Public Artwork
Street Light
Location:
Marinaside Crescent, False Creek, Davie Street and Marinaside Crescent , Vancouver, BC, Canada
See map: Google Maps
Artwork creator(s):
Miller, Bernie; Tregebov, Alan
Text author(s):
Miller, Bernie; Tregebov, Alan
Installation year:
1997
Remarks on location:
Southwestern end of the traffic circle
Description:
Each of six twelve-meter high, bronze I-beam towers hold an image cut into a metal plate that illustrate the history of the area. The plates cast the shadow of the image onto the street. Texts etched in the limestone bases refer to the events relevant to the site. The positioning of the panels has been carefully calculated so that their optimum contrast and focus on the street is the month, date, and time that the event occurred. For example, if the sun is shining just before noon on June 17, the projected image of Vancouver's "Great Fire" will be visible on the promenade below
Text of the artwork:
GRANDVILLE BRIGE, NOVEMBER 17, 1953
"First beam to complete span". This is the third Granville Street brigde. The first, built in 1889, made Granville Street the heart of the newly built city of Vancouver.
City of Vancouver archives
False Creek Shacks, 1934
"Fire wood cost nothing save the labour of sawing; fish for the catching, fresh water from a neaby water tap. Gradually they crowded out. By 1936 they had completely disappeared..." J.S.M. City archives
Burrad bridge, opened Dominion Day, July 1, 1932
In 1913. the Squamish people acquiesced their long established village of Snauq at the foot of the bridge on the Kitsilano side. When the Squamish surrendered remaining parcels to the federal government in 1946, 45 years of controversial property dealings were over.
City archives
Artwork theme:
Anecdotal and unofficial local history of Vancouver Dimensions:
Height:
12m Note(s):
Sponsorising organisation: Concord Pacific Group Inc.
Private development.
Street Light is the third of a four-part public art series called Illuminating Roundhouse, designed to celebrate the False Creek redevelopment that surrounds it.
Artist statement: "An aspect of the work is meant to produce a light and shadow play… The bronze panels cast shadows of the captured (historical) images… References in the work are hybrids [influenced by] historic railway trestles, the Roundhouse turntable, a railway hand-car, billboard-like sign supports which were on the South shore of False Creek until the 1950s, drive-in movie theatre screens..." (From press release) Some of the residents in the condominiums next to the artwork started a campaign against the piece when it was installed, calling it a "malignant monstrosity." The piece had its supporters and detractors, and in the end, City Council supported the public art selection process and the work has survived the tests of time. At the South foot of Davie Street, bronze I-beams support images taken from Vancouver’s archives. The sculpture is carefully aligned to cast shadow images onto the sidewalk on the anniversary of the selected historical event. At night, from the tilted traffic circle opposite the sculpture, a light illuminates the panels. The form of the sculpture quotes a mixture of objects: railway trestles, hand-cars, turntables, billboards, drive-in movie screens, movie cameras, and suggests Vancouver’s transformation from an industrial centre to an information age economy.
John Steil, Aileen Stalker (2009). Public Art in Vancouver. Angels Among Lions. Vancouver: TouchWood Editions.
Artist's biography:
Bernie Miller
Propriétaire(s):
City of Vancouver Document(s):
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