Skip to content

Douglas Coupland captures Canadians in 3D

People lined up inside the new West Vancouver Simons store on a recent weekend, but it wasn't to pay for their purchases at the cash register.
douglas coupland

People lined up inside the new West Vancouver Simons store on a recent weekend, but it wasn't to pay for their purchases at the cash register.

They were waiting for a chance to get digitally scanned by artist and novelist Douglas Coupland and take home a five-centimetre-tall 3D printed bust of themselves.

Coupland was at the Park Royal store Nov. 14 and 15 to gather material for his new crowd-sourced art project. Between 2015 and 2017, he will visit Simons stores in seven cities across the country to scan Canadians (West Vancouver was his fourth stop). The project will culminate when Coupland unveils 3DCanada, a sculpture made of hundreds of 3D printed busts, which will be installed at the future Yorkdale Simons store in 2019.

"3DCanada is a cross-country portrait of Canadians 150 years into nationhood," Coupland said in a press release. "What do we look like now and where are we going with technology?

3DCanada will present a glimpse of what a group portrait can look like in the 21st century."

The 3DCanada art project is the second collaboration between Simons and Coupland. His colourfully striped Bow Tie sculpture hangs above the elevator in the Park Royal store.