Playing with the Wind: The Whirligig Collection of the Canadian Museum of Civilization

Patricia Morley is a professor of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University, an associate fellow of the Simone de Beauvoir
Institute, and author of Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

The ingenuity and whimsy of the folk artist is perfectly caught in this
delightful collection of weather vanes and wind toys belonging to the
Canadian Museum of Civilization.

As Crépeau observes, folk art reflects the practical lives as well as
the imaginations of our ancestors: “Fantasy has free rein.
Phantasmagoric visions of the universe and its creatures, staggering
eccentricity, exaggerated eroticism, and impudent, oddball humor—all
are portrayed in folk art.”

Some whirligigs have a practical function, while others are purely
fanciful, and still others represent traditional occupations and trades.
From plastic Javex bottles, cut and painted to serve as scarecrows and
delight the heart of any gardener, to finely carved scenes such as a cow
with her milker from Prince Edward Island or a Nova Scotian playlet
entitled “The Cowboy, the Dwarf and the Petty Noble,” these
inventions attest to the health and vigor of a lively folk imagination
in Canada.

Playing with the Wind, with some 60 illustrations, is a book for all
ages.