New public art works will engage all senses
Public art works that cannot only be seen but also heard or tasted are coming to Vancouver.
The six artist-initiated projects reflect the diversity of contemporary artistic practices in Metro Vancouver, according to Eric Fredericksen, City of Vancouver’s public art program manager.
The works include an Indigenous healing garden at former gas station sites, featuring plants that both heal and remediate toxic soil; a weekend chime to the tune of Loverboy’s classic song Working for the Weekend, and chewing gum developed in collaboration with schoolchildren.
This is the city’s third public art program based on ideas from artists. The first was part of civic preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics and resulted in one of the city’s most recognized and iconic public art works: Ken Lum’s Monument to East Vancouver at East 6th and Clark.
“When we talk about artist-initiated projects, we’re often pointing to Ken Lum’s Monument for East Vancouver,” Fredericksen said. “We’re probably not getting something on that scale. What we have are a series of really good projects at a more moderate scale.”
In 2011, there was a second call for artist-initiated projects to mark the city’s 125th anniversary. One of the public art works from that series is A False Creek, the chromatic blue bands on the pilings of the Cambie Bridge, by Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky.
“With artist-initiated ideas, you’re looking with ideas — which is different than how we work normally,” Fredericksen said.
Usually, artists submit proposals for a site, theme or medium that’s already been chosen. An artist-initiated program works by asking artists what they would like to create in any part of the city.
At this stage in the process, neither the sites where the works will be located nor their final forms have been fully decided. The works will start appearing around the city in 2018.
The city received 189 proposals to an open call in June. They were whittled down to a shortlist of 16 from which the final six were chosen. The project’s budget is $750,000.
“It’s not like an exhibition where you have six projects with a coherent theme,” Fredericksen said. “It is a bunch of different approaches to the city today from different perspectives on different scales.” The artists and artist teams chosen are: Anne Riley and Cease Wyss: The two artists plan to grow Indigenous plants on the sites of former gas stations. The gardens serve a practical function of mitigating some of the toxic soil conditions at the sites as well as teaching about Indigenous healing plants. One of the proposed sites is the vacant lot on East Hastings and Commercial donated to Urban Native Youth Association.
Brady Cranfield: Weekend Chime is a contemporary version of a factory whistle that once would have signalled to industrial workers to drop their tools and leave work. Cranfield’s version will sound notes from Working for the Weekend, the 1981 song recorded in Vancouver by Loverboy, at a downtown site still to be determined.
Diyan Achjadi: Achjadi will be making a series of handmade prints to contrast with the digital images of advertising posters found on construction hoarding.
Helen Reed and Hannah Jickling: The artists are exploring the history, economics and politics of chewing gum, a food often banned in schools. Expect a tasty chewing gum based on the input of children and adults.
Paul Wong: Wong will be creating a series of multidisciplinary works based on 700 letters in Chinese sent by 90 writers to his mother, Suk-Fong Wong. He also recorded 50 hours of interviews starting with her diagnosis of dementia in 2011 to her death last year.
Vanessa Kwan: In a park, likely in the Mount Pleasant area, look for Kwan’s bronze sculptures based on misshapen houseplants such as a Two-Headed Aloe Vera, a Top-Heavy Day Lily and an Overgrown Succulent.