Police officers and firefighters recently broke into a Vancouver art gallery after an alarmed passerby mistook a sculpture for an intruder.<\/p>\n
In what could be considered a marker of the sculpture\u2019s success, someone walking past Access Gallery<\/a> one night last month thought that a 2024 work by Allysa Pierre, Untitled [The Preparator], was a real person in in need of help.<\/p>\n Pierre\u2019s work depicts an art handler kneeling over a crate with their upper body disappearing inside. The sculpture is featured in an ongoing group exhibition, Pending<\/a>, (until 1 October).<\/p>\n According to a social media post by Access Gallery\u2014located on East Georgia Street in Vancouver\u2019s downtown eastside, where new galleries lured by cheap rent rub shoulders with a growing opioid crisis\u2014the police and fire department broke into the gallery on the night of 14 August \u201cfor a rescue mission\u201d. At around 11pm, Access Gallery\u2019s director Saghi Ehteshamzadeh received a call from the Vancouver Police Department informing her that there had been an \u201cemergency situation\u201d at the gallery.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst responders had been forced to enter the locked space, breaking the gallery\u2019s lock in the process\u201d after someone reported seeing a person inside who appeared to be in \u201cmedical distress\u201d, according to the gallery\u2019s post on Facebook<\/a>. According to the Vancouver Police Department, a caller reported seeing a person\u2019s feet sticking out from behind a counter and believed medical assistance was needed. When police could not reach the gallery, firefighters breached the door to gain entry.<\/p>\n