Vancouver's 'Proud Youth' is leaving the city.
Well, it wasn't Vancouver's officially, it was just staying here for a couple of years and now it's got fresh plans and will be moving out of Yaletown.
The gigantic, bright red sculpture of a naked youth leaning forward laughing has been standing over the north shore of False Creek at the foot of Drake Street since the spring of 2021 when it was installed as part of the Vancouver Biennale sculpture exhibition. At the time people had mixed reactions to it.
It will be removed this week, according to the Biennale.
"Time to say goodbye!" writes the arts festival on Instagram. "One of the most visited sculptures in our open-air exhibition will be deinstalled May 3 through 5."
Pieces that are part of the Biennale tend to only stay around a couple of years, like the giant jelly beans of 'Love Your Bean' (which were part of the 2014-2016 festival) or F Grass by Ai Weiwei. Other pieces are either permanent or become permanent, like 'A-maze-ing Laughter' at the intersection of Davie and Denman streets or 'Giants' at Granville Island (the figures painted at the cement plant).
The sculpture was nearly followed by another, similar piece called 'Boy Holding a Shark' but that was nixed by the city.
The 'Proud Youth' is the creation of Chinese sculptor Chen Wenling. He was inspired in part by a book; the name is from a Wuxia (Martial Heroes) novel called The Smiling, Proud Wanderer.
