Good Time of year to Enjoy Robin Magee Memorial!

Local artist Duncan Mackenzie won the library’s competition to make the Robin Magee Memorial last March.

His idea to use glass prisms, and commemorate Robin in light, was both subtle and profound.

Now that the sun is at lower elevations throughout the day, the rainbows cast by the prisms are more visible during library hours.

We encourage patrons to discover the rainbows – which cast a full color spectrum of differing sizes depending on the time of day, and the incidence of sunlight – around the library. They slide up and down the stairway, alight on bookshelves, and paint the walls with ladders of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

To complete the memorial, Duncan Mackenzie used 16 rightangle glass prisms (machined from Schott L-7 optical glass) and placed them in the upper windows that surround the main stairwell. Each are mounted on adjustable ball and socket frames.

Noting that Robin Magee was a devout Buddhist, Mackenzie, who interviewed more than 20 of her friends before deciding on the memorial, said that “Everyone who knew her seemed to agree that an object wouldn’t suit her.”

The use of prisms provides a subtle, ever-changing dynamism to the memorial. Patrons are continually surprised by the rainbows; interest in them is only increasing.

“In many traditions, light is a metaphor for spirit,” observed Mackenzie. Having worked with sundials and pieces involving time, the idea to use “light to speak to the invisible realm” came to him. “I took a lot of time to just be here [in the library] and observe the building,” he said.

“Knowing the geometry of the building, I knew it wouldn’t be permanent. It seemed an appropriate metaphor.”

Each day the rainbows appear at different times and places, moving in silent harmony with the year. Mackenzie has thus created an ever-changing permanency. The perfect symbol to celebrate life!

And each winter Robin Magee reminds us, there’s light behind every corner.

Memorial artist Duncan Mackenzie stands before the plaque commemorating the life of former Library Director, Robin Magee.

Rainbows, cast through the prisms commemorating the life of Robin Magee, alight on the first floor, just before opening time.