A lighthouse in P.E.I. is getting several new coats of latex. (CBC)

A lighthouse in Prince Edward Island is getting several coats of latex in a Nova Scotia artist's project highlighting changes in the rural Maritimes.

The project, the brainchild of artist Kim Morgan, is taking place in Borden-Carleton, a village on the south shore of Prince Edward Island at the foot of the Confederation Bridge.

The lighthouse has not been used since the bridge was built in 1997 and Morgan said she wants to show how buildings like lighthouses are no longer needed.

"The lighthouse is kind of a metaphor for the town, and the town is a metaphor of what's going on all across Canada.”

Morgan, a professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, said her work is "a new kind of memorial. “I'm working with iconic architecture from the Maritimes that have changed function.”

Students helping

Morgan enlisted a team of students from NSCAD to work on the project. The team is coating the lighthouse in seven layers of latex rubber.

When the skin is pulled off in about 10 days, it will form a complete impression of the lighthouse, with all the outside details, markings and even the graffiti. It will then be reconfigured, stretched over a frame to stand 16½ metres high and lit from inside.

“The inside and outside will be sewn together at the base,” Morgan said. “It will be as though you took a bathing suit and turned it inside out.”

Morgan said the project will cost about $22,000, using art grants and her own money.

Local resident Ralph MacDonald said he wanted to see the community do something with the lighthouse. He said he is particularly pleased that the project will strip off the old lead paint.

“I'm hoping that what's being done now is what we were anticipating and couldn't afford.”

The latex lighthouse will be on exhibit at Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery in Halifax in October.