{"id":30924,"date":"2025-07-29T03:41:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T03:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/30924\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T03:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T03:41:12","slug":"neighbours-balk-at-planned-new-home-for-in-your-face-vancouver-sculpture-bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/30924\/","title":{"rendered":"Neighbours balk at planned new home for \u2018in-your-face\u2019 Vancouver sculpture – BC"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s often said the purpose of public art is to spark conversation, and if that\u2019s the case, one Vancouver sculpture is certainly working as intended.<\/p>\n

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The piece, Trans Am Rapture by artist Marcus Bowcott and Helene Aspinall, consists of five crushed cars atop a cedar tree trunk, and from 2015 to 2021, it resided on a Quebec Street median near Science World.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now set to be installed at the south end of the Granville Bridge, between 4th and 5th avenues within Granville Loop Park.<\/p>\n

That new location has some neighbours talking, and they don\u2019t have many nice things to say.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was horrified and very angry, and I spent the first day crying, actually,\u201d said Darlene Forst, who has started a petition opposing the new location.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was very upset because I happen to live across the street from it, and it\u2019s going to dominate anything I look at out the windows in my place.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The 10-metre sculpture was previously known as Trans Am Totem, and, according to the artists, is meant as a commentary on \u201cthe cycle of production and consumption\u201d and the role of the car in our culture as \u201ca manufactured want and symbol of extremes; practicality and luxury, necessity and waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally installed as a part of the Vancouver Biennale, the sculpture was meant to be temporary but became a permanent part of the city\u2019s collection following a donation from billionaire Chip Wilson.<\/p>\n

It was removed in 2021 for restoration after concerns about \u201cstructural integrity,\u201d \u201ccoating deterioration,\u201d and \u201cbird infestation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn its previous installation, it had a lot of problems with birds nesting, guano dropping everywhere, making the area around it toxic, and that\u2019s going change a large part of the park,\u201d Forst said.<\/p>\n

Forst said the city\u2019s public art committee had previously rejected the sculpture as a donation, but that the previous mayor and council \u201d intervened inappropriately and forced acceptance of the donation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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She said the city hadn\u2019t notified or consulted with neighbours about the plan to install it in the new location.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt dominates whatever space it\u2019s in. This is a residential neighbourhood, it\u2019s a family-friendly neighbourhood, and if they were to put a piece of public art in this park that was very welcoming and friendly, that would be appropriate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an in-your-face statement, edgy piece that\u2019s very mechanical and honestly, I think, frightening to walk under.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of Monday, Forst\u2019s petition had attracted 220 signatures.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the City of Vancouver said its public art team had reviewed a number of city-owned sites for the sculpture\u2019s relocation in collaboration with the artists and the donor.<\/p>\n

That process included \u201ca review by staff, the artists, as well as input from the local First Nations for all projects,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to ensure that installations meet safety, accessibility, technical, and cultural requirements. Site integration, including impact on site lines and green space, is also considered.\u202f\u201d<\/p>\n

The city said it intends to have the installation complete by the end of summer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s often said the purpose of public art is to spark conversation, and if that\u2019s the case, one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75,44,23943],"class_list":["post-30924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-news","tag-trans-am-rapture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}