Returning for the third year, Luna was created by world renowned decorative lighting experts MK Illumination. A bespoke one-off design, Luna was made specifically for Lumiere in recognition to the whales in the waters around Vancouver.
Luna is named after the well-known orphaned orca whale that inhabited the waters of the Nootka Sound from 2001 to 2006. Separated from his mother at a young age, he spent five years delighting tourists and residents alike off the coast of Vancouver Island.
The white powder-coated frame is 7 metres long by 2.5 metres high and contains over 6,000 LED white environmentally friendly bulbs.
Tangible Interaction’s “Shine with Pride” celebrates the West End’s LGBTQ2+ heritage with a participatory light installation that reflects people’s interactions through stunning animated patterns of light and colour.
Comprised of an array of 16 acrylic tubes on a platform with hundreds of responsive LED lights inside each tube, “Shine with Pride” is an open artwork that invites the viewer to step inside and experiment hands-on. Created to be a piece for the whole community, the installation is open and accessible for anyone.
When no one is interacting, “Shine with Pride” displays a soothing, pre-programmed animation. However, as people weave in and around the array and touch the tubes, the piece reacts by changing colours and displaying energetic patterns.
Curated by Burrard Arts Foundation, “Shine with Pride” invites anyone passing by to come into the plaza for a closer look, to play around, and to see how the artwork responds to their movements.
Hfour Studios installed a temporary art installation called “The Limitation Of Words To Describe Feelings” in Jim Deva Plaza, curated by Jamie Hughes.
This large community vision board is a space to share thoughts, memories and feelings. When it comes time to write about deep feelings, many of us are at a loss for words. The inexpressible remains just beyond our literary grasp. But we persevere, and try our best to communicate concepts deeper than language, in whatever way we can.
An extension of the Jim Deva Plaza megaphone, and a response to Postures in Protest, this community vision board is a canvas to express yourself through the written word.
Lighting up our thoughts through public art, the ideas transcend from physical to digital as they are shared online. The notion of the Jim Deva Plaza expands as social media has become the new public megaphone.
No community vision board would be complete without a call to action. In 2016, we posed the question, “How do you want to be remembered?” in reference to Jim Deva’s legacy. Check the hashtag #LimitationOfWords on Twitter and Instagram to see past contributions.
2017 will pose a new question. Stay tuned.
Toronto-based artist Erdem Taşdelen’s Postures in Protest has been adapted for Jim Deva Plaza in the form of six double-sided light box signs.
Curated by Burrard Arts Foundation, the artwork comprises an assemblage of adverbs that describe the ways in which individuals stage protests in popular uprisings. These adverbs, as modifiers of verbs, indicate how specific actions transpire, pointing to the strength and fortitude of those involved in protest.
Installed in a public site in the Davie Village dedicated to the late Jim Deva, the piece honours the activist’s advocacy for LGBTQ2+ rights and his battle against censorship. It is also intended to encourage a sense of pride in those who are fighting against the social inequalities that still persist today.
Produced by Glasgow based Cryptic, Luminous Birds is a breathtaking experience visually and sonically. Luminous Birds animates a flock of origami-style birds suspended overhead. At night, synchronized lighting sequences and music create the effect of birds flying overhead to magically transform the streets. This is accompanied by spatialized sounds composed from distorted pianos and bells. Each bird is made from waterproof paper and folded in a traditional origami style.
‘Blue’ is an inflatable sculpture made from second hand shirts. Although inanimate objects, each shirt has its own story, woven into the figurative fabric from those who previously wore them. Assembled into a one large sculpture, it renders the space between each of us tightly bound together
Each shirt is sealed and stitched together to form a 20 ft. tall column.
Sham–Real Shadows 2.0 is a variation on an earlier all MDF work. This version will cast shadow paper—wallpaper made of shadow and light—onto surrounding surfaces in multiple colours. It is an immersive installation, and an object of delicate fabrication.
Eugenia, pays homage to an iconic oak tree that has decorated the English Bay skyline for three decades, on top of the famous Beach Avenue residency, Eugenia Place. This installation is made from aluminum and is filled with 7600 colour changing LED mini lights.
Described like “entering into a Vancouver after-hours hole in the wall,” Chris Mills’ lengthy-titled projection room, encourages viewers to engage with an absurd narrative, before entering to a sound-reactive digital sculpture choreographed to a looping industrial house backbeat. Strobe lights and a fog machine fill the small space, turning the projection into a voluminous object.
The Relics develop speculative science fiction futures through sculptural forms, light, and infinity vitrines that allow whatever is in the inside to repeat and fetter out into an indeterminate expanse—like a square crystal ball the miniaturized future horizons are difficult to read. The works are a furthering of my interest in naturalist pattern, but also a way of understanding what we leave behind as they are positioned in a broader narrative as sacred objects from a future where the hyper objects we leave behind—such as plastic and uranium—are feared and revered. They are sublime objects, both beautiful to investigate and rooted in research that’s disturbing to contemplate.
Since their first recorded history, ‘gay villages’ have played an important role in the increased visibility and acceptance of the LGBTQ2+ community. At a time when homosexuality was illegal, very few establishments welcomed members of the queer community. The businesses that did were often only bars, nightclubs, and bathhouses. These businesses were important ‘third places’ outside of home and work where transgender, lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit, and questioning members of the community could be more open about their sexual orientation and gender identity with less fear of prejudice and arrest.
These early gathering spaces appropriated spaces for safety and support, and fostered a shared sense of identity that celebrated sexuality and gender rather than hiding it. Like the signs of early gay-friendly businesses, the ‘Heart of Davie Village’ gateway sign will be a beacon for the community that will symbolize the reorganizing of heteronormative spaces into more welcoming and safe landscapes. The ‘Heart of Davie Village’ is a recognition of the historical geography of the Davie Village and the contributions of the community towards the political advancements of LGBTQ2+ rights across Canada.
