As part of the opening of its new building, the Ottawa Art Gallery commissioned 11 new works all of which will be unveiled during this inaugural year.
The latest will be unveiled on Sunday.
It’s called Ascension and it is a light installation by Ottawa’s The Latest Artists who are Andrew and Deborah O’Malley. The piece has taken two years to complete, the OAG said in a media release.
Ascension is an LED wave graph that is 150 feet long and it runs along the Mackenzie King Bridge and it points the way to the gallery’s entrance on the bridge.
The light waves will modulate and they increase in intensity as the get closer to the entrance.
The OAG says in the release that the waves are intended to “mimic the highs and lows of the OAG’s history: from the seed planted for a municipal art gallery in the mid-1960s, to its new facility, inaugurated in 2018.”
Light-based art has evolved with the technology, starting with incandescent lighting and neon sculptures to the use of LED lights today.
The gallery will formally launch the art work on Sunday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. with some speeches and free food and drink.
The ceremony will be in the 50 Mackenzie King Bridge lobby of the gallery.
