Inside Vancouver

Vote Now to Pick Vancouver’s Official Love Lock Site

by Remy Scalza in Uncategorized on August 24, 2015

Photo credit: Disdero | Wikipedia

Love locks are officially coming to Vancouver.

Around the world, it’s common for couples to profess their love by attaching a lock to a bridge, gate or other public object and then literally throw away the key. Paris is famous for its love locks – in fact, so many couples have professed their love by securing locks to the city’s Pont des Arts that one of the bridge’s railings collapsed under the weight.

If you look carefully, you can already spot love locks around Vancouver. The Burrard Bridge, in fact, has become a popular destination for love lockers. And that’s part of the problem. Many people consider the locks unsightly or say they amount to a form of vandalism. Meanwhile, too many locks can threaten the stability of railings or other structures, posing a serious safety hazard. Continue reading:
Vote Now to Pick Vancouver’s Official Love Lock Site

Giant Floating Ring (and New Plaza) Coming to Vancouver’s Davie Street

by Remy Scalza in Uncategorized on July 10, 2015

Image sourced from Vancouver.ca

Vancouver’s Davie Village in the West End is about to get a little more vibrant.

A new plaza, complete with patio-style seating and a space-age floating sculpture, is set to grace the neighbourhood, considered the heart of the city’s LGBTQ community.

City planners have released detailed drawings for the new plaza, to be located not far from Davie Street’s distinctive rainbow-coloured crosswalks. Plans call for a one-block section of Bute Street just south of Davie to be closed to traffic and transformed into a pedestrian-friendly plaza.

Meanwhile, a special floating sculpture is to be installed at the intersection of Davie and Bute Streets. After initially considering a giant disco ball, planners ultimately opted to go with a space-age, shimmering metallic ring inscribed with the name Davie Village, which will be suspended by wires above the intersection. Continue reading:
Giant Floating Ring (and New Plaza) Coming to Vancouver’s Davie Street

New $700,000 Sculpture in Stanley Park Explores Portuguese-Aboriginal Roots

by Remy Scalza in Uncategorized on May 4, 2015

Photo sourced from Vancouver Park Board

A new $700,000, 4.2-metre-high sculpture has been unveiled in Vancouver’s Stanley Park.

Rising on Brockton Point, the new bronze sculpture – dubbed Shore to Shore – depicts a little-known but colourful figure from the city’s past, the whaler known as Portuguese Joe Silvey. Silvey, who emigrated in 1858 from Portugal, opened a saloon opposite Gassy Jack Deighton’s in what is now Gastown. He earned a reputation as a cultural bridgemaker, marrying into the local Coast Salish First Nations community and having 11 children with two wives.

The sculpture, which took five years to complete, depicts Portuguese Joe and each of his wives alongside a monument of intricately carved designs crowned with the head of a raptor, representing both the Canadian eagle and the Portuguese açor. It’s set on a a field of black and white stones, imported from Portugal and arranged into an intricate, swirling design. It sits near the site where Portuguese Joe once had a home in Stanley Park. Continue reading:
New $700,000 Sculpture in Stanley Park Explores Portuguese-Aboriginal Roots

Giant “Totem Pole” Made of Stacked Cars Goes Up in Vancouver

by Remy Scalza in Uncategorized on April 4, 2015

Downtown Vancouver has never seen a traffic jam quite like this one.

Five full-size cars have been stacked on top of one another, then perched atop a 20-foot-high cedar stump, all part of a brand new sculpture called Trans Am Totem on the edge of False Creek. Located not far from Science World, the monumental work of art is the latest installation for the Vancouver Biennale, the city’s biannual public art exhibition.

The provocative sculpture is the work of local artist Marcus Bowcott, who spent part of his career towing logs along the Fraser River and around False Creek. For Bowcott, the installation is a commentary on the evolution of the area and the ascendance of consumer, throwaway culture in Vancouver. Continue reading:
Giant “Totem Pole” Made of Stacked Cars Goes Up in Vancouver

New Sculpture by Ai Weiwei (with Hidden Meaning) Unveiled in Downtown Vancouver

by Remy Scalza in Uncategorized on January 2, 2015

Photo from Vancouver Biennale

One of the world’s best known political activists has unveiled a brand new outdoor sculpture in downtown Vancouver.

The provocatively named F Grass by Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei consists of hundreds of blades of metal grass arranged in the shape of the letter F. The 13.5-square-metre sculpture, which stands just a few centimetres high, is located near the Coal Harbour waterfront at Harbour Green Park.

Visually, the sculpture looks arresting. While the metallic blades of grass aren’t sharp, they look a lot like the traffic spikes that police use to puncture tires during car chases. But there’s a deeper symbolic meaning to the piece, as well.

Continue reading:
New Sculpture by Ai Weiwei (with Hidden Meaning) Unveiled in Downtown Vancouver

Things To Do In Vancouver This Weekend

by Vikki Leung in Uncategorized on September 4, 2014

Celebrate the lunar calendar’s Mid-Autumn Festival with our top picks for things to do in Vancouver this weekend, Friday through Sunday!

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Things To Do In Vancouver This Weekend

Salvador Dali Sculpture Exhibit Comes to Vancouver

by Remy Scalza in Events on April 6, 2014

Dali’s sculptures, including a version of Profile of Time (above) are on display in Vancouver. Photo credit: Julo |Wikimedia Commons

You’ve seen his paintings of dripping clocks and surreal dreamscapes. But how about his sculptures?

A series of original bronze sculptures by Salvador Dali are on display now in Vancouver. The Definitely Dali exhibit, through May 12 at the Chali-Rosso Art Gallery on South Granville Street, features 10 sculptures from the master of surrealism.

Step inside the gallery and you’ll see many of Dali’s familiar painterly tropes, now in three dimensions. There are, of course, several dripping clocks, hung from the branches of trees. Another sculpture consists of a giant snail with wings, a tiny warrior poised on its back. There’s a piano with can-can dancer legs, a metre-high thumb with branches sprouting from the tip and a bevy of angels in ecstatic poses.

The collection at the gallery represents 10 of 29 sculptures in the Dali Sculptural Collection. All were made using an ancient technique known as the lost wax process, which gave Dali the flexibility to mould his subjects into unconventional shapes.

Continue reading:
Salvador Dali Sculpture Exhibit Comes to Vancouver