Org Chart, 2001
‘…and then we take Berlin’, Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener, artworks .01
Kitchener, Ontario
September, 2001
Along with 17 other artists from Canada and abroad, I was invited to create a site specific work for the City of Kitchener, Ontario. My contribution, Org Chart, placed an organizational chart of the city’s municipal structure onto the windows above the foyer of Kitchener City Hall. Integrated into the design of the building, the origin and intent of the chart was difficult to discern. Is this art or the Rosetta Stone of all bureaucratic directives? Equally, is this decoration or are the coloured squares a secular substitute for stained glass?
Org Chart: A site specific artwork for Kitchener City Hall.
The image was created using sign vinyl and measured 11' x 24.5'
The inspiration
There is art in bureaucracy. As you may know, the Region of Ottawa-Carleton recently amalgamated into the City of Ottawa. Having been employed by the Region’s Art Program, I sat through numerous presentations on restructuring, all of which were illustrated by elaborate organizational charts. Short on specifics, the charts were just as readable as abstract compositions as they were as plans for a new city. That an element of the bureaucratic process could be read as art suggested the form for an artwork specific to Kitchener City Hall.
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