Rob Murray: I’m speaking with local artist Tony Bloom. You have a brand new piece of work called Altered Ground that has just been unveiled in Canmore. What can you tell us about it?

Tony Bloom: It’s located at the intersection of Fairholme Drive and the Spur Line, which is the pathway from the engine bridge down towards Safeway and so on. It stands about 12 feet high and it sits on a dais of earth, and it speaks to the rock faces in the area and how the rock responds to the pressures in the ground. The vivid reminder of the dynamic environment that we live in, and by extension our lives.

RM: You’re a well-known artist in town and have been living here for decades. This is your first big public art commission in your hometown. How does it feel to have this on display in the town you call home?

TB: That’s true. It’s been five decades I’ve been here and I’ve done a lot of things around town in private homes or in businesses. But yes, this is the first one that has its own site, and it feels pretty meaningful. I was going to say ‘special’, but that’s not a special enough word. It’s quite powerful. It feels like an opportunity to give back to the community that’s supported me for all these years.

RM: In five decades you’ve seen Canmore change a lot. Have you incorporated that into your art in this display?

TB: What I’m doing is reaching further back than any human presence here, further back than the flora. What I’m dealing with is more what I call the original community, which were the rocks that grew up over the epochs. On the site, what we’re hoping to do within the year is place five boulders from Louis Kamenka’s quarry that will be representative of each of the five major epochs that built the valley. Certainly there’s been a lot of changes here since 1970, but in this case we can look to the rocks and see the prehistory that goes back millions and millions of years.

RM: I understand this piece actually took quite some time to put together?

TB: These things always take a lot of time. In this case, it took more time than I expected because we had to solve some building issues, how to actually piece it together. Then there were some things under the site that nobody could really identify because we had that big explosion a few years ago not very far from that site. The town was very cautious about proceeding until we had absolute clearance. Those things take time, but then also changes has happened when engineering says “we can’t do this, we have to do it that way.” There’s a lot of modifications as it goes along, but in the end I’m astonished at how much it looks like the original scale model that I put together for the committee back in 2018.

RM: So you’re happy with the finished product?

TB: Oh yeah, I’m really pleased. Usually it takes me a couple of years before I can walk by a project I’ve done and not imagine other alternatives. In this case, because it’s on the way from my house to downtown, I made sure it was something that I’d be happy with.

RM: What’s next for you? What other projects are you working on right now?

TB: I just did an installation for the City of Edmonton. Then I have a piece going out to Burnaby that’s pretty extensive, so I’ll have to go out there and help get that installed. Then I have some really interesting residential and commercial projects that I’m working on, smaller scale but very fun and kind of relaxing for me to do.

 

Photo: Town of Canmore Facebook page
Filed under: Art, Canmore, Public Art