Locals and tourists will be able to enjoy a new public art piece in Rose Park this winter.
Laara Cerman, a Vancouver-based visual public artist, is creating a kinetic, brass sculpture in the shape of a cedar cone for the park.
The project has been funded by a Squamish Arts Council grant.
The Cedar Cone Rain Catcher will be a metal sculpture in the shape of a Western Red Cedar cone that will collect rain and funnel it down to play rain chimes.
The sculpture will sit on top of a wooden post in Rose Park in Downtown Squamish.
Visible within the sculpture will be a series of brass rain chimes, the notes of each chime will be informed by a very small sequence of the DNA of Western red cedar trees, says the artist.
Rain will collect in a vessel hidden within the sculpture. Once enough water has collected, a siphon will engage, expelling the water all at once to play the rain chimes.
Cerman says the sculpture would likely be installed along the paved path at Rose Park in December, just in time for the rainy season.
This project, Cerman says, is a tribute to Western red cedar trees which are important to the west coast. Th tree is known as the “Tree of Life” by First Nations.
“Rather than allow the rain to keep us cooped up indoors, I’m hoping it will encourage people to go outside even when it’s very wet, as this sculpture can only be fully appreciated when it rains. I think that rainy walks can often be as enjoyable (if not more so) than sunny day walks,” she says.
