After Babel/A Civic Square
McEwen, John Alan; Hilton-Moore, Marlene
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Alternate file
Alternative Title
After Babel
Date
1993Description
Overall view looking southwest towards the Maison symphonique de Montréal; Commissioned and given by the city of Toronto to mark the 350th anniversary of Montreal. The sculpture is defined by two distinct columns: one in bronze topped by a one-meter-high bronze face, and one in Cor-Ten steel with a life-size silhouette of a canine figure on its summit peering into the square below. A second canine figure is situated at a point of crossing on the square. The hand sign for friendship is found within a circle of inlaid brass at the center of this public space. According to the artists, After Babel/A Civic Square works to create a clearing between languages... While the human mask, its emphatic ear turned towards the ground, strains to remind us of our capacity to listen (even to secrets), the animal silhouette suggests that the parallel life of animals to humans is a life separated from us by our possession of language. Source: Waymarking [website]; http://www.waymarking.com/ (accessed 5/8/2014)
Type of Work
sculpture (visual work); public artSubject
allegory, animal, contemporary (1960 to present), Language and communication, French and English speaking Canada, bilingual, Twentieth century
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only