An art installation depicting a crow made from the rubber material of tires along the LeBreton Flats Pathway in Ottawa, on June 29.Spencer Colby/The Globe and Mail
At a glance, it looks as if a giant crow fell from the sky and crashed to the ground, not far from one of the LRT stations in the nation’s capital.
But this fallen bird, beside a walking and cycling path, is a sculpture, crafted from 50 to 60 tires.
It’s officially titled When the Rubber Meets the Road, but its creator, Prince Edward Island artist Gerard Beaulieu, has nicknamed it “Cooper,” after the brand of tires he used to make it in 2018.
The National Capital Commission (NCC), which manages public spaces in the Ottawa region, organized its installation this week and is paying Mr. Beaulieu $14,022 to rent his five-metre-long crow for a year.
The piece has stirred up talk – not all of it flattering.
“Not impressed. It looks like a dead bird, and I have never found an aesthetically pleasing view of a dead bird. And this one is made from dead tires, too,” tweeted Alex Cullen, a former Ottawa city councillor and NDP MPP.
But Mr. Beaulieu, who was in Ottawa this week to install the piece, takes it all in stride.
“Reactions run the gamut from people who absolutely adore it to people who just think it’s garbage – which, in some ways, it is,” he said in an interview Thursday.
He said the rental cost is reasonable. “Nothing comes for free in society. I am a professional artist. I do work to earn my living. The fees paid to me are in line with standards that are publicly published and paid to any artist that exhibits with a public institution.”
He said he is skeptical of critics who have only seen online images of the piece.
“It’s a different experience when you physically encounter the work,” he said. “When I was installing it there in Ottawa for two days, on Monday and Tuesday, most people were curious and most people were quite contemplative of the work, and the reaction was positive.”
In a statement, Valérie Dufour, the NCC’S senior manager of strategic communications, said the recycled tires used to make the sculpture are symbolic of the debris in the former landfill at the site, in the LeBreton Flats neighbourhood.
And she noted that the Canadian Heritage department helped facilitate the project by connecting the commission with suitable options drawn from previous public art selections.
“This piece is potent,” said Manuel Báez, an associate professor in the school of architecture and urbanism at Carleton University.
The NCC has likened it to roadkill, a comparison Prof. Báez does not dispute.
“It captures the impact that roadkill has on us when, all of a sudden, you see something killed by our driving,” he said. “This is what I like about it: It’s meant to shock the public, but at the same bring something to their attention, contemplate this.”
Mr. Beaulieu, 59, said he used tires to craft the bird because it is, indeed, supposed to be roadkill, and the material reflects just how it became roadkill.
To create the piece, he said he had to research how to best cut up the tires, eventually settling on a jigsaw. He said he didn’t want the result to be gruesome, noting it is more representative than vivid.
He said it has been displayed at various sites, including public plazas, on roadsides and in parks. “The materials are quite indestructible. They’re all rubber, so they can survive the seasons.”
He created it for a small public arts festival in Charlottetown and first installed it in a public park that regularly gets about 5,000 crows settling there each night to roost after spending the day foraging in the countryside.
He noted that people often encounter art outdoors by accident. “Sometimes that’s a good thing, to get people to think about topics and situations they might not normally think about.”