Rivers Monument Build

Client / Project:

MARIANNE NICOLSON

RIVERS MONUMENT - build

Location: Vancouver International Airport (YVR) - Vancouver BC Canada

Project Design & Management: Charles Gabriel Glassworks

The Project:

Artist, Marianne Nicolson commissions Charles Gabriel

Glassworks to design and build a pair of vertical

glass columns representing the Columbia and

Fraser rivers. The glass will include carved

designs specific to the indigenous history of

each waterway. These sculptures will be 22’

high and topped with a 4’ wood carving. The

columns will be cylindrical and taper from a

base diameter of five feet, to a top diameter of

three foot six inches. The site architects, in

consultation with Marianne, will design a

pedestal/water-feature base, and suspended

domed ceiling to frame the works.

The Plan:

To represent the waterways, the glass will have a

coloured tint, and a smooth curved surface. The

sculptures will be semi-transparent with an

innocuous support structure to help maintain the

illusion of water. The design will be engineered

to meet seismic and building standards for

installation into a public space.

The following pages present a pictoral

chronology of how CGG brought Marianne’s

vision to life.

(Please refer to the final two pages of this PDF

for more info on The River’s Monument

including Marianne’s artist statement )

(Marianne’s proposal sketch)

Charles Gabriel Glassworks – project design & management

As this sculpture would be unlike any other

contemporary artpiece, it had to be

designed entirely from the ground up.

First, we would require some hard

samples to even begin mapping an

aesthetic direction in which to go.

Here, Marianne creates artwork for test glass.



½ scale sample panels are fabricated to

help determine:

-The colour combination of laminate that

will best convey the intent of the sculpture

-Whether the artwork will be etched,

carved, textured, on the interior or exterior,

or require any post-blast treatment

-Whether the artwork will be executed as

positive/negative imagery or vice-versa

-The effect that different lighting solutions

will have on each of these considerations.

The design developed to minimize attention to the support system: clear glass fins attached to a central steel column would hold the curved panels.

To allow for side-to-side movement, this design ensured that the curved glass load sat above, and not on, the edges of the concrete plinth, below.


An early idea was to use a fibre-optic light source attached to the vertical

center support, masked with a curved diffuser layer. Following trials, this

idea was shelved in favour of using an array of dedicated spots in the

base, each directed to a specific level of the carved glass.


Lighting Tests:

With a light source in a fixed position, a test panel is set along a plane using the same pitch

as the tapered face, at distances reflective of the four carved levels in the final sculpture.

This helps determine both the light source and location, and whether to carve the interior or

exterior surface of the glass.


Cutaway for lighting artwork: interior Cutaway for lighting artwork: exterior

Originally, lighting was going to be accessed through a small panel, so there had to be a way to reach all the components. The idea developed into having some type of tray that would swing out to service the fixtures, and then close behind a stainless cover. To help incorporate this additional aesthetic element into the work, Marianne would add meaningful text, as she has done on many of her previous works.


Eventually, the lighting access panel developed into a full extension drawer. Once opened, this provided access to service the luminaires from

outside the structure, and created an opening large enough to reach mechanical within the well space. The use of glass fronts streamlined

the whole aesthetic, and the addition of an opaque layer in the laminates prevented a direct line of sight to the LED lights.


The height of the access panel glass was determined by calculating the sightline of an adult at the closest distance to the sculpture. The glass below this line would be opaque. To block the view of a luminaire on the far side of the sculpture, a black opaque vinyl would be added up to the same height on the internal fin glass. Interestingly, although this achieved the desired effect when applied, there was some element of visual depth lost to the whole base area, so it was uninstalled and the sculpture became more intriguing as a result. One of many surprises of bringing a concept into the real world…


Charles Gabriel Glassworks – Project Design & Management

The test panels find a new life with a finished base…


Original plans were to support the curves using spider fittings, as shown in our mockup above.

But, as these were developed primarily for flat glass, we designed our own and had them

fabricated, locally. The result was better suited hardware with a much cleaner aesthetic.

Marianne Nicolson – Rivers Monument

Final design from Charles Gabriel Glassworks


Once the final annotated designs

receive approval from the

architects, they are submitted to

the structural steel engineer,

who will model the structure and

determine the correct steel

gauge. The glass engineer then

models the loads on the

proposed hardware and

structural glass. After these

elements have been successfully

mapped, the steel fabricators

then use the measurements to

create CAD shop drawings to

build from. CAD templates for

building the glass sections will

also be created.


To ensure Marianne’s artwork would fit exactly to the finished sculpture, a1/3 scale model is built. The hard surface includes markings for the panel

divisions and hardware locations. By wrapping paper around this she is able to map her designs accurately at a workable scale.


Marianne’s drawings are digitally translated into vector images.

A CAD grid of the glass is also created, aligned with the artwork,

and separated into discreet panel sections ready for sizing and

plotting as the carving templates for each section of glass.


The Western Red Cedar, chosen months ago and stored to dry, begins to be shaped into Marianne’s eagles.


Although the rough shape is achieved using a chainsaw,

the detail that follows is done using traditional hand tools


A box jig ensures the 12” threaded mounting rods go in at 90° to the base


Marianne completes the carving and paintwork of her eagles.

Photo: M Nicolson

The custom fabricated hardware components arrive and are assembled.


There are three different hardware configurations.



Steel fabrication begins for the support columns.


The base of the steel support columns will fasten to threaded anchor rods which have been installed onsite.


Drawer assemblies for the lighting are attached to the steel supports. The outer steel ring supports the front edge of the drawer slides,

and also helps ensure the channels for the fin glass stay in alignment during transport and installation.


Completed steel support columns are painted and

delivered to site. To minimize their presence, we chose this

colour as the least noticeable when viewed through the

tinted glass.


When completed, each structure will weigh approximately 3000lbs, and from floor level to the top of the birds, stand almost 30’ high.


Using the new hardware, templates are installed onsite to

confirm the sizing for the fin glass, and to test fit the

theoretical radius dimensions for the curved panels.


To create the curved glass, full size mock up models are built utilizing the

hardware. These are necessary to make templates, check cut sizes of the

bent glass, and test fit the final polished panels for gap accuracy.

The mated curved glass pairs are sent for lamination. The laminate setup process is done by hand. The glass “sandwich” is then

vacuum-bagged and rolled into the autoclave where heat and pressure melts the laminate interlayers and bonds the two panes.


The laminated panels now require edge polishing.

Since all the curved panels are tapered, no two

edges share the same radius. An adjustable jig is

built and set to the unique position required for

each panel edge.


Adjustable cradles secure the curved panels as they

are prepped for carving.


The precut resist template is applied to the inner

surface. The rest of the glass is also protected

prior to blasting.

An angled blastlight helps ensure the carving is deep enough to create edges that the sculpture’s internal lighting will emphasize.


Marianne has chosen the finish

to be bumpy and non-uniform as

a reference to the indigenous

pictographs historically found on

rock near the rivers.


As the design on each section is unique, completed panels are numbered and readied for delivery to site.



Installation begins with the fin glass and hardware being

aligned exactly. Accurate placement of these

components is critical to ensure uniform spacing of both

the vertical and horizontal divisions between the curved

panels that follow. Although these tolerances are within

millimeters, the design does allow for the adjustment at

this stage to achieve the proper end result.

Since the design of this build is atypical, the installers’ experience working with curved panels helps minimize the difficulties not found with a

standard flat glass installation. Here, they discuss with Charles how best to maintain a uniform space between the curved panels.


As the last large curve is installed, the silhouette of the

sculpture begins to take shape. Now the panels need to be

adjusted incrementally at every joint to equalize the spacing,

and then set with silicone behind the hardware caps to

cement them in these final positions.



The luminaires are mounted in sequence to the slide out trays and wired to the controllers.

Eagles bear witness...


Illuminated by the lights below, and

before the tops are closed in, the

underside of the steel caps, including

the eagle mounting nuts, are painted a

matte black to dull their reflectivity.


The opaque glass drawer fronts are attached to brackets on the slide-out trays.


The hardware caps hold the trays in their closed position.


Marianne is watched by the eagles…


The position and intensity of each luminaire is set. By being

aimed at, and highlighting, the carved artwork, the internal

support structure appears to melt away – helping to give the

curved glass the appearance of a floating water-like surface.


The lights come on..!


Spot lighting for the eagles is still to come.

posers


Charles Gabriel Glassworks ©2015

CGG wishes to thank the following people for their invaluable contributions:

(in no particular order)

Brian Edmunds, Tibor Kiss, Renae Bendixsen, Tom Coralan, Bill Lee, Trevor Whitney, Andrew Seeton,

Gary Berkeley, Ken Wallace, Andrew Sergenor, Peter Steunenberg, John Van Roon, Grant Bain, Kevin Wilson,

Dave Walley, John Livingston, Lee Glasgow, Ken Roepe, Cecelia Einerson, Rita Beiks, Dwight Koss,

Nancy Stern, Tracy Nihei, & all the teams that worked with them.

Proposal sketch on page 2 & Completed Eagles photo page 17: M Nicolson

All other photos, text, drawings, & page arrangement (up to here): C Gabriel

Artist / vision - Marianne Nicolson

Project design / development / coordination - Charles Gabriel

Charles Gabriel Glassworks

3910 Blenkinsop Rd, Victoria BC CANADA

www.gabrielglassworks.com 250 881 5440

http://www.gabrielglassworks.com/

BACKGROUNDER

A-B Connector’s Art Piece

The Rivers Monument, Marianne Nicolson, 2015

The Rivers Monument is the newest addition to Vancouver International Airport’s art collection.

The new A-B Connector builds on YVR’s award winning sense of place – highlighting the best of

British Columbia. Vancouver Airport Authority requested proposals for a signature art piece that

would be at the heart of the A-B Connector upgrade and would fit with the architectural theme

of the Interior of BC and the Mighty Fraser River. YVR was impressed with Marianne Nicolson’s

proposal and vision as well as her modern interpretation. With the A-B Connector officially

open, Nicolson’s art piece, The Rivers Monument, is now on display.

Marianne Nicolson’s description of her work:

This work references the power and abundance of river systems. In particular it is a

monument to the Columbia River and Fraser River which carried a wealth of many

ancient names from the Indigenous Nations that fished and managed them. In the last

200 years, since contact with Western Europeans, the management and demographics

of these river systems have dramatically changed. The Pacific Coast fish runs have

radically declined due to the Columbia River being dammed 14 times. Tragically, in 1957,

Celilo Falls, the longest continuously inhabited site in North America, situated near the

mouth of the Columbia River, was submerged by the construction of the Dalles Dam.

Lost along with this invaluable fishing site were thousands of pictographs that told the

story of ancient abundance and Indigenous presence.

This work seeks to symbolically bring back to the surface these submerged histories. It

is created to honour Indigenous presence in the land and the stewardship of river

systems and the wealth they provide. It acts as a metaphor for the relationship of the

Indigenous Peoples to modern North American society.

(continued next page)

The artwork self-consciously combines modern mediums with ancient petroglyphs and

the iconic “totem poles” of the Pacific Northwest Coast in order to reverse relationships

of industrialization and commercialization which have tended to be oppressive to

Indigenous Peoples and the lands and resources they have relied on. It also

appropriates the use of electric power and light to help “illuminate” a story where the

methods used to meet the need for this modern technology has had tragic results both

for the Columbia River and the Indigenous People who rely on it.

Each pole is a cut through of the river system with the top of the column representing

the surface and the bottom of the column the riverbed. The Fraser River pole is topped

by fishermen casting a net made of fish. On the Columbia River Pole the fishermen have

been replaced by uniformed men who hold onto a net where the fish have been replaced

by dams. Inside the net on the Fraser are represented a barking dog, flowers, a

thunderbird and stars, adaptations of real images found alongside the Fraser River.

Inside the net on the Columbia are represented a mountain goat, human face, skulls and

broken arrows. On the side of the Fraser River pole is a powerful woman figure and on

the side of the Columbia River pole is an owl; commonly believed amongst coastal

indigenous peoples to represent the souls of men. This image is the only direct copy of

one of the images that was cut out of the rocks at Celilo Falls in order to preserve it

before the flooding. Resting on the river beds (bottom) of each pole is a sisi’utl or

(supernatural fish) represented by a human face with two serpents heads. Between the

horns of the sisi’utl on the Fraser River Pole is a bear and on its opposite side a

mountain goat. Both are flanked by birds. Between the horns on the sisi’utl on the

Columbia River Pole is depicted a Thunderbird and on its opposite side the “spirit of the

river” who holds a fishing harpoon. Between them is depicted the souls of lost

fishermen. Perched at the top of both poles are carved cedar eagles who serve as

witnesses.

Marianne Nicolson is of the Dzawada'enuxw Tribe of the Kwakwaka'wakw Nations. She holds a

Masters in Fine Arts and a PhD in Linguistics and Anthropology from the University of

Victoria. Marianne is heavily engaged in the cultural and political revitalization of Indigenous

Peoples though artwork and social activism.

-YVR-

For more information:

YVR Media Relations

604-880-9815

[email protected]

www.yvr.ca Twitter: @yvrairport

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