Artist and glass blower Brad Copping spent a year in residence at the Canadian Canoe Museum covering a 16′ cedar strip canoe in a mirrored mosaic map. The map charts the waterways from Copping’s studio in Apsley, Ontario southward into the Trent Severn Waterway and on into Rice Lake.
“It is the experience of paddling on still and quiet nights, the sky clear and the moon yet to rise that moved me to create this work. The mirror-like surface of the water reflects the stars and I am given the sensation of moving myself through them. As the moon rises, the small ripples from my paddle and canoe cutting through the water sends the reflected light dancing across its surface.” – Brad Copping
In the fall of 2015, Copping paddled the canoe the 135 kilometers between GlazenHuis in Lommel, Belgium to the Dutch National Glass Museum in Leerdam, Netherlands. He journaled the journey between these two glass centres and inscribed his experiences on the mirrored interior with a diamond engraver. This canoe was exhibited along with other pieces from this body of work in the Main Gallery of the Art Gallery of Peterborough.
The mirrored canoe project has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the GlazenHuis, the Dutch National Glass Museum, and the Canadian Canoe Museum.
"setting afloat on a river in spate"
The solo exhibition of artwork by Brad Copping was presented in the Art Gallery of Peterborough’s main gallery from June 4 to September 4, 2016.
In 2023, the Art Gallery of Peterborough released a digital publication documenting the exhibition.
