 |
||
Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!)
Love this photo of the Ken Lum designed East Van Cross at the corner of 6th and Clark. I’ve seen a lot of photos of this particular piece of Vancouver public art, but this one ranks right up there amongst the best ones I’ve seen. Great job veronique_m!
Enjoy Untitled from veronique_m
John
 |
THE OPENING is all about introducing the fascinating, quirky and wonderful people working in and around the visual arts in Vancouver. Each week, we’ll feature an artist, collective, curator or administrator to delve deep into who and what makes art happen! |
Bryan Newson is the Manager of the City of Vancouver’s Public Art Program. He and his staff have been responsible for bringing you everything from Ken Lum’s Monument for East Vancouver to Rodney Graham’s Aerodynamic Forms in Space, and hundreds more. I met with Bryan a few weeks ago to discuss how he got involved in the creation of the program, what it does, and where it’s headed in the face of budget cutbacks.
Inges Idée ‘Drop’
Can you tell me about what the Public Art Program does for the City of Vancouver?
The Public Art Program is designed to bring artists forward in planning and development processes that are in this city’s jurisdiction. This includes finding ways to incorporate artists, their artwork and contemporary art practices, into new facilities such as libraries or community centres. It also provides a mechanism for requiring major private developments such as the larger of the new condos and things coming into the city, to commission new artworks in association with their new developments.
Additionally, it looks after things like what do you do when the government of the Northwest Territories wants to donate an Inukshuk for English Bay. What’s the process for handling that, who needs to be consulted? That’s actually a gift of state… you just accept those. But if somebody just wants to donate an artwork, and we spend quite a bit of time wrestling with this issue, we go through a few things: What is the artwork? What is its artistic provenance? Is it a good artwork (by which we simply mean does this work merit long-term placement on city land)? The real issue being, there is nothing more valuable than public space or public land. There’s tremendous pressure on that land, all sorts of agendas for it. I like to think of this part of the Public Art Program (the part that’s not dealing with commissions either for the city or for the private sector, but the part that’s figuring out what to do with donations), I see that as a way of protecting public space, or at least bringing some rigor to the discussion about what should go up on public space.
Do you get a lot of art by donation or is most of it by commission?
We used to. When the program started there was a whole tradition, and most of the artwork that was out in the city was donated by somebody.
The Vancouver Biennale (which is I believe three non-profit entities working in some relation to each other), bring in some major artworks and site them around the city. They have approached us seeking permission to site the works on a long-term basis. Up to 30 years was the original request, but I think we’re talking about 20 years now. We’re coming to an agreement with the Biennale about that. The downside is it means we would take a piece of public space, there would be an artwork there for up to 20 years that people would become familiar with, and then it would disappear. Or it could actually disappear at any point if the Biennale decides to take it elsewhere. The good side is that we’ll go through a process of determining the appropriateness of the work and whether it merits the space it’s in (and I think in most cases we’ll be determining yes it does), and the public gets, at no cost to the city, an artwork for 15-20 years to look at.
At no cost to the city other than the upkeep of the land I’m assuming?
The upkeep of the artwork will be at the cost of the Biennale, because it is selling and fundraising work. They’re fundraising right now to try to raise $1.5 million for a piece. If we owned the work, we would be responsible, but if they own the work they are responsible for its upkeep and maintenance and its insurance. Most of these works would be surrounded by a mowing strip. Some of these works are so popular that the grass does not grow! So it is easy for the Parks people to continue to maintain the space around them.
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas ‘Abundance Fenced’
Remember our LOOK at Ken Lum’s retrospective exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery? And our subsequent look at the accompanying BOOK? Well I’m happy to annouce that we’re co-sponsoring a summer series of film screens that Ken is presenting at the Waldorf. The series, entitled “Vengeance is Mine: Reality takes Vengeance on All, including the Innocent”, kicks off this weekend with a screening of what is considered by many to be one of the greatest Korean films of all time, The Housemaid (1960).
Below is the trailer of the film directed by Kim Ki-Young and starring Lee Eunshim and Kim Jin-kyu. The film is in Korean but of course there will be subtitles on the one shown this Sunday…
Series begins this SUnday, May 1st at 3pm at the Waldorf. Full details can be found HERE.
By now I hope that you’ve had time to check out the Ken Lum retrospective exhibit at the VAG, and you’ve certainly caught a glimpse of the East Van Cross (or Monument for East Vancouver, as it is officially known), right? But did you know that Douglas + McIntyre have released a catalog of Ken’s show? It’s true. The next best thing to owning an actual piece of Ken’s work is to have a hundred and thirty odd pages of it perfectly bound in a hard cover sitting on your shelf to pick up and peruse whenever you please. Also contained within are a detailed biography, critical essays on Ken’s work as well as a range which I am not showing in these images I’m sharing (these are just some of my personal favourite pieces). Learn about it HERE and pick up a copy at the VAG or your favourite local bookstore.
Two of my favourite dudes were on Studio 4 on Shaw today! Ken Lum (who has an amazing show on right now at the Vancouver Art Gallery) and Michael Christie (the author of The Beggar’s Garden, the current selection in the Vancouver Book Club) both sat down with Fanny Kiefer to talk about their projects.
If you’re having a “Who the hell is Arcade Fire?” moment, Studio 4 is an hour long talk show that airs 4 times a day on Shaw and is now in it’s tenth season. Learn more HERE.
If you’ve been reading V.I.A. for a little while then you’re no stranger to Vancouver’s Ken Lum. This artist made his first appearance on our blog in 2009 when he judged a gingerbread house contest at MOV, then we reported on his Monument For East Vancouver (aka the East Van Cross), he spoke at the Pecha Kucha Night that we co-sponsored at the Queen E and recently he was kind enough to put together a Proof feature for our annual print magazine.
We’ve been buzzing about his recent projects but what you might find interesting is that Ken has been a professional artist and teacher for 30 years and has produced a massive body of work, much of which is being exhibited in his retrospective show which opens at the Vancouver Art Gallery this Saturday, January 12th. He’s one of Vancouver’s artists who is well known and respected internationally and has been on a path which has taken him around the world and finally led back to our city and this showing of his work that we can all finally admit is absolutely breathtaking. Funny how that happens.
I shot a great many photos of the work in the show but have decided to only share one of each series that I photographed so that you can get a small taste of what to expect. Walking through the exhibit will invoke thought, conversation, emotion and, if you have an appreciaton for ironic humour, some laughs along the way. I very highly recommend checking it out.
|
|
||||||||||||||
