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Espace Sculpture

Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale Alison Appelbe

Sculpture & humour (suite) Number 77, Fall 2006

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/8859ac

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Publisher(s) Le Centre de diffusion 3D

ISSN 0821-9222 (print) 1923-2551 (digital)

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Cite this document Appelbe, A. (2006). Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale. Espace Sculpture, (77), 44–44.

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Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale Alison APPELBE

of shit?" or "Take my photograph Beach, is Venet's single cluster, (in front of it)." A plan, underway in titled 217.5 arc x 13, emitting a suit­ spring, was to equip each sculpture ably industrial look in this former with new cell-phone technology by industrial area. On the south side, which viewers can hear commen­ three loose clusters, called 3 arcsx5, tary ("via interactive dialogues have settled into the grass in between celebrities") and Vanier Park. Both, with their warm contribute to text and picture colour and sinuosity, almost messaging. But above all, Mowatt demand photography. If a peoples' wants the biennale to be inclusive. choice award were made today, the One artist that achieves this goal arcs would likely take the prize. is Vietnam's Khang Pham-New, Three much smaller welded- Dennis OPPENHEIM, whose two pieces, Realm of Passion steel pieces by German artist Device to Root Out Evil, and Curvilinearity, get maximum Markus Schaller are sited among Vancouver International exposure at a high-traffic location in trees and paths on a picturesque Sculpture Biennale. Kitsilano Beach Park. At once grass slope above Sunset Beach. In Photo: Alison Appelbe elegant and animated, they invite each of these pieces, titled Figure touching—even clambering through in a Circle, a stick-like human is by children small enough to nego­ embraced in a hoop that looks as tiate, in the case of Curvilinearity, an though it's about to roll into the sea. opening created by the stone swirl. They display a delicacy or fragility Mowatt, while a little uneasily with exceptional in the biennale, and are If Vancouver gallery owner Barrie the "emotional impact" it might the conventionality of these pieces, arguably the most "art-like" of all conceded that a visiting film crew the works so far installed. Etched Mowatt was looking for attention — have on the surrounding San Fran­ cisco area community. The same loved their photographic potential. into their "metallic skin" are brief and almost certainly he was —he controversy has followed the sculp­ On Harbour Green in Coal passages of German text or poetry. got it in American Sculptor Dennis ture to Vancouver. The park board's Harbour, New York sculptor John By summer, when the biennale Oppenheim's life-size upended Susan Gordon told the Sun: Clement's Kini's Playground is an is in full swing, these and other "There's been a fair amount of open knot of metal spans that posi­ pieces will be joined by Polish artist church, titled Device to Root out offence taken as it being a some­ tively invite climbers and crawlers. Magdalena Abakanowicz's twelve Evil. Suspended—upside-down, its what cynical look at Christianity." This child-friendly piece is every bit headless figures, titled Vancouver traditional spire stuck in the Oppenheim rejected this the kind of "hands-on" art that Ancestors Shadow, and a brick Mowatt is after. installation by American Sol LeWitt grass—over a public plaza suggestion of blasphemy, claiming instead that critics are censoring And nothing pays homage to to be assembled by Jewish youth surrounded by apartment towers in the work with their own projec­ size like American sculptor John attending ofthe 2006 Maccabi Vancouver's Coal Harbour, the tions. He sees the piece, he said, as Henry's Jaguar, sited in Devonian Games in Vancouver. topsy-turvy church is generating "enlarging the amplitude of reli­ Park on busy Georgia Street, at the And three billboards from Yoko Bernard VENET, gious convictions by showing the entrance to Stanley Park. This Ono are promised. How these 3 arcs x 5, Vancouver the level of controversy that many church as an aggressive instrument bright-red 26-metre-high steel qualify as sculpture remains International Sculpture gallery owners covet. against what lies below the sculpture is all about towering unclear—but they will certainly Biennale. Photo: Alison Appelbe In April, Oppenheim's New York ground—the devil." Oppenheim's force and strong angles in a park advance the biennale goal of gener­ other piece at the biennale, rising fronted with impressive glass- ating publicity, t publicity firm issued a press Sorel ETROG, King over the English Bay waterfront, is curtained high-rises. release saying that the 7.6-metre Alison APPELBE is a Vancouver-based free­ and Queen, Vancouver no less imposing. And Engagement tall sculpture—but for its posi­ More figurative, and possibly lance writer and photographer with a leaning International Sculpture Rings, appearing to be two conven­ tioning, looking every bit a tradi­ easier to relate to, is Sorel Etrog's to art, architecture, culture (in the broadest Biennale. Photo: Alison tional diamond rings of uninspired tional, rural or small-town house of King and Queen, also located on sense) and, when possible, European travel. Appelbe worship —had been purchased by a design, might be seen as mocking Harbour Green. This piece private foundation for $300,000 an irrepressible cultural obsession. depicts two stylised figures US, and would be permanently But while few works so far rigidly ensconced in a position installed at this downtown location. assembled for the biennale, which that suggests an imposing Whoa, said the Vancouver Park runs until the end of 2006, feature throne-room. Given that the Board. As reported in the Vancouver obvious triggers, almost all are subjects are supposedly Sun, a spokeswoman for the board notable for their sheer size. human, the piece appears that runs the parks where most of Mowatt, who operates the outlandishly large. Etrog is a the thirty or so works in the Buschlen Mowatt Galleries in Romanian-born Canadian living Vancouver International Sculpture Vancouver and Palm Springs, in Toronto. Biennale will be located, said the concedes that his goal with this But if accessibility is the purchase and siting were not a third outdoor sculpture project ultimate virtue of the bien­ done deal. In fact, it will be late (and the first not-for-profit), is to nale, nothing may beat the 2006 before any sale is complete attract attention by displaying pieces by French sculptor and the city decides whether this or major works of art — by "the best Bernard Venet. They include any other sculpture will get a ofthe best in their nations"— two massive sculptures in his permanent home in a city park. outside of what he sees as an often steel "arc" series, deliberately Device to Root Out Evil is not tired museum culture. sited on opposite shores of new to controversy. A few years Mowatt hopes the biennale will the boating channel that ago, California's Stanford Univer­ especially appeal to unlikely connects English Bay with sity accepted the sculpture, then museum-goers —a passer-by who False Creek. withdrew the offer over concern for might comment: "What's this piece In the north, on Sunset

44 ESPACE 77 AUTOMNE /FALL 2006