AND STILL COUNTING, Khyber Benefit ~ Waddington Auction, March 8.
Waddinton’s Contemporary Art Auction!
In 2009 the Khyber Arts Society and the Halifax Regional Municipality commissioned artist Garry Neill Kennedy to make an artwork of the 27 plywood inserts that temporarily replaced the windows while undergoing restorative replacement. The Khyber Centre for the Arts (formally the Church of England Institute) is a one of the City’s main cultural hubs for art and music, and also a significant Halifax Heritage Property, built in 1888. The Khyber has been occupied by many different community oriented organizations over the past 40 years but most notably by the Khyber Arts Society for the past 15 years. The building also houses the main office for the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia.
For this artwork, And Still Counting, Kennedy has counted the number of windows on the building 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 household exterior latex paint Kennedy selected the colours based on the names of the manufacturer paint-chip titles that either relate to the Khyber building itself or it’s surrounding area (Turret Brown, Archeological Treasure, Playhouse Plum, City Song or Council Bluff, Ships at Sea). The colour of each number forms the foreground of the painting that follows.
The font for the numbers is Superstar Shadow, a typeface that Kennedy uses in all of his architectural text 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.
Now having been replaced with new windows, Kennedy’s plywood paintings will be sold by Waddintons’s auction house on March 8th, 2012. For more information about this auction, please contact the Khyber or Waddington’s Auction House.
TEL: 902 422 9668 FAX: 902 404 3661 EMAIL: info@khyber.ca See related articles: http://www.canadianart.ca/online/see-it/2009/03/26/garry-neill-kennedy/ http://www.thecoast.ca/ArtAttack/archives/2009/03/16/photo_of_garry_neill_kennedy_s http://www.bordercrossingsmag.com/issue110/article/2644 http://www.mta.ca/owens/publications/catalogues/2006/superstarshadow.php http://www.amazon.ca/Last-Art-College-Scotia-1968-1978/dp/0262016907/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329496638&sr=8-1-fkmr0 http://www.thecoast.ca/ArtAttack/archives/2010/03/12/art-history-with-the-khyber-and-eyelevel-gallery http://www.thecoast.ca/ArtAttack/archives/2010/08/10/khyber-building-plan-goes-to-council-tonight LIST OF COLOURS 1 Waterfront/ Beside the Ocean 2 Beside the Ocean/ Victorian Sage 3 Victorian Sage/ City Song 4 City Song/ Turret Brown 5 Turret Brown/ Council Bluff 6 Council Bluff/ Mystery Sound 7 Mystery Sound/ Archeological Treasure 8 Archeological Treasure/ Stage Fright 9 Stage Fright/ Meeting House 10 Meeting House/ Have No Fear 11 Have No Fear/ Ocean Breeze 12 Ocean Breeze/ Restoration Rose 13 Restoration Rose/ Ships at Sea 14 Ships at Sea/ Provicial Majesty 15 Provincial Majesty/ Palace Purple 16 Palace Purple/ Play House Plum 17 Play House Plum/ Party Place 18 Party Place/ Waterfront 19 Waterfront/ Beside the Ocean 20 Beside the Ocean/ Victorian Sage 21 Victorian Sage/ City Song 22 City Song/ Turret Brown 23 Turret Brown/ Council Bluff 24 Coucil Bluff/ Mystery Sound 25 Mystery Sound/ Archeological Treasure 26 Archeological Treasure/ Stage Fright 27 Stage Fright/ Waterfront