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On Nuit Blanche, I had my first nighttime look at the ignorant underlighting of The Archer by Henry Moore. The sculptor didn’t approve of the stupid spotlights, either.
If you look with any kind of understanding, you will see that The Archer is inspired by natural form. Bones, for example. The Archer owes a lot to vertebrae.
Natural forms deserve natural light, namely light from the sun above. Underlighting the sculpture with a ring of spotlights embedded in the base is WRONG. The effect is cheaply theatrical and belongs in Las Vegas or a Halloween tableau.
The Archer properly lit by daylight
Toronto, AKA Hogtown, has a troubled history with Henry Moore. The Archer is only in the Square because a Mayor Phil Givens raised private money to put it there. A sneering public howled against the sculpture, chosen by the architect, and wouldn’t pay for it.
Moore was kinder to Toronto than Hogtown was to him. He rewarded the city with a huge gift of the monumental plaster originals we still own today, on display in the AGO.
So how do we reward Henry? Like the hicks we really are … putting goofy spotlights under The Archer, like kids shining flashlights up their faces. Scary, scary. Mmmwwwhahahaha!
Nathan Phillips Square is undergoing extensive renovation. Could we use the opportunity to correct the pot light mistake and show that we’ve grown up a bit since the 1960s? Yes we could … if we have.
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3 comments
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Your comments make sense to me. It’s sort of like the city tree planters who place trees where they are sure to die. Good intentions gone awry. I’ve always liked the sculpture itself but I have no idea where the name Archer came from.
The official name of the piece is Three-Way Piece No. 2′ but Moore himself coalled it The Archer, too … a much more memorable title.
I found this:
How I came to call it ‘The Archer’ is that the two forms in the middle of the sculpture, not at the top and not at the bottom, in the middle, to me have a kind of stretch in them, and one end is the shape of a bow and this to me at one stage just reminded me of pulling and stretching a bow, and that’s why we call it ‘The Archer’.
Henry Moore in conversation with Alan Wilkinson, c.1980
It was the food pic that shocked me! I don’t eat any of that food anymore.
Not corn, or flour, or white sugar, or additives, or colour, or potato, or tomato and eggplant, oh and no gmo, lol (easy to say tho)
Our town has a new business making DE. Diatomaceous Earth. The edible grade cures legionnaires, ebola, flukes, virus, and a bunch of nasties.
Thanks for your wonderful coverage, it looks fun.