Skin of Time installation at Harbour Green. Photo by Dan Fairchild.

Skin of Time

Steel mesh, LED, digital media

Created by Choi Tae Hoon (Korea)

The tree represents many things in Korean culture.

Aspects of the artist’s life are reflected in the night light via messages and important mementoes embedded into the metal bark of the tree. One of Korea’s most progressive sculptors, Tae Hoon, makes his Canadian debut with the Vancouver Biennale.

Skin of Time installation at Harbour Green. Photo by Dan Fairchild.

Trees represent many things in Korean culture, and occur in myths and legends.

There is the Shinsu (sacred tree), the tree of life, the tree which is at the centre of the world, the tree of death and revival, the tree that has the female essence and the male productivity, the tree of wisdom, the tree of sacrifice, and the tree of history and tradition.

A famous Korean holiday is Tree Planting Day, where Korean’s traditionally plant trees each April in support of a good planting environment.

The 'skin' or 'bark' of the tree contains thousands of little holes that creates a sensation of glowing when the lights within are illuminated. Photo by Dan Fairchild.

The sculpture Skin of Time is a tree that represents aspects of the life of the artist Choi Tae Hoon. Choi Tae Hoon has attached and embedded messages and important mementoes relating personally to his life experiences in the skin or bark of the tree.

These personal marks and symbols can only be seen when they light up and shine like stars in the night sky.

Choi Tae Hoon is part of Korea’s rapidly developing contemporary art scene, which is now beginning to have greater exposure outside Korea. Artist of the year in 2006 at the Kim Jong Yung Art Museum, Seoul, Korea Choi Tae Hoon has proven to be one of Korea’s most progressive sculptors.

Tae Hoon makes his Canadian debut with the installation of this sculptural work.

For more information visit www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk

Skin of Time installation at Harbour Green. Photo by Dan Fairchild.

Photo by Scott Vrooman.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon in late September, Vancouver resident Scott Vrooman got on his bike and toured many of the Vancouver Biennale sculpture installations.

Here are some of the great photos that he took on his ride.

If you or someone that you know has taken great photos of the Biennale sculptures and you think they’re good enough to share please email me at sean[at]vancouverbiennale[dot]com.

Arcs 217.5 X 13 by Bernar Venet, Sunset Beach.  Photo by Scott Vrooman.

Everybody’s Happy with A-Mazing Laughter by Yue Minjun.  Photo by Scott Vrooman.

Hang loose!  A-Mazing Laughter by Yue Minjun.  Photo by Scott Vrooman.

A breeze blows in from the ocean.  Photo by Scott Vrooman.

The Meeting by Wang Shugang.  Cardero Park.  Photo by Scott Vrooman.

Business as usual.  The Meeting by Wang Shugang.  Photo by Scott Vrooman.

The Meeting, Cardero Park.  Photo by Scott Vrooman.

Pillows in Harbour Green.  By Liu Jianhua.  Photo by Scott Vrooman.

Pillows, Liu Jianhua.  Harbour Green.  Photo by Scott Vrooman.

Photo by Sean Cranbury.

I took a sculpture walk along the seawall yesterday with my friend Stefanie, who’s from Saskatoon by way of Shanghai, China by way of London, UK.

We started at the new Vancouver Convention Centre and walked west from the Pillows of Harbour Green past the Meeting in Cardero Park to the celebration that is Yue Minjun’s A-Mazing Laughter in Morton Triangle at the edge of English Bay.

It was a great walk on a beautiful day.  Here’s some photos of Yue Minjun’s A-Mazing Laughter.

Photo by Sean Cranbury.

Photo by Sean Cranbury.

Photo by Sean Cranbury.

Photo by Sean Cranbury.

Photo by Sean Cranbury.

Photo by Sean Cranbury.

Photo by Sean Cranbury.

Photo by Sean Cranbury.

Jer Crowle is a local artist/designer/photographer who currently lives and works on Galiano Island.

That doesn’t stop him from making regular trips back to the mainland, tho.

When he’s not conspiring with madmen or searching out rare pigments, he’s digging himself into the cultural fibres of the city. He’s either helping out the folks putting together the W2 Project in the DTES or snapping photos and getting some design work done for the Vancouver Biennale.  I know that there’s more fires than that burning on his stove.

He was in town at the end of August and took some spooky-good photos of Liu Jianhua’s installation called The Pillows at Harbour Green in Coal Harbour.  He’s promised me more photos soon and I’ll post ‘em when I get ‘em.

Check out Jer’s Flickr Photostream and/or the Change Creative Group.

Summer is raging full on toward September and Vancouver is in its glory.  Sunshine is leaping in sheets of silver across English Bay, the mountains are a haze on the north shore and the sky is suffused with light.  Trees are practically glowing green and everywhere you look tourists are snapping photos.

Two new sculpture installations have dropped into parks in Vancouver and both are by Chinese artists.

The photo above is taken in Cardero Park along Vancouver’s Coal Harbour waterfront.

It’s a new sculpture by Wang Shugang called “The Meeting”.

The installation consists of 8 red figures squatting and facing one another in a circle.  The figures are crafted in some kind of fibreglass and each one is a subtle variation on the next.

The initial stage of the installation was completed yesterday and the concrete was still setting when I took these pictures.  You can see the yellow caution tape tied to the trees around the sculpture in many of the photos.

You can also see chunks of grass lying around the sculptures.  These circles of grass were removed so that the concrete bases could be set to hold the red figures for their stay in Vancouver.

While I was snapping my photos many tourists and locals stopped to take some shots.  I’m looking forward to getting some more great shots of The Meeting later this week after the yellow tape comes down and people start to interact with it.

Most people stayed on the boardwalk beyond the yellow tape, though one guy was urgent on by his girlfriend to get a few close-ups.

One lady, with a small but enthusiastic dog on a leash, openly hoped that the figures were ‘pee proof’

Speaking of ‘pee-proof’, a low-slung work by Chinese artist Liu Jianhua was installed on the lawns of Harbour Green just to the west of Vancouver’s new Convention Centre.

The work is called “The Pillows” and I think that it’s going to be one of the most popular and intriguing pieces in the Biennale.

As you can see the installation wasn’t finished when I dropped by to take some photos.  The workers were still digging holes and mixing concrete and lugging materials around in their wheel barrow.

When the installation is finished and the concrete has set, park-goers will have the opportunity to engage this installation of several white ceramic pillows seemingly placed at random.

They appear to float just above the grass and one wonders who has been using them to cradle their head during sleep.

Or are they cushions for sitting, for silent contemplation of the incoming float planes or maybe they’re perfect for hanging out while goofing with your friends.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how people interact with the Pillows.

More photos coming soon after the concrete dries.

- Meanwhile there’s more shots of these new installations below -

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