A Vision of Hope

This artwork has been removed for conservation purposes. 

Three life-size female figures, symbolizing suffering, healing, and hope, rest on top of a gear wheel base representing the 14 female engineering students who lost their lives in 1989 at École Polytechnique in Montréal when a lone gunman entered a classroom and opened fire. The broken steel I‑beam reflects both the engineering background of the victims and the ​‘lightning-like’ shattering of their lives.

The ​‘Vision of Hope’ monument was unveiled in Edmonton at a ceremony December 6, 1999. Organizers of the annual memorial commissioned the sculpture for the 10^th anniversary of the Montréal massacre. Along with the sculpture, fourteen trees were planted in memory of the female engineering students. 

Prior to the installation of the piece, Mitchell was putting finishing touches on while utilizing the concrete lab at NAIT. In an interview she revealed a sudden awareness that her work environment was all too similar to that of the women she was memorializing in her sculpture. ​“It was a very emotional project,” said Mitchell. ​“It was powerful, disturbing, and inspiring all at once. I felt a definite force had been behind the successful completion of the project right from the beginning. It started from being directed to just the right people that could solve the many technical difficulties encountered, to our finding in a pile of scrap metal the wheel that would so perfectly base the sculpture.” 

For Mitchell, working with clay and firing it in the kiln destroys the detail of the work. Typically clay sculptures shrink up to 15 percent, while cement doesn’t shrink and can be retouched, unlike bronze.