Page 6 - Oct2019

Our museum has been working closely with Keith and in the
fall of 2009 the “carcasses” of twelve derelict Avro Anson
aircraft that served with the British Commonwealth Air
Training Plan during World War II were moved to a location
fifteen kilometres north of Nanton, near Cayley.
There, on a knoll on the prairie, Keith has created a compass
circle about 75 metres in diameter. The circle has been
covered with gravel except for twelve grassed aircraft

“silhouette” areas in which the Anson remains have been
placed. The grass and other vegetation will be allowed to
grow up within the aircraft silhouette and the aircraft. This
artwork will become a lasting symbol of the BCATP era on the
prairies similar to the ancient stone medicine rings found in
other locations.

by Keith Harder, Chair, Dept. of Fine Arts, Augustana Faculty,
University of Alberta in Camrose, Alberta
“Gravitas” is about the weight of time. It is also about
the entropy of the material world, of memory, of
dreams; how all such things go to ground; it is about
death and dying. It is about excursion and return; of
overcoming the forces of gravity and of adversity. It is
about courage, about rising up and extending the
horizon. It is about the birth of possibilities and living. Placing the first Anson at 12 O’Clock

I have been working with the curator of the Bomber The artwork is located (in decimal degrees) at Latitude
Command Museum, on a series of art works based on a 50.466978; Longitude -113.849044 and is best viewed from
number of derelict aircraft from the era of the BCATP the air. It may also be seen to the east of Highway #2A, three
program. These few artifacts are some of the only kilometres north of Cayley. It is on private property and there
palpable remainders of a galvanizing moment in the is no public access.
history of Western Canada; a time that was fraught with
desperation and hope as well as romance and grievous
tragedy. This moment produced stories where much of
the mystery that comprises the human condition is
condensed.

In their current state these artifacts have little value
beyond their use as reference material for aircraft
restorers. But to say they have no value at all is to view
any ruin from history, whether cathedral, castle or city,
as merely rubble standing in the way of another condo
project. Rather, all these things are a reminder of who
we are, what we need to overcome, and to what we
might aspire. It was my intention to arrange these
artifacts in a setting that will stimulate such reflection
and highlight these values. The Anson artifacts are
emblematic of certain pieces of the past that are

forgotten, repressed or seen as not useful. However,
that past is still with us and deserves an accounting.