The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (RMG), in collaboration with the City of Oshawa, is pleased to announce the Grand Opening of Reverb, a site-specific sculpture in celebration of the City’s participation in the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games by artist Noel Harding on 1 June, 2015 at 7:30pm.

The installation of Reverb will be complete in the spring of 2015. It will be adjacent to the General Motors Centre (GM Centre), Durham Region’s premier sports and recreation facility, and the venue of the boxing and weightlifting events at this summer’s TORONTO 2015 Pan Am Games. The work was purchased with the financial support of the RMG Acquisition Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program.

The sculpture is impactful, standing at 19’ high, and will become a meeting place for the visitors to the GM Center and the community. The curved form implies a megaphone, an amphitheater and stage, a net or goal, as Reverb reflects the activities that occur in the GM Centre. The ‘speech bubble’ or ‘blurb’ shapes on the structure represent the fans and are positioned like a rake of seats.

Every aspect of Reverb was designed to relate to and reflect upon the Oshawa community. Crafted from stainless steel, the unwavering strength of the sculpture references industrial production, and the facets align Oshawa’s history as a port city and industrial capital. The core of the sculpture reflects the liveliness and energy Oshawa offers; lights embedded into the steel structure will turn it into a beacon of excitement. A microphone positioned above centre ice inside the GM Centre will transmit a signal to the lights within the steel structure, transforming the sound into coloured beams of light around the sculpture that will be triggered every time the crowd inside cheers.

“The RMG is thrilled to bring such exciting work to Downtown Oshawa,” said Olinda Casimiro, Interim Chief Executive Officer and Director of Finance at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery. “We are excited to share this work with our community and make a lasting impact on this public space.”

“This sculpture will enhance the look of our GM Centre and our downtown, making an amazing space even better,” said Councillor Bob Chapman, Chair of the Community Services Committee. "We value our partnership with The Robert McLaughlin Gallery and thank them for Reverb - I look forward to its unveiling in June.”

In addition to celebrating the City’s participation in the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games, the project will reflect narratives that have meaning to the community and the public space that the work will occupy. The work will also respond to the RMG’s statement of purpose: Dedicated to sharing, exploring and engaging with our communities through the continuing story of modern and contemporary Canadian art. This new work becomes the fourth sculpture commissioned by the RMG, and will be added to the RMG’s permanent collection of over 4,500 works. Recent public art commissions include Douglas Coupland’s playful Group Portrait 1957 installed on the façade of the gallery in 2011.