Sculpture at new hospital to honour area’s agriculture past

Hamilton artist Brandon Vickerd was selected to create a public art installation for the new West Lincoln Memorial Hospital. Following community consultation where agricultural history was identified as a major theme, Vickerd chose to create a sculpture of a relaxing horse. ~ Submitted photo

By Luke Edwards

In farming, failure is often not an option. The crops simply must be planted, the cattle simply must be fed.

When Grimsby and the West Niagara community faced a possible closure of its hospital, community members utilized that agricultural spirit and simply didn’t accept failure as an option.

Now, after a decades long battle has resulted in a brand new West Lincoln Memorial Hospital, the area’s agricultural heritage will soon be honoured there.

Later this year a new sculpture will be installed in front of the newly built hospital.

Hamilton based sculptor and York University professor Brandon Vickerd was recently selected to create a public art piece to be placed in a parkette area in front of the hospital. He was one of five finalists, and following his selection went through a collaboration process with the community to determine what identify the piece should explore.

“In the consultation with the community, it was really clear that the two main things they wanted to see was something that connected to the community’s agricultural history, and also the significance of the escarpment to the town’s identity,” said Vickerd.

With agricultural history front of mind, Vickerd set out trying to determine exactly how to represent it in a sculpture. Given the diverse rural heritage of the area, there was no shortage of options. However, when combined with the hospital setting and creating something that aesthetically fit with a health care facility, the options quickly narrowed.

“How do you represent an agricultural community in a way, while also making a piece for a hospital that’s calming and relaxing?” Vickerd said.

“Ultimately people who are coming to the hospital - it can be the worst possible day of their life, or it could be the best possible day of their life. And you don’t want a work that’s adding to any sense of anxiety. You want something that’s calming,” he said.

That ruled out any animals that might be raised for meat. So, turning his attention to companion animals, Vickerd settled on a horse, creating a sculpture where the animal is shown resting. Not only does it offer a nod to the area’s agricultural past when beasts of burden like horses were relied upon for a lot of farm work, but Vickerd said it also connects the past to the present, and to the escarpment.

“The role of horses going all the way back to the War of 1812 in the area and on use on agricultural farms, but also, even now as a recreational form of experiencing the area. There’s a number of times I’ve been on the Bruce Trail and you come across people on their horses,” Vickerd said.

He completed a two thirds model of the sculpture in clay, which was then digitally scanned. A foundry Vickerd often works with is turning it into the final bronze piece, which will ultimately be placed on a limestone platform that comes from a vein of limestone from the Niagara Escarpment, once again tying in the local land.

Vickerd grew up in southern Ontario, and as a child had summer jobs on farms, from picking stones to harvesting tomatoes or tobacco. Working on this project offered a small reminder of those younger days.

But perhaps more than that was the sense of community that the area’s farming history has forged even to this day. Vickerd said he often comes with his family to Grimsby and he’s struck by the number of roadside stands and the vibrancy of the weekly farmer’s market as locals maintain that close connection to the land and how their food is produced.

“It really speaks about community resilience. And I think that kind of resilience can only really happen in agricultural communities to a certain degree,” he said, adding residents needed to tap into that resilience for years as they fought to keep WLMH.

“In agricultural communities, you kind of have to rely on your neighbours. If something goes wrong, those are the people you go to. And so it kind of stitches people together in a shared sense of identity. And I think the hospital is a really great representation of that.”

The sculpture is expected to be finished in time to be installed this summer. 