The unicycles look to be handmade out of nailed timbers and whittled wood, but the three sculptures are cast in bronze, a material with a long history of commemorating and memorialising people, places, and events. Using bronze in this context turns a critical eye towards how a society judges and celebrates success. The concept of a balancing act recalls a performer carefully walking across a circus tightrope, constantly adjusting for the swaying apparatus, as a nervous audience watches for the impending success or failure. A balancing act is also that thing we do every day: balancing this responsibility with that one; trying to get this thing done while being expected to be doing that. Is a cartoon-like mishap about to happen? Balancing Act is conceived as anyone’s imagined spectacle or show-stopping performance.

Arseneault is a Calgary-based artist whose mediums include sculpture, drawing, collage, and photography-based work. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from ACAD (now AUArts) and a Master of Fine Arts from Edinburgh College of Art. Arseneault is a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award and has been awarded grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. She has exhibited her work across Canada and internationally including the solo show Falling Off the Log at Esker Foundation in Calgary. Balancing Act is Arseneault’s first public art commission in Calgary.

COMMISSIONER
ONE Properties

LOCATION
BLVD Beltline, 1229 Macleod Trail SE, Calgary, Alberta (add map with drop pin of location)

PUBLIC ART CONSULTANT
CMCK Public Art
Ellen Cunningham Art Consulting (Link)

FABRICATORS
Carvel Creative (link) with Harman Sculpture Foundry Ltd.

MATERIALS
Bronze, patina

PHOTOGRAPHY
Kokemor Studio