After Image

After Image is a large-scale architectural apparition drawn in physical space by stainless steel bars. Emulating the King Edward School’s historic grand entrance, the sculpture forms a three-dimensional wireframe of the entrance archway, columns, and balustrade, transposed 100 feet from their origin. Hand-bent to mimic each crack, crevice, and imperfection of the entrance at the time of transition between abandoned school and active arts incubator, AFTER IMAGE captures a single moment in time, and transposes it onto a growing garden.

Over many years, tall grasses and bushes will sprout up through the cage of the sculpture, and vines will wrap its shiny façade. The result will be glistening and ethereal at first, and increasingly overgrown in time. Marking both a presence and an absence, an invitation and intimidation, a point of connection and separation, After Image uses architectural language to literally frame the King Edward School’s most public space, offering a ghost manifestation imprinted on the eye – somewhere between that which is remembered, and that which is forgotten.

The project is supported through the City of Calgary 1% Public Art Policy. The artwork is included in the permanent collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.