Both architect and artist, Hal Ingberg earned his BA in architecture at McGill University in 1985. He completed his MA in architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, in Los Angeles, in 1988. Ingberg is known for his architectural work and his research on colours. His works of public art include Katsu for Théâtre de Quat’Sous in Montréal in 2009, and Papa for the National Capital Commission in Gatineau, in 2010.
Artwork description
Hal Ingberg’s colourful mural Buz is installed on an interior wall facing the main entrance to the Centre communautaire de l’est, designed by architect Éric Gagné of Faucher Aubertin Brodeur Gauthier (FABG). The artwork is visible from outside the building thanks to the glass walls. Bands of colour are deployed on the wall and attract the gaze, inviting people to go inside.
Designed as a triptych, the painted work takes the form of alternating coloured bands about an inch wide. The contrapuntal hues accentuate the visitor’s destabilizing optical experience. The selection of colours draws on the visual identities of the City of Montreal and the Pierrefonds-Roxboro Borough: the red refers to the City of Montreal; the green, to ecological concerns, as evidenced by the centre’s green roof; and the blue is borrowed from the logo of the Pierrefonds-Roxboro Borough.
The lines painted in the “stripe painting” technique developed in the 1960s by abstract painters, including Guido Molinari and Bridget Riley, are by painter Nicolas Grenier.