Artist uses recycled material to create 'ecosystem' sculpture in Montreal mall

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Artist Peter Gibson stands next to part of his installation called Fragile in a shopping centre Tuesday in Montreal. The installation, made up of 13,750 water bottles, coat hangers, cardboard boxes and other material culled from the from the shopping centre's recycling bins, depicts an ecosystem. (PAUL CHIASSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

MONTREAL - The dragonflies are made of coat hangers and plastic wrapping, the salmon are created from bleach bottles and have bottle-cap eyes. The lilies used to be ice cream containers and the trees are made of recycled cardboard boxes.

Welcome to "Fragile," a sculptural ecosystem made entirely of recycled materials that will be taking up a hunk of Montreal's downtown Eaton Centre until Oct. 30.

The sculpture, which was commissioned by the mall, looks at mankind's interaction with the things it produces — and easily discards.

"For me, the Eaton Centre or a place like this is a sort of microcosm of all the economic activities that go on on a larger scale," said Peter Gibson, the sculpture's creator, who goes by the name Roadsworth. "It's like an ecosystem."

It's an ecosystem created from the shoppers, merchants and delivery people who enter the shopping centre every day.

And the building blocks of that ecosystem are what they produce, deliver and buy — things like bottles, cardboard boxes, even coat hangers.

That's why the artist and his assistants culled the recycling and garbage bins of the sprawling mall for such materials during the last eight months, looking for just the right pieces.

"It's trying to make a link between the natural world and the man-made world," Roadsworth said.

The surface of the sculpture's pond — which is 17 metres long by three metres wide — is made up of 13,750 plastic water bottles and sits on one floor.

Go to the floor below and fish made of water bottles and soft drink bottles are suspended under the surface of the pond, appearing to bob under the water.

Flowers in the sculpture are composed of brightly coloured tin cans and paper cups, with metal supports from file folders serving as stems. Frogs are made from green pop bottles, while waterfalls are made from layers of plastic bottles.

Roadsworth acknowledged some people who view nature as messy with its mud, animals and bugs might find the installation comforting because it presents nature as streamlined and clean.

Comfort isn't exactly what he's shooting for.

"I'd like to think it's an uncomfortable feeling to see a fairly significant architectural space filled in with plastic water bottles, for example, or to see columns covered in cardboard."

Getting the sculpture together was no easy feat logistically, with gathering the materials requiring particular effort.

"Getting the water bottles together was probably the biggest challenge," he said, explaining that, while plentiful, they also had to be in good condition. "There never seemed to be any shortage of cardboard boxes."

Roadsworth first made his mark in 2001 as a street artist who painted bicycle symbols around Montreal.

He was arrested in 2004 for his nocturnal activities and was charged with 53 counts of mischief, receiving a brief sentence of community service.

Roadsworth, whose name is a play on the name of the poet Wordsworth, one of his favourite painters and and his street-painting activities, has since gone on to international renown, including showing his work in Britain.

He agreed that "Fragile" is a departure from his other creations, which are mostly paintings.

"It was an opportunity to try something different, to step outside of a way of working, an approach I've become known for," he said. "I wanted to try something different and expand my horizons."

He did allow that there are some similarities to his other works, saying, "First and foremost, it's the transformation of a space and that's always really been one of the primary concerns of the work I've done."

Asked what he has in mind for his next project, Roadsworth smiled.

"Small-scale projects," he said. "Miniatures, maybe. Something that involves less logistics."