2016 Artist in Residence – Lisa Hirmer

Artist in Residence - Lisa Hirmer

About the Weather Watcher

In a public call for entry, artists were invited to submit proposals that considered the role of art in urban placemaking through a lens of curiosity, playfulness and originality. Following review of 12 submissions, the City’s Council-appointed Public Art Advisory Committee unanimously recommended awarding the residency to Lisa Hirmer. Her proposal, entitled, ‘Weather Watcher,’ sought to capture artistic, poetic, and systematic recordings of the weather.

Using the vehicle of everyday banal conversations about the weather, Hirmer aimed to engage the public in gaining deeper insight into our understanding and beliefs about the impact that weather and its changing patterns have on the lives of those who live, work and play in our city.

Over the course of the residency, Hirmer designed, constructed and installed a weather registering structure in Market Square. She also created a mobile unit that accompanied her as she moved to various locations outside. While engaging with the public, Hirmer created artistic works that recorded and documented the changing weather in the moment and the public’s interaction with it.

For the duration of the project, Hirmer’s artistic work was shaped into a public exhibition at City Hall.

The wind sock overlooking Market Square on a sunny day

Windsock progression on a sunny day

Windsock

About the artist

Lisa Hirmer is a Guelph-based inter-disciplinary artist whose work combines visual art, design, social practice, performance, and art-based forms of critical research. She is the director of DodoLab, an experimental project-based practice focused on exploring and responding to the complicated reality of public opinion. Holding a master’s degree from The School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo, her work has been shown across North America, Europe, Australia and the UK. Locally, Lisa has created projects with The Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation at the University of Guelph, the Musagetes Foundation, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery.