The chill is on thanks to Winter Wanderland

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This article was published 08/02/2023 (1285 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a harsh reality for ice sculptors — their masterpieces will always be reduced to puddles.

But for a short time, Winnipeggers have the opportunity to witness some of the best ice artists in the world exhibit their mastery as Winter Wanderland gets underway.

International carvers from Mexico, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and the Philippines have teamed up with local sculptors this week to create intricate works of art using 140 tonnes of ice harvested from the Red River.

Equipped with chainsaws, angle grinders, hand saws and other tools, the carvers, led by Winnipegger Corby Pearce, aim to get their artworks completed by Friday.

“We have never done an ice-carving exhibition of this scale before in Winnipeg. I have wanted to invite these carvers, many of whom I’ve worked with, for a long time,” Pearce says.

“This year, because I had the proper collaboration with Anvil Tree and Sputnik Architecture, we went for it. They developed this way of harvesting the ice from the river.”

The project is part of Downtown Winnipeg BIZ’s Winterpeg programming and is headed by design and build company Anvil Tree, a spinoff of Sputnik Architecture, that creates and builds art installations.

A chef by trade, Pearce says he is drawn to working with ice due to its impermanent nature.

“Everything I have ever done is gone,” he says. “Ice is unbelievably beautiful, and the finished product is like a giant piece of crystal. It’s beautiful how much detail you can put in it, how much bigger you can go. You can stick blocks of ice all together… you are only limited by your imagination.”

The sculptors approach the ice blocks with a detailed vision in mind.

“It’s a lot of work if you don’t have a plan,” Pearce laughs. “The smaller stuff you can go wild, but the bigger stuff we would draw and map it out to get an idea of how we are going to stack the ice up and how we are going to carve.”

Pieces of ice are levelled flat and kept stable using a variety of methods, from inserting aluminum plates between the blocks to using slush ice and water to act as a type of glue.

“We have a lot of tricks up our sleeves depending on the weather and how it’s going to affect the ice. If the temperature is too cold then the water on the ice can shatter it to pieces, and if it’s too warm the water doesn’t stick to the ice,” Pearce continues.

He’s hoping for ideal carving conditions this week and considers -15 C to be the perfect temperature.

“Boring weather really. Overcast with no wind and no snow — that’s perfect carving weather.”

The team has been harvesting ice for the last two weeks to ensure there will be enough frozen blocks for the carvers to work on across five sites, explain Peter Hargraves and Chris Pancoe of Anvil Tree.

“The first major site was Upper Fort Garry where we already have five sculptures from last weekend’s Winterscape Ice Carving competition,” Hargraves says.

“Along the Graham Bus Mall we have five different sites: the Millennium Library Park, True North Square, Manitoba Hydro Place and on Graham, right beside the arena, there will be a few pieces of abstract ice.

“Next to the church on Graham there will be big sculpture. We want people to walk through the downtown from each of these sites, from one to another.”

The ice will be carved in place, an “active art-making process” aimed to develop interest in the art and to engage with people passing by.

Eight blocks of ice will be reserved at the Millennium Library site for local carvers to work on alongside the professionals.

“The carvers have all emerged out of the woodwork in the last five or six years and their skills are developing. We invited them to participate, and we are building on this program. Next year we want to have a registration process and for it to become a little bit more competitive for those who want to become involved,” Hargraves says.

Whilst this year’s mild winter weather might have been a balm to most Manitobans, it wasn’t the best condition for harvesting “perfect” ice.

In general we have very good ice in Winnipeg,” Hargraves says. “It is clear blue ice that comes out of the Red River. Because of the temperature this year we have had to do a lot more milling.”

Milling is the process of cutting away slush ice in order to get clear, useable ice for sculpting.

“We can usually get a lot of ice out of one harvest,” Pancoe explains. “It’s been a very difficult year in terms of ice harvesting. A lot of the ice was slush ice, which isn’t usual.”

River ice is considered the best to make ice sculptures from, Pancoe says. The act of the water moving under the surface of the ice makes it freeze without any bubbles. This is unlike ice harvested from a lake as the still water creates air pockets and bubbles.

“It’s fine but it’s something that is regarded as impure for ice carving,” he continues.

Once harvested and milled, slabs of various sizes were stacked at the Redboine Boat Club on Churchill Drive before being moved on flatbed trucks to carving sites.

“This is the first time Anvil Tree as an organization has been part of Winter Wanderland but myself and Peter have worked pretty extensively with snow and ice over the years,” Pancoe says.

The duo has just returned from their most recent venture where they built a suite at the Ice Hotel in Sweden.

Hargraves says the transient nature of ice is what makes working with it so appealing.

“We love that feature of ephemerality. It’s a little bit like live theatre. We get one performance; you get no others.

“We think it is important memories are built through civil projects like these; they don’t last forever. You must enjoy them while they last.”

av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca