New Vancouver Biennale installation in Richmond by Javier Marin. Photo by Dan Fairchild.

Just what the City of Richmond needs now: More Giant Heads!

In the afterglow of the excellent public debate surrounding the Gao Brothers’ amazing public sculpture entitled ‘Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself Atop Lenin’s Head’ the Vancouver Biennale has installed a new piece at the Lansdowne Canada Line Station.

New Vancouver Biennale installation in Richmond by Javier Marin. Photo by Dan Fairchild.

These photos – by Dan fairchild – were taken during the installation process as the pieces were off-loaded from a flatbed truck in pine boxes, unpacked, places a re-assembled on site.

Amazing shots as usual, Dan!

Here’s a brief breakdown on the sculpture itself from the official press release:

“The Vancouver Biennale announces the installation of “Cabeza Vainilla, Cabeza ordoba, Cabeza Chiapas” by internationally renown Mexican artist Javier Marin, located at No. 3 Road, Landsdown Station in Richmond.

The three sculptures, depicting three giant heads in Spanish Baroque style, present a powerful and unexpected statement in the hub of the city as if they were left there from an ancient time.”

New Vancouver Biennale installation in Richmond by Javier Marin. Photo by Dan Fairchild.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Javier Marín was born in Uruapan, in the Michoacin region of Mexico.

He is one of the foremost Mexican figurative sculptors. Since 1983 he has presented more than 50 solo exhibitions and has participated in more than 200 collective exhibitions in Mexico, the US, Canada, Central America, South America and in Europe.

Marin also represented Mexico at the 2005 Venice Biennale.

New Vancouver Biennale installation in Richmond by Javier Marin. Photo by Dan Fairchild.

We by Jaume Plensa. Photo by Vincent Argiro.

To those who have made the Vancouver Biennale possible,

I want to thank you from the whole of my being for the extraordinary urban artscape you have created. My wife and I were celebrating her birthday in town (we live on Saltspring Island) and saw a number of the works.

However, we were especially and profoundly moved by “We” by Jaume Plensa. I have travelled the world and been to many of the great museums, galleries and sculpture parks throughout it. I have never seen a work and an installation that so perfectly integrated form, meaning, and setting, nor created such inspiration within me.

Perhaps we were especially fortunate to come upon the work completely unexpectedly, and on a perfect day and time.

In any case, we are deeply grateful to the artist and to the exhibition for this experience.

As a token of our gratitude, here are a couple photos I took. You may use them on the Facebook site or elsewhere, if you so choose:

Best regards,

Vincent and Maggie Argiro

We by Jaume Plensa. Photo by Vincent Argiro.

Ok, this is intense and amazing.

There’s a lot of videos out there talking up Vancouver in advance of the 2010 Winter Games but none of them are as profoundly moving and inspiring as this one.

This video showcases many amazing features of our local landscape from the Museum of Anthropology to traditional craftsmen creating new totem poles to – believe it or not – Bernar Venet’s Arcs 217.5 X 13, a legacy piece from the last Vancouver Biennale.  It appears around the 1 minute mark of this video.

It’s hard to argue with Tewanee Joseph, Executive Director, Host First Nations, when he writes…

“The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are going to be the biggest potlach the world has ever seen!

Spectacular. Overwhelming.

Transformational and fuelled by an unprecedented groundswell of support from aboriginal peoples across Canada. The 2010 Winter Games offer a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity to show the world who we are. We invite you to stand with us and celebrate in 2010.

This time. Our time.”

Done and done!

Here’s another excellent video featuring our Host First Nations, their history, traditions and vital importance to our culture and our future.

As far as viral timelapse videos of Vancouver go, this one is the best!

“Vancouver City” video is an artistic collaboration between Dan and David Newcomb for something called InnerLife Project (TimeLapseHd YouTube Channel).

Cool website and you can purchase a copy of the video there.

A really gorgeous video and I look forward to more of their work.  Hopefully they’ll be shooting the Winter Games over the next month or so.

‘Vancouver City’ is about a place we all have come to love as home no matter where we are from,” say InnerLife Project members, “So many people living here are originally from somewhere else, but have made Vancouver their home”.

Jun Ren's Water Number 7 Reflects in Vanier Park. Photo by Dan Fairchild.

There’s lots of reasons to look forward to summer in Vancouver especially when we’re living through the cold winter rains of February and March.

Limitless blue skies and sunlight, open spaces with mountain views, wine on Jericho beach with friends at twilight, Stanley Park.  Longer days, the city alive with travelers, long bike rides along the seawall.

It’s an amazing time.

Ravens are Just Chillin' with Water #7 in Vanier Park. Photo by Dan Fairchild.

One of the things about Vancouver that I am excited to see in the context of endless warmth and sunlight is Jun Ren’s Water #7.

Water #7 sits at the edge of False Creek in Vanier Park and it’s like the best kept secret of public sculpture in Vancouver.

Ravens Take Flight as Water #7 Stretches its Wings. Photo by Dan Fairchild.

I can remember the first time that I heard about this sculpture.  It was just an idea, a few preliminary drawings and a promise.

When I asked Biennale president, Barrie Mowatt, what Water #7 would look like he poured a tiny amount of water from his drinking glass on the table.  It created a little puddle.

Then Barrie gently flicked the puddle and the water exploded like wings on the wooden table top.  “It’ll look something like that,” he said.

It was a pretty exciting moment.  And difficult to believe but pretty soon the Biennale received some photos of the piece as it was being built.

One look at those photos and you just knew that Water #7 was going to be a showstopper.  It was going to be immense and magnificent.

But… it had to be completed, then broken down, put into boxes and shipped across the Pacific to Vancouver.

Water #7 Imitates the Clouds in the Sky at Sunset. Photo by Dan Fairchild.

Water #7 was installed in Vanier Park at the edge of False Creek as the rains came in late October to wash away the memories of summer.

It was a big and unwieldy installation process that took more than a week to complete.  A sturdy concrete base needed to be installed in the ground to support the 8 tonne structure and then the machines that lifted the piece into place ripped apart the grass.

The oncoming rains turned the entire area into a thick mud soup.

Water #7 Bides it Time (An Imaginary Flight over the Mountains). Photo by Dan Fairchild.

So there hasn’t been a lot of talk about Water #7.  It hasn’t really had the chance to works its way into the city’s imagination.

It’s like a secret.

But as Dan Fairchild’s photos show, the grass is coming back up around it.  The ravens like it.

The piece is starting to fit into the landscape.  It’s starting to speak the language of its surroundings; sublimating the mountains, reflecting the birds in flight, forcing passersby to linger a moment in wonder.

All of this to say that Jun Ren’s Water #7 is awaiting spring and the long days of summer when the ground around it will be green and alive and it will reflect and imitate all aspects of life surrounding it.

It’s going to be amazing when it happens.

Go see it now to get a sense of the mystery, to give yourself some context for seeing it again on a brilliant summer day.