Ms. Hoody Stacks
Introductory Remarks: Regarding Ms. Hoody Stacks
This piece is guided a comparative reading of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican and Andean interpretations regarding the movement of light and associate observations regarding the spectrum, Byzantine notions regarding “layering,” as well as complimentary Eurasian insights regarding physical balance and a “cosmic egg.” The carving also considers Mesoamerican lingering notions of diamonds as stars or pyramids. The School of One’s original hexagonal motif, “the face of light,” defining the front of the work seems to recall the journey of the sun to its temporary resting place in the Rockies before it always begins its daily Pacific journey towards the Asian morning. When gently nudged in either direction, Ms. Hoody Stacks will neatly rotate while too much force will produce an unhappy result. The rock for Ms. Stacks was quarried from in and around the environs of the Low Level Bridge, Edmonton, while the piece was sculpted in late 2014. The carving is dedicated to the inspirational past, present and future academic achievements of students from the Northwest Territories, Canada. The piece was presented to DF in early 2015. As detailed elsewhere in the Global Art Project, DF is an Honours Student in English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta and the principal organizer of the Norman Wells Gallery.
Chapter I: Parka Stacks
This first chapter marks the beginnings of the journeys of Hoody Stacks in and around Edmonton. These initial travels were undertaken with DF during the Winter Term, 2015, a time at the University of Alberta when most students and faculty begin pondering summer activities, and, frequently, the next academic year. While most people have grown weary of the monotony of Northern Alberta Winter, DF’s experiences in various Edmonton venues are definitely shaped by memories of home in the Northwest Territories.
Reunion
5:15PM March 13, 2015 10°C
Four people who grew up in Norman Wells met near Churchill station in Edmonton. I graduated with one of them. Three of us have known each other as far back as our memory goes. The other member of our group moved to the Northwest Territories when I was in Grade Five. Now, three of us live in Edmonton. Sadly, we live fairly far away from each other and we rely on public transit, so we don’t see each other very frequently. Edmonton is so vast compared to Norman Wells. In Norman Wells, you can reach nearly any destination in town within a fifteen-minute walk or less. There’s a huge population contrast, too. The University of Alberta alone has more staff and students than there are people living in the Northwest Territories. I’ve been in courses where the number of students in the lecture hall for that class exceeds the entire number of students enrolled in my entire Kindergarten-to-Grade 12 school when I graduated. It was nice to see some people that I grew up with since there are a lot of people in Edmonton.
Bonsai
7:30PM March 14, 2015 16°C
I used to live above the tree line in Nunavut. The town in the Northwest Territories that I moved to when I was two years old has plenty of trees but they are very meager. The majority of them aren’t suitable for climbing. I tried planting a tree almost every year of elementary school, but they always died. And I didn’t climb my first tree until I was almost eighteen during a visit to family in Alberta. I remember that I was too nervous to climb all the way to the top. Now, in Edmonton, I have my own bonsai tree growing in my apartment.
The Drawer
9:50PM March 15, 2015 -1°C
At this Edmonton café there is a drawer in one of the tables that is full of notes that patrons have left. It reminds me of types of social media, like Twitter, where people just jot down their thoughts and send them out into the world for other people to read. For the most part, the notes found here are anonymous. The Internet offers a similar kind of anonymity but usually the author is traceable to their writing somehow, or at least they can return to their electronic statements and see the responses to their comments or writings. What does the author gain from adding their scrap of paper to this drawer? This isn’t exactly like graffiti but it’s a similar practice. I think graffiti is a practice of a newer generation that has thoughtless connotations and a vandalizing waste of time. But I also remember seeing ancient graffiti, both text and images, carved into the floors and seats of the Roman Colosseum. Also, from what I read, many of the notes in this drawer were very thoughtful.
Claddagh
4:50PM March 17, 2015 6°C
It’s Saint Patrick’s Day in Edmonton and I forgot to wear green. Nevertheless, I was still wearing the Claddagh ring I wear everyday. I acquired the ring two years ago in Galway near where the original Claddagh ring was designed roughly four hundred years ago. The story goes that an Irish man learned how to work metal after his capture by Algerian pirates. He eventually returned to Ireland and designed the Claddagh ring. The heart is meant to symbolize love, the hands represent friendship, while the crown means loyalty. It may be a less obvious way to recognize Saint Patrick’s Day but the Claddagh ring still has a long Irish history.
Chapter 2: Ireland and Portugal Stacks
Following the completion of summer projects in Norman Wells, Ms. Hoody Stacks was brought along on a family vacation by DF to Ireland and Portugal. The School of One Carver encouraged DF to bring at least one of the other carvings used for the Norman Wells Gallery to Ireland to help inform the future archaeological record, hence explaining the appearance of the companion carving Ice Cube Fish Canoe as the first vignette appearing in this chapter. While the two vignettes detailing Portuguese adventures pinpoint monumental venues of the Iberian past, Irish reflections found below are unquestionably found at the crossroads of family heritage and personal history.
Cargo in Knightsbridge
9:23AM August 26, 2015 16°C
Ice Cube Fish Canoe carried important Cargo from Canada and left it in Ireland. The cargo was planted in the Knightsbridge Bar and Terrace Lounge in the heart of Dublin. The bar, and the hotel it extends from, the Arlington, is teeming with character. In the hotel, a statue butler waits by the door and a large moose wall hanging greets new guests. This photo was taken after a hearty Irish breakfast, but at night the bar hosts live music and occasional dancing.
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Stacks within a Sphere within a Sphere
12:42PM August 25, 2015 15°C
A Sphere within a Sphere is a sculpture by the Italian artist Arnaldo Pomodoro. I was struck with a sense of familiarity when I came by the sphere while I was exploring Trinity College in Dublin. When I read a small plaque that mentioned the Italian artist responsible, I recalled that I had seen a Sphere before. Over two years earlier, in Vatican City, I first saw a Sphere. This photo is a fantastic collage of history and culture. A Canada sculpture guided by pre-Columbian Mesoamerican and Andean influences sits within an Italian sculpture that was informed by Greco-Egyptian ideas, Renaissance Polish and Italian astronomy in a college in Ireland.
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Water Pump
3:14PM July 30, 2015 9°C
The water pump outside my dad’s childhood home doesn’t work anymore. Small birds have managed their way into the interior of the pump and have built a nest inside.
Portstewart
1:07PM July 29, 2015 11°C
Portstewart has one of the most picturesque beaches I’ve ever seen. That said, the Atlantic at this latitude is nearly always too chilly to swim comfortably. On days too cold to test the waters, there are plenty of shops and restaurants to explore along the coast. For example, Morelli’s, Ireland’s Famous Italian Ice Cream which the Morelli’s brought from their small Italian village, Casalattico to Northern Ireland in the early twentieth century. Barry’s Amusement Park is also a great way to pass the time. Like Morelli’s, the park also has an Italian history. It was founded around 1930 by Evelyn Chipperfeild and her Italian, trapeze artist, spouse, Francesco Trufelli.
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And that beats the devil...
5:30PM August 2, 2015 16°C
My great aunt was told us about a story she heard on the radio. There’s a place called Banagher where there is an ancient church and a tomb that dates back to the twelve century A saint named Muiredagh O’Heney lived and died and was buried there, inside the tomb. She told us that the sand inside the tomb is used as a remedy. There’s an expression that refers to anything that is particularly good: that beats Banagher sand and that beats the devil. Someone has dug an arm-sized hole leading into the tomb near the back left corner. That catch is that only someone with the same name as the saint can retrieve true Banagher sand. Luckily, my grandmother’s maiden name is very similar to that of the saint.
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Veritas
1:00PM July 29, 2015 11°C
The Dominican College of Portstewart is a very regal-looking, white edifice that protrudes slightly over the Atlantic. Many of my family members attended this school when they were children. Following academic tradition, both the Dominican and the University of Alberta have Latin mottos. University of Alberta’s motto is quaecumque vera translating to “whatsoever things are true.” Meanwhile the Dominican’s is veritas, which simply means “truth.”
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Dungiven Castle
6:30PM August 2, 2015 16°C
On our way back from Banagher glen, we drove by the Dungiven Castle. The O’Cahan clan, the former inhabitant of the castle, would have governed the area during the same period that the Banagher church was constructed.
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Ponderosa
7:26PM 1 August, 2015 11°C
We drove home from Banagher Glen and Dungiven Castle on the Glenshane pass. The route was very scenic. There were very few buildings with the exception of the Ponderosa restaurant. The restaurant is one of the few constructions we saw along the rolling landscape of the Sperrin Mountains. While not terribly high by global standards, the Ponderosa claims the title of Ireland’s highest bar and restaurant at nine hundred and twelve feet above sea level. Quito, Ecuador is situated nearly ten times as high as this. That said, when I was in Quito in 2012 I was barely able to eat anything because I was completely incapacitated by altitude sickness. In thisinstance, however, I was very hungry. After our little adventure visiting Banagher Glen and coming across Dungiven Castle we had worked up quite a bit of appetite. Our last meal was some wheaten, an Irish soda bread, and tea for breakfast. We stopped in, as travelers have been since the 1850s, and enjoyed a meal to conclude our day.
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The Long Room
2:43PM August 24, 2015 11°C
Trinity College is the home of the Book of Kells and the Old Library. The Book of Kells, apparently made from the skin of several dozen calves, was very interesting to see. The Old Library, also called The Long Room, was equally interesting. The long narrow hallway was lined with white statue busts of famous scholarly men such as John Locke and Shakespeare. Ms. Hoody was the only female sculpture among the collection.
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Wool
2:49PM July 29, 2015 11°C
Sheep are somewhat part of the landscape in Ireland. My family visits Ireland occasionally because it is where my Dad is from and it is where a lot of my family still lives. One of my earlier memories is one of these visits. Growing up in Northern Canada, my face-to-face experience with sheep was fairly limited. In Northwest Territories there are Dall sheep but sheep in Ireland are nothing like this. In Ireland I first saw a sheep that fit the stereotypical image from which my toys and books were modeled. Walking down the lane, three lambs rushed by us. My Dad seized the opportunity and bent down and obstructed one of the lambs with a big hug so that I could feel the wool. Small clumps of wool cling to the walls of this shearing pen I saw in Ireland many years later. I didn’t know until recently that these domesticated breeds of sheep need to be sheared regularly because their genetics have been manipulated through breeding to produce coats most suited for human use. Every now and then a massively overgrown sheep makes an appearance on the news after going awol. For example Chris the ‘Woolly Mammoth’ in Australia was saved from blindness and skin burns among other health issues when he was found and 89 pounds of wool was sheared from him. Without human maintenance the coat becomes unmanageable. Meanwhile, Dall sheep back in Northwest Territories live naturally groomed and independently.
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Marques De Pombal
11:37AM August 5, 2015 27°C
Lisbon is adorned with several beautiful statues, one of which is the Marquis of Pombal monument in the square named after the same politician. The Marquis of Pombal is revered in Libson because of his efforts to restore the city after a traumatic earthquake in 1755. The Marquis dominates a massive roundabout a few minutes walk from where we were staying. From the base of the statue, the monument looks colossal. After admiring the figures and animals surrounding the Marquis' platform, we continued up a hill towards a park with geometric hedges. From the top of the hill, the Marquis looked small and humble gazing over downtown Lisbon and across the Tagus.
Monastery of Jerónimos
1:25PM August 5, 2015 27°C
Belém is historic area that has become integrated into Lisbon. Henry the Navigator built a church in this area and in the fifteenth century, the Monastery of Jerónimos followed. It is also the home of the Belém Tower. This photograph shows Hoody outside of the monastery. In the early nineteenth century the monastery was threatened by the Liberal Revolution. With the clergy and labourers expelled, a person from the monastery turned to the sale of pastries. These pastries, known as Pasteis de Belém, were highly prized and continue to be hugely popular. The small shop that sells the pastries still exists and is only a short walk from the Monastery of Jerónimos. The monastery has an amazing history, beautiful architecture and contains the remains of many famous individuals (including Vasco de Gama). That said, there about an equal number of people in the lineup to enter the monastery as the one for the pastry shop. Admittedly, we only endured the latter queue.
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