Terror Fervor, 2019, animation still
Phoebe Parsons, Terror Fervor, 2019, animation still

Platforms 2020: Public Works

Platforms 2020: Public Works is a monthly series of public art projects being presented from June until the year’s end.

Public Works highlights the crucial role of art in our community by sharing the artworks of Vancouver-based artists who continue to work from their living rooms, bedrooms, and on the streets of the city at this critical moment. 

The public art program is being launched on transit shelters, billboards, and video screens throughout the city.

Current project

Platforms 2020: November 30 to January 3

Grey Area 

Paige Gratland’s Grey Area (2020) will be presented on transit shelters throughout the city from November 30 to December 27.

This is a photograph of Gratland’s handwoven “web” created during the early months of the pandemic as a way to process the uncertainty, injustice, grief, and upheaval that continues to mark our daily lives. 

Paige Gratland, Grey Area (2020), 
image of textile

Dear Tree

The drawing and text Dear Tree (2020) by the artist Nick Conbere and poet Fred Wah will also be presented on transit shelters throughout the city from November 30 to December 27.

This collaborative drawing is based on sketches that Conbere created of Vancouver’s surrounding forests to which Wah responded through poetry.

Nick Conbere and Fred Wah, Dear Tree (2020),
drawing and text

COEXIST 

​​​​​​​Stills from Mustaali Raj’s digital animation COEXIST (2020) will be shown on digital street signage throughout the city from November 30 to December 27.

In this these digital stills, Raj presents the resilience of circular forms as they morph into familiar and new forms, creating integrated patterns that are ever-changing. 

Mustaali Raj, COEXIST (2020),
​​​​​still from digital animation

Flow Tide 

The video Flow Tide (2020) by Japanese calligraphy artist Kisyuu and dancer Shion Skye Carter will be presented on the VanLive Screen at Granville and Robson from November 30 to December 27.

In this work the artists collaborated for the first time while in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic to explore the relationship between traditional calligraphy and dance.

Kisyuu and Shion Skye Carter, Flow Tide (2020), 
still from video

Isolation 

Wade Comer, Isolation (2020), photograph​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The photograph Waiting for a Friend from the series Isolation (2020) by Wade Comer will be presented on a billboard at Broadway and Prince Edward St from December 7 to January 3.

In this photograph Comer uses a long exposure to capture Stanley Park at night revealing details that are often obscured during the daytime, and provides an image of an empty bench that is a fitting analogy for a world in lockdown. 

Wade Comer, Waiting for a Friend from the series Isolation (2020), 
photograph

Tafui, We Are One (2020), mixed media on paperWe Are One 

Tafui’s striking work We Are One (2020) will be presented on a billboard at Helmcken near Granville from December 7 to January 3. Tafui’s practice includes painting, printmaking, wood carving, and textile art, the interconnectedness between these disciplines explored through a restructuring of approaches to minimal mark-making.

The artist explains: “My work is inspired by the idea that ‘we belong to each other’ and through the understanding of our histories and shared experiences we become united, as people, as cultures, and to the earth.”

Tafui, We Are One (2020), 
mixed media on paper

Artist biographies

Recent projects