You’ve had your last chance to take a selfie with two major installations of public art that adorned North Vancouver’s streets as part of the Vancouver 2014-2016 Biennale festival.
The Meeting, the popular red Chinese monks crouched in a circle at Rey Sargent Park, and Walking Figures, the much less popular headless bronze statues along Lonsdale, have been removed and sent to Montreal for another art festival.
There is a chance, we could win back The Meeting if a local government, philanthropist, corporate sponsor or some combination thereof cuts a cheque for US$220,000.
We’d argue this is a bargain.
Although we’ve got some beautiful and enviable pieces all around town, North Vancouver is the only Biennale host city that hasn’t purchased or found a sponsor to give a sculpture a permanent home.
It takes very little effort to find critics of public art who cast it as wasteful, decadent, ugly or offensive. We couldn’t disagree more with these philistine comments.
Increasingly, we are reclaiming the public realm. A thoughtful sculpture or mural creates a sense of place and, if only for a moment, pulls us out of our inner yammering and asks us to reflect or interact.
Art should be challenging and provocative.
Yet even the most banal “plaza plop” has a way of growing on us. And it beats a thoughtless, spartan moonscape. There’s a direct line between art, pride of place and quality of life.
We don’t have to live for art, but we should have art where we live.
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