A symbol of resilience: Monique Martin's paper dandelions fill downtown Saskatoon
Martin, in partnership with Downtown Saskatoon, is presenting her art installation Context is Everything from March 1 to April 15.
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Peer into the windows of storefronts and unused buildings in Saskatoon’s downtown starting on Monday, and you might be delighted to see a splash of yellow flowers brightening up the area.
Monique Martin’s art installation, Context is Everything, features nearly 3,000 meticulously-crafted paper dandelions that she’s placed throughout the city’s downtown core. From the old building that used to house the Saskatchewan Transportation Company bus depot to the windows of the Remai Modern Art & Design Store, clusters of the bright yellow art pieces will be scattered downtown from March 1 to April 15.
As Martin puts it, the dandelions began as a symbol of resilience in the face of discrimination — but she’s seen her project take on new meaning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The whole theme of the dandelions has changed with COVID. We’re all having to be dandelions right now: strong and resilient, and persevere,” she said. “Dandelions don’t give up … they grow wherever they want.”
Martin, a renowned Saskatoon artist whose work has appeared around the world, said the artistic inspiration of dandelions came to her during a drive down a Saskatchewan highway. When she looked out the window and saw the number of dandelions along the road, she was struck with a thought: they’re often disregarded as weeds and pests, but they persevere and grow anyway.
“I started to think about how we discriminate against things and objects, and then I thought about how we discriminate against people,” she said. “That’s kind of how society does things. We separate things so quickly.”
Martin’s dandelions have now become a splash of brightness and optimism in a world darkened by the pandemic. In Saskatoon, she is partnered with Downtown Saskatoon to present Context is Everything in the city.
Downtown Saskatoon program director Sarah Marchildon said the dandelions are also an opportunity to encourage people to come out and appreciate the spaces Saskatoon has to offer in the centre of the city.
“We’re trying to flip to positive, to be able to give the public something to do, a reason to wander back downtown and enjoy looking into shop windows as we all used to do more often.”
Except for a small wooden skewer holding up the stem, every dandelion is made entirely out of a special paper called Korean paper, or hanji. Martin said she tends to make the dandelions in batches of about 500, but guessed that each individual one takes at least 20 minutes to make, on average.
Many of her dandelions are simply clumped in windows or on the ground in empty buildings. Others are displayed in small glass domes, like the rose in the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast.
Martin sees the beauty and meaning to be taken from a simple dandelion, and she hopes people who see her art can feel some of that as well.
“I made it for a reason, but the attention of the person seeing it, changes it,” she said. “While I’m building them, I think about the people that struggle … and hopefully that energy is carried forward.”
A map of Context is Everything in Saskatoon can be found at Downtown Saskatoon’s website.
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