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St. Thomas, Ontario
Standing like sentinels, barns dot the rural Ontario landscape and no where is this more prevalent than St. Thomas and the surrounding county. Many of these barns are older than any living person and they have been witness to multiple generations, provided shelter for animals, stored crops & equipment and formed a regional vernacular architecture that has created a sense of place for the region.
Due to the vagaries of time, along with the ever intensifying development that many towns are faced with, these barns are being demolished, sold off in pieces and seemingly disappearing from the landscape.
Fading Memories, is a public art piece that recalls the barn as an object within the regional context, but also serves as a point of departure for people’s own memories. Barns served many pragmatic purposes but they also provided shelter during a storm to the farmer who could not make it to the house, were places where children’s imaginations could run free and they served as landmarks in the expansive, rural landscape. Experiences in a barn are etched on the memories of those who spent time within and around these structures. The smell of hay in the loft will forever linger. Dust illuminated by sunlight that streamed through cracks in the board siding created a spectacle of movement, that can be recalled simply by closing your eyes. The sound of rain falling on a steel roof on a hot July afternoon. All of these experiences help to create the landscape of memory, which like the structures themselves will fade with time. Fading Memories will help to keep those memories alive and ignite new ones in future generations. As a new landmark within St. Thomas, it will be something that visitors recall years from now about their trip into town. It will be the sign of home for students returning from University for the holiday season or for travelers returning from a long road trip.
The juxtaposition of a known form within a roundabout is strong. As people move toward the barn from one direction they are met with a solid, simple object, similar to what a child may draw. As one moves around the roundabout the solid form breaks down into cross sections cut through the barn illustrating the weathering of a structure from solid to open and porous, much like the effect of time. Approaching from the opposite direction one is confronted with a form they know, but one that is somehow different than expected. Being able to take in all of the sections at once will create a palimpsest quality where the multiple layers are read at once, but not without distortion, much like our memories. The “weathered” structure in the foreground, made up of open vertical elements, much like barn boards, is made whole by the solid layers which are progressively revealed the closer one gets. Like time-lapse photography or a flip book, movement changes the aesthetic quality and understanding of the object.