Canoe Wave is being built in Lewiston, Idaho where Lewis and Clark met the Nez Perce tribe.

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Herding 44 used aluminum canoes out West.

Engineering Art: Christopher Fennell brings his vision to the L-C Valley with 'Canoe Wave' piece

By Jennifer K. Bauer of the LewistonTribune November 12, 2010

In the months it takes Christopher Fennell to build one of his monolithic outdoor art works, people get used to seeing a mess. "Nobody knows what's going on," Fennell says about his typical work site, which at the moment is a two-story-tall scaffold of two-by-fours lined by canoes on the northern pond bank in Lewiston beside Interstate Bridge. Working on projects like this around the country, Fennell gets used to random comments from passersby. In Lewiston it was a man with a backpack who said, "You're building a gallows, good. That's just what this town needs." When Fennell's work is done he says it takes two days to remove the scaffolding and then his art is often met with shock and surprise. "People will say, 'It's beautiful. I thought it was going to be junk.' Then they'll be all nice and friendly and I'll drive away and be gone," says Fennell, 45, of Birmingham, Ala. What Fennell is creating this fall is "Canoe Wave," a 23-foot-tall colorful wave of canoes welded together on the bank of the Snake River. A former engineer, Fennell once did robotics work for Motorola Inc., and designed flight simulators for British Aerospace. The problem is he was bored, he says. So he went back to school in art and started making pottery but the engineer in him soon realized that what he could do in 20 inches, he could do in 20 feet. The most famous sculpture his vision spawned is Bicycle Tornado, a swirling twister of 160 bicycles in Athens, Ga. He's used aluminum ladders to create a fire ball and built shelters from the shells of yellow school buses and skateboard decks. He's turned lawn mower blades into giant leaves. He's made several waves from wood salvaged from old barns but this is his first wave of canoes, and his first sculpture in Idaho, state No. 26 to have a Fennell piece. He plans to do all 50. "I try to take everything about the site and put it in the sculpture," Fennell says. He doesn't like to tell people what to think about his art; he finds they create their own meaning that is just as valid as his. For him, each canoe stands for a person, and here is a wave of them. Visually, it's a storm of canoes. It's a monument to Lewis and Clark who used the canoe, but also to the life of the rivers that flow through the valley. It will take 50 or more canoes to create the wave. The canoes are all aluminum, a material that will withstand the storms of ages. He discovered fiberglass would disintegrate. While 10 canoes came from the Boise area, most are from Chattanooga, Tenn., where Fennell once created a giant doorway from trees. People familiar with his work there sold him their canoes after learning of his Idaho project in local newspapers. In the process they shared stories of rapids, frostbite and other adventures in their boats, which were like old friends. "I wanted canoes that had a history to them," Fennell says. "They wanted to retire their friend into something that would last forever." Like most of his work, the $100,000 art piece is made from 80 percent recycled materials. As an avid outdoorsman, natural forms like waves, flora and fauna are prevalent in Fennell's work. "It's totally where I'm inspired. The engineer in me still looks at how nature puts things together and how man puts things together and I'm mixing the two." Another way to put it, he says, is a beehive and a skyscraper are basically the same. "I always like to think there's nature and civilization. If you stand off a bit, we're all nature." Fennell is living in Asotin this fall with his wife, Marion, while he works on the wave, which he plans to complete by December. The piece is being paid for in part by a grant from the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. Together with a grant from the Idaho Transportation Department, it is part of a larger beautification project of the western entrance to Lewiston. Already finished elements include new landscaping and lighting on the levy along Snake River Avenue, aerator fountains on either side of the bridge, and a new entrance sign and culture stone decor. Fennell plans to create a water lily of canoes around at least one of the fountains. "It's a little different than what Lewiston's used to so we're branching out a little bit," Lewiston Parks and Recreation Director Lynn C. Moss says about Fennell's work. This winter and spring landscape work will continue to create a trail and viewing area for the wave. Interpretive panels will be added, along with a children's art feature. Moss says the city wanted the area to have a tribal influence and American Indian landscape architect Brian McCormack, of Lapwai, has been hired to design the area. The entire project could possibly be completed in time for a dedication to coincide with the Idaho Conference on Recreation and Tourism May 5-7 in Lewiston, Moss says.