Boulevard
Adrian Göllner & Pierre Poussin

Cambie Street - Broadway to King Edward Avenue

Hamilton & Mainland Streets - Pacific Boulevard to West Georgia Street

As a way of brightening Vancouver’s dark winter nights, Canadian artists Adrian Göllner and Pierre Poussin have created three artistic lighting schemes for the Cambie Street corridor and Yaletown. Both are recognized for site-specific works that incorporate a variety of mediums and contrasting materials to animate environments. For this Vancouver installation – and their first collaboration - the duo has developed decorative, playful street lighting elements to provide a sense of place for visitors.

Fireworks Boulevard, a series of LED fireworks down Cambie Street, welcomes visitors as they travel along one of Vancouver’s busiest routes. Downtown, people can find Rain Barrels, a group of cool blue animated light sequences, and Flames, a set of flickering candle-like LED lights.

“Beneath a long, dark Canadian winter, Vancouver will be a hive of activity during the 2010 Olympic Games. As a way of brightening the nights, adding to the sense of excitement and making the City visually remarkable, we have developed three artistic lighting schemes for the City’s downtown core and Cambie Street.

Fireworks Boulevard, a series of sequenced LED fireworks, will chase down Cambie Street, transforming it into a grand entrance boulevard to the City. Vivid and unequivocally joyful, one can imagine watching the street lighting against a sky filled with actual fireworks during the Games.

The passage between the LiveCity venues will be marked with a path of blue LED lights, which will feature animated rain sequences. In Yaletown, these cool-toned LED rain barrels will be complemented by a series of warm coloured flickering LED flames. The flames atop the lampposts will bring a touch of the Olympic Torch from BC Place Stadium, where it will be housed, outside to the city streets. Flickering candle-like flames will also provide a sense of warmth for the cold winter evenings and recall a time when gaslight was used to illuminate the streets of Yaletown.”

Adrian Göllner and Pierre Poussin, 2009

 

Artists' Biographies

Canadian artist Adrian Göllner lives and works in Ottawa. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout North America, Europe, and New Zealand, and is held in a number of collections, including the Anglo-Irish Bank, Ottawa Art Gallery and the Canadian War Museum. Göllner received a BFA from Queen's University in 1987 and has worked with many artist-run centres and art service organizations over the years.

Described as a site-specific satirist, Göllner employs a variety of mediums and techniques to adapt to the environments in which he exhibits. He has received 15 public art commissions to date, most notably the rooftop lighting designs for the 16 towers of the CityPlace Development in Toronto (2002); an integrated sculpture for the new Canadian Embassy in Berlin (2005); and a wind-responsive LED artwork for the Met Tower in Toronto (2007).

 

Toronto-based Canadian artist Pierre Poussin is a recent graduate of Sheridan College’s Crafts and Design Program. His graduate project, the Mitosis series of designs, won Best in Show in the graduate design awards, prompting The Globe and Mail’s style editor to recognize Poussin as a Canadian designer to watch for.

Poussin finds his inspiration in nature, describing it as “design at its best, where everything is at once practical and supremely beautiful.” His work evokes movement, whether it be inviting user interaction or reflecting motion within the piece itself. He has received numerous furniture design and outdoor installation commissions to date, including the lobby of Princeton University Julian Street Student Library, Princeton, New Jersey (2009) and the courtyard and entrance for Panorama, Concord CityPlace’s Lakeshore condominium complex in Toronto (2009). He has also worked as a design consultant for Classic Displays, Mississauga and Nienkamper, Toronto among others.

 

Picture It

Adrian Göllner & Pierre Poussin, Concept image, 2009

 

See It

Below is footage of the first barrel at West Georgia and Hamilton Street (the Library and the CBC Building). Behind the Rain Barrel is the Aboriginal Pavilion.