Cj fleury, Melissa Ramsden, Coun. Diane Holmes and Mariel Giannetti unveil one of 15 bronze, steel and granite sculptures along Preston Street.
The Preston Street reconstruction project drew to a close last week with the ceremonial unveiling of Ottawa’s newest public art project called Postcards from the Piazza.
The 15-piece granite, stainless steel and bronze installation by Wakefield artist cj fleury runs along Preston Street from Albert Street to Carling Avenue and showcases various aspects of the Italian heritage of the community.
Upon being awarded the commission for the Preston Street art project in 2008, fleury has spent two years researching and creating the pieces.
“All my projects are really research-heavy,” she says. “I don’t just like to make something superficial. I need something where the story really has teeth.”
Fleury stressed the link between art and community, adding that each piece is a snapshot of someone’s story. She spent much of the two-year process listening to tales from the residents of Preston Street and the surrounding neighbourhood, many of whom were keen to talk about their experience as immigrants from Italy.
“What’s fantastic about this project is that it’s so specific to Preston Street,” says Nicole Zuger, program manager of Ottawa arts and heritage development. “There is a common thread deeply rooted in the community.”
Everyone had a story to tell and often shared letters and photographs, which is how fleury got the idea of postcards, she says. She added that she tried to capture little moments of the Italian-Canadian story with sculptures based on art, food, sports, and the workers of Italy – the rich and the poor.
“There are enough stories and enough information and enough beauty and enough care to make 20 more,” says fleury. “There’s really something very special that went on, where people came here as a place that they could call home on this side of the ocean, and I feel very small in that long history.”
The project was funded by the Percent for Art policy, a city program where one per cent of municipal development funds are set aside for public art.
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes says it is vital to make art and culture accessible on Preston Street so people can understand and learn the history of the area’s Italian community.
“In this case, the artwork is so symbolic of Little Italy, the pioneers who came here, the people who started their history and the people who are here now,” says Holmes. “It’s a wonderful project and the pieces of art are just fabulous.”
The 14th sculpture was the final one to be unveiled, and fleury did the honours to the sound of applause outside of Little Italy’s Café Roma.
A flock of small bronze sheep cover the surface of a giant bronze ball of wool, all perched atop a two-metre tall marble column.
Fleury explains that the piece is influenced by the wool merchants’ guild of Italy, and an Italian children’s poem about the migration of sheep through the seasons and how they made their home in many places.
“With the public art program, we can dream our ideas into public space,” says fleury. “To me, the real success of a project is when it goes back through someone’s mind to the dinner table, and when people talk about it at home.”
The unveiling also kicked off La Vendemmia, Ottawa’s annual celebration of Italian food and wine.