Paul Raff Studio is proud to share that we have been commissioned to create a permanent public monument at Queen’s Park, Toronto to honour the service of Correctional Workers in Ontario.
The design for the new monument was officially unveiled following the sixth annual Ceremony of Remembrance honouring Ontario’s correctional workers who have fallen in the line of duty.
Unveiled was a walnut and resin model that shows the three elements comprising the future memorial: two bench-like slabs, which will be fabricated in stone, flank a podium from which rises the main sculpture, to be fabricated in bronze. The sculpture, entitled Hours of the Day, is made of many sheets of bronze that are bound together at one end, akin to a rolodex fanning open.
The sheets, as the title suggests, are actual sculptural representations of the angles of the sun as it moves over the hours of the day, month, season and year, forming a kind of a three-dimensional sundial.
“One doesn’t need to read the time with it”, says Paul, “but what it does do is peak to the theme of time, which to me was the most important and essential theme in recognizing the vital role that correctional workers play in the health of our society. …And it is this contribution, of the hours of service, that we felt needed to be articulated in the sculptural form. ”
The geometry of the sculpture is derived from a very specific and elaborate computer program which tracks the angles of the sun throughout the day. “What I love about [the sculpture],” says Paul, “is that with its very accurate, high tech, three-dimensional mapping, it actually strikes a remarkably unique figure that offers a lot of visual richness. It looks different from every angle, unfolding for pedestrians as they commute past it, looking different on their way to work than on their way home. It looks different at different times of the day, and in different light.”
Hours of the Day will be permanently installed at Queen’s Park near the Legislative Precinct Grounds, where the ceremony was held. It is a generous location in direct view of the seat of government, with the characteristics of a large outdoor living room thanks to the walling-in effect of the limestone facades of the adjacent buildings.
“What we had hoped to achieve is a very strong, recognizable artwork that doesn’t look like anything else, that is specific to its theme, to its purpose and to its place. I’m looking forward to seeing this thing materialize. It’s a beautiful location, it’s an important cause and I hope that it’s a very beautiful, unique and enduring result.”
