Touchstone

Coming soon: Touchstone will be installed in October 2025.

Touchstone is a five-foot-high sculpture at the NAIT LRT Station. The artwork is aptly named, inviting a tactile exploration of the bronze surface.

Touchstone is rooted in the artist’s family history and was created as a cultural monument to the Dene and Métis of the North, as well as the Dene living in Edmonton. It is located near the historic Blatchford Airfield, which was once the landing site for many Indigenous passengers from northern Canada. The site has special significance to the artist — Canadien’s mother was one of those passengers, who as a young child had a long stay at the Charles Camsell Indian Hospital in the nearby Inglewood neighbourhood.

Shaped after a river rock the artist found near his home in southern Alberta, the sculpture’s smooth, burnished surface is punctuated by Dene floral motifs. The floral design of nine five-petaled flowers and leaves on the northwest face of the sculpture recalls a tufting in reverse, with its leaves pointing upwards to the heavens in a gesture of resilience. The opposite side features a rose design inspired by the artwork of the artist’s family matriarchs. Canadien hopes that people will find resonance in this work and recognize their own strong and continual family stories.