WSP.2002.031

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Details

ID Number

WSP.2002.031

Category

Communication Artifact

Sub-category

Art

Item Name

sculpture

Maker

Smit, Ben

Title

Craft 9

Date

1999

Materials

ALUMINUM; WOOD; NEON

Description

Craft 9; aluminum; wood; neon; 20' diameter x 7' high Originally installed in the Toronto Sculpture Garden; a plywood structure supports a plywood skin clad with aluminum sheets. Sculpture is not installed to original specifications; neon ring is not present and therefore not working.

History

Craft looks like a flying saucer and it is made of aluminum, wood, and neon lit. It is 20’ x 7’ it was installed in the Odette Sculpture Park in 1999. Craft is located in Ecological gardens at the foot of the Japanese Garden. Ben Smit its creator is a graduate from the Ontario College of Art and has many works on display in various cities throughout Canada. According to artist Ben Smit, “Although a U.F.O. is in itself not banal, it is a household word. The notion of an Unidentified Flying Object, with its attendant extra-terrestrials and alien abductions, is readily available in pop culture. The term flying saucer was first coined in June of 1947, in a newspaper account of businessman and pilot Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of nine luminous saucer-like discs flying over Mt. Rainier, in Washington State. It is an old idea; an old idea of the future; and a historical future. The desire to construct a spacecraft stems from my enthusiasm for the common place. My earlier work has dealt with recreating everyday objects in unexpected materials in an attempt to create a new way of looking at things. By locating the saucer in a park, in a metropolis, I intend to reinvest this everyday idea with new meaning merely by its being there. I hope that to chance upon this craft, newly arrived in the world, will confirm for a brief instant our childhood belief that, hey, it’s just like the spaceship I remembered. Of course, upon second glance, it will be...a cartoon (of an idea)...but perhaps for that nanosecond...it is possible...within the...imagination.” This piece is entitled Craft. In this age of futuristic endeavor, the artist shows us a more simplistic time, probably a more naïve time, when a flying saucer could activate feelings of curiosity, terror, humour and wonder all at once. Today, with modern technology clarifying the world for us, this ship seems foolish in the extreme, and yet somehow a call to allow our imaginations to take off. The children’s playground seems a perfect spot for this piece to encourage our fantasies. In the Spring of 2014 the Windsor Star had a "Sculpture Park Showdown" contest similar to the bracket challenge for NCAA March Madness. There were 5 rounds in total. Space Craft or Craft 9 was out after round one.

Collection Name

Windsor Sculpture Park

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