A giant metal sculpture christened Crowvid-19 has helped to raise more than $12,000 for the Ottawa Food Bank.
The sculpture, 7’2” long and weighing more than 100 pounds, was created by Ottawa’s Dave Harries, a mixed media artist and former mechanic who now runs his own renovation business. For the past five months, the sculpture has been rented out, one week at a time, to the highest bidder.
Bids for the sculpture’s upcoming and final week of rental service are being taken online on Crowvid-19’s Facebook page. Proceeds go to the Ottawa Food Bank.
“We never thought he would be going this long, but it just kind of took on a life of its own,” said Harries in an interview Tuesday.
A friend suggested he rent out the sculpture, Harries said, after he created it during the early parts of the COVID-19 lockdown. It was fashioned out of two old bathtubs, various car parts, some rebar and part of a plough.
“I hate throwing things out that to me have an esthetic quality,” he explained. “Things that are machined and cast and formed, to me there’s a beauty to all of that. I always feel guilty about pitching things.
“So a lot of times, when I’m creating, I literally just throw stuff on the ground and see what it looks like.”
He has made all kinds of garden art and sculptures, including flowers, a loon, a dragonfly and an elephant.
Harries said Crowvid-19 will return home at the end of September and likely sit on his porch in Nepean.
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