Current Projects

Current ongoing project: the research & development of the ICA•RDI Embassy (The Status of the Artist Embassy) - Mobile Amphibious Art Presentation Chamber/Camera Obscura, as mobile amphibious administration office, art studio, art chamber presentation space, & camera obscura/bellows camera. In 2016 ICA•RDI will continue to promote the Status of the Artist and seek diplomatic immunity for the ICARDI Embassy to occupy the Lunenburg harbour & waterfront (the ICA•RDI status moves from "Bunker" to "Embassy"). ICA•RDI Embassy ongoing project has been supported in part by Arts Nova Scotia, Culture & Heritage Development Division Nova Scotia Government, and the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg, Friends of ICA•RDI, and viewers like you - ICA•RDI appreciates your support for this ongoing project.

Ongoing Current Project
Building the ICA•RDI Embassy - Art Presentation Chamber & Camera Obscura using the Farley Mowat main doors & windows

Camera Obscura Drawing, the invention of perspective

Early sketch for the ICA•RDI Embassy. At that time, the plan was to purchase and convert a used domestic trailer, but instead a specifically new and unique design was developed.

Early mobile Camera Obscura, as part of travelling circus entertainment

ICA•RDI Embassy frame perspective drawing (8'x8'x12') by Zane Murdoch

Main door entry end Camera bellows end Front side

Back side with emergency exit door Top (looking down from top) Bottom (looking up from bottom)

Bus bellows acquired from Halifax Metro Transit to be used on ICA•RDI Embassy - Camera Obscura/Bellows Camera

The bus bellows mounted on the backend of the ICA•RDI Embassy - Camera Obscura/Bellows Camera will be designed as swing/tilt bellows like on large format cameras

Removing the bus bellows from Halifax Metro Transit bus junkyard in Burnside Industrial Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia with the assistance of Ralph Demone, September 2012

Story related to the gathering of materials for the construction of the ICA•RDI Embassy - Camera Obscura/Bellows Camera: The 14" disc Husqvarna rented cutter catches fire while I was cutting the bellows under the bus, I removed my left gloves and placed it over the vent to smoother the fire, holding it down with my right hand (see gloves photo) it's how I burn my right hand as the fire or hot melted plastic burned right through the gloves. Lucky the gas powered cutter's gas tank, which was almost full, didn't blow - salvage is a dangerous process!

The most expensive acquisition to date was that of a new 8.5' x 14' flat-deck aluminum trailer to transport the ICA•RDI Embassy. (Note the trailer bed has tracks for bolting down the skids.)

ICA•RDI flat-deck trailer as performance stage

ICA•RDI macGRID Camera Obscura Visits Lunenburg - ICA•RDI macGRID Camera Obscura as avatar, because your avatar can fly around in the Virtual Worlds

ICA•RDI Embassy as mobile administration office, art studio, art chamber presentation space, & camera obscura in the virtual world of macGRID

ICA•RDI 8.5' x14' aluminum trailer picks up the ICA•RDI Mobile Embassy aluminum frame (8'x8'x12') constructed by David Corkum, Chester Basin, Nova Scotia, note for installation Farley Mowat doors & windows for skylight above presentation space, plus HMT bus bellows for camera obscura backend.

The ICA•RDI Embassy will be mobile on a flat-deck trailer (e.g. for small town summer parades, as its skin will be covered with photo/text promoting Status of the Artist) and a flat-deck pontoon boat (e.g. amphibious for Lunenburg Harbour and LaHave River events). Also, as it will be built on skids it can be placed in situ at almost any location, from urban parking lot to country fair.

One of the main actions/objectives of the campaign next summer is for the ICA•RDI Embassy (on pontoons) to move in on the Bluenose II in Lunenburg Harbour and compete with her for attention and ultimately "capture" the Bluenose II ($ "boondoggle") and the heritage Lunenburg waterfront with the ICA•RDI Embassy - Camera Obscura/Bellows Camera rendering them blurry, upside down & backwards.

Lunenburg is "home base" for ICA•RDI. ICA•RDI has been involved in peaceful negotiations in the Town for over a decade. The Town has been the "ground" or "canvas" for numerous ICA•RDI exercises. These maneuvers are engaged as a dialectic contest (e.g. Local Heritage/International Current Art), representing a contentious underground avant-garde "current art", set against the "heritage obsessed" ($) stronghold in the Town. ICA•RDI is not going away!

The Farley Mowat was taken apart on the Lunenburg waterfront, summer 2013, and ICA•RDI purchased many artifacts from the ship.

The b'ys are cuttin' her up, Lunenburg waterfront, summer 2013

Farley Mowat, Lunenburg waterfront, summer 2013

What is macGRID?
macGRID is a robust, archivable, simulation research platform and a corresponding network of academic, industry and community partners who wish to engage in multidisciplinary research and creation, and resource and knowledge sharing, using avatar virtual worlds and mixed reality systems (currently with OpenSim). This initiative is led by Dr. David Harris Smith, Assistant Professor in Communication Studies & Multimedia at McMaster, and has been advanced by collaborators and contributors including new media artist Ian Murray, Humanities Media Computing, SHARCNET High Performance Computing, GRAND NCE, Dr. Eleni Stroulia and students at the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta, and Dr. Suzanne Crosta, Dean of Humanities and Dr. Mo Elbestawi, Vice President of Research at McMaster.

Our first workshop co-sponsored by GRAND NCE and McMaster Faculty of Humanities will be held Nov 7–8 (2012) in the new Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship, Mills Library at McMaster. The objectives of this first workshop are:

to bring together researchers within the GRAND NCE community and, more generally, across Canada, with an interest in virtual worlds as platforms for social-science experiments simulations, serious games, education and training, and artistic expression;
to introduce the new macGRID OpenSim platform, available through SHARCNET/McMaster; and
to develop plans for new collaborative multidisciplinary research initiatives, within GRAND NCE and more broadly.

BL cuts off bolt heads from Farley Mowat windows to save these windows as artifacts for use as skylights in the presentation space of ICA•RDI Embassy construction.

Farley Mowat Main Door Port Side

Farley Mowat Main Door Starboard Side

(Doors to be used on the ICA•RDI Embassy - Mobile Amphibious Art Presentation Chamber/Camera Obscura)

Besides the window and doors, the ICA•RDI Archive has additional artifacts from the Farley Mowat, spring/summer 2013 - selected items below

3Men, BL MacNevin, May 2013 (23"x12") The turtle was cut from a broken piece of the Farley Mowat ship's mess marine wall mural, Lunenburg waterfront - stuff from the Farley Mowat recycled... walking through the ship I just saved things that caught my eye, like the large hand-painted marine wall mural in the ship's mess that was broken apart, I saved a small section with this turtle. The "1 MAN" signs were on the outside of several of the doors to small rooms containing a couple upper/lower berths, like small bedrooms, I'm not sure what these signs mean as it seemed like two or more could sleep in each room? I like the idea that these salvaged materials (intended for the trash) were all from the Farley Mowat and wanted to put them together in new ways, as part of my practice as an artist involves re-presenting objects or artifacts as "Current Art": Nova Scotia Realism. I thought the idea of placing these three signs in the underwater ocean world of the turtle seemed to suggest a kind of magical poem, like the 3Men are being followed by the turtle. The objects that are a part of this ship hold a curiosity for me in Lunenburg, that's another part to the story - artifice, artifacts, to art objects, blend and evolve in the ongoing path or process of my current contextual projects in Lunenburg, which seem to identify more with a Farley Mowat "Canadian/Nova Scotian history of fishing" than say a Bluenose II mythology. E.g. Farley Mowat projects really started as a sidebar, because I was looking for material for the construction of the ICA•RDI Embassy, spring 2013.

Information about the artist who painted the mural:
http://malvinapeintre.blogspot.ca/2013/06/peindre-un-brise-glace.html
http://malvinapeintre.blogspot.ca/2013_06_01_archive.html

ICA•RDI Archive, selected items from the Farley Mowat

Ship's logs, papers, maps & signage

Rope macrame to cover ship's gangplank entrance

Small anchors/grappling hooks

Installation on back of garage

Stop Whaling Banners

Garage wall hanging

Farley Mowat rope ladders

Farley Mowat rope ladder triptych on house, summer 2013

Halloween 2013

Farley Mowat "Pirate Weapons" - these sculpted railroad tracks (there were many in the ship's hold that were just sold as scrap, summer 2013, ICA•RDI purchased three) used to protrude from the sides of the Farley Mowat in action, i.e. when ramming or being rammed by a larger vessel. Regarding the video (above) - I believe the way this "pirate weapon" worked was that this "mighty sword" would thrust out the side of the Farley Mowat penetrating the side of a vessel that was alongside. The steel i-beams bolted to the deck and side of the Farley Mowat held this "mighty sword" rigid, so once it had penetrated the side of a vessel the movement of the ships plus ocean could tear open a large hole.

Farley Mowat Pirate Weapons Triptych, lawn sculpture, summer 2013

With Farley Mowat small anchors/grappling hooks as year-round backyard sculptures

ICA•RDI Pontoons

ICA•RDI also purchased a flat-deck pontoon boat for the ICA•RDI Embassy. These pontoons belong to the well known local story of three young boys who stole a houseboat on the LaHave River, sailed it out to an island and set the houseboat on fire, they didn't realize they were on an island and were caught because they had to call for help. These are the pontoons from that houseboat. Regarding the construction of the ICA•RDI Embassy, ICA•RDI prefer/pursue that this process and materials used in creating this structure have an association with "pirates" and their stories here on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, e.g. Farley Mowat/Tracy Dobbs, David Corkum, and pontoons from a stolen houseboat.

Walter Flowers Clubhouse ("The Lunenburg Yacht Club"), Lunenburg Harbour, summer 2013

ICA•RDI CURRENT PROJECTS

An ongoing theme - The Importance of Naming - Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate

a ship, a name, an ideology

Farley Mowat, A Whale for the Killing, 1972 illustration etching by David Blackwood

Farley Mowat with Paul Watson on the Farley Mowat

The Farley Mowat Nameplate
The Fog of the Lunenburg Waterfront

The Fog of the Lunenburg Waterfront

ICA•RDI purchase of Farley Mowat bow nameplate
Lunenburg waterfront, summer 2013

SeaShepherd.org identity Farley Mowat sides, summer 2013

Farley Mowat nameplate on bow
Lunenburg waterfront, summer 2013

Lunenburg waterfront, summer 2013

stern summer 2013

Farley Mowat Nameless Nameplate
Farley Mowat's Bow Nameplate identity painted out
Lunenburg waterfront, February 2014

February 11, 2014 photo, Lunenburg waterfront - Dick Averns, the Armchair Terrorist and the ICA•RDI Ambassador speculate on why someone on the Lunenburg waterfront had recently painted out the Farley Mowat’s identity.
March 23, 2014 - I finally spoke to Tracy Dobbs, the individual who is taking the ship apart for salvage and from who I purchased items, he said that he had the Farley Mowat's identity painted out for reasons still unclear to me, but perhaps he didn't want to have to deal with the mythology of the ship, as his interests were primarily in the ship as scrap. I had purchased the starboard side bow nameplate, because last summer it was in better shape than the port side bow nameplate, but Tracy tells me he saved us the port side bow nameplate, it is not painted out and will still be cut out carefully for ICA•RDI. I apologized, as I had made the assumption that all the Farley Mowat identity was painted out, because the way the ship is moored at the wharf it is very difficult to see the port side bow nameplate (plus I was expecting to receive the starboard side bow nameplate which is now painted out). I planned go to Cape Breton to present the ship's nameplate to Farley Mowat in the summer 2014.

"an eyesore" - Lunenburg County Progress Bulletin, Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Dick Averns, the Armchair Terrorist and the ICA•RDI Ambassador , Lunenburg waterfront, February 11, 2014

February 2014, Farley Mowat identity painted out, Lunenburg waterfront

Bow Nameplate painted out SeaShepherd.org on sides of ship painted out Stern painted out

Toronto Star, October 2010 - Farley Mowat on the 'status of the artist (writer)' in Canada* - he died Tuesday, May 6, 2014.

I had planned to visit him in Cape Breton this summer, 2014 (sometimes you wait too late to do things). I'll have the bow nameplate from the Sea Shepherd's ship the Farley Mowat and there should be some way to honour Farley in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia this summer... if something is being organized please let me know. Thanks.

*Re. Farley painting houses in Cape Breton in the summers because he can make more money doing that than off the royalties from his stories. Now I identified with this “story” - the artist painting houses and doing renovations to support his practice. In fact I thought it was true, what he says in this article, but a friend recently told me it was meant as an allegory regarding how poorly most artists are financially remunerated for their practice. I realize Farley was known for telling a tall-story, but I wanted to believe that Farley really did paint houses in Cape Breton in the summers… shows how naive & gullible I am. But what if my friend is wrong? What if Farley really did paint houses in Cape Breton in the summers? If he did, and if you know someone who had there house painted by Farley in the summer, can you please let me know who they were and how I can contact them. I want to ask them if he did a good job, were they happy with the job he did, would they give him a good recommendation?

The Politics of Representation: Farley Mowat identity painted out Lunenburg waterfront.
Lunenburg waterfront museum, what is being archived and who is doing the archiving?

ICA•RDI purchased many artifacts from the Farley Mowat during the summer of 2013 while the ship was being cutup, taken apart for salvage on the Lunenburg waterfront. It is shameful that an institution calling itself the "Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic” on the same waterfront ignores the presence of this historic ship, allowing it to be dismantled without showing any interest. How will this be perceived from the standpoint of fifty to a hundred years in the future, when the current guardians of the cultural narrative for tourists (i.e. the narrow obsession with Bluenose II, Theresa E. Conner or Cape Sable mythology) are long gone? There should be room for other stories, and the Farley Mowat holds a few that some might find most interesting. (See Conferral with Dick Averns for more information.)

• "The Province of Nova Scotia is providing $750,000 in funding to cover costs of a design study which will ultimately lead to upgrades to the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg." (funding announcement by MLA Pam Birdsall, November 2011) $750,000 for a “study”?
• Atlantic Canada Opportunity Agency (ACOA) is providing $79,000 in funding for the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, funds to the Lunenburg Board of Trade (LBOT) to assist them with further building on the town's UNESCO World Heritage Site designation as a tool to attract and increase tourism. (funding announcement by Rob Moore, Federal Minister in charge of the ACOA and Gerald Keddy, MP South Shore St Margarets, January 2014)

The Farley Mowat remains the “pirate" in the middle of the Federal/Provincial Political Cultural Funding Sieve of the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, the Bluenose II, the Historic Heritage Lunenburg Waterfront Development, and the Lunenburg Academy. The cultural engineering by old conservative oligarchic clans status quo power structure is dead, its cultural integrity as bankrupt as the Bluenose II "boondoggle". A new cultural paradigm is emerging from the fog of Lunenburg waterfront, there all along, its time has come, an international multi/inter-disciplinary cultural pluralism open to new ideas and propositions.

Heritage as Culture gets exaggerated in Nova Scotia where mythologies are sustained and perpetuated by Governments’ Public Cultural Funding Revenues that prioritize Heritage as tourist entertainment over Current Art*. What if the majority of this revenue was not siphoned off into the "Tourism Industry" on projects like the Bluenose II, but instead disseminated to individual artists and small arts & cultural groups in Nova Scotia?

*e.g. Bluenose II - In 2014, Premier Stephen McNeil called the refit a "boondoggle"...

Bluenose With Clown Nose Figurehead - Proposition Maquette: "Bluenose II" as Lunenburg Harbour Government Funded Cultural Heritage Tourism Mascot (as caricature like Theodore Tugboat)

A Giant Bluenose 3 - Proposition as White Elephant for Lunenburg
$$ Dialectic - Local Heritage / International Current Art Research & Development Institute

Re-presentation of the Bluenose - 27 Million

Bluenose run aground Lunenburg Harbour, for Joseph Purcell November 2017

Two Ambassadors (Living Vs. Representation), 2010. Critiquing 'The Bluenose II'* in Lunenburg is not popular, but among friends in Lunenburg, I am referred to as "The Ambassador" - the UNESCO Status of the Artist Advocate Ambassador - the ICA•RDI Ambassador.

* Ship of Theseus - Wikipedia
In the metaphysics of identity, the Ship of Theseus - or Theseus's paradox - is a thought experiment that raises the question of whether a ship - standing for an object in general - that has had all of its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object.

ICA•RDI Proposition - Lunenburg, Nova Scotia will prioritize and fast-track IMMIGRATION for international contemporary artists. Lunenburg steps forward to become the first Nova Scotia community to participate in a provincial plan to negotiate an agreement with the federal government to allow 10,000 to 15,000 immigrants per annum over 10 years to come to Nova Scotia with the specific intent of repopulating our rural and small-town areas. - as per Nova Scotia Commission on Building Our New Economy (Ivany Commission on Nova Scotia’s Economic Future) February 2014 -

Lunenburg’s historic fishing and shipping industries connected the town to other world ports through international trade routes and by virtue of its position as safe port of destination, Lunenburg has a historical connection to the “international” going back to the 1750’s.

Agency: ICA•RDI International Zone is a proposal for a section of the Lunenburg waterfront to be given special status. For the area to be designated by the town as an economic development zone, a specially zoned area, an industrial zone, a free trade zone (e.g. customs: where artists can bring in and ship out work they are developing easily), a “UNESCO zone”, a designated zone that has a focus or mandate to attract and provide office, studio, and presentation spaces for internationally based arts and cultural organizations that are attracted to the town because of this status. To cluster together arts & cultural organizations which reach out to connect Lunenburg with the world (e.g. the Picton Castle’s world excursions, multidisciplinary international art festivals, residences, schools for visual art, media art, theatre, music, etc.), organizations that promote international artistic cultural freedom and exchange such as ICA•RDI. By using United Nations flags, flags of different nations (related to the international artists-in-residence) and unique international banners to define this area, it will have a distinctive visual appearance, defining a unique International Zone on the Lunenburg waterfront, as a special destination place in Lunenburg for the community and for our guests and visitors.

ICA•RDI to host international refugee and immigrant contemporary artists

La rivoluzione siamo Noi (We Are the Revolution), Joseph Beuys 1971

ICA•RDI - Why Lunenburg?
Juxtaposition Dialectic Current Art Vs. Heritage - Imagine the status (politics) of current art (e.g. Public Sculpture) placed on the waterfront of a small conservative town with a world heritage status.

ICA•RDI Bunker On Lunenburg Waterfront With Condos Drawing - I use to teach drawing, it's easy.

New Ross Farm, Nova Scotia

Camera Obscura in a field framing a large tree in the manner of Rodney Graham, 1979
ICA•RDI proposition for New Ross Farm, Nova Scotia, summer 2014

ICA•RDI Artist-in-residency, summer 2014 - 2017
Work the ICA•RDI claim - Artists As Gold Diggers - south shore of Nova Scotia next summer, if interested write ICA•RDI, Box 99, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada, B0J 2C0 for more information

Artists As Gold Diggers

ICA•RDI & HERMES Collaboration, summer 2014
ICA•RDI & HERMES collaborate on Artists' South Shore Nova Scotia Heritage House In situ Projects
Link to information on this Heritage House: http://www.bridgewater.ca/heritage/2-jubilee-road-the-dalgleish-house.html

The first installation in this series is by Jacqueline Hendrickson from Wisconsin, studied art in San Francisco and Chicago, the title of the piece is “Z 13” created in residence at ICA•RDI. This installation will be up during the month of July 2014, corner of King Street & Jubilee Road, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.

ICA•RDI Ambassador with Kylie Herd (Australia) and Jean-Francois Djev Rollo Vautard (France) from the Sea Shepherd Society, we visited the Farley Mowat on Lunenburg waterfront and at the ICA•RDI Residence we exchanged banners, June 26, 2014.

ICA•RDI recent and perhaps last acquisition from the Farley Mowat - the ships medicine cabinet from the ship’s mess to be used in the ICA•RDI Embassy.
Dr. BL of ICA•RDI - photos by Jean-François Djev Rollo Vautard, June 26, 2014

Orchestrating Twenty Waves In A Row (for Ian Murray), 2014

"Canada's Ocean Playground" - In support of ICA•RDI as longstanding proposition for Lunenburg waterfront - since 2002, incorporated as a Nova Scotia non-profit society 2009. In the Spring of 2015 I gave my old Volvo to my sister, this vehicle served me well, I drove across Canada seven times in this car.

Waiting for Conferrals - ICA•RDI Embassy (Mobile Amphibious Art Presentation Chamber & Camera Obscura) with all the inner 1/2” fir plywood walls up, August 2014. The next stage is to mount the bus bellows on the back, as the top curvature of the bellows will determine the roof trusses.

Mop Heads - ICA•RDI Ambassador cleans up the ICA•RDI Embassy - Mobile Amphibious Art Presentation Chamber/Camera Obscura for the promotion of the 'Status of the Artist', September 2014

'Old School' Lunenburg Heritage Levitation
Lunenburg Heritage Levitation R & D
ICA•RDI Summer Program 2015

Bluenose II Rebuild Levitation
Heritage versus Current Art - heritage (“poor project management”) receive disproportional amount of support annually from the Nova Scotia Government's Cultural Funding Budget.

Bluenose Departs Dime 2017, because of ‘boondoggle’

ICA•RDI Embassy - Mobile Amphibious Art Presentation Chamber Exhibition
Snow Installation, March 18, 2015
Artist’s Snow, the work consists of 90 tin cans, filled with snow from the Snow Installation, each 30 grams and measuring 4.8x6.5 cm, with a label in English, French, Italian and German stating, Freshly preserved, Produced and tinned in March 2015, as fund-raiser for the ICA•RDI Embassy construction. Friends of ICA•RDI in Dubai and warmer wealthier climates please share. This work has to be preserved in cold storage, because if the snow melts in the cans for whatever reason, the work is destroyed and will no longer function as art, ICA•RDI is not interested in selling Canadian water.

Bucket Of Snow from the Snow Installation, ICA•RDI Art Chamber, March 18, 2015

This work will be preserved as long as possible, however once the snow melts in the bucket for whatever reason, the work is destroyed and will no longer function as art.

Bucket of Snow in cold storage, bar fridge in my studio, March 2015

"they came from the known to the unknown" On The Horizon, Spring 2015

The Doctor's Bag of Tricks
ICA•RDI ambassador with Tela Purcell grande dame of Lunenburg (General Manager,
Purcell Family Art Gallery, 217 Lincoln St, Lunenburg) at the “Grand Opening” of the
Lunenburg School of The Arts, May 1st 2015, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Artist’s Jacket
Lunenburg School of The Arts, Reception & Exhibition: in-situ readymade labeled by Dr. Peter Boyle, photos by BL MacNevin, May 1st 2015 (2000 Euros)

Support Assemblage for ICA•RDI Embassy: Truck, Flatbed Trailer, Flatbed Pontoon Boat - the ICA•RDI Embassy is on skids so it can be positioned on the ground, on the trailer, or on the pontoon boat. The ICA•RDI Embassy has been created with the assistance from 'Arts Nova Scotia'.

ICA•RDI Embassy as ongoing project:
The following is a list of the structural design that I hope to have completed soon:
• The entire unit is then wrapped in aluminum sheets, which are glued onto the vertical studs.
• The bellows are the next focus; a track will be built inside to support the weight of the bellows when extended. The center back-end of bellows will be have a light tight lens board center. One lens board with a simple hole in it - this to illustrate how a camera obscura works as a pinhole camera. Another lens board will be able to take a lens. Experimentation is needed regarding lens, as there will be a focal length, i.e. the bellows will function to focus the image.
• Inside the front section of the ICARDI Embassy is the Art Presentation Chamber, so there is a light tight moveable wall between the Art Presentation Chamber and the Camera Obscura at the back. The Art Presentation Chamber will be equipped with track lighting i.e. it can function as a small gallery space for exhibitions. Two exhibitions are already planned: Margaret Nicholson (New Glasgow) series of encaustic wax paintings of the "beautiful smoke/clouds” coming from the Pictou pulp mill and a series of “office sculptures” by Robin Peck (Fredericton) created from paper clips.
* Another project is to put a flatbed deck (3/4” plywood) on the pontoons, so the ICARDI Embassy (Mobile Amphibious Art Presentation Chamber/Camera Obscura) can float on the water – Lunenburg Harbour/ LaHave River. The goal is to merely use the pontoons as a raft or barge, but in the future I’d like to get an engine so the ICARDI Embassy can be mobile on the water, as I like the idea of taking pictures from the water with the Camera Obscura.

Cleaning the bellows to be mounted on the backend of the ICA•RDI Embassy, July 2015
Waiting for the welder.

July 2015
The welder finally came by, he wanted a template of the backend where the bellows are to be attached. Note to welder: I'm getting just like my father, writing notes over everything…

Bus bellows to be mounted to the backend of the ICA•RDI Embassy. ICA•RDI Ambassador meets with David Corkum, CEO of Corkum Enterprizes (Chester Basin, Nova Scotia - 902 279 0568) and his assistant to discuss the installation of the bus bellows, July 2015

ICA•RDI truck box, July 2015

ICA•RDI - 2002 (Est.) 2009 (Inc.)

with the Zwickers, Adams and Knickles - the time has come for a new civic government in Lunenburg - time for a civic government that supports the needs of artists - time to shift the priority from “heritage’” to “current art research & development”. A longstanding R & D thematic interest of ICA•RDI is What to save? / What to discard?

ICA•RDI LEVITATION INVITATION: Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, last weekend in August bring your levitation R&D (devices and techniques).

ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada, August 29th & 30th, 2015

The Municipal Flag Story, ICA•RDI Ambassador, ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, August 30th, 2015.

ICA•RDI Flags on Crescent Beach: the International, the National, the Provincial, the Municipal or Regional, and the Civic

“Flag creates headache for local artist” by Michael Lee, Lighthouse Now, page A11 (South Shore Weekly Newspaper) Wednesday, September 2, 2015

New Found Land Levitation Device, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, August 2015

New Found Land Levitation Device, presentation ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, August 29th & 30th, 2015

Farley Mowat Artifact Levitation Device, presentation ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, August 29th & 30th, 2015

Griff (6) rides the New Found Land Levitation Device trying too hard to get off... sometimes you just need to relax and let the magic happen.

The Circle of Confusion, presentation ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, August 29th & 30th, 2015. Of course, The Circle of Confusion is political!

Peg (95) contemplates levitation in The Circle of Confusion, ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, August 30th, 2015

ICA•RDI Embassy - Mobile Amphibious Art Presentation Chamber/Camera Obscura
On Dec. 2, 2015, after over four months, I finally retrieved the ICA•RDI Embassy from the welder who was charged with constructing a roof with two Farley Mowat ship’s windows as skylights, and mounting the bus bellows and fabricating a cone “lens” shape for the end of the bellows. The welder had a variety of reasons why this work took so long to complete; I was locked in having given him an advance for the materials. That’s behind us; I now look forward to working on the many details that need to be completed on the ICA•RDi Embassy (e.g. both inside electrical and outside surface skin) without being dependent on someone else. This work will be done this winter in a friend’s boat building shed in Bayport, Nova Scotia, just a few kilometers south of Lunenburg.
ICA•RDI would like to thank ‘Arts Nova Scotia’ for their support regarding the on-going research & development of the ICA•RDI Embassy - Mobile Amphibious Art Presentation Chamber/Camera Obscura.

December 6, 2015 - beautiful day on the south shore, 12º C. - winched the ICA•RDI Embassy into the boat shed today (kind of a 45º pull - winch on the back of the truck to a pulley at the back end of the shed to pull the Embassy straight in).

ICA•RDI Embassy
Art Presentation Chamber/ Camera Obscura in boat shed
winter 2015/16

aluminum structure ("lens mount") mounted on front of bus bellows (inside view)

Farley Mowat Smokin'

APRIL 2016 - South Shore, Nova Scotia - Farley Mowat Smokin' - you can see the ICA•RDI "Farley Mowat" nameplate, that I purchased from Tracy, on the port (left) side of the bow of the ship, it is the only "Farley Mowat" identity that has not been removed from the ship... I can't get it until the ship is totally cutup and it looks like it already has been compromised.
The Eyes of The World - The eyes of the world remain on this ship, not because it is a derelict ship docked illegally at the wharf of a small town on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, but because of what it stood for, because of what Farley Mowat stood for...

ICA•RDI Residence, June 2016

ICA•RDI Embassy spent the winter in a friend's boat shed, in June 2016 it was moved to the front lawn of the ICA•RDI Residence for the final phase of construction. Basically the main structural form is completed, this summer will focus on the many remaining details, like an outside skin, electrical (track lighting,etc), support structure for the bellows movement, signage, etc.

Proposition is to use the ICA•RDI Embassy as a Camera Obscura, but also use it as a functioning Bellows Camera using lenses, in both cases, to create direct positive b/w large paper prints.

Notes from Harold Merklinger regarding the use of lenses. Harold has written two books on the subject.

ICA•RDI Residence with ICA•RDI Embassy on front yard - public construction publicity, summer 2016 (note: Camera Obscura Side Door in photo above)

Art Presentation Chamber Door

articulated bus bellows determine height of camera end and curvature of roof

ICA•RDI Banner Public Construction, Summer 2016. ICA•RDI would like to thank Craig & Hugo of IMAGE HOUSE Digital Inc., 5729 McCully Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3K 1R4. Tel. 902 492 3340, Fax 902 492 3128, www.imagehouse.ns.ca for their support creating this banner.

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The Heritage Houses of the South Shore Nova Scotia

Heritage Houses - 8 Traditional Homes of Lunenburg Floating

Pirate Ladders, May 2013 - hang on facade of the ICA•RDI Residence, Heritage House, South Shore, Nova Scotia

This Heritage House is commonly known as the "Dalgleish House" - Captain Crouse's daughter married a Dalgleish, she lived there when this "naming history" was written. Currently this South Shore Heritage House is the ICA•RDI Residence. *

www.bridgewater.ca/heritage/heritage-homes/find-your-home/1490-2-jubilee-road

Heritage House As ICA•RDI Residence
* A brief history:
"Set on a hill, behind the tall old trees on the corner of King Street and Jubilee Road, stands a striking home full of character and history. 2 Jubilee (or the Dalgleish House) may be described as a Maritime Vernacular home, a popular style in Bridgewater. Though it was built in 1844, the home maintains many of its original features. Its character-defining elements include intricate brackets and a turned post railing on its veranda, sidelights and moulded trim, six-over-six windows, and returned eaves. This local treasure's architectural significance is matched by its historical importance.

The first landowner, Mr. William Oakes, towed schooners to local businesses with his team of oxen. Oakes watched for schooners passing down the LaHave River from Haines Point. His team of five oxen often towed three schooners at once for the four kilometer journey to Bridgewater. Whether day or night, whether rain, shine or snow, Oakes and his family would work together to tow the goods the town needed and were paid a few dollars per vessel.

Oakes' cousin Obediah Parker from Bridgetown built the home in 1844. Parker operated one of the tanneries just a hundred yards away. Parker divided his land between the home and commercial lots before he sold it in 1859 and by 1870, that riverfront held a shipyard, blacksmith shop and steam mill. Bridgewater was the manufacturing centre of the county at that time, with a shipyard, four tanneries, three foundries, several gang-mills and a furniture factory.

After Parker, David Hebb bought the home. The Hebb family were tanners and farmers. The Hebb family owned the home from 1859 until 1885, and during that time it was owned by David and Hannah Hebb, Abraham Hebb, and finally Aaron Hebb. The Hebb family has been involved in farming in Lunenburg County for many years and members of the Hebb family still run Stewart Hebb's Greenhouses and Indian Garden Farms today. In fact, the Hebb family's Indian Garden Farms developed, owns and harvests from the oldest commercial cranberry bog in Canada, developed in the late nineteenth-century.

In 1895, the home was bought by another significant man: Captain Jacob Crouse, master of the S.S. Bridgewater. The S.S. Bridgewater travelled from Bridgewater to Halifax. Captain Crouse added the large dormer to the home before passing the home on to his daughter Maude Dalgleish, for whom the home is named.

As one of the oldest homes in Bridgewater, 2 Jubilee Road stands as a testament to the town's heritage and some of its significant figures in shipping and industry." (*notes from the Town of Bridgewater Museum)

The Fog of Art
The Large Heritage Houses of Lunenburg Nova Scotia (Re. Art R&D):
"Sometimes fog intervened before all the dories were retrieved. In some cases the missing men were picked up by another schooner. Sometimes they pulled for the land and made it, but all too often they were never seen again." ..."Generally the men worked on a share basis, but the men's share was not calculated until the cost of running the ship was taken out. Sometimes the catch, when sold, left nothing for the men."
Quotes from: Atlantic Schooners, by Rear-Admiral H.F. Pullen, O.B.E., C.D. and Drawings by Commander L.B. Jenson, C.D. pg. 49

Lost in the Fog Souvenir Photo, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada, Spring 2016 (from the original drawing by M. J. Burns)

Folk Art Salon des Refuses
1. Lost in the Fog, Souvenir Photo Maquette, Working Waterfront Opportunity, Summer Tourist Season 2016. Place yourself in the position of a lost in the fog schooner dory fishermen: " ~ Souvenir Photo ~ $5.ºº Lunenburg Schooner Dory Fishermen Lost In The Fog And Left To Die On The Grand Banks "

Lost In The Fog, painting by James Gayle Tyler. Illustration of trawl-line dory fishing (longlining). The Grand Banks - when I was a kid, I liked hearing the local fishermens' weather report on CBC radio in the evenings, they gave the weather report for each bank, I always liked to hear the name "Banquereau Bank", a fishing bank off Nova Scotia, it sounded like a magical place.

Folk Art Salon des Refuses
2. Lost in the Fog, Souvenir Photo Maquette, ICA•RDI Bunker, Summer Tourist Season 2016. Place yourself in the position of a lost in the fog schooner dory fishermen:
" ~ Souvenir Photo ~ $5.ºº Lunenburg Schooner Dory Fishermen Lost In The Fog And Left To Die On The Grand Banks "

Tourist from Australia with maquette
she suggested drawing faces on her fingers
and placing her fingers in the holes… Thank you

Folk Art Salon des Refuses
3. Lost in the Fog, Souvenir Photo Maquette, Fishermen's Memorial, Summer Tourist Season 2016. Place yourself in the position of a lost in the fog schooner dory fishermen:
" ~ Souvenir Photo ~ $5.ºº Lunenburg Schooner Dory Fishermen Lost In The Fog And Left To Die On The Grand Banks "

Folk Art Salon des Refuses
4. Lost in the Fog, Souvenir Photo Maquette, Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, Summer Tourist Season 2016. Place yourself in the position of a lost in the fog schooner dory fishermen: " ~ Souvenir Photo ~ $5.ºº Lunenburg Schooner Dory Fishermen Lost In The Fog And Left To Die On The Grand Banks "

Folk Art Salon des Refuses
5. Lost in the Fog, Souvenir Photo Maquette, Bluenose II, Summer Tourist Season 2016. Place yourself in the position of a lost in the fog schooner dory fishermen:
" ~ Souvenir Photo ~ $5.ºº Lunenburg Schooner Dory Fishermen Lost In The Fog And Left To Die On The Grand Banks "

Folk Art Salon des Refuses
Lost in the Fog, Souvenir Photo Maquette, Lunenburg Academy, Summer Tourist Season 2016. Place yourself in the position of a lost in the fog schooner dory fishermen:
" ~ Souvenir Photo ~ $5.ºº Lunenburg Schooner Dory Fishermen Lost In The Fog And Left To Die On The Grand Banks "

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OUTPOST - ICA•RDI UN Style Bunker, Lunenburg Waterfront, Summer 2009 first to fly UN Flag on Lunenburg waterfront

ICA•RDI Embassy Summer 2016

ICA•RDI Pickup Truck, Flatbed Trailer and Flatbed Pontoon Boat (Summer 2016) - so the ICA•RDI Embassy/Camera Obscura & Art Presentation Chamber on skids will be totally mobile. What is needed for next summer 2017 (last major capital cost) is a 60 HP outboard motor to maneuver the ICA•RDI Embassy/Camara Obscura & Art Presentation Chamber when it is on the pontoon boat in Lunenburg Harbour and on the LaHave River.

ET Jones, Artist In Residence, ICA•RDI Residence, July 2016

Untitled Painting (b/w, 11"x14") by ET Jones, July 2016

ICA•RDI Ambassador, Thinkers' Lodge - Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada, August 2016

ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, annual event, last weekend in August, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada. Open Invitation - Please bring your own levitation research & development (devices & techniques) to Crescent Beach (last weekend in August - Saturday & Sunday noon till 3pm) 2016

ICA•RDI ON THE BEACH - 2016
Stuart A. Jackson, ICA•RDI visiting artist and Wanda Kushner, ICA•RDI board member, attend the ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Saturday, August 27, 2016, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia. (above left) Stuart A. Jackson is currently working on a graphic novel, and in the story there is a section that deals with "levitation". (3 pages from his novel above)

Professor Dr. Peter Boyle engineering specialist in vertical lift off, and Stuart A. Jackson, ICA•RDI visiting artist discuss the finer points of levitation at the ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, Sunday, August 28, 2016 (above right)

ICA•RDI Ambassador, ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, Sunday, August 28, 2016 (left)

ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation 2016 Presentation
The official presentation area this year features "Four Levitation Rope Ladders From The Farley Mowat", plus "Two Levitation Emergency Transport Stretchers From The Farley Mowat". And of course, no "ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation" would be complete without the "Nine Chair Circle Of Confusion".

The official presentation area this year features Four Levitation Rope Ladders From The Farley Mowat, plus Two Levitation Emergency Transport Stretchers From The Farley Mowat. And of course, no ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation would be complete without the Nine Chair Circle Of Confusion.

Imagine the Four Levitation Rope Ladders From The Farley Mowat hanging side by side in a large, pristine Modernist, white, high-walled Art Gallery, not as "artifacts", but as "art installation".

Griff contemplating in the Circle of Confusion, August 2016

Farley Mowat As International Current Art Research & Development Institute (ICA•RDI)

Tracy Dodds, owner of the Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat As International Current Art Research & Development Institute (ICA•RDI)
The Farley Mowat vessel is still docked at the Shelburne town wharf despite Tracy Dodds being ordered by the courts to have the vessel removed. Scrap dealer Tracy Dodds, of Wolfville, N.S., will serve 20 days in jail for defying court orders to remove the ship from Shelburne Harbour. (cut line news photo, August 2016)

Note: Tracy Dodds sold me the nameplate on the port side of the bow. (seen in this photo) because the ship (and its name were giving him trouble) attracting attention when it was in Lunenburg, so Tracy had the identity of the ship’s names all painted out except for the bow port side which he had sold to me. Tracy is a business man, a man of his word, but the cost of scrap metal now is so low, it would be too costly to cut the ship up.

It was my intent, a few years ago when the ship was in Lunenburg, where I purchased the nameplate, that I would receive it when the ship was cut up later that summer, as I wanted to take the cut out bow nameplate up to Farley Mowat in Cape Breton as a gift, a reason to confer with him. At the time Farley Mowat was alive and in the summers he lived in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Proposition for the Town of Shelburne, Nova Scotia
ICA•RDI would like to turn the Farley Mowat ship into a artist residence art institute. Three levels of government will be needed to support this endeavour. The ship will be pulled up onto land and repurposed as the International Current Art Research Development Institute (ICA•RDI).

ICA•RDI Studio Archive - Art is just another way of keeping a diary - August 2016

ICA•RDI Residence, October 2016 ICA•RDI Trailer, October 2016

ICA•RDI Blue Flag Of Optimism - January 2017

ICA•RDI Residence - South Shore Nova Scotia, Canada
ICA•RDI - UNESCO Status of the Artist Advocate

January 2017 - ICA•RDI gives new meaning to the 'solid blue flag' - Optimism - which from now on will fly from the top of the ICA•RDI Residence flagpole. ICA•RDI Residence will continue to fly the UN flag at half-mast in solidarity as advocate for the promotion, presentation and distribution of international current art research & development.

South Shore Pirate - without the authorization of any nation:

ICA•RDI Embassy Declaration: to commit status of the artist piratical pedagogic acts on land & sea outside the authorization of government education legislation.

ICA•RDI's bow nameplate, on the ground, Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, July 2017:
Even if ICA•RDI doesn't actually acquire the Farley Mowat bow nameplate, it was ICA•RDI that fought to save this bow nameplate to the end... ICA•RDI gave it value... wanted to turn this artifact into Art.

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Emily Jones, proclaim her poetry from the ICA•RDI Residency balcony, August 2017

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ICA•RDI Flatbed Pontoon Boat - Summer 2017

ICA•RDI Harbour Mooring, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada, Summer 2017
UNESCO Status of the Artist Advocate - icardi.ca

Imagine this flatbed pontoon boat (24’x8.5’) moored in Lunenburg harbour, as a large ICA•RDI Banner on the water, as an ICA•RDI Public Stage, as an ICA•RDI Public Pulpit, as an ICA•RDI Drone Aircraft Carrier, as base for Aquatic-Levitation R&D, and as the floating base for the ICA•RDI Embassy (Art Presentation Chamber - Camera Obscura on skids: ICA•RDI Embassy is mobile, will travel). Imagine its presence in the Lunenburg harbour during the Heritage Tall Ships Parade as the ICA•RDI Float, consider it as an intervention, consider it as Public Art Floating Sculpture, consider International Current Art Research & Development, consider Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic, consider UNESCO Status of the Artist.

Working on the pontoon deck graphic layout, July 2017
Launch, Lunenburg Harbour, August 9th 2017

Power to Art Administration Art - Free Expression Is Seized It Is Not Given

ICA•RDI Public Stage deck sculpture, Summer 2017

ICA•RDI Ambassador Public Stage, Public Pulpit rant regarding Lunenburg and the Status of the Artist during the Tall Ships visit, August 10th 2017
Free Expression Is Seized It Is Not Given

ICA•RDI Public Stage, Lunenburg Harbour, August 11th 2017
Musicians: Paul MacLellan - Guitar and vocals, michael hermiston - Pocket Trumpet and Clarinet, and Clark Biesele - Upright Bass and vocals

Drone approaches ICA•RDI Drone Aircraft Carrier Lunenburg Harbour, Summer 2017

Drone shoots straight down - ICA•RDI Flatbed Pontoon Boat as ICA•RDI Banner on Lunenburg Harbour for the promotion of UNESCO Status of the Artist, Summer 2017

ICA•RDI Ambassador at the Pulpit, Lunenburg Harbour, UNESCO Status of the Artist advocate, Summer 2017

ICA•RDI Pontoon Boat Lunenburg Harbour, Summer 2017
Imagine this flatbed pontoon boat (24’x8.5’) moored in Lunenburg harbour, as a large ICA•RDI Banner on the water, as an ICA•RDI Public Stage, as an ICA•RDI Public Pulpit, as an ICA•RDI Drone Aircraft Carrier, as base for Aquatic-Levitation R&D, and as the floating base for the ICA•RDI Embassy (Art Presentation Chamber - Camera Obscura on skids: ICA•RDI Embassy is mobile, will travel). Imagine its presence in the Lunenburg harbour during the Heritage Tall Ships Parade as the ICA•RDI Float, consider it as an intervention, consider it as Public Art Floating Sculpture, consider International Current Art Research & Development, consider Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic, consider UNESCO Status of the Artist.

Free Expression Is Seized It Is Not Given

October 2017 - Lunenburg Harbour Proposition:
Water Aeration - ICA•RDI creates rainbows over Lunenburg Harbour
ICA•RDI Lunenburg Harbour Public Fountain - Aquatic-Levitation R&D
Thanks to Clark Biesele for his collaboration & support.

ICA•RDI Ambassador, Lunenburg Harbour

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ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation 2017

ICA•RDI Residence Banner
ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation 2017, Crescent Beach, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Canada, last weekend in August - bring your levitation R&D (devices & techniques)...

 ICA•RDI ON THE BEACH - Free Expression Is Seized It Is Not Given
Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada - last weekend in August 2017

ICA•RDI Presentation of Levitation Devices 2017

ICA•RDI Public Stage - Music by Clark Biesele and Griff Newman

Dr. Boyle’s Gift
Dr. Peter Boyle, specialist in vertical liftoff, and former proprietor of the Africa North Art Gallery in Lunenburg, donates a South African art object to Wanda Kushner for the ICA•RDI Art Collection, at the ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, August 27th 2017. Thank you Dr. Boyle for your ongoing support.

ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation 2017 - ICA•RDI Ambassador, Lecture the Sea, re. Status of the Artist

Sweeping Man Painting, 2018. from - Ausfegen (Sweeping Up) - Joseph Beuys, 1972 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64klapa1dNY

Sweeping Man Heritage House Tattoo for Jamie, May 2018

Sweeping Man, 2018 - Zwicker Building Vacant For Years

ARTIFACTS AS ART

Farley Mowat As Art, sails from Halifax in 2005

Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate on the ground, Brooklyn, Nova Scotia - July 31, 2017 9:58 am

Brief History of the ship Farley Mowat - shipfax.blogspot.com/2013/02/farley-mowat-for-sale-again.html
Farley Mowat in tow from Halifax for Lunenburg in 2010? Did the Farley Mowat really sit on the Lunenburg waterfront for three years before Tracy Dodds started to cut it up? Shame on the “Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic”!

Farley Mowat towed from Halifax to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada

A Nova Scotia Story: After Halifax, After Lunenburg, After Shelburne...
RJ MacIsaac Construction (Antigonish, NS) received the contract to cut-up the Farley Mowat, they were cutting ships up at the old Bowater Mersey Pulp Plant in Brooklyn Nova Scotia, near Shelburne. The Farley Mowat bow nameplate is a piece of flat steel welded over the ship’s original name (i.e. the original name of the ship the letters are in relief, so a flat steel sheet was welded over top and the Farley Mowat name painted on that - where it’s now bent you can look up under the steel plate and see the relief letters). MacIsaac tried to pull this nameplate off and bent the Mowat end of the nameplate, it wouldn’t come off without destroying the nameplate, so they cut a portion of the ship out around the nameplate. MacIsaac kept it at their site in Brooklyn for over a year, while we tried to negotiate a deal. MacIsaac also punched a hole at the top in the centre of this piece of the ship they cut out, this hole made it easier to pick it up and move around the site, it weighs a ton. In June 2018 MacIsaac were closing down their operation in Brooklyn and we finally came to a deal for the purchase. ICA•RDI had already paid Tracy Dodds $300 for the nameplate in Lunenburg in May 2013, and in June 2018 we paid Boyd MacIsaac $600 (they said $900, I said $500, they said $600, I said sold), so the nameplate is finally in the ICA•RDI Collection with other Farley Mowat artifacts.

Acquisition of the Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate, June 4th 2018
After many years of negotiations ICA•RDI finally acquires the Farley Mowat Nameplate cut from the bow of the ship.

Leaving Brooklyn with the Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate
Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic: we reference what we like of the past.

Acquisition of the Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate, June 4th 2018 - After many years of negotiations ICA•RDI finally acquires the Farley Mowat Nameplate cut from the bow of the ship. The Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate is now in the ICA•RDI Collection and will be presented as Public Sculpture in front of the ICA•RDI Residence on the South Shore Nova Scotia. Moving forward, ICA•RDI would like the ‘Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic’ to purchase the Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate Public Sculpture for the Lunenburg waterfront.

Farley Mowat Returns to Lunenburg
Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic: we reference what we like of the past.
The Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate is now in the ICA•RDI Collection and will be presented as Public Sculpture in front of the ICA•RDI Residence on the South Shore Nova Scotia. Moving forward, ICA•RDI would like the ‘Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic’ to purchase the Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate Public Sculpture for the Lunenburg waterfront.

Farley Mowat on the ICA•RDI Stage, Lunenburg, June 4, 2018
Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic: we reference what we like of the past.
The Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate is now in the ICA•RDI Collection and will be presented as Public Sculpture in front of the ICA•RDI Residence on the South Shore Nova Scotia. Moving forward, ICA•RDI would like the ‘Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic’ to purchase the Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate Public Sculpture for the Lunenburg waterfront.

Lunenburg Public Art Simile
The large piece of the 'Berlin Wall' by the Lunenburg Foundry parking lot is like the 'Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate' by the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic parking lot - what the objects represents, the stories they contain.

Marine Art - Two Ideologies - South Shore Nova Scotia Canada, 2013-2018
South Shore Nova Scotia - Global Ecology Vs. State Tourism - imagine being a crew member of the Farley Mowat versus the Bluenose II

Farley Mowat at Docklands, Melbourne, Australia, 2005. Bow Nameplate (port side, note: relief letters under plate), 2018.

Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate - Originally built as a Norwegian fisheries research and enforcement vessel, named (?) (1956) - (Ship’s names 1956 - 1996?). Sea Shepherd Conservation Society purchased the ship in 1996 - She is named after Canadian writer Farley Mowat. Her previous names with the group 'Sea Shepherd III’ (1996) and renamed the 'Ocean Warrior' (1999) and then renamed again by the society as the ‘RV Farley Mowat’ (2002).

Bow Nameplate (port side) - a steel plate has been welded on top of the ship’s original name, the original name letters are in relief under this nameplate on which the Farley Mowat name is painted.

Silver Lining
Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic: - Surgical restoration, painting the torn edges of the Farley Mowat, June 2018

Conservation Work, July 5th 2018

Sanding Between Coats, July 2018
Like Robert Smithson (in Nancy Holt’s video “East Coast/West Coast”, 1969) I take pleasure in the simple creative processes in art production… on the Farley Mowat bow nameplate I apply 18 coats of POR-15 (paint directly over rust - clear/gloss), then 3 coats of Tremclad (clear/gloss), then 2 coats of Rust-Oleum 2X Ultra Cover (spray/matte/clear)… sanding between coats, a day between coats.

Poetic Presentation
Emily Jones, Gaff Point, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, July 2018

Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic - Perspective

ICA•RDI Public Art Proposition: Aleppo Lunenburg Street, July 2018 - One Side Of Perspective Red Lines Painted On Lincoln Street, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Red X - Perspective Red Lines

Shooting From The Grassy Knoll

Earlier this summer the ICA•RDI Embassy (Art Presentation Chamber & Camera Obscura/ Bellows Camera) was moved from the front yard to the backyard, to the grassy knoll. The Camera is pointing towards the Magnolia Tree, which will be the subject of tests to begin this summer, shooting from the grassy knoll.

ICA•RDI Residence - front yard public art installation with poppy flower bed - August 2018

Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic

Farley Mowat Name Public Sculpture, 2013 - 2018
The Installation - August 2018
King & Jubilee, 'The Farley Mowat Corner'

ICA•RDI Ambassador first purchased the Port side Farley Mowat Bow Nameplate, Lunenburg waterfront, Summer 2013

Farley Mowat Name Public Sculpture, 2013 - 2018

2013 - 2018 - While the Farley Mowat was in Lunenburg ICA•RDI purchased the Port side Bow Nameplate from Tracy Dodds. ICA•RDI was to receive the Nameplate later that summer (2013), the plan at the time was the ship would be towed to Meteghan to be cut up, but scrap metal prices bottomed out so this never happened. While the ship was in Lunenburg Tracy painting out all the Farley Mowat’s identity except the Nameplate ICA•RDI purchased. The Farley Mowat wound up with MacIsaac Construction cutting up the ship at the old Bowater Mersey Plant on the South Shore. MacIsaac knew ICA•RDI valued the Nameplate and we had to negotiate a second purchase price.

No Train To Bridgewater - The Promise of Confederation, but they tore up all the railway track to the South Shore… where did it all go? They tore up all the railway track to Bridgewater, Nova Scotia and turned the track bed into a walking trail, as if we prefer to walk to Halifax.

The Idea for support beam for ‘Farley Mowat Name Public Sculpture’:
Does anyone know where ICA•RDI can obtain one piece of old used railway track, at least 10 to 12 feet long? This railway track will be used to support the ‘Farley Mowat Name Public Sculpture’, i.e to hold it up on an angle. This track will be welded to another piece of track already in the ICA•RDI Collection. At this weld, welded to the railway track beam will be a supporting steel plate or flange to catch the weight of the sculpture. The piece of railway track from the ICA•RDI Collection will stick straight through the hole in the bow, out several feet on the other side.

This sculpted railway track is one of three purchased from the hold of the Farley Mowat when the ship was in Lunenburg in 2013. - The ship hold was full of these sculptured arrowhead railway track that were all sold by Tracy Dodds as scrap metal. - These sculpted pointed railway tracks were positioned on the sides of the Farley Mowat (like a porcupine) when the ship was defending itself from being rammed or attacking a whaling ship.

ICA•RDI Ambassador's Bed of Poppies, August 2018

ICA•RDI Status of the Artist Advocate - 2018 Levitation Invitation, August 25th & 26 noon to 3pm @ Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada

2018 ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada, August 25th & 26th - Video: Bagpiper Paul Reeves

Circle of Confusion, Bagpiper Paul Reeves
2018 ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada, annually the last weekend of August

ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada, August 25th & 26th 2018

‘Drawing Machine’ by Clark Biesele

ICA•RDI Stage - Music by Clark Biesele Griff's Line on the Beach

making magic happen... ICA•RDI Ambassador levitates on The Green Green Grass of Home - ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada, August 25th & 26th, 2018

Still afloat after all these years...
ICA•RDI Ambassador, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, August 2018

Moving the Zwicker Building forward
Change Is Going To Come - Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic
The entrenched political mandate, enforced by the few vested interests in Lunenburg, that keeps anything that is not a “working marine” based enterprise away from the Lunenburg waterfront, this has gone on for decades, to the extent of leaving buildings empty, running divergent propositions out of Town, evicting and keeping artists away from the waterfront, artists who were interested in establishing art related ventures. It is time for the diversification of the Lunenburg waterfront to occur, for other year around activities to occur, for economic reasons alone. The Town uses ”Heritage” as a smoke screen to maintain the vested interests status quo, but the cracks in this local power structure are widening.

Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic - Dangerous & Unsightly Aesthetics

Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic - Farley Mowat Name Public Sculpture (2013 - 2018)* with Heritage House is beautiful in the morning.

*Support Structure for Farley Mowat Name Public Sculpture (2013 - 2018)

The Promise of Confederation - ICA•RDI bringin' the track back, September 2018 - purchased CN main line size track from 'Dartmouth Metals & Bottle Ltd’
There is no railway track connecting the South Shore of Nova Scotia with the rest of Canada. In Lunenburg the Railway is in a Museum.

They tore up all the railway track to Bridgewater, Nova Scotia and turned the track bed into a walking trail, as if we prefer to walk to Halifax.

Track Trade
Traded the CN main line track purchased from 'Dartmouth Metals & Bottle Ltd’ for track from the 'Railway Museum' in Lunenburg, older ("heritage") track that is a smaller size, a size that matched the carved track that ICA•RDI purchased from the hold of the ‘RV Farley Mowat’ when it was in Lunenburg 2013. (Note the white cardboard cutout on the track size we require.) - In Lunenburg Nova Scotia the ‘Fisheries' and the ‘Railway' are in Museums.

'South Shore Metalworks', Chester, Nova Scotia - welded the Farley Mowat carved track to the Lunenburg Railway Museum track (pickup Sept. 12, 2018)

Installing the railway track support structure, Paul Reeves helped with the lifting and 'South Shore Metalworks' did the welding. The carved railway track from the Farley Mowat that is welded to track from the Lunenburg Railway Museum, as sculptural support, is an important part of this sculpture.

Installing a small fence around the sculpture and grinding off the so-called sharp edges. The picket fence is in place to protect the public and to help domesticate the sculpture for the Town.

Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic - Dangerous & Unsightly Aesthetics

ICA•RDI Ambassador Takes A Knee, September 2018
Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic - Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House, 2013-2018. “The Farley Mowat Corner” - King Street & Jubilee Road, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada

Danger Zone - Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House, 2013-2018. "The Farley Mowat Corner” - King Street & Jubilee Road, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada

"The Farley Mowat Corner" with derelict ships in the background, September 2018

Three carved railway tracks (one now welded to support track structure) were purchased from the Farley Mowat ship’s hold when the ship was being cut up in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada, Spring 2013.

Lunenburg waterfront, Spring 2013

Farley Mowat, Lunenburg waterfront, Spring 2013

Common Ground - An interpretation of the Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House (2013-2018) perhaps in keeping with Farley Mowat, the Sea Shepard Society, and ICA•RDI shared attitude, a solidarity towards certain issues in society and global dynamics.

International Current Art Research & Development Institute ICA•RDI Manifesto:
Free Expression Is Seized It Is Not Given, now that the Art Academy has consumed the Alternative Art Exhibition Space.

Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic
ICA•RDI Re-presents Richard Serra’s ’Titled Arc’ - ICA•RDI Sculpture Park Front yard of the ICA•RDI Residence, corner of King Street & Jubilee Road, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilted_Arc

Dave Smith's Sculpture Park - At Bolton Landing (the fields of David Smith) Smith would put his sculptures in what is referred to as an upper and lower field, and sometimes he would put them in rows, as if they were farm crops. He is usually credited with initiating the now pervasive concept that the placement or siting of a sculpture is an essential part of the modern sculptor's art.

Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic - Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House, 2013-2018. “The Farley Mowat Corner” - King Street & Jubilee Road, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada

www.bridgewater.ca/heritage/heritage-homes/find-your-home/1490-2-jubilee-road

ICA•RDI Residence
juxtaposing current art with heritage and pointing to Joseph Beuys

MAY DAY 2018 - ICA•RDI Ambassador installs ‘The Sweeping Man’ on the side of a ‘Heritage House’, South Shore, Nova Scotia, Canada.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=64klapa1dNY

Late September 2018, early morning light on the LaHave River

Lobster, 2018 - Formal Issues: Sculpture Surface Detail Study 2

Lobster, 2018 - Formal Issues: Sculpture Surface Detail Study 1

September 26, 2018 - Received from the Town of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia - could use a sympathetic lawyer -
They say it’s "dangerous & unsightly”... just to appeal this, for an individual to fill out the forms to set the appeal in motion, the fee is $250 dollars... I need a 'go-fund-me’. ICA•RDI would like to appeal this Federally by using the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (freedom of expression), and Federally & Provincially by using the Status of the Artist Acts.

Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic
Five minutes to speak to Town Councillors (who perhaps have already made up their minds) before they vote on it, to appeal their order to remove my sculpture from my front yard… how do I explain the nature of the work, the intent to blend & juxtapose current art with heritage?

Nova Scotia Status of the Artist Act, May 2012 - ICA•RDI has spent a long time talking about the importance of the “Status of the Artist”, Nova Scotia passed the “Status of the Artist Act” May 2012, are there any teeth to this legislation?
nslegislature.ca/legc/bills/61st_4th/3rd_read/b001.htm

Information on Status of the Artist Legislation:
UNESCO Status of the Artist Act, Sept./Oct. 1980:
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13138&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Canadian Status of the Artist Act, June 1992:
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/S-19.6/

Nova Scotia Status of the Artist Act, May 2012:
http://nslegislature.ca/legc/bills/61st_4th/3rd_read/b001.htm

Additional information on the ICA•RDI proposition: Google "ICARDI Lunenburg" or visit Facebook Group "Friends of ICARDI" please become a member

Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House, 2018

They say it's "dangerous & unsightly"...
The sculpture is set up the way I wanted, it is important to me that it is in front of this Heritage House (the ICA•RDI Residence) - Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic is a long-standing interest of ICA•RDI. I was told the registered letter from the Town was coming… I asked what I could do to make it more presentable, what was the nature of the complaints? I was not told anything specific that I could rectify, just that it was “dangerous & unsightly”. It is not dangerous, it is well back off the streets on our property, but I did build a fence around it, I didn’t want the fence, but I thought it might help to alleviate the dangerous concerns. “Unsightly”, I don’t think so.

Art should be open to interpretation, it should hold some intellectual content. This sculpture holds many stories that can take the viewer’s imagination in a number of different directions. I would like an opportunity to explain my views on this sculpture to say, middle school students, to get their response, to get their interpretations. Do they know who Farley Mowat is? That he lived in Nova Scotia in the summers? Do they read him in High School or is he seen as too controversial? What are their feelings on issues of marine wildlife conservation activism and environmental activists?

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Status of the Artist - Farley Mowat Books:
•People of the Deer (1952; revised 1975) ISBN 0-89190-818-8
•The Regiment (book) (1955) ISBN 0-7710-6575-2
•Lost in the Barrens (1956) ISBN 0-553-27525-9
Lost in the Barrens (film) (1990)
•The Dog Who Wouldn't Be (1957) ISBN 0-553-27928-9
•Coppermine Journey (1958) ISBN 0-771-06690-2
•The Grey Seas Under (1959) ISBN 1-58574-240-6
•The Desperate People (1959; revised 1999) ISBN 1-471-32945-3
•Ordeal by Ice (1960) ISBN 0-7710-6686-4
•Owls in the Family (1961) ISBN 0-440-41361-3
•The Serpent's Coil (1961) ISBN 0-738-71577-8
•The Black Joke (1962) LCCN 63-13462
•Never Cry Wolf (1963) LCCN 63-19169
Never Cry Wolf (film) in 1983 ISBN 1-55890-281-3
•Westviking (1965) LCCN 65-20746
•The Curse of the Viking Grave (1966) ISBN 0-553-27525-9
The Curse of the Viking Grave (film) (1992)
•Canada North (illustrated edition) (1967) ISBN 978-0316586474
•The Polar Passion (1967) ISBN 978-0879053482
•This Rock Within the Sea (with John de Visser) (1968) LCCN 69-12137
•The Boat Who Wouldn't Float (1969) ISBN 0-553-27788-X
•Sibir (book) (1970) ISBN 978-0771065767
•A Whale for the Killing (1972, revised 2012) ISBN 978-1-77100-028-4
•Tundra (book) (1973) ISBN 0-7710-6627-9
•Wake of the Great Sealers (with David Blackwood) (1973) LCCN 73-14315
•The Snow Walker (book) (1976, revised 2014) ISBN 978-1771000857
•The Snow Walker (2003) ISBN 1-59241-410-9
•Canada North Now (1976) ISBN 0-7710-6596-5
•And No Birds Sang (Farley Mowat) (1979, revised 2012) ISBN 978-1-77100-030-7
•The World of Farley Mowat (1980) ISBN 0-316-58689-7
•Sea of Slaughter (1984) ISBN 0-87113-013-0
•My Discovery of America (1985) ISBN 0-87113-050-5
•Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey (1987) ISBN 0-7710-6677-5
•The New Founde Land (1989) ISBN 0-7710-6689-9
•Rescue the Earth! (1990) ISBN 0-7710-6684-8
•My Father's Son (book) (1992) ISBN 1-55013-430-2
•Born Naked (1993) ISBN 0-395-73528-9
•Aftermath (1995) ISBN 1-57098-103-5
•The Farfarers (1998 – reprint 2000) ISBN 1-883642-56-6
•Walking on the Land (2000) ISBN 1-58642-024-0
•High Latitudes (2002) ISBN 1-58642-061-5
•No Man's River (2004) ISBN 0-7867-1430-1
•Bay of Spirits (2006) ISBN 0-7710-6538-8
•Otherwise (2008) ISBN 0-7710-6489-6
•Eastern Passage (2010) ISBN 978-0-7710-6491-3[54]
The Top of the World Trilogy
•Ordeal by Ice (1960, revised 1973) ISBN 0-7710-6686-4
•The Polar Passion (1967, revised 1973) ISBN 978-0879053482
•Tundra (1973) ISBN 0-7710-6627-9
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Hopefully, before this sculpture is forced to be removed, something can be learned. As far as I know, Bridgewater has no aesthetics guidelines for public art or memorials, the Town has no public art policy, there is no public art. ICA•RDI recommends the consideration of Halifax’s ‘Public Art Policy’ and the introduction of similar policy for rural Nova Scotia towns.

Bridgewater “Main Street of the South Shore” - the 2016 costly aesthetic renovations to King Street included large granite blocks, they are not art, they hold no intellectual content, no stories, but merely an urban planner's idea of public space enhancement.

Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic - ICA•RDI Embassy/Camera Obscura & Art Presentation Chamber was on the ICA•RDI Residence front lawn for two years and for the Town that didn't seem to be a problem, but Farley Mowat is "dangerous & unsightly"? Mythologies - speculation: on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Farley Mowat and marine conservation activism conflict with political and economic concerns, e.g. the mythology of Bluenose II Tourism.

River Signs - Perhaps the Town of Bridgewater holds a grudge for ICA•RDI’s last front yard installation? - Last February we positioned on the front lawn a “re-presentation of a street sign”, a sign that a young women on the LaHave River had received a great deal of press for placing by the River by her house. When she removed the signs (Why did they take the signs down, the problem certainly hasn’t gone away?) I asked her mother if I could purchase their signs, but they never got back to me, so I had the signs recreated exactly, and installed them on the ICA•RDI Residence front lawn for 'Art Administrations' Birthday’, February 19, 2018 and it remained in place till the spring. ICA•RDI is interested in the purchase of social & cultural artifacts related to the South Shore of Nova Scoria and their re-presentation as art.

The Twin Brothers, February 2018 presentation that wasn’t “dangerous & unsightly” - from the ICA•RDI Collection: Artifacts from Rofihe’s Fine Mens Wear Store, which closed February 10th 2018, after being in business for 92 years on King’s Street, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. Presentation mannequin “heritage” artifacts purchased from their closing-out sale and re/presented as current art sculpture entitled The Twin Brothers.

ICA•RDI has an ongoing interest in pointing to "heritage" artifacts and their re/presentation as current art that relate to cultural, social, economic & political issues (Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic) on the South Shore of Nova Scotia.

Sweeping Man Painting, 2018. from - Ausfegen (Sweeping Up) - Joseph Beuys, 1972 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64klapa1dNY

Sculpture As Memorial - Regarding the Title of the Sculpture
Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House 2013-2018

'Name' is in the title for a couple of reasons, first I wanted the title to be purely descriptive, initially I used 'Nameplate' or 'Bow Nameplate', but I wanted the sculpture to not only refer to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ship (Paul Watson), but more directly to the 'Name' of the writer himself. The Farley Mowat 'Name' has its own Mythologies. I live in the land of 'Bluenose' Mythologies, I was hoping that the work, regarding naming, could point to a favored ICA•RDI theme 'current art vs. heritage dialectic'. A 'Name' stands for something, I believe in the importance of naming! The 'Bluenose Mythologies' are overwhelming here on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, and being bit of an iconoclast, I wanted to point to another 'Name', an 'other' name that pointed to another history of marine heritage, a heritage of marine conservation and activism. e.g. 'Farley Mowat Brand Name’ or the 'Bluenose Brand Name’, which will bring in more tourists... perhaps you can understand why they were so quick in wanting the ’Name’ removed, because it is "dangerous & unsightly", it is meant to be activism within the 'current art vs. heritage dialectic' context.

'With Heritage House' is in the title, because it is another long-standing interest for ICA•RDI - South Shore architecture... and to connect the sculpture to the site and the 'current art vs. heritage dialectic' theme - this heritage house we live in, the Town of Bridgewater promotes this house on the Town's website as the "Dalgleish House" (ICA•RDI is not mentioned, are we merely the current caretakers?) the Farley Mowat sculpture interferes with the Town's heritage house narrative (like static or noise in the picture).

The title is meant to layer the sculpture's meaning, as if it needed any layering on the South Shore, because this piece of metal, this last remaining piece of the Farley Mowat ship, and the supporting railway track (the carved track from the ship's hold of the Farley Mowat purchased when it was in Lunenburg in 2013 now attached to the old heritage track traded from the Lunenburg Railway Museum) are already totally loaded with their own stories, open to many different interpretations.

Set the Stage... the Stage is Set...
Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House, 2013-2018

Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House,
2013-2018 - in the footlights... the show must go on!

Kinda like an "Afterglow" - 6-11pm September 29th 2018

latent potential
ICA•RDI Residence Sculpture Garden
October 2018

Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House, 2013-2018 Penetration... ICA•RDI Status of the Artist Advocate, Fall 2018

Marine Conservation Activism is ongoing en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_conservation_activism

ICA•RDI Compass - Art is a verb

PUBLIC NOTICE: Attention Town of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia
The Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House, 2013 - 2018 sculptural installation is part of a larger thematic oeuvre of ICA•RDI. Wednesday, October 24, 2018 is the deadline date the Town of Bridgewater stated in a threating registered letter, that if we do not remove the work before then, that after this date, they can come onto our property destroy the sculpture, take it away, and send us the bill. While our appeal is ongoing, this notice is to inform the Town of Bridgewater, that if they come onto our property and damage the sculpture, they will be liable for the monetary value of the sculpture, which is ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Q. When is a railway track like a picket fence?
A. When it's on the Farley Mowat.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018 the Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House, 2013-2018 presentation will remains in front of the ICA•RDI Residence as we begin to enter the black hole of a small town bureaucracy, uncertain if we’ll come out on the other side intact, perhaps entering some form of parallel universe…

late October, the time of year when things get dangerous & unsightly -
not only for Halloween, pirates are a part of South Shore Nova Scotia Heritage (e.g. Oak Island and Liverpool’s “Privateer Days” summer festival)

The New Dangerous & Unsightly Aesthetic Movement

Farley Mowat Sculpture pointing to the Derelict Ships on the LaHave River, November 2018

ICA•RDI Thematic Proposition - The Death Ship After B. Traven - The Death Ship On The LaHave River - Bridgewater Nova Scotia Canada
The Death Ship, the theatrical setting for B. Traven’s 1920’s protagonist/research & development to draw 2020’s parallels with (t)his story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Ship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._Traven

Social Sculpture: The New Dangerous & Unsightly Aesthetic Movement - Before the appeal decision is made at the Bridgewater Town Council meeting on Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at 6pm, regarding the “Order to Remedy” ("unsightly & dangerous” removal order) for the ICA•RDI Farley Mowat Sculpture, ICA•RDI decided to present a couple additional Farley Mowat artifacts from the ICA•RDI Collection, purchased from the ship when it was cut up on the Lunenburg waterfront (there was no interest expressed from the ‘Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic’ in Farley Mowat artifacts while the ship was being cut up next door), to present these Farley Mowat artifacts as art, hanging from the balcony of the Heritage House, hanging on either side of the front porch, like chandeliers we will light them for Christmas...

Moving Forward - Heritage House Port & Starboard Chandeliers, Dec. 2018
Heritage House, like a big ship adrift at night, rudder problems, like another South Shore Heritage Vessel.

ICA•RDI has an ongoing interest in pointing to "heritage" artifacts and their re/presentation as current art that relate to cultural, social, economic & political issues (Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic) on the South Shore of Nova Scotia.

Farley Mowat Main Deck Gangway Entrance Cover, hung on garage at ICA•RDI Residence as Fibre Art Sculpture, 2013. Macrame with rope… it took a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society member many hours to create this work.

Like a Wave on a Spike - The New Dangerous & Unsightly Aesthetic Movement

Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House, 2013-2018 - November 2018 - 'railway track as weapon' - we took the fence down

NOVA SCOTIA RURAL COMMUNITY PUBLIC ART POLICY
Artists give the community something to talk about, but does the community really want to hear what the artist has to say?

Farley Mowat Name Memorial Public Sculpture With Heritage House 2013-2018
Because it is on the Bridgewater Town Council meeting agenda for next week, I just had a couple radio interviews regarding the Farley Mowat sculpture in front of our house, and I realized something that sounds obvious… it is framed as “an artist being asked by his Town to remove his sculpture from his front yard”.

I find it hard to talk about the project without talking about the back story… i.e. without talking about ICA•RDI as Status of the Artist advocate; without talking about the UNESCO, Canadian, and Nova Scotian Status of the Artist legislation; without talking about the ICA•RDI Lunenburg waterfront proposition; without talking about ICA•RDI interest in ’Current Art Vs. Heritage Dialectic’; without talking about the heritage house that we live in, that the Town of Bridgewater promotes on the Town’s web page as the “Dalgleish House” (the Farley Mowat sculpture juxtaposed to the heritage house); without talking about Joseph Beuys and Social Sculpture and the influence that has on the ICA•RDI proposition; without talking about Farley Mowat (who he is, because, believe me, there are those who don’t know who he is); without talking about marine conservation activism as an international movement; without talking about Paul Watson (the Captain of the Farley Mowat) and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the strategies they pursue regarding marine conservation activists causes; without talking about the carved railway track ICA•RDI purchased from the ship's hold of the Farley Mowat as artifacts, and the longer piece of similar heritage track now welded to it as supporting structure for the sculpture that was obtained from the Railway Museum in Lunenburg; and finally without talking about the Farley Mowat’s ship’s nameplate, which ICA•RDI had to purchase twice, and the five year process to obtain it.

Re. the live radio interviews - I had prepared a two-part short preambles, a few sentences each really, but that’s not the way it works… “So Brian, the Town wants to remove your art from in front of your house, can you describe your art?” Where do I begin? I should of said, speak to my lawyer, as I've always wanted to say that to somebody.

Re. the object on the front lawn - Let me make an analogy with the piece of the Berlin Wall that is on display as “Public Sculpture” in Lunenburg. Now imagine, for a moment, that someone had absolutely no idea about the Berlin Wall, they purely looked at the object as a broken slab of concrete, just a large piece of concrete, knowing no back story, and they were told it was “Public Sculpture”. So they have to use their imagination, they know nothing of the context or intent, the object becomes like an apperception test (e.g. Rorschach), they have little to go on in making an assessment of the object… would they assess the object as “dangerous and unsightly”? - BL Nov. 10, 2018

P.S. Nov. 11, 2018 - to be fair the local radio station CKBW did listen to my extended stories… it’s not their problem, it’s mine, not unique among artists the problem of distilling one’s practice down to a few sound bites. At the Bridgewater Town Council meeting this coming Tuesday our lawyer will make the appeal to keep the Farley Mowat sculpture on our front lawn, I may not have to say anything, we’ll only have a few minutes to speak before the Town Council make their decision. I’m not optimistic, as our lawyer informs us that it is very rare for the Town Council to overturn Town Staffs’ decisions... the Farley Mowat sculpture will be looking for a new home.

CKBW News - www.ckbw.ca/news/1855067609/it-art-or-unsightly?fbclid=IwAR3VKphPd-gMUuYG0frXZFn6Hf3wV_3_v0c1kEGJoAWIJ3mbjHyANbV0x1o

CBC News - www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/farley-mowat-ship-bridgewater-brian-macnevin-dangerous-unsightly-1.4902048?fbclid=IwAR36F0bhQzaN_cmQSO7JplqTfP8Dg2vVA_eN2JRV1Wq7ixlO8YWCAUkNKLw

Nov. 13, 2018 - from Captain Paul Watson’s Facebook page:

THE SHIP THAT WOULD NOT SINK
By Captain Paul Watson

I have decided to write book about the Farley Mowat to be called "The Ship That Would Not Sink”
Our former flagship just keeps on making the news eleven years after it was seized by the Canadian government for disrupting the 2008 seal slaughter in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A year ago, the ship was broken and destroyed by the Canadian government after a decade of aggravating the hell out of the establishments in Lunenburg, Shelburne, Sydney and now Bridgewater, Nova Scotia and of course after ten years of embarrassment for the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO)
And here it is today still being controversial and an aggravation.
Thank-you Brian MacNevin for seeing the positivity of art where others see negativity.
"Those two things have to be separated," said Bridgewater Mayor David Mitchell. "Farley Mowat as an author has a different historical significance in Canada than Farley Mowat the boat. And if we look at the history of the Farley Mowat as a vessel, it's not good."
As the Dude would have said, “like that’s just your opinion Mr. Mayor.”
That ship represented the personality of the man Farley Mowat in many ways. Passionate, determined, stubborn, committed and a treasure chest of imagination. Farley supported everything that ships stood for and did.
As for the ship, it fought illegal Japanese whalers in Antarctica, disrupted the brutal slaughter of seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off Labrador, stopped poachers in the Caribbean, brought help to the Galapagos and disrupted the slaughter of whales in the Faroe Islands andplayed a major role in the making of the film Sharkwater by the late Canadian conservationist and filmmaker Rob Stewart. Farley Mowat the man also crewed on Farley Mowat the ship. Farley Mowat the ship did some good and amazing work, saved lives and defended life in our Ocean from 1997 until 2008. The Mayor of Bridgewater seems to have a lack of historical perspective and appears to be an enemy of wildlife and oceanic conservation.
Farley lived in Nova Scotia and My own Acadian roots good back many generations in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, well before there was a Canada or a Nova Scotia. Farley would be proud to have this sculpture in Bridgewater and I sure am proud to see it there.
The ship Farley Mowat still has not sunk.

"The ship Farley Mowat still has not sunk."
We won the appeal to Bridgewater Town Council to keep the Farley Mowat sculpture on our front lawn, to have a sculpture yard in front of the ICA•RDI Residence. I’d like to thank Wanda Kushner my partner in crime for her support throughout this process, and thanks to my sister Ann MacNevin in Victoria, BC for her encouragement, and a special thanks to our lawyer Kathryn Dumke who in her presentation cited the 'Nova Scotia Status of the Artist' legislation in our defence, I’d like to thank Ed Halverson at CKBW for his interest in this project (as no other local community news media expressed interest, even though I fed them information regarding this ICA•RDI project), thanks also to Melissa Chiasson-Newman and Maurice Gave for coming out to support us. I'd like to thank Paul Watson for his Facebook post (above) on the day we were to face the Bridgewater Town Council, it was helpful. Thanks also to the CBC, 'Information Morning Halifax', Emma Smith and for CBC’s ‘As It Happens’ interest in the project.
- BL Nov. 14, 2018

Wanda & BL, November 14, 2018 the day after the Bridgewater Town Council meeting in which the Council voted unanimously to allow us to keep the Farley Mowat sculpture on our front lawn - marine conservation activism is ongoing...

lawyer Kathryn Dumke presentation to Bridgewater Town Council regarding the Farley Mowat sculpture, Nov. 13, 2018 (21:40 - 57:48) -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXLdIwE1kCQ&list=PLlB4muDDHMc1kr-RcI3iNFSI3yMbnn7eA&index=2&fbclid=IwAR2tzshwRTNqTN1P-GMY1ARxQ6--HkicWIo2GbC3VTIPsoYTt-Azx6eOLI8

https://canadianart.ca/news/nova-scotia-artist-wins-public-art-appeal/

Thank You Claire Mowat

It is November 2018 in Lunenburg Nova Scotia and one-third of the businesses in Town will close (for locals) for the next six months.

UN Cufflinks - Recent Acquisition for the ICA•RDI Ambassador

Last Tango In Lunenburg (for Peter Boyle), ICA•RDI Stage, Lunenburg Harbour

2019 Annual ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, last weekend in August, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia

ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation Banner - ICA•RDI residence , summer 2019

2019 ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia

Clark Biesele's kinetic sound sculpture wheel
Levitation Invitation, August 31, 2019

Griff's Proclamation and BL & Dick Averns Talkin' Art @ the ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, August 31, 2019

Calgary Artist Dick Averns levitating in the ocean at the ICA•RDI Levitation Invitation, Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia, last weekend in August 2019

Artists can place their focus on ‘idea', or ‘materials', or 'process/technique', but the best art product occur when the three are inextricably linked…
we reference what we like of the past.