The Khyber Arts Society and the Halifax Regional Municipality commissioned Halifax artist Garry Neill Kennedy to make an artwork of the 27 plywood inserts that temporarily replaced the windows while undergoing restorative replacement.
For this artwork, And Still Counting, Kennedy had simply counted the number of windows and then numbered the panels sequentially in brightly coloured paints. The numbers begin at the ground level (left) with number one and continue to the top floor with the final count, number 27.
Using everyday household paint Kennedy selected his colours for their names-names that are related to the Khyber building itself (Turret Brown, Archeological Treasure, Restoration Rose); or to its neighbor, the Neptune Theatre (Stage Fright or Playhouse Plum); or to Barrington Street (Party Place or Have no Fear); or to the city of Halifax (City Song or Council Bluff); or to the Province (Provincial Majesty or Ships at Sea) and so on. The colour forms the foreground of the panel/painting that follows.
The font for the numbers is Superstar Shadow, a typeface that Kennedy uses in all of his text based artworks, the original idea for which was derived from the bold black and white numbers painted on the bows of the navy ships that enter Halifax harbour.
After having been replaced with new windows, Kennedy’s plywood paintings were moved to HRM’s City Hall and exhibited during summer 2010. Since then, we moved two lots of 3 paintings to Waddington’s auction house in Toronto as part of the premier event for their “Contemporary Canadian Art” sale program. All sales of the works go to benefit the Khyber Arts Society.
