This is the second work commissioned by the Pouch Cove Public Art Committee at the sculpture garden in Shoe Cove Pond Park. It is part of an ongoing effort to expand the interest in more contemporary dialogue and permanent forms of public art within a smaller community context.

AN OPENING IN THE CANOPY: A sundial at the eastern edge of the sea.

Unlike a classic sundial where you look down at the shadow cast by a single shape, this is a sculpture that you can walk into, play inside and look around.

Located in a clearing next to a pond, this sundial looks to celebrate our relationship to the sky. The sky ties us to a sense of home just as the weather ties us to the sea. This artwork creates opportunities to explore the role that the sky plays in everyday life on the Avalon Peninsula. What does it mean to be exposed? While the artwork is a sundial, it is equally evocative when it is snowing, foggy or sunny.

The desired effect of the work ultimately took inspiration from the surrounding landscape. Just like how Shoe Cove Pond is an opening in the dense canopy of the surrounding woods and how the park is an additional public invitation to pause along Route 20, this artwork is also an opportunity to stop, get out of your car, and to linger (spend time) with the sky. Perhaps if you are lucky and catch the artwork after a brief summer rain the wet slab, like the surface of the pond itself, may literally become a mirror reflecting the sky.

Reading the Sundial:

The notches in the wooden members trace the path that the sun takes at different times of year, so you can get a sense for where the sun rises and sets during any season. During summer the arc of the sun is high and long; during winter it is low and short. Note: The shape of the concrete slab also reflects the shifting nature of where the sun rises and sets seasonally.

To tell the time, trace the shadow that lands on the centre stone back to the vertical wooden member which casts the shadow. The date and time will be written on the mirrored edges that run up either side of the wooden member.