Briony Douglas makes big things. The Toronto-based artist has built a life-sized Formula 1 car, a three-metre-high cowboy boot, and an elephant made from more than 225 kilograms of rope.
Her latest big project — both figuratively and literally — is a goalie mask, which she’s made out of sticks used by players in the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Called “The Inaugural Six” — referring to the league’s six founding teams — it stands four feet by six feet (1.21 metres by 1.83 metres). The giant mask will be unveiled at Toronto’s Eaton Centre to help the PWHL celebrate the puck dropping on the league’s second season, which starts this week.
CBC Arts spoke to Douglas about why she makes art about sports, how the sticks made her feel closer to the players, and why she’s stoked to have her art in a mall.
CBC: Why did you want to do this project?
Briony Douglas: As a woman, I believe empowering women in sports is super important. Any way that I can do that through art is also very important to me. I think art is an unbiased way to begin a conversation and spark people’s conversations about things that are important in the world. I loved the league already, and I’m super excited to help highlight them in this unique way.
CBC: OK, but why this specific thing? Why a goalie mask made out of old hockey sticks?
BD: I love creating art out of items that people wouldn’t usually create art out of. I think finding beauty in things that have been discarded or upcycled speaks to a lot of things in our lives. And I love a challenge. I have ADHD, so something different every day is exciting for me. Learning how to navigate fibreglass hockey sticks into a giant goalie mask was definitely not not a challenge.
CBC: Fibreglass hockey sticks, I’m assuming, are a new medium for you. What’s that like and what was the learning curve like?
BD: Everything has a learning curve. That’s what makes it exciting. That’s what thankfully ended up being pretty straightforward … Do you remember the dinosaurs that we would make when we were children out of the wooden slats?
CBC: Sort of?
BD: We essentially did that well with the goalie mask. So we would have a very strong base, and sturdy as well. And then from there, we learned how to cut and drill into the sticks, and then adhered it all, and did a little welding. So it was a learning curve, but not the worst learning curve I’ve ever had.
CBC: This feels like a very silly question, but also one that must be asked. How did you go about collecting the sticks, how many are there and how long did it take you to get all of them?
BD: OK, this is not a silly question. It actually is my favorite part of this whole story. So [the project’s corporate sponsor] Royale asked the league to send upcycled sticks from all six teams. What’s really cool is that there’s names on every single stick., so every time I laid down a stick, I knew whose stick it was. So, in a lot of different angles of the sculpture, you can see the different players’ names on it … I can’t articulate enough just how cool that is. Even the way that the different sticks are taped at the top by each player, they’re all so different and so unique.
CBC: Do you feel like you know the players a little now, after spending so much time looking at their sticks?
BD: It’s funny, I was on the Toronto Life [Rising Stars] list last week, and [Toronto Sceptres players] Sarah Nurse, Natalie Spooner and Blayre Turnbull were [at the launch party], and in my head I wanted to be like, “Guys! We’re best friends. I just made a sculpture out of your sticks.” I feel close to them without actually knowing them that well.
CBC: So this piece is going to be on display at the Eaton Centre. On one hand, technically, it’s just a mall. On the other hand, it looms pretty large as a Toronto landmark. What’s it like having your art displayed somewhere where it’s super accessible to people who may not inherently be art people?
BD: I love it. And I feel like, not to go back to the pandemic, but I feel like for years, we just sat behind screens, having to view art through screens. So people being able to stand there and see my art in real life is, like, my favorite, favorite thing ever. Watching a little kid walk up to the art and be like, “Wait, that’s hockey sticks?” And then the parent explaining to them the story behind it, I don’t think there’s any better feeling in the world than that.
CBC: This isn’t the first time you’ve done art about sports. What speaks to you about sports as a theme?
BD: I think that for myself, I didn’t see women creating art in these categories before, so I want to be that for other people. Like, just last week, I had a mom and her daughter come by the shop to look at the different things we’re working on. [Ser] daughter’s excited about art. And I just think if I can even be that spark for one little girl, that’s pretty friggin’ cool.
The Inaugural Six is on display at the CF Toronto Eaton Centre (220 Yonge St.) in Toronto until Nov. 28.