Art project connects Chinatown to False Creek biodiversity and sea level rise
How Water Remembers External link icon is a new art series currently on display on bus shelters across Vancouver, as part of our Sea2City Design Challenge.
The work is by interdisciplinary artist, writer, and educator, Laiwan External link icon, and includes 20 Guardian Creatures that represent various elements of ancestral Chinese wisdom, traditional knowledge, and stewardship.
The art project asks: How do we revitalize biodiversity within a city and nourish biodiverse ecologies in our everyday? How Water Remembers aims to build awareness about the impacts of sea level rise to the False Creek ecosystem, while connecting with cultural values.
A selection of this art is being featured on bus shelters and the full set of cards are available to collect by visiting participating businesses in Chinatown from February 14 to March 14, as part of city-wide Chinese New Year celebrations.
How Water Remembers was developed with support from the City of Vancouver and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.
Background
Our Sea2City staff are working with local organizations and community partners to engage diverse audiences from across Vancouver in a vision of a more livable city that enhances biodiversity and responds to sea level rise.
The Sea2City Design Challenge (Sea2City) will help inform a framework and vision to guide urban development and ecological revitalization in the False Creek floodplain, a highly valued and constrained urban waterway in the heart of the city.