When visitors from around the world pass through the entrance to Richmond's massive O Zone Olympic celebration site, there's little question the first thing they'll see and the last thing they'll forget is Gord Halloran's Ice Gate.
The four-metre high, 30-metre long wall of carefully painted and shaped ice by the Roberts Creek artist had its official unveiling on Tuesday night, Feb. 9, just hours before the Olympic flame entered the O Zone.
For Halloran, this unveiling holds two special distinctions. As many as 400,000 people are expected to pass by Ice Gate as they enter the O Zone, meaning it could potentially be the largest audience his work will have ever had. Certainly, it will be the most international, Halloran said.
"The biggest, most surprising part of the Olympics, when you're a part of it, you see how fantastically international it really is. And to be with all these people, coming from all these countries, is just sensational," he said. "They're in a party mood, and they want to greet you, they want to share. It's tremendous."
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie was on hand for the unveiling, calling it "a great vision" and an "artistic masterpiece."
This is not Halloran's first Olympic gig, however. He was the only Canadian artist to be included in Turin's Cultural Olympiad at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
The second thing making Ice Gate so special for Halloran is the fact that his work is so close to home on the Sunshine Coast.
That location means Halloran has been able to welcome and thank an entourage of friends, supporters and other artists. That closeness to home has also enriched Halloran's work in a new way - a dance troupe, 64 strong, caused onlookers' jaws to drop in a five-minute dance display called Ice Dance choreographed by Coast residents.
Maggie Guzzi, a Sechelt resident and dance teacher as well as rehearsal director for the dance troupe, said the Ice Dance performance fills a long-time wish for Halloran.
"Gord has had many installations in the world, but he's never had dancers and he's always wanted a dance to emulate or be an extension of his ice project," she said.
The dance featured hip-hop, modern, mime and African dance styles mimicking the formation of ice from simple water molecules to an elaborate ice sculpture.
African dance choreographer and Gibsons resident Jean-Pierre Makosso could barely contain his glee when asked about participating in the event.
"To see all these good things and these people and the atmosphere, just makes you be in the moment of the Olympics. Ice Gate brought something really powerful in this event," he said. "I feel so honoured."
Ice Gate, with its shapes, colours and patterns, is designed to look like a glacier in its final stages of movement towards the ocean. Halloran intends for it to evolve over time as it melts and refreezes. Halloran and his crew have spent uncountable hours in the creative process building up to Tuesday's unveiling.
"I'd hate to add all of those up. I've been working on it for over a year in terms of ideas, concepts and the plan for what we were going to do. The paintings, all out, took two full months of pretty crazy hours," he said.
The specially designed refrigerated wall the ice is mounted on was built on the Sunshine Coast. Halloran and his crew - Ari Lazer, Jaz Halloran, Erik Olson, Becky Till, Emmanuelle Renard and Briana Lyon - spent two months in a Richmond cold storage facility pouring paint into moulds, thawing and reshaping them and finally placing them in patterns ready to be mounted on the wall.
Ice Gate will remain on display for the remainder of the Olympics before Halloran begins work on new concepts and art installations for San Francisco, Monaco and Minneapolis.
