Public Artwork
Le jardin secret de Spica
Location:
The National Gallery of Canada, 380 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1N 9N4, Canada
See map: Google Maps
Artwork creator(s):
Racine, Rober
Text author(s):
Racine, Rober
Installation year:
2001 Description:
Fifty deep blue plates are arranged in the courtyard. They all feature the names of stars - some familiar, others less. Spica, for example, is a magnitude 1 star in the Virgo Constellation, according to the brightness scale invented by Hipparchus. Attached to walls or set on metal supports planted in the ground, these plates evoke the labels that identify plants in a botanical garden. A garden of words, Le Jardin de Spica is part of a larger project by Rober Racine, a work in progress that also includes Le Parc de la langue française. But the grouped plates also evoke a starry sky. Inspired by the Apollo missions in a number of his works, the artist, like astronauts, remains driven both by scientific curiosity and by a sense of wonder at the immensity of the universe.
Text of the artwork:
Acrab
Alamak
Alaraph
Albireo
Alderamin
Alioth (on wall)
Alkaid (on wall)
Alpheratz
Altaïr
Alula
Boreale
Antarès
Arcturus
Atlas (on wall)
Bellatrix
Betelgeuse
Capella
Cor
Caroli
Denobola
Deneb
Cygni
Dschubba
Dubhe (on wall)
Enif Gemma
Genia Izar (on wall)
Kochab
Kuma
Lesath
Maia
Markab
Merak (on wall)
Mira (on wall)
Mirach (on wall)
Mizar (on wall)
Mufrid
Phekda (on wall)
Pherkad
Polaris (on wall)
Ras
Elased
Australe
Regulus
Sadr
Sargas
Scheat
Seginus
Sirius (on wall)
Spica
Véga (on wall)
Vindemiatrix
Wezen
Zosma
Artwork theme:
French language, stars, music
History:
Artwork designed on behalf of the National Gallery of Canada, as a tribute to the Jeux de la Francophonie, which took place in Ottawa-Gatineau in 2001. Dimensions:
Height:
0.23m
Width:
0.148m Note(s):
The names of the 50 stars are printed on 50 plates and installed on the ground and walls of the museum's courtyard. The names are listed here alphabetically. They are distributed randomly on the plates on-site. "When the name of a star contains the name of a note on the music scale [in French: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, ut], it is written in italics," explains Rober Racine.
There were some artistic precursors to the Jardin secret de Spica project, including a mural in the Rober Racine exhibition at the National Gallery (November 23, 2001 - February 24, 2002) and a series of four pages in the magazine Parachute ("Spica," in Parachute, no 96, October-December 1999, no page number). Rather than "plates" (such as the work is described on-site), the installation consists of "word-steles," as the artist calls them. On each deep blue, shiny-as-the-night-sky word-stele, the name of a star appears. The one on which the name "Spica" is written is the centerpiece of the work. It appears discreetly in the middle of a square of pinkish stones, a marked difference from the grey pebbles that are mostly used in the couryard. The other forty-nine metal plates are planted in the ground or attached to the stone walls of the courtyard (see example of the Merak word-stele in the photograph above).
Artist's biography:
Rober Racine
Propriétaire(s):
National Gallery of Canada Document(s):
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