A Conversation with Artist Kari Woo
The City of Calgary recently published a Q&A with local artist Kari Woo, a Public Art Project Lead at Calgary Arts Development who has works in the City of Calgary’s Public Art Collection. The conversation with Kari Woo is shared below, with permission from the city’s public art team.
Since receiving her BFA from Alberta University of the Arts in 2003, Kari has been engaged in a full-time interdisciplinary arts practice. She’s an award-winning, independent jewellery designer and maker, and an internationally exhibited artist whose work is centred on diasporic perspectives and sense of place.
Kari has two artworks in the City of Calgary’s Public Art Collection, An Exchange of Words: A Community Book Exchange and Collected Stories: A Tribute to Georgina Thomson Library, on view at Georgina Thomson Offices. The City of Calgary recently chatted with Kari about the works and what she’s been up to.
Details from artworks by Kari Woo, including: Exterior work – An Exchange of Words: A Community Book Exchange (top left, bottom images). Interior work – Collected Stories: A Tribute to Georgina Thomson Library (top middle and left, bottom left).
Your creative practice has centred largely around personal work. What drew you to creating a public artwork?
I think what ties the different aspects of my creative practice together, regardless of the scale or context, is the element of storytelling. Whether it’s jewellery objects, interdisciplinary works based on my family’s migration stories and diasporic experiences or public art projects, there’s always a narrative element to the work.
It had been a long-time goal of mine to engage in public art as I’d always been fascinated with how art intersects with and impacts public spaces. Prior to my formal training at art school and subsequent tenure in the realm of jewellery and small-scale objects, I worked a lot with site-specific, interactive installations. I must admit that this kind of work is my first love, artistically speaking.
What did you think of the public art process and how did engaging with community help inform the concept for the artworks?
The public art process is different in terms of having to consider the maintenance and conservation of the works, design approvals and installation logistics. The Georgina Thomson project was also a different size scale for me to work with, which required the assistance of fabricators. However, there were some familiar elements in terms of creative process, design thinking and project management. My experience and familiarity working with metal was definitely an asset in creating this project as it was constructed out of sheet metal.
There was certainly a learning curve working within this process. It differs from working independently in the studio in that the rate of progression is slower due to the approval processes. There were lots of articulate conversations around every aspect of the work and sometimes changes had to happen so there was a level of flexibility and adaptation that was needed. Overall, I appreciated being able to participate in the process and gained a lot of insights, not only into the public art realm, but also my own process.
Engaging with community was cornerstone to the Georgina Thomson project. The intention was to invite community members to share stories and sentiments about Georgina Thomson and/or the library space that had been named after her. This feedback would inform text elements in the proposed work that was to be housed by the former library which had transitioned into a civic office building. However, the community engagement was so moving that it actually changed the scope of the project. The work was originally planned for the interior of the building. After hearing stories and learning about how much the library space was missed by the community, I amended my proposal to include an exterior element – a book exchange and reading area for public use.
A second engagement session invited people to literally leave their mark on the work by writing their favourite literary quote on the benches that would accompany the book exchange case. We almost ran out of space for all the chosen text! People were so excited to be involved and be able to contribute in this way!
Everyone engages with art differently, but is there anything in particular you were hoping for people to take away from the works?
When the scope of the Georgina Thomson project changed to include the outdoor book exchange and sitting area, my hopes were two-fold. First, I hoped the outdoor space that was once the entry to the library would be reactivated as a welcoming, book-centric space in memory of a once beloved community library. Second, I hoped the interior piece which captured a lot of the shared stories would be read as a worthy tribute, not just to the space but to its namesake, Georgina Thomson. She was a prominent figure in establishing Calgary Public Library. For the folks that were involved in the engagement sessions, I hope that they were able to leave with a sense of pride and ownership in the process and the resulting works. Good memories were made at a site that was associated with loss when the library closed.
How has your creative practice changed over the years and what are you working on now?
My practice has always been multi-faceted but was focused mainly on my jewellery production business for many years in addition to running jewellery workshops. Recently, my creative efforts have shifted more towards my interdisciplinary works and attending artists residencies to explore and research new directions, as well as expand on ideas I’ve been working with for a long time. The pace of my creative practice has been able to slow down with this shift which I’m really loving and is necessary to contemplate new ways of seeing things.
Your journey has come back to public art recently when you joined Calgary Arts Development (CADA) as a Public Art Project Lead to work on the Chinatown Public Art Plan. Can you share about the project and what interested you to lead it?
Yes, I’ve been working with CADA’s Public Art Team and enjoying it a lot. It’s such an exciting time for public art in Calgary! The Chinatown Public Art Plan is an evolving project that is focused on gathering feedback from the community to help to create a strategy for the future of public art in Chinatown. I was so excited to take on this project as it was the perfect intersection of all my skill sets. Drawing on experiences in public art, community engagement and coupled with my interest in issues around cultural identity, specifically to do with my own ancestry as a fourth-generation Chinese-Canadian, I hope that this plan can be of great service to the Chinatown community.
What’s coming up next for the project and how can people get involved?
After a successful survey period, we are just about to launch our second phase of community engagement! We are hoping people with connections to Chinatown and who are willing to sit down with us and chat about public art in the neighbourhood will apply to be a part of our interviews and focus sessions. Stay tuned for our official announcement in the coming weeks!
You can read more about the artworks by Kari Woo that are part of the the Public Art Collection here. You can learn more about the Chinatown Public Art Plan project and watch for engagement opportunities here.
