The Estevan Art Gallery and Museum has a new addition.
An enormous ice cream cone sculpture is now located at the front entrance of the building. It measures an estimated 17 feet in length and nearly five feet in height. Sculptor Alison Norlen completed the project, with the help of EAGM staff members and supporters, during the Estevan Fair’s domestics show June 19 and 20.
Working at the fair was a lot of fun, she said, because people could see how it was assembled. And now they can drop by the EAGM to see the finished product.
“Nobody looked at it and said ‘Oh, you’re making an ice cream cone.’ Everybody said ‘What are you doing?’” said Norlen. “It is kind of an indication of how daunting the process was.”
She had a short timeline to complete the project, but Norlen said that was part of the experience and the challenge. It also marked the first time she had used the material, Coreplast.
“It’s a non-bendable material that you’re making bend, so there’s a whole list of challenges that we undertook,” said Norlen.
Norlen compared Coreplast to plastic cardboard. To get it to bend, she had to cut halfway in on one side, and then articulate it, making it like an accordion around the edges.
More than 600 screws are used to hold the material in place.
A dedicated team of EAGM staff and supporters helped out.
“Everybody took a task, and we had an assembly line, and off we went,” said Norlen.
The cone portion itself wasn’t too hard to construct, because it required strips, and she could build it layer upon layer. But to create the area that looked like the ice cream, and make it look soft, was the hard part.
“We started making wheel … shapes, and tried to visualize scale. The proportion of it was really tricky, because it’s crude material that you’re trying to make this out of,” said Norlen.
Norlen was concerned she wouldn’t have enough material, but she had a small amount left over, not enough to fill a garbage bag.
The sculpture is to be illuminated, so they had to make sure people can see light through the material.
“It’s especially playful when it’s lit up,” said Norlen.
The exhibit is part of the EAGM’s 40th anniversary celebrations this year. Norlen often works with art that has a theme of Roadside Attractions, and so the EAGM wanted to pay tribute to the Estevan Dairy Queen’s (DQ) status as the first in Canada.
“When we were looking at the concept of Roadside Attractions, that was the first thing that came to my mind, was making an ice cream cone,” said Norlen.
EAGM director-curator Amber Andersen noted that when a fire hit the local DQ in 2012, and closed it for more than a year, a number of ice cream trucks popped up to ensure ice cream was available for local residents.
“It’s a strange, unique history, and something fun to celebrate,” said Andersen.
Norlen is pleased with the finished product, and it turned out better than she thought.
“A lot of my work is a fascination with what can something do, and how far can I push the material,” said Norlen. “And so this sort of represents a similar process, although this, I have to say, was much more onerous as far as the task.”
Norlen said she had a great time in Estevan. She arrived in Estevan the week before, and participated in the opening reception for her exhibit, Eccentricities, which is now on display at the EAGM.
She also visited local attraction s in the city, and found the people to be friendly.
Andersen said she has wanted to work with Norlen since the start of her career, and it proved to be a great experience.
“Bringing this level of artistry to Estevan is a real career high for me, truly, and I think bringing this person who is so great, and saying I want you to go to a fair, and I want you to make an ice cream, was … a bizarre situation.”
But it turned out wonderful, and Andersen said it’s a fun addition for the community.
