''Life'' is a concrete sculpture on

Quinpool Road The Quinpool District refers to a commerce, commercial district of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, encompassing the eastern portion of Quinpool Road as well as the streets directly north and south of it. Prominent landmarks on Quinpool ...

, a commercial street in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

, Canada. It was commissioned in 1968 by Ben's Bakery and produced by painter

Joseph Drapell Joseph Drapell (born March 13, 1940) is a Czech-Canadian abstract painter. Early life Drapell was born in Humpolec, Czechoslovakia, and emigrated to Canada in 1966. From 1968-1970 he studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills ...

Background

Commissioned by Ben's Bakery, ''Life'' was designed by noted painter

shortly after he emigrated from

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

as a refugee, landing in Halifax in 1966. The piece, one of the artist's first professional works, sits along the edge of the bakery's former property, shielding an open-air car park and loading area from the commercial street beyond.

Physical description

The sculpture is made of

ferroconcrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

and

acrylic glass Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite, ...

, the latter a relatively new product at the time. The concrete was once painted pink, and the glass scattered colourful sunlight onto the sidewalk. According to the artist, the piece is 65 feet long, 6 feet deep, and 12 feet high. There is a small plaque mounted at the eastern end of the sculpture, which bears the artist's name (rendered as "Josef Drapell"), the title of the piece, and "Halifax 1968".

Concept

In 2015, Drapell explained the piece to the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

as follows:

Current condition

Today the sculpture is in poor condition. The concrete surface suffers from

spalling Spall are fragments of a material that are broken off a larger solid body. It can be produced by a variety of mechanisms, including as a result of projectile impact, corrosion, weathering, cavitation, or excessive rolling pressure (as in a ball ...

, and large chunks have broken away from the base, exposing the corroding

rebar Rebar (short for reinforcing bar), known when massed as reinforcing steel or reinforcement steel, is a steel bar used as a Tension (physics), tension device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures to strengthen and aid the concr ...

. The acrylic glass has become cloudy. In an effort to rehabilitate the piece, in 2006 the municipal government asked Halifax artist Philip Doucette to cover ''Life'' with mosaic tiles. After researching the sculpture's background, Doucette refused, stating that it would be "very egregious to modify someone's design and call it your own". He stated that the sculpture is a reminder of a young artist who immigrated to Halifax and went on to achieve international recognition, and asked, "do we keep the fact that he had been here in our memory? I think that's an important question." In 2010, the city explored the possibility of moving the sculpture to the

Halifax Common The Halifax Common, in local popular usage often referred to as the Commons, is a Canadian urban park in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is Canada’s oldest urban park. History The Halifax Common was originally a lightly forested swampy area which fo ...

. Drapell asked the city to cover his expenses in overseeing the move, and the plan did not proceed.

Future

In 2014, the Canada Bread Company, parent company of Ben's Bakery, was acquired by

Grupo Bimbo Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B. de C.V. (also known simply as Bimbo) is a Mexican multinational company with a presence in over 33 countries located in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It has an annual sales volume of 15 billion dollars and is currentl ...

of Mexico. In March 2015, it was announced that the 104-year-old Ben's Bakery would be shut down and the employees laid off, with production shifting to facilities in

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. The bakery property was purchased by Westwood Developments, controlled by Danny Chedrawe, in November 2015. Westwood plans to build a mixed-use residential and retail development on the site, a plan that would affect the sculpture. The fate of ''Life'' has not been publicly revealed, but in early 2016 it was reported that the architects and developer were exploring ways to potentially incorporate the piece into the new development.

Gallery

Life sculpture 2017 Quinpool view 2.jpg, Viewed from the opposite side of Quinpool Road, the sculpture is partly obscured by a restaurant patio. Life sculpture 2017 Quinpool view.jpg, Eastern end of the sculpture, featuring a small plaque bearing the title of the sculpture Life Josef Drapell nameplate.jpg, Close-up photo of the plaque

References

{{reflist, 30em 1968 sculptures Abstract sculptures in Canada Concrete sculptures in Canada Culture of Halifax, Nova Scotia Outdoor sculptures in Canada 1968 establishments in Nova Scotia