Xabis

This is another of Walter Redingers’s works which was created in 1974. It was purchased by the provincial government and installed at the entrance of the Ontario Court of Justice. A strange choice of artwork given its whimsical nature, but perhaps such a sensibility was needed for a serious space of law and justice.

Xabis is an example of minimalist inspired public art, in this case from Redinger’s ‘organic sculpture’ period, which depict assortments of either carefully placed or haphazardly stacked fiberglass forms that resemble fleshy shapes. These anthropomorphic sculptures create a feeling that they are in fact engaged in some kind of silent conversation that you may just glimpse a quip if you decide to enter their space.

This series has been said, by critics, to inflect or demonstrate the particularly playful and softly fluid (which is to say, organic) formal influence of the British modern sculptor Henry Moore.

During the 1970’s, the Federal and Provincial governments commissioned and purchased public artwork from Canadian artists and installed them on federal/ provincial property. Befitting of the time, the majority of these works were of the minimalist modern art tradition. Minimalist public art was a popular genre of artwork for federal and provincial commissioners because it was, and in some cases still is, believed that this style of artwork contains a universal appeal and understanding.