Vancouver & Public Art
The Vancouver Park Board decided to allow art to be installed in Stanley Park long ago. The Harding Memorial, the Harry Jerome sculpture, the Girl in a Wet Suit, the statue of Lord Stanley, the cairn to Pauline Johnson, the Robert Burns sculpture, the replica figurehead from the Empress of Japan, the memorial monument to Vancouver's Japanese soldiers fighting during the first World War, and memorials for AIDS victims, Air India victims and a collision between two ships (the Chehalis monument). There is a lot of "art" in the park and all of these works are permanent installations.
I do not think of many of these monuments and sculptures as art, but the Park Board must. It is impractical to have fine distinctions in public policy; instead, the Board treats all such decorative man-made installations as public art. Most of these works I have mentioned were installed before I was born or when I was too young to take notice. I do, however, remember some public debate about the installation of the Air India memorial in the park and the AIDS memorial near the aquatic centre. I also remember some public concern that the many memorial plaques adorning sponsored park benches, were turning Stanley Park into a mausoleum.
The controversy over the installation of Dennis Oppenheim's sculpture, Device to Root Out Evil, has been significant - fanned of course, by a sensationalist media that (in initial accounts) made no mention of the fact that all the Biennale pieces had 18-month installation permits that were about to expire. Whereas many visual art supporters welcomed the controversy as proof of the work's success - the agent provocateur role of art - the work offended two constituencies: some devout Christians and local residents who felt the work blocked their view of Coal Harbour. The clash of public policy and values, of course, greatly interested media with a voracious appetite for social conflict.
Coinciding with the media brouhaha was a public meeting on the renewal of the agreement between Vancouver Park Board and the Biennale Society. The society obtains the permission of the Park Board to install a fixed number of sculptures on public parkland for eighteen months in order to install each international exhibition. They are about to install another show and so the public meeting held at the West End Community Centre in May was called to obtain public feedback on the Biennale's request to retain some sculptures in the next exhibition that are in the current show. It was not about Dennis Oppenheim's sculpture, Device to Root Out Evil that is moving to Calgary.
I attended the meeting and although the media coverage implied significant public concern, every single person at the meeting seemed to be in strong support of public art. There was one person there, a passionate Christian, who felt the work was insulting, but he was articulate in his concerns and supports public art. His only concern was the Oppenheim piece.
I spoke up several times at the meeting, clearly expressing my support for public art and the public art policies of the Park Board. And at the end of the meeting, I spoke with "Michael," the man offended by the Oppenheim piece. One thing he said to me stuck in my head. He said that it was impossible to register discontent with the Biennale Society on their website. And since the Biennale group quoted statistics of support at the meeting, Michael’s concern had me visit the Biennale website (www.vancouverbiennale.com).
God bless the Park Board. They are master stewards of Stanley Park, a beloved spot. And I am extremely grateful for their brave decision (given the potential for controversy around a positive public art policy) to host sculpture in our parks. The Biennale group, however, could enhance their public value by making it easier to communicate with them. Michael was right - well almost. It was very difficult for me to find contact information on the society. It is rather discreetly placed on the auction page. Also, the current site offers to list blogs created by fans and critics, but there are none listed. These communication issues, together with no information about how to join the society and the absence of information on the curatorial team creates an unfortunate impression of "exclusivity," but that is not what the Biennale is about. They want public involvement and have taken many steps to develop interaction.
I spoke with a representative of the Biennale who welcomed my input. In my call, I further suggested that the Biennale website could benefit from providing information about the artist sculptors - perhaps links to the artists' websites. Doing so allows us to know more about the pieces that we can see in our parks, but in the context of other work by the artists. Such information would also benefit the teachers who incorporate the sculptures (with lesson aids provided by the Biennale society) in their curriculum.
In Vancouver, our mountains and our shoreline, our parks and our public places are beautiful. We have great city planning and the seawall is one of the greatest public amenities I have ever seen anywhere in the world. But the architecture of downtown Vancouver is, for the most part, a bland grey panorama without curves, colour or invention. Consequently I am grateful to the Vancouver Park Board and the Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale for working together within a very progressive public arts policy to bring man-made urban beauty to the eye of the citizens of one of the word's greatest cities.
ctyrell@shaw.ca
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