Some background...
http://www.mississauga.com/what's%20on/article/1546373--new-sculpture-points-to-mississauga-s-past-and-future
New sculpture points to Mississauga’s past and future
Joseph Chin|Nov 30, 2012 - 12:07 PM
Nearly three years ago, Michel de Broin hung the world’s largest disco ball — a whopping 7.5 metres in diameter and covered in 1,000 mirrors — during the Nuit Blanche festival in Paris.
At least 100,000 people reportedly saw the work over the course of the night.
It’s not as gigantic, nor as flashy, but this week de Broin’s latest piece of public art was installed in the centre of the roundabout at Duke of York Blvd. and Square One Dr., opposite the Sheridan College campus.
Called Possibilities, the aluminum sculpture is a tangle of eight colourful arrows inspired by the colours and shapes of oversized 1950s' roadside signs — a reference to the future Mississauga’s development during the golden age of the automobile. The arrows also point to the future and the city’s vision for a new, vibrant, pedestrian friendly urban downtown.
“Public art is an important facet of how to make a city a place that is economically and culturally strong as well as memorable,” said Susan Burt, director of the City’s Culture Division. “Works of art like Possibilities help to define Mississauga’s distinct identity and its urban context.”
A past winner of the prestigious Sobey Art Award, Canada’s prominent award for contemporary Canadian art, de Broin has exhibited his works worldwide including in Ottawa, New Orleans, Paris, Berlin and Korea.
The Montreal-born artist challenges accepted norms of the world around us. He famously got his pedal-powered car pulled over by the police in Toronto after previously driving it around New York City, Montreal and France. Another time, he rode a bicycle, equipped with a smoke machine, in a Montreal park.
“I set out to render visible, through richly profound metaphors and analogies, the forces at work in the movement of the energies which guide our actions and govern our impulses,” his bio explains.
Possibilities is the third piece of public art installed in the City Centre within the past year: the other two are Crossing Pedestrians, by street artist Roadsworth, at the intersection of Duke of York and City Centre Dr., and Buen Amigo, by Chilean artist Francisco Gazitua, in front of the Absolute towers at Burnhamthorpe Rd. and Hurontario St. The latter was privately commissioned by the developer, Cityzen.
Two years ago, the City of Mississauga endorsed a plan to allocate a minimum $200,000 annually toward a public art program.
