Noel Harding’s Northshore sits on the corner of Kent and Slater streets.
Toronto artist Noel Harding says his gleaming sculpture, which stands just over four metres tall at the corner of Kent and Slater streets, isn’t a teapot “per se” — but he doesn’t mind the comparison.
“Everybody brings their own language to the piece,” Harding admits.
The newly-installed piece of public art outside Centretown’s Minto Place at 180 Kent St., entitled Northshore, has been compared to a tree trunk, a woman’s dress, drapery – and a teapot.
The structure is made of shimmering stainless steel, with a stub near the top that looks either like a spout or a tree branch. A jack pine sapling stands at the top, rotating at one revolution per minute, to evoke what Harding calls the equivocation of time.
“The world is always turning, and everything is under movement,” he says.
His piece was chosen from among several other artists’ works as part of a public art competition.
The art was chosen by the real estate management company Minto to reflect the company’s commitment to environmental standards, says executive vice-president Greg Rogers.
Specifically, Minto’s Kent Street location meets the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold standards, committing the building to initiatives including the elimination of noxious adhesives and capturing rainwater to plumb the building’s toilets.
The jury panel featured members of the art community and was chaired by Rogers. It first narrowed the competition to six artists, eventually deciding on Harding’s piece.
“[Northshore] was really very clever and meaningful, and we knew it would be something that would be talked about,” Rogers says.
Panel member and private art consultant Annalee Adair says the point of the piece is “to comment on the environmental and pick on the materials that are used in environment.”
The reflective steel and glass on the structure, she says, play into this theme.
But aside from the piece offering a pointed comment, Harding explains there is also an aesthetic quality to consider in his decision to use the highest-quality stainless steel for the sculpture.
It is the same steel used to create surgical scalpels, he says.
“The mirrored effect creates a corridor of buildings, and it reflects all the light from the windows. It brings the sky down to the earth,” he says. “You can see clouds in it.”
Harding’s projects are known for provoking ambiguity.
He says that his renowned piece of art Elevated Wetlands, located in Toronto, was compared to everything from “a polar bear, a set of diapers, [and] elephants” when it was first built.
“I like that. It depends on how you look at it,” he says.
In the same vein of uncertainty, Harding is purposely unclear about what Northshore represents.
He does, however, speak about the significance of its title — the structure itself points due north.
He calls it “the jack pine in the city pointing to the north.”
Harding says he believes public art has a relationship with its community.
“There should be more public art. It crosses all sorts of boundaries,” he says.
“This isn’t supposed to be highbrow stuff.”