The story of London’s new city center sculpture

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Artist Jyhling Lee said it was something special to create a public sculpture in the area where she grew up.

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Lee’s SITELINES were unveiled last week outside Tricar Developments’ new Azure condominiums in downtown London. Tricar funded the play located near the northwest corner of Talbot Street and Dufferin Avenue , but it is owned and will be maintained by the town hall.

SITELINES is influenced by the image of London as a forest city, but also by the evolution of the city.

“The canopy and treeline inspiration was one of the guiding notions in my head, but it also relates to the site and the new condo development,” said Lee. “The city is growing and taller buildings are shaping its urban fabric, so the city’s skyline is also imbued with the concept. “

Lee grew up in Ingersoll and his parents ran a food stall called Rice Box at the Covent Garden Market for about 20 years before selling the business four years ago and retiring to St. Marys.

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She said she enjoys exploring the surroundings of her projects by walking and observing the natural and built environment that she incorporates into her work.

“For me it was a project that tried to bridge the gap between the natural world, the urban world and the cultural heritage that seems to be part of this region,” said the Ingersoll district high school graduate. . “It worked really well. I tried to approach the development, I tried to recognize the canopy of the trees in the city and I tried to approach the beautiful ornamentation of the heritage architecture of the area.

Art was Lee’s passion growing up, and London and Ingersoll were his favorite fields.

“I liked all the subjects in school,” she said. “Art was one of my favorite subjects, but it was not the field my parents thought was the wisest course to enter. So I studied architecture (at the University of Waterloo) and I became an architect.

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“What’s fantastic is that I was able to return to the practice of art and that I was able to carry out significant (public art) projects across Canada.”

Now based two hours east of Toronto in Prince Edward County, Lee teaches interior design part-time at Ryerson University and is expecting her second child next month.

His firm responded to a call for submissions from the London Arts Council in June 2018, and the sculpture was officially unveiled on Friday.

Being able to bring a public work of art to the city and share it with the people she grew up with “has been very meaningful and meaningful,” she said.

“I got a lot of feedback from high school friends saying ‘Yeah, we’ll go check it out,'” she said.

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Over the past 10 years, since the founding of his practice, figureground studios, Lee moved on from architecture.

“I kind of extended laterally from the creation of buildings to the (artistic) public domain,” she said. “Now I work mainly on sculptures and integrated projects in public space.”

Although Lee’s inspiration came from the city’s trees and old and new architecture, she is excited to hear how others view her sculpture.

“I don’t tell people what to see in the artwork,” she said. “I really hope this is a job that people can bring their imaginative interpretations to and see what they see.”

One person saw chimes.

“I’m like ‘Oh, great.’ This is exactly what I want, “she said.” I think there is imaginative potential to see a lot of other things hopefully. “

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