By: Maya Barillas Mohan, Staff Writer
SFU’s Harbour Centre campus is not unlike an art gallery; it’s a silent, cool, and dimly lit retreat from the frenzy of West Hastings. It was at Harbour Centre that I attended a free public lecture taught by Dr. Efrat El Hanany, an art history and gender studies professor at Capilano University. She covered landmarks dispersed around the globe. Amsterdam’s “Absorbed by light” is a neat, interactive criticism of smartphone prevalence. Most of the lecture, however, was focused closer to home.
El Hanany urged the audience to touch or caress sturdy, exposed monuments, and even knock on them to see how the brass is hollow. As commemorative structures, many monuments are placed on pedestals to separate the statue from the public (and sometimes, to deter touching), while others are placed much closer to the ground to share space with the viewer. El Hanany used the “Angel of Victory” as an example. The statue is lifted on a pedestal but the public have had a record of marring it with litter from nearby breweries. El Hanany told the audience that when Steamworks Brewing created a label parodying the statue by replacing the soldier in the angel’s arms with a beer bottle, it was met with considerable backlash, as it was seen as disrespectful due to the memorial’s intention of commemorating those who died in World War I. Though the statue is beautiful to look at, the was monument was commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway, who had exploited Chinese migrants and Indigenous land. This tension is fundamental to understanding Canada’s history and is a reminder of who gets to be honoured here.
BC Place has a succession of Terry Fox statues in ascending size rooted right into the asphalt. The first one, representing the beginning of his journey, is life-size. The last commemorates the end of his journey and is nearly twice the size. I visited this set of statues as a result of attending the lecture and felt everything El Hanany promised I would in its presence: admiration and awe. I gazed at them and reflected on a quote by Andreas Huyssen that was presented at the lecture: “Remembrance is a vital human activity, shaping our links to the past. How we remember defines the present.” I can’t say it’s what Terry Fox wanted for his legacy, but many of my memories of SFU’s AQ courtyard have Fox in the periphery. His non-prosthetic foot is positioned forward at SFU, but El Hanany notes that Vancouver artist Doug Coupland’s version inverts this practice by placing his prosthetic in front instead. This was done to spotlight what is often hidden, and acknowledge the pain Fox endured in his Marathon of Hope. Coupland faithfully reproduced Terry’s stride, showing off his signature gait. Running with a prosthetic leg can come with its own challenges, such as more core strength for balance, a higher risk of chafing or blisters, and increased risk of injury due to strain.
The last stop on my tour was the Sunset Beach AIDS Memorial. It’s a large, winding iron ribbon engraved with 800 names of lives lost to AIDS. Per El Hanany’s guidance, I put my hand on the oxidized metal. It was made rough from years of salt air and Vancouver rain, but the names remained clean incisions in the material. Some had white carnations or ribbons poked through. El Hanany had explained that the negative space forming each letter reified living with the presence of absence. Sunset Beach, spiky summer grass, and low-rise apartments flank the monument. To view every angle, I stalked up a path trodden into the hill by other visitors. There is a presence of others around this monument in the grass and woven into the monument itself; putting this memorial between the city and the beach drops the heavy feeling of loss right in the middle of an undeniably alive intersection. It’s about tranquility too, El Hanany had said. At about 60 feet long, the monument stirs something a lot larger than the 20 megapixels I tried to capture it with.
One of the most valuable takeaways in El Hanany’s lecture is the lesson to engage with art as a conversation. Art often references art, but it also often references ideas or events the viewer might disagree with. Reading plaques can apply more context and facilitate a meaningful dialogue. In a time of overwhelming advertisement saturation, El Hanany asked the audience if public monuments have lost their power. After the lecture, the answer should surely be no.
As advertisements and art compete for attention in our urban environment, I think about the strength contemplation holds.
El Hanany had urged listeners to take note of the overlooked by infusing stories of creation into the monuments. Knowing what to look for is one thing, but I understood that knowing how to look is just as important.
