We have ice!

Sitting onstage in the chiesa, five minutes to 7. My first visit to the fort in two days. Color everywhere, and huge slabs of ice! Eric and Jaz are pouring a sky blue into large rectangular ice forms in the center of the church. Gord’s at the back, sawing through layers of azure ice, revealing bright yellow underneath. He says it’s like mining, and you find a treasure. Everyone has paint on their clothes, their hands, their faces.One piece of plain ice on the far wall under the window, a neon yellow slab centered on top like a glacier. The paintings instantly remind me of Gord’s early work, before I met him, underpaintings in bold colours and a swath of scraping away.



It’s more comfortable in here, the substructure is sucking all the cold out of the air. It’s dark outside, a sliver of a moon. We’re locked in the fort, protected by the moat and the gate. Waiting for the last twenty minutes of a pressure test on the freon system for the chiller, to make sure there are no leaks. The second half of the substructure should be freezing tomorrow.



Smaller squared paintings with slabs of bright yellow form a sort of ladder at the far end of the church. Gord’s rubber gloves huge on his hands, JC: three sneezes. Time to go home, we’re hungry.