Public Artwork
Welcome to the Land of Light
Artwork creator(s):
Tsang, Henry
Text author(s):
Tsang, Henry
Installation year:
1997
Remarks on location:
Downtown, False Creek shoreline walk between Davie & Drake Streets (shoreline walk guard railings)
Description:
Aluminum letters spelling out phrases in Chinook (an early coastal trading language) and English are placed along the railing of the sea wall, in two parallel lines. Coloured light pulses through an inset fibre-optic cable in the sidewalk directly below the letters. The artwork addresses technology’s promise to bring cultures together. The Chinook jargon is a 19th century lingua franca that developed out of the need for cross-cultural trade in the Pacific Northwest.
Text of the artwork:
(Incomplete)
LIVE LIKE CHIEF
WORLD SAME LIKE IN YOUR HAND
MIND OPEN YOU RECEIVE NEW KNOWLEDGE
SEE TALK BE HERE THERE AND EVERYWHERE AT ONE TIME
MAKE THIS COMMUNITY GOOD INDEED
MAMOOK OKOKE TOWN KLOSHE NAWITKA
Greetings good you arrive here where light be under
Klahowya kloshe maika ko yukwa ka towagh mitlite
Artwork theme:
Languages used to conduct trade up and down the Pacific coast, from California to Alaska; regional history Note(s):
Sponsoring organisation: Concord Pacific Group Inc.
Private development.
Artist's biography:
Henry Tsang
Owner(s):
City of Vancouver Document(s):
Syndicate
