2009 News and Information
Ice Gate to Welcome 2010 Visitors to Richmond
05 February 2009Gordon Halloran, the B.C. artist who invented the new art form of paintings made in ice, Paintings Below Zero, has been commissioned to create a monumental installation in the Richmond O Zone, an official celebration site for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
The City of Richmond will be an official Venue City for the 2010 Winter Games as home to the speed skating competition at the Richmond Olympic Oval. Richmond has contracted with Halloran to create an enormous “Ice Gate” to serve as the primary entrance to the Richmond O Zone.
Made with a uniquely Canadian art form, Paintings Below Zero, the Ice Gate will be the largest installation the artist has created to date, measuring up to 100 feet in length and 14 feet in height.
Inspired by a glacial wall in its final stages of movement toward the ocean, the installation will evolve over time with natural and planned changes, encouraging visitors to return frequently to observe the activity. The installation, enormous in scale yet intricate in detail, will reveal stunning patterns created by the interaction of pigment with the crystal structure of the ice.
Flowing throughout the Minoru Civic Precinct, from Richmond City Hall’s Meeting House and public plaza through to the Richmond Cultural Centre and adjoining civic facilities and into Minoru Park, the O Zone will be an official celebration site of the 2010 Winter Games and host a nightly free festival of art, culture, entertainment, sport and people. Features include a main stage with international calibre entertainment and top local performers, the ice zone, interactive public art, large screens with live feeds to connect to venues and other celebration sites, a taste of the Games, First Nations storytelling and more.
“The Richmond O Zone is going to be one of the most exciting destinations during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and the Ice Gate will be a spectacular attraction that will provide a unique welcome to visitors to our celebration site,” said Mayor Malcolm Brodie.
In 2006, Halloran was Canada’s only official representative at the Cultural Olympiad for the Olympic Winter Games in Turin. His invitation was “an homage to Canada” as host of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
Last year, Halloran created an enormous Ice Wall for Chicago’s Millennium Park, an installation called Museum of Modern Ice. The two-sided painting was displayed for the month of February to an audience of over 176,000 people.
Halloran is the only artist in the world creating these paintings in ice. He uses portable refrigeration technology: modular aluminum plates that efficiently conduct the cold. These tabletop-size plates assembled into different configurations help in crating, displaying and maintaining the ice works, regardless of temperatures.
The artist’s past experience of his boyhood in rural Ontario and the vastness of the Canadian winter landscape inspired the artist to work with large ice surfaces.
“Canada is a big country, why not make big paintings?” asks Halloran.
"As a child in Trenton, Ontario, I spent many hours in sub zero temperatures, laying down sheets of backyard ice with my dad's old garden hose. Playing hockey seemed to be the rationale for going to all the trouble, but I remember being reluctant to allow anybody to use the rink – lest they scrape this magical, shiny, newly-flooded creation.
“I’ve always loved the way ice freezes, moves and forms,” Halloran added. “Making an ice rink was probably my first artistic experience.”
For more information on Gordon Halloran visit www.paintingsbelowzero.com.
For more information on the City of Richmond’s plans for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games visit www.richmond.ca.
