Balancing Act comprises three oversized unicycles perched precariously atop rock-type formations that frame the front entrance of BLVD Beltline, a premium rental property located in the heart of downtown Calgary. The artwork playfully explores ideas of imagined spectacle and a desired state of balance while acknowledging the neighbourhood’s histories and the site’s proximity to Stampede Park and East Victoria Park.

The unicycles look to be handmade out of nailed timbers and whittled wood, but the three sculptures are cast in bronze, a material with a long history of commemorating and memorialising people, places, and events. Using bronze in this context turns a critical eye towards how a society judges and celebrates success.

The concept of a balancing act recalls a performer carefully walking across a circus tightrope, constantly adjusting for the swaying apparatus, as a nervous audience watches for the impending success or failure. A balancing act is also that thing we do every day: balancing this responsibility with that one; trying to get this thing done while being expected to be doing that. Is a cartoon-like mishap about to happen? Balancing Act is conceived as anyone’s imagined spectacle or show-stopping performance.