Charlottetown traffic control boxes get a visual upgrade with new public art displays

CBC

2 days ago

Four intersections in Charlottetown have new public art installations.
The City of Charlottetown commissioned four artists to transform traffic control boxes into pieces of public art.
"In the art community, we've been asking for more opportunities to create art for the public and for people around us, and this was one of the initiatives that the City of Charlottetown took," said Chester Hewlett, whose artwork is on display at the intersection of Euston and Weymouth streets.
"Not only does it help us in terms of building our career, it helps us also reach the community and help them know that there are artists here who can create and who can do good work."
WATCH | Standing on the corner? Eyeball some art while you wait, thanks to City of Charlottetown project:
Standing on the corner? Eyeball some art while you wait, thanks to City of Charlottetown project
6 hours ago
Duration 1:45
Leaders in Charlottetown put out a call for Prince Edward Island artists to create some original work that would be showcased throughout the city's downtown. The canvas: traffic control boxes on various street corners. Chester Hewlett was one artist who responded, and he tells us about his work 'A Path Through Time.'
Each of the four artists selected for the project designed their piece using the artistic medium of their choice. The designs were then transferred onto the city's traffic control boxes using a vinyl wrap.
Each of the public art pieces are marked with QR codes that can be scanned to reveal more information about the artists and their designs.
A Path Through Time
Hewlett said when he learned about the project, the concept immediately appealed to him.
"I knew this was a thing for me because I'm one who transforms … things that are mundane or ordinary things into things that people can see in a different light, and that's what really resonated with me in this project," he said.
An artist and graphic designer, Hewlett created his design as a digital illustration.
"Rather than an artwork that would continuously wrap around, I wanted people to have different interpretations depending on which side they saw."
Hewlett's piece, called A Path Through Time, encompasses the past, present and history of the area. It pays homage to landmarks in the area — like the Charlottetown Curling Club, ADL building and gas station — that existed in the past and evolved with time, he said.
"I feel like there's a way to preserve the past and still have it be intertwined in everything that we do," he said.
Hewlett said when he started his career as an artist, he didn't think creating a piece like this could be a possibility.
"It takes a lot to show a part of yourself to the whole world. And literally anybody can see this, and it's a part of you that you're giving out."
Coalescence
A few blocks away, Hilary MacDonald's piece is on display at the St. Peters Road roundabout at Belvedere Ave.
"It's such a great opportunity … to have my art displayed just this publicly in front of all these cars," MacDonald said.
MacDonald's design, titled Coalescence, was created with acrylic paint on canvas.
"This roundabout specifically kind of represented… a coalescence… of different aspects of trade routes, shore routes, it also led right downtown, and it just kind of felt like an immersion of everything that now leads up to what Charlottetown is today," she said.
The warm colours, the flowers and the woman depicted in the design represent Mother Nature, as well as the Indigenous people who first lived on the land, MacDonald said. The graphic blue colours and the circuit board designs represent technology and how it has shaped the modern world.
Public art displays like the newly installed traffic control box designs contribute to a sense of vibrancy and culture in the city, MacDonald said.
"When people come from all over the place — like tourists or even the people who live in Charlottetown — it just kind of brings people happiness and joy, no matter what the subject of the painting or the art is," she said.