wood. They seem from another time long ago, no longer compatible with city life. The wheels are not round and, standing at 12 feet tall, the pedals are hardly within reach of one’s feet. Immediately we sense impending failure, and that a cartoon-like mishap is about to happen.
 
The three sculptures were built in wood and then cast in bronze, a material with a long history of commemorating and memorializing people, places, and events. Using bronze in this context turns a critical eye towards how a society judges and celebrates success. The parked cycles seem to be bogged down by their amorphous foundations. The unicycles are illogically optimistic; clearly stuck, yet ready to go.
 
The concept of a balancing act recalls a performer carefully walking across a circus tightrope, constantly adjusting for the swaying apparatus, in what feels like an insurmountable feat. A nervous audience watches on anticipating the impending success or failure. A balancing act is also that thing we do every day: balancing this responsibility with that one; trying to get this thing done while being expected to be doing that. Thankfully more absurd than tragic, competing obligations leave us all metaphorically juggling from time-to-time, making us spectacles within our own lives.

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Photography by: Kokemor Studio

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Project Details

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The artwork is constructed of cast bronze, welded and chased to blend seams. It’s then media blasted to clean, and even out the surface in preparation for heat applied patination with liver of sulfur. In some areas, the patination is buffed back to reveal the bright natural bronze finish. The main body of the sculptures are treated with wax to seal the bronze, and create a lustrous surface finish. Each of the unicycle’s bases are prepared in a similar fashion, however, instead of a wax application, the bases are clear coated to seal in the finish and give them a more durable surface. The application of clear coat helps to repel dirt and grime as well as provide some resistance to snow removal compounds.

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