Image Credit: Mel Rothenburger

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Lansdowne parkade mural is a spectacular piece of art

May 28, 2019 | 10:25 PM

KAMLOOPS — THE NEXT TIME YOU’RE DRIVING down Lansdowne Street, enjoying the reconstruction traffic, look left as you pass the City parkade. You’ll probably have time to do this in the slow-moving traffic.

You’ll be amazed at what’s going on there. The parkade mural is well under way and it is truly spectacular. Commissioned from Kamloops artist Bill Frymire, it’s part of the Lansdowne Street do-over, and consists of metal tiles — 90,000 of them — assembled to depict the meeting of the waters.

It’s blue and green and yellow and bright and sparkly and the tired old parkade is on the way to becoming a stunning canvas. Every parkade should look as good.

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When the plan for the project was unveiled a little more than a year ago, it had its skeptics. At a cost of more than $160,000, it’s not your average paint-by-numbers.

Public art is always controversial, anyway. Sometimes it’s the cost, other times it’s the art itself that gets people riled up. Take that thing in the roundabout in front of the Sandman Centre, or the most recent wildfire memorial, unveiled a year behind schedule. Not everyone’s cup of tea.

Surely the artistry of this new one won’t find many detractors, though. Frymire’s work is highly original but not at all weird.

An argument can be made that despite its mass it isn’t visible enough — once the Victoria Street West reconstruction project is finished, and traffic speeds up, who’s going to really enjoy it except people walking down the sidewalk on the opposite side of Lansdowne?

But public art and public spaces have to be considered in total, and the new mural adds just one more piece to making Kamloops a pleasing city in which to live.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.