Public Artwork

Bruce Eriksen Place

Blake Williams, Bruce Eriksen Place, 1999. © Marc André Brouillette
Blake Williams, Bruce Eriksen Place, 1999. © Marc André Brouillette
Blake Williams, Bruce Eriksen Place, 1999. © Marc André Brouillette
Blake Williams, Bruce Eriksen Place, 1999. © Marc André Brouillette
Blake Williams, Bruce Eriksen Place, 1999. © Marc André Brouillette
Blake Williams, Bruce Eriksen Place, 1999. © Marc André Brouillette
Location:
Bruce Eriksen Place, 380 Main Street , Vancouver, BC, Canada
Artwork creator(s): 
Williams, Blake
Text author(s): 
Williams, Blake
Installation year: 
1999
Remarks on location: 

Downtown Eastside

Description: 

Above the first floor of the building, 6 silkscreen-photo ceramic murals depict Bruce Eriksen and his activities. There are also 15 balcony text panels, each featuring one word: "share", "change", "vote", "vision", etc.

Text of the artwork: 

COMMIT DREAM SHARE VISION DIGNITY HOPE VOTE HOME WORK RESPECT

CHANGE ELECT TRUST VOICE COURAGE

 

SKID ROAD DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE

 

[The following are from protest placards, 70s era - author unknown]

 

ON STRIKE FOR UNION SHOP

WHY IS THERE CHILD POVERTY

ELIMINATE THE SOCIAL DEFICIT BAN POVERTY

FOOD, HOME, HEALTH + EDUCATION NOT GREED

 

Memory is the mother of community. - Sandy Cameron

 

THE LAW

BY ITS MAJESTIC EQUALITY FORBIDS THE RICH

AS WELL AS THE POOR

TO SLEEP UNDER BRIDGES

BEG IN THE STREETS

AND TO STEAL BREAD - Bruce Eriksen

Text theme: 
Overcoming a physical disability
Artwork theme: 

Resistance to gentrification, anti-poverty demonstrations and the typographic message; Eriksen’s ideals for communal and social living and working conditions as well as defying the culture of hopelessness that this neighbourhood has come to represent.

Document(s): 

Street Poetry: Housing for low-income residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastwside

[Anonymous] (1999).  Street Poetry: Housing for low-income residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastwside. The Canadian Architect. vol. 44, no. 8 (August) , p. 22-23

Public Art : Bruce Eriksen Place

Williams, Blake (2009).  Public Art : Bruce Eriksen Place. <http://www.blakewilliams.ca/Public_art.html> : Blake Williams webpage