LEGER/REGEL

Hamilton-based artist C. Wells’ recent practice has involved using line marker paint— the medium used to draw the lines on road— in performance as well as on canvas. With LEGER/REGEL, his piece created for the Leger Transit Station, Wells has created an interesting composition, which juxtaposes natural and man-made elements. On the one hand there is an image of trees taken from an angle approximating a bus rider’s view, and on the other hand white and yellow line marker paint has been meticulously added along the lower edge of the image. Despite the representation of trees as nature, the paint lines underscore the fact that we are in an urban environment.

In addition, the images are mirrored horizontally and read like a palindrome. This visual cue is echoed in the title of the piece, LEGER/REGEL, and is evocative of the action of commuting in the form of a return trip. The neighborhood of Leger is named after a former Edmonton city alderman, Edmund Hugh Leger, who served in the late ​‘50s and early ​‘60s. And ​“regel” happens to be a German word, which roughly translates in English to mean ​“as a rule, generally or under normal circumstance.”

“Regel” would apply to activities like a daily commute, or taking transit on one’s daily errands like shopping or traveling to appointments. It also applies to the ubiquity of the Alberta sky, and the sight of native trees while looking out of the window of a bus, as well as the universally understood meaning of marker paint on a road.

Wells’ past work has been on canvas, as performances on site, or as poetic nonfiction that combines theory, history, and personal experience of his work with line markings. 

LEGER/REGEL is true to Wells’ practice as it is a reworking of the familiar (trees and traffic lines) in an unfamiliar fashion, creating the effect of recognition and re-cognition of the presented image. Like the title, the image is a palindrome— it takes only a moment to register the joke, but given time to understand, the meaning becomes richer.