First phase of the Stanley Park Environmental Art Project installed

November 28, 2008 (No. 67) - The Vancouver Park Board, the Stanley Park Ecology Society and the Community Arts Council of Vancouver are pleased to announce the completion of the first (ephemeral) phase of Stanley Park Environmental Art Project: Four artists/artist teams produced five works that are now on display in various locations of Stanley Park. The ephemeral works are designed to be temporary with a lifespan between a few months and up to a year or two. A map and self-guided walking tour are available on the project website at vancouver.ca/spea

Shirley Wiebe's pieces, Fringe and Hibernators, focus on diverse interspecies relationships that have shaped this forest within a city. Each brings to light a form of adaptation between nature and culture and they incorporate plant matter, horse hair, cotton, erosion control fabric and wood chips.

John Hemsworth and Peter von Tiesenhausen sculpted dirt and debris and then laid a number of peeled, curved boughs in the cavity of a 500-year-old tree in their piece, Cedar.

In Xapayay'/Cedar, Davide Pan and T'Uy'Tanat Cease Wyss transplanted native species in the hollow of a cedar stump to accelerate the nurse log process. Plant names carved in Coast Salish recall the history of the First Nations in Stanley Park.

Indigenous concepts of land, environment, culture and community are reflected as an interconnected system in Birth, a massive hemlock root system that has been exposed and then highlighted with red ochre by Secwepemc (Shuswap) artist Tania Willard.

The Stanley Park Environmental Art Project was developed in reply to the overwhelming public response to the impact of the windstorms of 2006. A program of discussions and hands-on workshops will create opportunities for everyone to engage with nature through art beginning in January. The second phase of the project phase of this project will see four new semi-permanent artworks installed by the summer of 2009. The project is a partnership between the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, the Stanley Park Ecology Society and the Community Arts Council of Vancouver.

For more information on the Stanley Park Environmental Art Project, please visit our website at www.vancouver.ca/spea or contact Anna Nobile, Community Arts Programmer, at anna.nobile@vancouver.ca or 604-257-8479.

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For more information contact Barb Floden, Communications Coordinator, at 604-257-8438 .
www.vancouverparks.ca

The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation maintains 220 parks and 40 major facilities throughout the City of Vancouver. The Park Board's mission is to provide, preserve and advocate for parks and recreation services to benefit people, communities and the environment.