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Monday, May 31, 2010

The Commerce Canoe - Public Art in Bastion Square

The last time the sun was shining here I went downtown to see what was happening in Bastion Square, the heart of the old city of Victoria, and I realized while I was there that I had never featured a photo of the most recent installation of public art in the square, pictured above. The sculpture is by Illarion Gallant and is called "The Commerce Canoe."

Seeds are symbolic of potential, said Gallant, in explaining why they are featured in his work. "What is the potential of the city for growth over time?"

The sculpture in [being] silver, green and red "is supposed to be optimistic."

The canoe is a deeply Canadian symbol, said Gallant, adding he has used its form in other sculptures.
(From the Times-Colonist March 2, 2008)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like it very much.
Beautiful photo.

www.photo-graphimata.blogspot.com

JoJo said...

Interesting!!

Dean Lewis said...

'Supposed to be optimistic', well that might be if it weren't for the fact that the 100K spent on it came from the fees collected from literally dozens of now gone artists who got squeezed out by the Bastion Square Market mismanagement.
Sorry, but to me, this piece of public art deserves the title of Most Ironic.
It might look good, but I would prefer seeing living, breathing life there instead.

JoJo said...

You mean the Bastion Square Arts Festival is no more???? The last time I was in Victoria, summer of '07, I noticed a significant reduction in artists but I assumed that maybe I'd just hit an off day or week....