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A forklift amid an assortment of crates at the bottom of the Broadway Bridge is the basis of one of the new pieces of art being installed as part of the City of Saskatoon’s 2016 Placemaker Program. The partnership with the Downtown, Broadway, Sutherland and Riversdale Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) aims to engage audiences with temporary works in civic spaces, Betty Ann Adam writes.

Coming Soon (Stoon)

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An ordinary warehouse machine and anonymous crates that could contain anything and which are labelled “Coming Soon” create a moment of expectation akin to the anticipation that meets signs of progress and development, says artist Jason Gress of Nanaimo, B.C. “There’s a kind of utopia that happens when you see those signs go up,” announcing a new highrise or shopping mall, he said. “There’s this utopia until the shovels go in the ground. It’s all about the anticipation that our lives are going to be so much better if we live there or shop there. Nothing can go wrong in that space. There’s no cost overruns. There’s no noise from construction. There’s no disruption to traffic or competition for buying and all that kind of stuff. I was interested in that space where everything was still (potential), that newness and anticipation of development without all the problems and hassles of development.”