Aerodynamic Forms in Space
by Rodney Graham

Georgia Street Entrance to Stanley Park

A major figure in Canadian and international contemporary art, Vancouver artist Rodney Graham is well known for his conceptual and often humourous sculptures. His piece for the Georgia Street entrance to Stanley Park, a spectacular 400-hectare evergreen oasis in the downtown peninsula, plays with the theme of flight—a whimsical reference to the location’s nearby seaplanes.

 “The work takes its title from a series of photographs I shot in Vancouver in 1977…which documented a series of ‘incorrectly’ assembled toy glider kits…I put the models together not with a view to having them fly correctly, but with an eye to their aesthetic value as purely abstract sculptural forms… Part of the challenge inherent in making these works was the very limited instrumental set from which I had to draw.

When I was asked to create a sculptural proposal for the entrance to Stanley Park, it occurred to me that it might be interesting to return to this work…and try to realize a large-scale version of one of these sculptures: to use the same very limited instrumental set with which anyone who has put together a toy glider would be familiar. The theme of flight seemed appropriate given the location too, for seaplanes are common sights at the entrance to the park.

And the park, of course, is a place where children and adults may very well play with gliders... Plus it would be something that would be interesting when glimpsed only briefly by passengers in vehicles moving at relatively high speed along West Georgia.

The title of the work is meant to evoke, in a slightly humorous way…that of a classical modernist public monument of a bygone period, elements of which the sculpture plays with. ”

Rodney Graham, 2009

Artist Biography

Born in Abbotsford, British Columbia and now living in Vancouver, Rodney Graham is one of Canada’s most respected artists. Frequently dubbed a “Renaissance man,” he is equally at home in a variety of artistic mediums, spanning film, music, photography, painting and sculpture. He is celebrated internationally for his eccentric and playful engagement with the technologies of modernism and for continually inventing new devices to sharpen people’s perception of the world.

Graham studied art and humanities at the University of British Columbia before he began exhibiting in North America and Europe in the early 1980s. A mid-career retrospective was co-produced in 2004/05 by the Art Gallery of Ontario, Vancouver Art Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Major solo exhibitions include the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2007); Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany (2006); and recently with contemporary artist Harun Farocki at the Jeu de Paume, Paris (2009) and the Museu d’art Contemporani de Barcelona (2010).

Graham’s work can be found in the collections of some of the world’s most prestigious art institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tate Gallery, London; and Vancouver Art Gallery. His sculptural installation for Stanley Park is his third public art commission in Vancouver.