Trailing

Birch plywood, fiber optic cables, electronics
2019–2024
Installation

- A dense forest of fiber optic cables dangle from a canopy of wooden hexagons suspended ten feet in the air. Viewers/participants are invited to wander through the sculpture and immerse themselves in a warm aqua green light that is emitted from the strands as they move. Momentarily illuminating their path, the light flickers and fades in their wake. Each fiber optic strand is connected to a mechanical trigger that signals a tiny microcontroller to turn on its light emitter. The tessellation of hexagons above can be reconfigured to respond to the space the piece occupies. 

The concept for Trailing emerged in 2019, when Alia Shahab and Michel Gignac were commissioned by the City of Calgary's Public Art Program to create a light-based installation. They exhibited an early edition of work as part of Contemporary Calgary’s inaugural group show “Planetary.” Trailing was later exhibited at cSpace King Edward in Calgary in 2021. That year, the duo received a grant from Canada Council for the Arts to make improvements to the durability and transportation of the work. It has since toured to the Yukon Art Centre in Whitehorse. The installation has recently been expanded from nine hexagons in the tessellation to twelve thanks to the support of the Anchorage Museum. They are currently hosting the exhibition until January of 2025.

Trailing has been exhibited at Contemporary Calgary in Alberta, cSpace in Calgary, Alberta and Yukon Art Centre in Whitehorse, Yukon.

Thank you to the following for your support:

Canada Council for the Arts

Yukon Touring Artist Fund

Solarbotics, Electronics Design

ISL Engineering, Structural Engineering

Alec Brilling, Programming

Zdea lighting

Trilogy Net

Fuse 33

And an enormous thank you to the generous support from our community, because of you, this project was possible:

Ryan Davis, Genesee Keevil, Imogene Gignac-Keevil, Geoff Hunter, Maria Hoover, Shannon Hoover, Kasia Koralewska, Eddie Jaworenko, Ivan Ostapenko, Caitlind R.C. Brown, Wayne Garrett, Tyler Heal, Shivam Gee, Eric Heitmann, Anne Shourounis, Jasmine Shourounis, Contemporary Calgary, Robyn Moody, Rami Abdulnour, Randy Niessen, Mary Bradshaw, Scott Price, Micheal Thessel, Mike Thomas
Along with several dozen other generous volunteers, consultants, and assistants not mentioned here.