16 responses so far ↓

• 1 spartikus // Aug 19, 2009 at 8:35 pm

  Not personally fond of the Stop Signs, but frack it. Go Gillian, go Biennale!

• 2 Frothingham // Aug 19, 2009 at 11:01 pm

  All the best to the Vancouver Biennale. I Look forward to viewing the various art installations.

• 3 Westender // Aug 20, 2009 at 8:18 am

  What a pleasure to know that the Biennale installations are underway again. I encourage everyone to download an audio walking tour and make a day of seeing all the pieces once they are installed! Thank you to Frances for providing another avenue for the Vancouver Biennale to “get the word out.”

• 4 Frothingham // Aug 20, 2009 at 9:46 am

  @Westender …would love to download audio walking tour. where?

• 5 Price Tags // Aug 20, 2009 at 11:43 am

  Here’s a Price Tags tour of the last Biennale – http://www.sightline.org/publications/enewsletters/price_tags/pricetags86

  And an update – http://pricetags.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/public-art-and-its-discontents/ – on some of the new public art in the city.

• 6 Larry McLaren // Aug 20, 2009 at 12:10 pm

  I cant wait to see the piece that reveals the “narrative of political discourse as one which simultaneously promulgates, mythologizes and paradoxically sabotages infantilized notions of political equity.”

  My understanding is that it’s a large sheet of metal overlaid with thinly spread excrement inscribed with political promises made at varying levels of government during election campaigns.

  Should be a winner – as long as you’re upwind.

• 7 Simon // Aug 20, 2009 at 1:10 pm

  Hi Gillian,

  Thanks for educating us. I live close to where Michael Zheng’s piece has been installed. I’m not the biggest fan of the work, but it had inspired a vigorous debate between my son (who is in great favor of it) and I on its merit. He is three.

  Thanks for the great work and keep it up. Best to you and Vancouver Biennale.

  Ciao,

  Simon

• 8 heather // Aug 20, 2009 at 2:47 pm

  Being a resident of False Creek I am wondering if the stop signs are permanent or will they hopefully be removed soon. It is not so much the “artistic” side of this feature that I dislike, but where it is situated within the park. My impression is that it now means STOP PLAYING. As children will no longer be able to use this hill to toboggan on in the winter or learn how to ride a bike down. In a time when we want to encourage physical activity this “Artwork” is STOPPING activity.

• 9 Westender // Aug 20, 2009 at 3:10 pm

  There was an audio walking tour (.mp3 format) available for the 2005-2007 Biennale – I would hope the same sort of thing would be available this time, but likely not until all the pieces are installed. (I’ll forego a visit to the excrement piece – it would appear to fall into the “sourpuss art” category).

• 10 Shane // Aug 20, 2009 at 3:28 pm

  Looking forward to this – I wish we could purchase more of this art for permanent display – even the most controversial of installations like the “Device to root out evil”

• 11 Westender // Aug 20, 2009 at 4:48 pm

  The loss of “Device” is an embarrassment to Vancouver.

• 12 Darcy McGee // Aug 21, 2009 at 9:47 am

  > The loss of “Device” is an embarrassment
  > to Vancouver.

  +1

  Loved that sculpture.

• 13 Stephanie // Aug 23, 2009 at 9:02 pm

  I happened by the stop signs today on a walk from Kits to Granville Island. Unless they’ve just been moved, I can’t figure out why people thing they’re impeding play space. There’s still lots of hill to slide down – actually, there’s a tree just above them that would already have been in the way of sledding and whatnot. There’s still lots of open space to play in. And, kids being kids, they will doubtless incorporate the signs into their play – as things to run around and in between, and in the winter as snowball targets.

  I’m just not buying the argument that this installation is impeding kids’ ability to play in the park. Sorry.

• 14 Kathryn // Aug 25, 2009 at 9:07 am

  Those stop signs in False Creek are incongruous cropping up out of nowhere for no reason completely inharmonious with their surroundings and destructive to the longer vista. I hope this eyesore goes away soon and that no one made big bucks for it. Ever read “The Emperor’s New Clothes?”

• 15 Stephanie // Aug 25, 2009 at 1:33 pm

  Hey, I’m willing to hear opinions that they’re inharmonious, etc. It’s the “what about the *children*?” argument that makes me think of very tiny violins.

• 16 Bill Lee // Aug 27, 2009 at 7:10 pm

  Following on from previous views of the recent public art being thrust upon Vancouver (and Richmond)
  Linkname: The public-art debate revs up (24 comments)
  Linkname: And speaking of public art .. the fat fork by the Cambie Bridge (5 comments)
  Linkname: STOP to public art, says False Creek resident (40 comments)

  I was inspired by this jealous piece in today’s Toronto Star to look further into Barrie Mowatt’s previous attempt and his other troubles, (something about workers in the papers this year?)
  Subject: TheStar.com | entertainment | Why Kitchener-Waterloo has a biennial, but Toronto does not
  X-URL: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/686996

  …Culled from more than 100 submissions, KWAG’s biennial is proudly
  local: The handful of artists showing here range from senior escapees
  from the Toronto art world, like Janet Morton, who teaches at the
  University of Waterloo, to recent graduates from the programs at
  Waterloo and the University of Guelph….

  Earlier Daphne Braham briefly covered the story

  http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=3742e466-5aa4-4c19-9e84-22a946cbedfc&p=1
  But is it art?: Vancouver’s arts community is in an uproar over biennale for public sculpture
  Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun
  Published: Saturday, October 29, 2005

  When it comes to public art, a perfect storm is brewing in Vancouver and it’s just in time for the civic election.
  The catalyst is the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale. Thirty massive sculptures by some internationally renowned artists are being installed in some of the city’s most beautiful spots along walkways and in parks.
  And while the biennale organized by Barrie Mowatt, owner of Buschlen Mowatt art gallery, only runs from now until December 2006, the organizers are hoping to raise enough money to purchase the one that citizens love best.
  It’s got the city’s arts community in an uproar.
  The huge sculptures are anathema to the city’s minimalist arts policy, but not to the park board.
  The city’s arts bureaucrats embrace low-slung, low-impact, local and, in some cases, almost invisible art.
  The park board supports both the biennale and the idea of large sculpture because two previous sculpture exhibitions sponsored by Mowatt’s gallery were wildly popular.
  ….The manager of the city’s public art program, Brian Newson, is concerned that the biennale endangers what he calls a “highly transparent public art process” that involves issuing terms of reference for art commissions, followed by a competition that is judged by an appointed committee of artists and architects.
  It’s a process that Mowatt says is “uni-dimensional, insular and working on a dated concept.”
  Newson says the biennale lacks “any coherent curatorial vision.”
  Mowatt calls the idea of a coherent curatorial vision for an outdoor sculpture exhibition spread all over the city “bullshit,” adding that outdoor public art is different from a single show in an enclosed gallery or museum.
  Barbara Cole, who co-ordinated the art and its placement in the city’s National Works Yard at 700 National Avenue, dismissed the biennale as “plop art” that has no connection to Vancouver and is brought in and offered for sale on public land.
  (Cole’s own project has its critics. The Sun’s architecture writer Trevor Boddy described Richard Prince’s Road Work as “cloyingly safe sentimentality.”)
  Mowatt says the whole point of the biennale is to have “really large, in-your-face, engaging pieces of art.” ..[ more]

  and what became of the art?

  They tried to sell it in the mysterious ways of art auctions (which are never simple cash sales)

  Subject: Vancouver outdoor sculptures on auction block
  URL: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2007/03/01/vancouver-sculpture.html

  Vancouver outdoor sculptures on auction block
  Last Updated: Thursday, March 1, 2007 | 4:48 PM ET CBC Arts

  Sculptures familiar to people who stroll Vancouver’s waterfront go up for auction Thursday night.
  The 22 large outdoor sculptures have been exhibited in public
  locations throughout Vancouver as part of the Vancouver Sculpture
  The biennale, a first for Vancouver, brought the work of international sculptors to the city for 18 months beginning in 2005.
  Many have become favourites in their neighbourhoods, but as part of the biennale plan, they go up for auction Thursday, with internationally renowned Christie’s Auction House jetting into Vancouver to handle the bidding.
  Barrie Mowatt, executive director of the biennale, said he would like to see Vancouver bidders step up to bid on some of the sculptures.
  “I’d like to see the developers and people who’ve been talking about putting a consortium together surprise us and say ‘Ahah! We’ve done it,’ and come up with the money,” he said. [ more ]

  There is a different set of art at the PNE which is of found objects, but will be dismissed because of location and objects used.
  Here’s art of a type, international, and using “found” items
  Subject: Italian-inspired container exhibit brings art back to the PNE

  Sandra Thomas, Vancouver Courier Thursday, August 27, 2009
  In the middle of the PNE fairgrounds, just southwest of the Monster Truck rides and slightly east of the agriculture barns, lies an art installation created from aging railway containers inspired by a similar project launched in Bergamo, Italy in 2005.
  And standing Wednesday in the middle of the plaza that hosts the ContainerArt exhibit, was its creator Peter Male. While Male’s official job title is vice-president of sales for the PNE, his passion for the project makes him better suited for the title of artistic director or curator.
  …The exhibit includes displays by eight local artists using a variety of artistic media, including oil painting, photography, glasswork and neon. Each artist has displayed their work and created their own mini installation within a container. Male said the only stipulation was they couldn’t alter or damage the containers with nails or screws. He wasn’t happy to simply display the eight containers and instead created an abstract instillation that includes 18 containers, music, a plaza and a water feature made from old brass instruments. At night the exhibit features projected images on two white walls and four search lights that scan the sky.

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