Overview

Jill was asked to create a contemporary interpretive work that commemorated the outline and memory of the original 1875 NWMP Fort that marked Calgary’s origin. Created from a of a series of carved wood members punctuated with traces of red light, the installation we created embodies the impermanence and dynamic energy of the original Fort; a place of confluence and change where not just the Bow and the Elbow rivers merge, but also where many different people came together to envision a new beginning. Wood silhouettes of people from this site’s past and present appear and disappear within the palisade reminiscent of the way the wind blows shapes across southern Alberta prairie grasses.  At night the installation glows with red LED uplighting that marks the location of the fort from above, reminding people of the iconic “red serge” of the NWMP uniform.