John McEwen
Salt/Marsh, 1995
bronze, low-carbon steel on concrete bases
Collection of the Owens Art Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by the Friends of the Owens Art Gallery
A life-sized, rust-coloured wolf, a pair of steel split urns, and a low-lying bench make up the elements of John McEwen’s sculpture Salt/Marsh, which is installed at the York Street entrance to the Owens Art Gallery.
The site-specific work creates a web of connections between the different elements of the sculpture but also between the Owens, Mount Allison, Sackville, the nearby saltmarshes and the people who walk by and through this artwork each day on their way into the gallery.
John McEwen is one of Canada’s most prominent sculptors. Salt/Marsh is the only public sculpture by the artist in Atlantic Canada.
Salt/Marsh was commissioned in 1995 by the Friends of the Owens Art Gallery to mark the centenary of the Gallery.
While John McEwen was developing the work, he sent sketches and photo collages of his initial ideas for the work to the Owens. Almost all of the elements of the final sculpture were present in his first sketches, but the orientation and placement of the wolf, split urns and bench changed a few times before being installed in their final composition.
Working with the artist, Owen’s preparator, Roxie Ibbitson and a team of students installed Salt/Marsh on the grassy slope in front of the Owens. Concrete bases were prepared for each element of the sculpture before they were installed.
As a sculpture, the steel slab animal remains mute and motionless. But as a subject it is alive and it looks where animals look. The animal that is represented is both there and not there.
— John McEwen
McEwen has used the wolf as a symbol in many of his public artworks. He is interested in how quickly the silhouette of the wolf can be recognized.
For a brief moment, the wolf in Salt/Marsh comes to life in the imagination, but as you move around the sculpture, the living wolf in your mind’s eye changes into the flat flame cut steel slab.
The two parts of the split urn in Salt/Marsh are placed on either side of the entrance to the Owens. There is also an urn included in the base of the bench. Giving you a clue to what you may see inside the gallery, the urns are symbol of culture, and speak to the Gallery as a cultural institution.
The bench, on which you are welcome to sit, features a map of the different environments of the marsh: Open Water, Mudflat, Low Marsh, High Marsh, Upland Edge, and Mud. The map is a reminder of the natural environment, but especially the Tantramar Marsh, which is out of view, or, as the artist says, “below the radar.”
The Tantramar marshes have been changed over centuries by human occupation and use. Nature and culture intersect at the marsh as it serves as a habitat but also a site of agricultural production.
Outdoors public artworks are subject to exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, harsh weather conditions, fluctuations in temperature and pollutants. The elements of Salt/Marsh are made of cast bronze and flame cut steel, two materials which can withstand the weather, but are effected by their environments.
Finished with a protective coating of liver of sulphur and wax, the cast bronze urns look almost the same as the day they were first installed despite exposure to rain, wind and snow. The wolf, on the other hand, made of flame cut steel, has changed colour since it was first installed, responding to the forces of nature over time.
Read more about Salt/Marsh in this free publication, which includes an essay by Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray, which connects elements of geography, ecology and human history’s effect on the Tantramar Marshes.