Public Art in Vancouver’s
Downtown Eastside
February 12 – March 21, 2010
Vancouver, Canada’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood is the stage for BRIGHT LIGHT, a ground-breaking six-week series of public art exhibits, installations, performances and special events commissioned by the City of Vancouver to mark the occasion of the 2010 Olympic Winter and Paralympic Games.
The result of an extraordinary collaboration between 14 arts organizations active in the neighbourhood, Bright Light takes public art to new places. Projects range from site-specific artworks, light-based installations, video projections and live web links to outdoor performances, publications, a parade, a festival, interactive community events and lively gathering spaces. Thought-provoking, innovative, accessible, Bright Light illuminates the historical heart of the city: its streets, courtyards, parks, windows, studios and galleries – shining a spotlight on the vibrant arts community that calls the neighbourhood home.
The Downtown Eastside is a neighbourhood of many faces: a community with poverty and homelessness, new development, heritage residences and gentrification, tourist streets – and a large concentration of artists, perhaps more than any other neighbourhood in Canada. Viewing public art as a political process, Bright Light will foster comment, discussion and social exchange between the neighbourhood, the city and international visitors, examining issues and exploring new models of public art that encourages public engagement and participation.
Osvaldo Yero: Passage
Access Gallery, February 12 – March 21
Yero creates a powerfully evocative large-scale light-sculpture on gallery windows.
Norma: Brawl
Andy Livingstone Field, February 24
Sport and spectacle collide in a choreographed outdoor theatrical event by artist collective Norma. (Artspeak).
ASIR Studio: GO! Gallery: A Temporary Gallery for Permanent Change
Yue Shan Courtyard, February 12–28
One of Chinatown’s oldest courtyards transforms into a lively gathering and multi-event venue under an illuminated canopy of umbrellas.
Lorna Brown, Jamie Hilder, Ken Lum and Kathy Slade: Coming Soon
Audain Gallery, From January 15
On gallery windows and online at audaingallery.ca. artists address the realities of the Downtown Eastside and the role of art in a changing neighbourhood.
Bryan Mulvihill, Lead Artist: World Tea Party
Centre A, February 12–28 & March 13–21
Social and interactive gatherings act as a work of art, welcoming visitors into a form of “social sculpture”.
Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts: Nighthawk Aboriginal Arts and Music Festival
Crab Park, March 21
A multi-disciplinary celebration of traditional and contemporary Aboriginal arts.
Mark Manders: Window with Fake Newspapers / Traducing Ruddle
20 East Hastings St. and various newspaper box locations, February 12 – March 21
Fillip presents Dutch artist Mark Manders’ site-specific installation and a free artist newspaper co-published with Amsterdam’s Roma Publications.
Jenipher Hur and Avery Nabata: Signs, City Wall, City Path
February 12 – March 21
An outdoor installation series that humourously co-opts billboard marketing, tourist maps and other official public signage. (Helen Pitt Gallery).
Instant Coffee: Light Bar
33 West Cordova Street, February 12 – March 20
A full-spectrum light bar installation and venue for light therapy, light lectures, light shows, light reading and light rock.
Chris Welsby, Christoph Runne, Monique Mees, Faith Moosang: Far, Up Close
InterUrban Gallery, February 12 – March 21
Includes: Welsby’s time-lapsed live video Time After, Runne’s Portraits projections and Mees’ photographic series Specimen Plates.
Rina Liddle: We Are Watching
Jeffrey Boone Gallery, February 12 – March 21
This multi-component work explores ideas of private/public space, surveillance and public art with video footage from Olympic-related events and a documentary publication.
LIVE: Procession of Performing Circles
March 7
Lights, dance, music, magic – a spectacular dance procession through neighbourhood streets.
Natalie Purschwitz: Makeshift
Makeshift Studio, February 12–28 & March 12–21
Video projections of the artist’s year-long project making every stitch of her clothing by hand.
W2 Community Media Art Society: Fearless City
W2 Café at Woodward’s: February 12 – March 21
Streaming mobile video projections, text messages and remixed social media reveal insights into the neighbourhood and its people.
For full descriptions and event calendar: http://www.bright-light.ca
