Flight Stop

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Coordinates: 43°39′10″N 79°22′49″W / 43.6528°N 79.3802°W / 43.6528; -79.3802
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Flight Stop
Interior of the Toronto Eaton Centre showing a view of Flight Stop
ArtistMichael Snow
Year1979 (1979)
TypeSculpture
Medium60 suspended fibreglass Canada goose forms surfaced with tinted black and white photographs
Dimensions32 x 20 x 16 m
LocationToronto, Ontario, Canada
Coordinates43°39′10″N 79°22′49″W / 43.6528°N 79.3802°W / 43.6528; -79.3802

Flight Stop, also titled Flightstop, is a 1979

fibreglass
and covered in a sheath made from photographs taken from a single goose. The flock is frozen in mid-flight, "flight stop" being a pun on the nature of still photography. When conceived in 1977, the work was titled Flight Stop but has frequently also been titled Flightstop. The work remains an iconic public art piece in Toronto and in many ways stands as a visual identity for the mall.

Background

Michael Snow has exhibited his work internationally since 1957. He uses a wide range of media and he is noted for his innovative use of a variety of technologies.

Village Voice critics' list of the 100 Best Films of the 20th Century.[3]

Development and creation

Detail of Flight Stop

Snow was commissioned by the Eaton Centre's developers,

Toronto Island."[4]

Photographing the dead bird, Snow adjusted "the neck, wing, and tail positions and the cylindrical parts of the body".[4] Three different body sizes were then carved in Styrofoam and, "using pattern-making techniques, two-dimensional photographic goose costumes were printed and assembled".[4] The Styrofoam bodies were cast in fibreglass, covered in the photographic sheathes, and varnished in a tinted brown that has yellowed somewhat over time.[4]

Strung from the roof on individual wires, the objects form a dynamic group: the poses lend variety; the play with scale maximizes depth; photographic detail heightens a sense of realism. The objects are somehow more naturalistic—goosier—than conventional sculptural representation could be, and this quality accentuates Snow's artistic comment on the nature of photographic illusion, on the tendency to suspend disbelief.

— Martha Langford, art historian[4]

In Snow's original preparation for the work, the title was given as Flight Stop (and indicated as the "Flight Stop project" in the archival materials).[5] However, in a number of monographs and catalogues, the work is called Flightstop.[6][7] Now a tourist destination, Flight Stop is one of Snow's most famous and highly visible works, and the work has become iconic for the Toronto Eaton Centre[8][9] and a part of the visual identity of the mall.[10][11]

Legal issues

Main article: Snow v Eaton Centre Ltd

During the Christmas season of 1981, the Eaton Centre placed red ribbons around the necks of the geese. Snow brought an action against the Centre to get an

Copyright Act. The opinion was based both on the opinion of Snow as well as the testimony of experts in the art community.[13]

Legacy

Snow's position as a Canadian artist with an international profile was established well before 1979.[14] Flight Stop established Snow as a highly visible artist in Canada, a rare feat in that country.[15] As a work of public art, Flight Stop is not only highly visible but has become iconic for the Eaton Centre and Toronto as a whole.[16][17]

See also

References

  1. ^ Langford, Martha (2014). Michael Snow: Life and Work (PDF). Art Canada Institute. p. 6.
  2. ^ "Academia Vita Trust". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
  3. ^ "100 Best Films – Village Voice". Archived from the original on March 31, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Michael Snow, Flight Stop, 1979". Art Canada Institute – Institut de l’art canadien. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  5. ^ written at Art Gallery of Ontario, Michael Snow Fonds, Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario E. P. Taylor Research Library and Archives, 2005, p. 28
  6. OCLC 29911795
    .
  7. OCLC 48881489
    .
  8. ^ "Is it a plane? Is it a bird? No. Well, yes. It's a public art installation". Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  9. ^ "AGO's multi-decade love affair with Michael Snow continues with awarding of $40,000 Gershon Iskowitz Prize". Toronto Life. June 8, 2011.
  10. ^ "Snow v The Eaton Centre Ltd. (1982) 70 C.P.R. (2d) 105".
  11. ^ "Déja Viewed: Michael Snow on Looking Back, and Ahead". Canadian Art.
  12. OCLC 870916868.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  13. ^ a b (1982), 70 CPR (2d) 105.
  14. ^ "The Amazing Adventures of Michael Snow: an uncensored history of Toronto's most notorious art star". Toronto Life. March 27, 2013. Snow marked this new phase of his life by creating two famously controversial public sculptures. The first was Flight Stop, a gaggle of 60 fibreglass geese soaring under the domed glass roof of the Eaton Centre. 'There was all this empty air up there. I thought, what goes in the air?' Snow recalls.
  15. ^ "While Canada is still catching up, Michael Snow's legacy is safe abroad". National Post. February 1, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2018. Michael Snow is perhaps best known for his public art installations in Toronto. The long-standing — flying, really — Flight Stop (1979) hovers above American Eagle and Sport Chek in the Eaton Centre.
  16. ^ "Snow v The Eaton Centre Ltd. (1982) 70 C.P.R. (2d) 105". Under Snow's supervision, the sculpture was hung from the ceiling of the inside galleria of the shopping complex. A plaque, announcing Snow as the artist of the work, was also installed. The sculpture soon became a focal point of the Centre, and was critically acclaimed as an important piece by critics.
  17. ^ "Michael Snow: The Transformer". The 84-year-old juggernaut of art, who over the years has entranced the public imagination with such iconic works as the odyssey of grandiose geese in Flight Stop at the Eaton Centre, the sculptural gazers that toast the facade of the Rogers Centre in The Audience and the landmark film Wavelength, continues to provoke and stretch artistic paradigms in Canada and beyond. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)

Works cited

Further reading

External links
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