Weaving together art, community and sustainability in a public art installation.
“I don’t think we realize how much we need the interaction of other humans until we have it,” says Toronto-based visual artist Briony Douglas. She’s taking a brief pause during the multi-week build of her latest work, Reborn: a HUMANATURE art installation, to talk with us about the inspiration behind the project. “I really want people to feel connected,” she says. “To feel that no matter how hard things can get, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel—and a moment to break free to be reborn.”
For Douglas, her career as an artist came from her own moment of evolution and change. Art had been a longstanding passion—as a child enrolled in art classes she was certain that it was going to be a straight path from school to profession. But then, only a few years before graduation, a particularly mean teacher crushed her spirits. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘Well, I don’t want to end up being mad and angry if I go into art!’ and I took a different path and did a whole bunch of other things.” After years of honing different skills in different industries, the art world finally lured her back—and allowed her to break free of the fears that one teacher unknowingly set in motion so many years prior. “All the different avenues I took allowed me to be where I am today,” she says.
Known for her large-scale sculptures and eye-catching mix of found materials, closing the loop is a natural part of the narratives surrounding her work. “Something I pride myself on in my work is really creating from things that may have been discarded,” she says. “I think it comes from my childhood feeling of not belonging and almost feeling discarded myself—there’s satisfaction in finding the beauty in things that other people don’t see, like recycled materials.”
For Reborn, materials have come from Canada Goose. The idea was conceived as a manifestation of our HUMANATURE platform—our commitment to sustainability that underscores our purpose to keep the planet cold and the people on it warm. Elements were pulled from previous-season window displays, as well as excess fabrics and products from our upcycled warranty program. Together they have now found new life in the world—the literal world!—of Briony Douglas.
“The piece itself is a globe breaking out of an iceberg,” she explains. “Which is supposed to show spring and everything being new—but I also think it just falls perfectly with our lives at this time. We’ve just come out of a two-year pandemic and things are starting to feel like they’re returning. The whole point of the project is to talk about transformation and rebirth—really taking what we’ve learned and creating new experiences and a new outlook on life.”
But how do you create an experience through art—how do you go from concept to actually building an eight-foot globe in a public space?
“The whole thing was very hard to figure out!” Briony admits. “Coming up with the concept is one of the hardest parts—I don’t think people realize how much goes into thinking of something different.” And once the idea is locked in, figuring out how to actually build it is equally challenging. “Most of the pieces I’m making has never been done before. I can’t YouTube it. I can’t Google it—it’s a lot of figuring it out and talking to experts.”
Reborn’s team of advisors included expert woodworkers and seamstresses. “I just start taking to people about how to use specific materials,” she says. “It’s really problem solving and a process of elimination. A lot of the time, I walk in on the first day and be like, ‘Okay, we’re going to start just trying this and if it works, that’s awesome. If not, we’re going to move on and do something else and try and figure it out.’”
Indeed, Briony’s artistic process is a mantra we can all use as we continue our own journeys forward. Every action can make a difference—no matter how small the step.
