Fredericton artist hangs art of many colours across his front lawn

From afar, a clothesline on Acacia Court in Fredericton may look like it's full of laundry, flapping in the breeze.

But up close, the clothes are actually solidified into colourful shapes of all sizes.

It's the creation of Brian MacKinnon, a Fredericton artist and semi-retired doctor.

"Each piece of clothes is really ostensibly a sculpture, a movable sculpture, and it's hopefully going to change every day with the weather, the sunshine, the shade," said MacKinnon.

"This work, in my mind, couldn't exist inside a gallery. This is made to be outside."

Each piece on the line was dipped in paint and then stiffened. (Prapti Bamaniya/CBC)

This isn't the first time MacKinnon has displayed his work in his front yard. In 2020, he installed shutters on his house made from melted children's toys.

He's planning to donate the brightly-coloured shutters to the new K-5 school on Cuffman Street on Fredericton's north side.

So, the clothesline installation, which MacKinnon calls, My Heart Has Many Colours, is taking that bright and vibrant place in his yard.

WATCH | Vibrant clothesline shows artist didn't separate colours for this load:

Each item hanging on the line was first soaked in a barrel of paint and then it stiffened, keeping its shape.

MacKinnon said there are different inspirations for the piece, including his memory of growing up in the country on Prince Edward Island, where his mother and grandmother had long, flowing laundry lines.

There's also an environmental statement to the piece in the form of clothesline bans — a hot topic over the last decade or more in Canada as some municipalities enforced them and others lifted them.

And the items MacKinnon used for the project are recycled, he said, including some from his own children's childhood wardrobe.

"But they still have a life and are attached to our home and an old tree that is not in good shape — and won't last a whole lot longer, I'm told — so I'm giving these things a new life, I hope."

MacKinnon said he also hopes people will find their own meaning in the display.

MacKinnon replaced six shutters on the front of his house with melted children's toys in 2020, when this photo was taken. Now, the shutters will be donated to a new school on Fredericton's north side. (Gary Moore/CBC)

"Usually in artwork, people tell me they find things that I wasn't thinking about at all, and, frankly, in a lot of cases, are more interesting than my own ideas," he said. "And I never dissuade them from their ideas, because that's part of the artwork."

He said people are welcome to drop by to see the clothesline installation — and they're allowed to touch it, as well.

For him, having people see the art is part of it.

"It was lying on my studio's floor as I was putting it together, piece by piece, but it doesn't come alive until it's like it is now."