The bears, like Vancouver are truely hokey. This is noy art, nowhere even close to it but a scam to raise money for charity.

Why do good ideas from Europe always morph into second rate nonsense here?

Oh, yeah, really hokey. They have nothing to do with those dignified bears. And what animal will be next? I predict ravens...

I blame Hollywood for the spirit bears.

Chicago did pigs a long time ago -- a tribue to the commodities exchange, of sorts.

This lead to the insurgence of silly painted animals in North America's streets.

Once was enough really. Toronto did Moose. Ok...I buy it....there hasn't been a moose in Toronto for decads, but it's prototypically Canadian in Canada's prototypical city. Ok. I get it.

So Vancouver does Orcas. Ok. I get it. Orcas are definitely very P.Northwest...I send one to every friend from Toronto who has a baby.

But we're all just copying each other; it's all just a complete lack of originality.

Hollywood has taught us that you can keep copying the same idea over and over again and the masses will keep coming.

Stop the madness -- stop going.

Did anybody actually visit Vancouver *because* of the Orcas?

That's what I though. You can put your hand down now sir.

I agree that these various animals of the city dilute public art and take away the heart of what art is supposed to be. Artist should be able to delve into the collective consciousness of society and make people think in ways they haven't before. How is a bear dressed in a canuck uniform supposed to do that? Yet, I would like to see what type of statement Banksy would produce with one of these.

I'm not personally a fan of the bears, but my three-year-old daughter is delighted and obsessed with them. Can anyone explain to me why they should be taken away from her? Why not diversity? Why not bears and also socially provocative contemporary art, which some other wags would inevitably want to smash?

One can only guess that the Orca ( plastic version) went well last year. Other wise the things for this year wouldn't have apeared. Up comes a "spirit bear" that has been plunked in some weird places here in the town of Victoria. Sure a three year old could like one because the strange colours used. I hate to use the word gaudy, but what else would fit? Nobody can fault the Lions for trying to make some bucks for the poor. Wonder how many of these weird looking things will grace the front of businesses? What will be the Fiberglas monuments be next year? Public art it ain't. But when one looks at the collection of junk, paid for by the taxpayers, in front of the Save on Food store( oops arena) a spirit Bear would fit right in . The word is Tacky

Wow. They delight and amuse a three year old. What a great argument for keeping them around. Well done sir.

(insert rolling eyeballs here)

Trust me. In five minutes, your daughter will be delighted and obsessed with something new.

Well, there's: tacky, gauche, kitschy, probably some others.

Charles' daughter may well be delighted with the bears (I'm sure mine would be too) but I think we need to aim for a slightly older demographic if we want to be "world-class".

Having said that, I'll bet the Art Arnzten one is great, and I thought the Darth Vader bear was kind of fun, but most of the others definitely fall into the 'gaudy' category to this un-schooled art critic.

Vancouver has an amazing art culture. One of the strongest in the world. Unfortunately this type of art sidesteps that long standing strong art community by producing a weak art-form for the street. Whales and bears and other animals are always viewed as "so" west coast or "Vancouver". This form of art is typical of art that is not supposed to challenge the viewer. If established Vancouver artists were somehow convinced to do art that could be placed on the street then auctioned off more money would be raised from just one piece than 10 bears just because Vancouver has so many great artists that are recognized internationally. Unfortunately their names are not household here in Vancouver and that is why you have whales and bears constantly springing up as subjects in sculpture and murals. These animals are important but visually it has been done over and over and now is just mediocre subject matter they have been turned into something I would expect from Disney, animals given human qualities. It is not intelligent it is just more if the same easy unimaginative concepts that are springing up in an ever increasing mediocre world. Where is "Mr Peanut" when you need him. At least he was challenging as an art-form for Vancouver.

Thank you, Ms Farrell, for pointing such an exquisitely manicured nail at Vancouver's latest 'emperor' -- yep, he's bear-naked.
Maybe the next critter enlisted for this project could be the skunk. We already expect them to be stinky.

Believe me, having suffered through the Toronto moose epidemic, and now Orcas and bears in Vancouver, I personally have had enough. But here's the remarkable fact I've learned in life -- different people enjoy different things. Barry Mowatt's biannual sculpture exhibition got enormous amounts of flak for no reason I can understand. Sure, the sculptures don't have a social message, but many of them are quite beautiful. Sure, Mowatt is selling the sculptures, but Vancouver gets to look at all this international art for virtually no cost. Now, Farrell's article makes many interesting points. I'd like to have learned more about the restrictions placed on the artists regarding social and political messages. That concerns me. But the bears themselves? We shouldn't have them? They're a terrible thing that somehow diminishes better art? Give me a break. Remember the outrage over the National Gallery's "meat dress"? The "outrageous" expenditure of public money on "crap art"? The people arguing that we need to get rid of the spirit bears occupy the other side of the same coin. "You shouldn't have this thing because it's bad for our society." And the bears aren't even smoking. By all means let's celebrate the Stan Douglases and Carole Itters and Richard Tetraults and Ken Lums. I'm grateful for Tetrault's mosaic project just around the corner from my house. But the proscriptive tendency of the left to want to deny us things that don't make us better as a society can become a crashing bore. Hey, I saw some people smiling. Can we put a stop to that?

the bears were a minor irritant to me. i was a little disappointed our local graffiti artists didn't have a little more fun with them.

first off, more smiling would make a better society, that's a fact... movin' on...

Most of the bears i've seen I don't like much... i think they are ugly. However i run into one now and again that is interesting... I like that. The bears are a repetition in form and also exist in one place(each), and to me create a singular piece of spatial art in the city with many variations and even many themes as a part of it.

too bad it wasn't andy warhol that came up with a huge pop art installation like this, all the art geeks would think it was genius.

This is merely an opinion piece. A Japanese student I taught for 5 months, a man in his mid- 30s, recently went back to Japan with his wife... and photos of nearly every one of these bears. They would spend their weekends, with a map, searching out each and every one! They loved it. I remember thinking 'what an odd way to spend your leisure time',.. but to each his own, right?
(This comment written on hehalf of Yoshi, who isn't here to write it himself... although perhaps I will send him this link!)

I too would like to see more public art in Vancouver. We have great local artists like Brian Jungen, Susan Point, Jeff Wall, etc., but we should be open to international artists as well. We don't have much in the way of modern (permanent) sculpture in town, and I hope the city sees fit to fund some good acquisitions. I doubt that the Spirit Bear project is a hindrance to getting more public art -- the problem lies elswhere. Our per capita funding for the arts in general (for BC as a whole, not Vancouver specifically) is the second lowest in Canada.

Methinks no one here put in a bid. Just be thankful someone didn't depict one as the virgin mary or something similar.

As a tourist to Vancouver, I kind of liked the bears.

I know they are art. The artsy fartsy ones in here sure have made that known.

However, when was the last time the art community did something for kids?

In my dealings with artists, I have found them to be quite arrogant and so into themselves. Give me the paint brush and let me paint a bear. I know it would probably look like crap, but at least it would go towards helping out kids, and that is the bottom line for me.

oops,

let me correct myself and say that I know the bears aren't art.

Someone I know proposed decorating the bears with those little bullet-hole stickers that adorn too many cars. Now that's public art that I can approve of: subversive, subtle until you notice them, and adding a layer to our city's life instead of taking one away.

This is an interesting

This is an interesting discussion. As _brian_ notes, Vancouver has had one artist, Vincent Trasov, use "Mr. Peanut" as an alter ego in the 60's and 70's:
[url="http://www.belkin-gallery.ubc.ca/webpage/archives/colour/indexical.html"]http://www.belkin-gallery.ubc.ca/webpage/archives/colour/Imagery/Fileseries2.jpg[/url]
[url="http://thetyee.ca/Photo/2004/06/08/Mr_Peanut_Sees_the_World/"]http://thetyee.ca/Photo/2004/06/08/Mr_Peanut_Sees_the_World/[/url].

He even ran for mayor under the name. (as did Mr. Floatie in Victoria last municipal election but that's a different although related discussion: [url="http://thetyee.ca/News/2005/11/14/DocFloatie/"]http://thetyee.ca/News/2005/11/14/DocFloatie/[/url])

So cute and kitschy pop icons can be used successfully as both fun and inventive social critique. However it seems in the case of the spirit bear this is not the intent of the project. Which is fine - I think different kinds of public displays can co-exist, as long as the city government and people in the city are aware of the difference, and a wide variety of public art and conversation is cultivated.

I'm a big fan of the very fun and perhaps garish to some, art of Niki de Saint Phalle [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_de_Saint_Phalle"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_de_Saint_Phalle[/url]. I think she uses the same kind of fiberglass construction as the Vancouver Orcas and Bears. Hers is a celebratory art, kids love it too and can play in and on it. Unlike the Orkas and Bears, her sculptures are not safe, packaged, consumable items but cultural Trojan horses used to playfully introduce a public to giant female figures and mythical creatures. To me they act as public markers that proclaim: 'A diversity of thought and behaviour and appearance makes a city exciting and alive! So come on people, gather, express yourselves, meet each other!' (Granted this is my fantasy of how life in a city should be – but I think I’m allowed to project my fantasies onto artwork.)

I agree with Tetrault’s assessment of why the Orcas and Bears seem disingenuous to critical thinking folk who also love animals and portray them in their art:

All is not well with our ecosystems and wildlife habitats in BC, despite our tourism industries’ claim to the contrary. Art set up in a public context, given an official stamp of approval by the City of Vancouver should at least take this friction into account and offer space for a different account of the “Super Natural BC” story than the one offered by these Orcas and Bears.

This is an interesting discussion. As _brian_ notes, Vancouver has had one artist, Vincent Trasov, use "Mr. Peanut" as an alter ego in the 60's and 70's:
http://www.belkin-gallery.ubc.ca/webpage/archives/colour/Imagery/Fileseries2.jpg
http://thetyee.ca/Photo/2004/06/08/...Sees_the_World/.

He even ran for mayor under the name. (as did Mr. Floatie in Victoria last municipal election but that's a different although related discussion: http://thetyee.ca/News/2005/11/14/DocFloatie/)

So cute and kitschy pop icons can be used successfully as both fun and inventive social critique. However it seems in the case of the spirit bear this is not the intent of the project. Which is fine - I think different kinds of public displays can co-exist, as long as the city government and people in the city are aware of the difference, and a wide variety of public art and conversation is cultivated.

I'm a big fan of the very fun and perhaps garish to some, art of Niki de Saint Phalle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_de_Saint_Phalle. I think she uses the same kind of fiberglass construction as the Vancouver Orcas and Bears. Hers is a celebratory art, kids love it too and can play in and on it. Unlike the Orkas and Bears, her sculptures are not safe, packaged, consumable items but cultural Trojan horses used to playfully introduce a public to giant female figures and mythical creatures. To me they act as public markers that proclaim: 'A diversity of thought and behaviour and appearance makes a city exciting and alive! So come on people, gather, express yourselves, meet each other!' (Granted this is my fantasy of how life in a city should be – but I think I’m allowed to project my fantasies onto artwork.)

I agree with Tetrault’s assessment of why the Orcas and Bears seem disingenuous to critical thinking folk who also love animals and portray them in their art:

Quote:
"It's about making our relationship with nature glib and consumable -- let's take these animals out of their habitat and impose them on the urban landscape. It creates a discomfort in me; it's like nostalgia for something that we're already trampling over."

All is not well with our ecosystems and wildlife habitats in BC, despite our tourism industries’ claim to the contrary. Art set up in a public context, given an official stamp of approval by the City of Vancouver should at least take this friction into account and offer space for a different account of the “Super Natural BC” story than the one offered by these Orcas and Bears.

This is an interesting discussion. As _brian_ notes, Vancouver has had one artist, Vincent Trasov, use "Mr. Peanut" as an alter ego in the 60's and 70's:
http://www.belkin-gallery.ubc.ca/webpage/archives/colour/Imagery/Fileseries2.jpg
http://thetyee.ca/Photo/2004/06/08/Mr_Peanut_Sees_the_World/.

He even ran for mayor under the name. (as did Mr. Floatie in Victoria last municipal election but that's a different although related discussion: http://thetyee.ca/News/2005/11/14/DocFloatie/)

So cute and kitschy pop icons can be used successfully as both fun and inventive social critique. However it seems in the case of the spirit bear this is not the intent of the project. Which is fine - I think different kinds of public displays can co-exist, as long as the city government and people in the city are aware of the difference, and a wide variety of public art and conversation is cultivated.

I'm a big fan of the very fun and perhaps garish to some, art of Niki de Saint Phalle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_de_Saint_Phalle. I think she uses the same kind of fiberglass construction as the Vancouver Orcas and Bears. Hers is a celebratory art, kids love it too and can play in and on it. Unlike the Orkas and Bears, her sculptures are not safe, packaged, consumable items but cultural Trojan horses used to playfully introduce a public to giant female figures and mythical creatures. To me they act as public markers that proclaim: 'A diversity of thought and behaviour and appearance makes a city exciting and alive! So come on people, gather, express yourselves, meet each other!' (Granted this is my fantasy of how life in a city should be - but I think being allowed to project our fantasies onto artwork might be the point of putting it up in the first place.)

I agree with Tetrault ‘s assessment of why the Orcas and Bears seem disingenuous to critical thinking folk who also love animals and portray them in their art:

Quote:
"It's about making our relationship with nature glib and consumable -- let's take these animals out of their habitat and impose them on the urban landscape. It creates a discomfort in me; it's like nostalgia for something that we're already trampling over."

All is not well with our ecosystems and wildlife habitats in BC, despite our tourism industries’ claim to the contrary. Art set up in a public context, given an official stamp of approval by the City of Vancouver should at least take this friction into account and offer space for a different account of the -“Super Natural BC” -story than the one offered by these Orcas and Bears.

Let's do one of a parlimentary Falcon!

Wouldn't last 10 minutes before being vandalized ; )

Thanks Dawn, for your thoughts. For all the reasons you've outlined, I like the bullet holes idea. I remember when some artist whose name escapes me proposed a public art installation, including viewing binoculars, on the new bridges across the Grandview Cut, to draw attention to the natural world that flourishes in the cut. As I remember it, the project was stymied by the engineering department, which had its own designs for the cut, and they most certainly did not involve nature.

Thank goodness Jenn Farrell has addressed this issue! These bears go against everything art and public are supposed to be about.

I was in Vancouver recently and was appalled that these grotesques were planted just about everywhere you turned.

These things are visually toxic and give bears and orcas a bad name.

Maybe a group of us like-minded animal and art lovers should initiate a class action suit on their behalf.

robertjb:

Very toxic!!
They have given the public the view that this magnificent bear is a cutesy plastic circus creature.
How sad.
The art is fine, just take it off the bear.

Sure does promote the idea of "cute". Then, when one wanders into town, we want it shot, or hung, or anything to get it out of here.
Thanks, Mr. Disney!

Really?

How about some examples?

Oh, for crying out loud. The orcas and bears and whatever follows them are fun. No they aren't art (though they probably make the public more receptive to the idea of public art), but who cares? They aren't commercial (like some of the new city banners on the Granville bridge) selling something or burnishing some corporate image. They're just silly. Even if they only amuse children - I'll admit to being childlike in this case - yes, Reuben, I think that's a great reason for having them.

considering i wasn't living in vancouver at the time of the ubiquitous orcas,
i thought the bears were kinda neat at first
there were some kind of interesting ones, some pretty freakin ugly ones, and you know, it was kinda cool to see them pop up around the corner when you least expect it...
UNTIL THEY STARTED ADDING MORE AND MORE AND MORE
before we knew it, there were THREE alone at the entrance to canada place
there were basically two for every block
bloody hell there was even one inside on the top floor in metrotown mall!!
it was like a disease or something
its easy to get sick of something like that pretty quickly when you overdo the hell out of it.
i don't know, i think i'd rather see some actual art pieces going up in the city.
particularly contreversial ones, those are the best. because like its' been mentioned a few times already, they ignite discussion and actually cause you to think and form opinions abotu the world.
imagine that.
i was living in the south okanagan at the time penticton had it's [url="http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/01/11/naked-statue050111.html"]frank the baggage handler[/url] scenario
and honestly, i quite liked the little guy.
that's what its all about.
and there was only one of him.

Jenn Farrell writes:

The bears/orcas were made to raise money, they accomplished the goal, nothing to be ashamed of.

As ART the bears/orcas are as good as any group art show I have ever seen, I like maybe 5 percent and the rest I think are trash. Really go and look at these Spirit Bears in the City as individual art pieces. If you can't find one that works for you, well that how art works.

If you are serious about a better way to promote public art in this city check out the Public Art Registry and realize that every single public art work has a huge struggle to see the light of day.

This beautiful public art sculpture Khenko Heron nearly was scrapped because of small vocal negative group of people. It is that way with almost all our public artworks. If you want to raise the discourse on Vancouver's public artworks, write stories of praise about the artworks you love, about how it brings joy, expands the consciousness, fills a void, whatever. Support the structures that bring these artworks to fruition. Try to drown out the that consistent small vocal minority that believes public art should be left to the private sector.

"I may not know what I like, but I know art" because all art is crap, unless it is mine of course. This is my favorite bear because I think the artist captured the "true spirit" of the Bears in the City show.

Reposted with hopes of HTML being parsed.

Jenn Farrell writes:

The bears/orcas were made to raise money, they accomplished the goal, nothing to be ashamed of.

As ART the bears/orcas are as good as any group art show I have ever seen, I like maybe 5 percent and the rest I think are trash. Really go and look at these Spirit Bears in the City http://www.spiritbearsinthecity.com as individual art pieces. If you can't find one that works for you, well that how art works.

If you are serious about a better way to promote public art in this city check out the [B} http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/publicart_wac/publicart.exe Public Art Registry [/B] and realize that every single public art work has a huge struggle to see the light of day.

This beautiful public art sculpture http://pricetags.wordpress.com/2006/07/25/khenko-lands/ Khenko Heron nearly was scrapped because of small vocal negative group of people. It is that way with almost all our public artworks. If you want to raise the discourse on Vancouver's public artworks, write stories of praise about the artworks you love, about how it brings joy, expands the consciousness, fills a void, whatever. Support the http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/parks/arts/ structures that bring these artworks to fruition. Try to drown out the that consistent small vocal minority that believes public art should be left to the private sector.

"I may not know what I like, but I know art" because all art is crap, unless it is mine of course. This is my http://www.spiritbearsinthecity.com/index.php?fuseaction=bears.vie w&BearID=37 favorite bear because I think the artist captured the "true spirit" of the Bears in the City show.

A preview on this comment board would be sweet...

HTML link test, please ignore

[a href="http://www.spiritbearsinthecity.com/index.html" target="_blank"]Spirit Bears in the City[/a]

A preview on this comment board should be considered essential.

According to the article on Battlestar Galactica Dawn Buie is the Tyee's director of web technology and she's smart so perhaps we'll get one.

I'm not sure what's so subversive about bullet holes on a fake bear. Call me a country girl, I guess.

You'll never make everybody happy with a given public art piece -- otherwise it wouldn't be art =^)

For people who hate the bears, get a grip -- these are TEMPORARY exhibits.

They are not to my personal taste, but since they are temporary and for a charity, hey, why not? I'm happy to see people commission art in general. It livens things up and gives cranky people something to grump about =^)

Next year why not the Sasquatch from the Kokannee beer commercials. Those guys know how to raise a laugh or two. Probably sells more of that brand of beer as well. I don't drink beer but find those commercials quite refreshing. Tongue in cheek goes a long way. It's sort of sad that so many places have real statues and other art works in public places, we get Fiberglas bears and orcas. Vancouver has the little lady on the way into stanley Park, Sidney out our way has old fisherment and lots of other pieces of art , and the kids like them as well. But if they turn a buck maybe the bog supporters will shell out and buy one for the basement. Please keep them off the streets

Oh my-Its been said before- turn off the snob blinkers and laugh a little- the 5 bears that we ended up with in Terrace were cute, fun and attractive as a decoration. We saw tourists all over them having a good time. They raised money for charity. While I realize that they weren't in the same category as the afore mentioned "meat dress" and the pile of shit outside the Tate Modern as paragons of fine art, I think the point was to entertain and amuse-anything wrong with that? Do we have to be art critics to enjoy things like this? Or art critics actually allowed to enjoy things? Lighten up for Gods sake.

those bears are stupid. how much time does a bear spend standing up? show one shitting, i am sure they do that a lot more often . or have ones that smell bad like real bears. even better, have bears that bite if stupid japanese tourists get too close. if not who fukkin cares.

Miller doesn't seem to know his McLuhan. When he says 'the people who get upset or say they don't like it are looking at the form and not the artwork.' he forgets "The Medium is the message" and I'm not seeing the 'artwork' because the form is so fucking inane - like a mentally handicapped tattoo artists' fever dream.
The pretense of it being real art is an insult to the citizens of the city. We're smarter than that - aren't we? Knowing that we're going to have to put up with another iteration of this just
makes me mad. What now? A beaver? Please don't let it be a fucking beaver.

steveoverhere,
you didn't fully get the bear experience
considering you stated you don't live in vancouver.
trust me, i thought the same things about hte orcas when i was living in the okanagan, and people in the lower mainland were complaining about them.
but now that i've had the pleasure of the company of these overly ubiquitous fibreglass monstrosities,
i feel no qualms in saying that you guys can have 'em.
and by all means keep them.

A thoughtful article Jenn, I've responded on here.

Yes "Alcibiades" Vancouver does have an amazing art culture. The reason you do not know about it is probably the same as anyone else's reason, lack of knowledge or else you would not have asked the questions.
"Really?": or "How about some examples?"
If someone was talking about hockey in Vancouver many people would have answers and knowledge about hockey. But when it comes to Art there is a total lack of education even though art could be considered the most important aspect of anything you or I do everyday. Without it you would not have architects designing buildings to play hockey in or the many styles of cars we drive, clothes we ware even hockey uniforms. Junk mail, chairs you sit on, music you listen to and even spirit bears. Some is good and some is bad but artists do it all from functional to non functional.
Now back the that "amazing art culture in Vancouver", hmmm where to start. Well lets start in the 70's and the "Video Inn" ( I could go back earlier but this is a good start) Before there was music video there was art video and film but music video was born from art videos. The video Inn was around making video since the early 70's up to this day. They have an archive of the videos. When some were saying it is all crap and video is not art and looks bad many artist pursued the medium to eventually be overshadowed by much music and not really given much credit for establishing the art form in its early beginnings. You might want to look up Paul Wong as one example of Vancouver video artist.
Moving on you might want to look up Vincent Trasoff and Michael Morris, Gathie Falk, Liz Magor, Eric Metcalf, Attila Lucaks, Douglas Coupland, Brian Jungen, Geoffrey Farmer, Jeff Wall and on and on....
Actually instead of me listing people you could just go to the latest show at the Vancouver art gallery "PAINT" which is why it is there in the first place so that people will not ask for examples regarding Vancouver's art culture. It is all there and much more that goes beyond just Vancouver.
Don't you do this? Are you really that uneducated regarding your own city and culture? We really should be aiming higher with how we present art to people in Vancouver and I do not mean in a snobbish way. It is all their already an amazing collection of artists but there seems to be a gap in the understanding the art and artists that already exist and that are represented behind the steps of the VAG that people sit on everyday on Robson Street. Instead we get "safe" art on the streets something that is good to take a funny picture of as a souvenir. It is still art but It is that pleasant, easy, do not think too much kind of art. Acceptable Graffiti opposed to unsanctioned street art that we have been conditioned to think of as "Bad". Cute and acceptable! If we all only want "cute and acceptable" art presented and sanctioned by city councils and merchant associations to promote tourism and engage people in a pleasant way then there will always be a gap between far more challenging art, the understanding of it compared to the bland easy to accept bears.
Personally I would rather see a Jeff Wall lit up high on top of a building than the giant TV screens on the future shop at the corner of Robson and Granville that spew out endless images you see at home on TV. Or maybe a giant Brian Jungen whale sculpture hanging above the center of Robson Street.
Now if you do not know who I am talking about but can name players from the Canucks (not that Hockey is Bad) then maybe it is time to understand Vancouver has more to offer than "spirit bears". Far more!

Looks like links aren't allowed in comments, my post is at moosehat.com . Hope you find it!

Right. Have you been the Art Gallery of Ontario? MOMA (in NY or San Francisco.)

Those area wonderful institutions with great collections.

Then, there's the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Here's what gets me though: I think Vancouver is the creative heart and soul of Canada, but it lacks the stature to support its own creations.

Art starts here, and then leaves for greater destinations when commercial realities are faced.

I wish that art existed without the commercial imperative, but we all need to eat and doing that requires the occasional exchange of funds for goods.

At least for most of us.

Vancouver is a DOG SHIT city!

for darcy.mcgee
I agree.
I did not say Vancouver had a great art gallery I said it had great artists but a lack of knowledge of the artists when it comes to the general public.
We definitely need a new gallery. Something massive that people are curious about and want to to step into. But we are too busy going over budget building sports arenas right now so the idea of funding and building an art gallery becomes more difficult.

Heck, it is just art. At least the issue has got people talking about art, and what it means for art to talk up public space and conciousness.

Most people in Vancouver think art is a 3435/5000 Robert Batemen print, or one of those laughable "fire pit" in a wilderness setting prints. Thousands of dollars for garage sale material.

doggy poopy city, vancouver that is.

All of which are big selling points if translated into Japanese. No, seriously. Think Hello Kitty.

There's just too damned many of them, that's my problem with them. A handful of choice ones would be OK, and Darth Bear is admittedly a big draw (I've never walked past it, which I do twice on every day I'm downtown, and there's always someone having their picture taken with it. But it's Hollywood, it's not art.

Any totemic power of their representing the spirit bear, so-called (the kermode, that is), is robbed by the goofiness, and the plastic-tackiness of so many of them. The one with Nlaka'pamux-style petroglyph-pictograph images near Christ Church is interesting, but out-of-place; but many are just ick, gauche, uck. And there's too damned many of them.

The pity about public art here is often the best stuff gets ditched. The classic case is the big sweeping set of metal-tube wings that stood at Georgia and Granville, where the tacky info-pavilion is now. It wound up in some junkyard in Surrey, cut into pieces.

Then there's some good work that's in out-of-the-way places, or somewhere so overwhelmed you don't notice it, or how interesting it might be. The one I'm thinking of is a set of green glass globes bound in some on-end diamond shapes by the Georgia Viaduct, just off Georgia & Beatty on the armory side of the street.

But there's so much dreck in public art here; if this is art-by-committee, give me back patronage-by-nobility any day; for all the wealth and opulence of this city there's no sign of it, either in architecture or in public art. I'm thinking of the big fountain plazas that make Europe so often what it is; eye-catching, memorable; the Centennial Fountain (old courthouse plaza) and the old "dandelion-seed" fountains on Granville Square hardly compare.

What's art and what's not is not so much up to taste in Canada as up to committee. That's the basic problem.

And along the general lines of which: when's one of our city's developers or incoming magnates going to have the cojones to hire Frank Gehry to build us something truly memorable in the downtown core?

Who cares either way. Why not write about the solutions to real problems. There are enough of them around. The tyee is getting a bit weak on meaty issues lately.

complaining about other people not talking about "real problems" when you're taking part in the same discussions on public banality is a bit thin, don't you think? Wading into a minor-issue bitch fest (the plastic spirit bear discussion) to complain that nobody's talking about anything serious is like arriving at a bar wanting to talk about the hospital....

Totally agree Skookum1

The issue is a minor bitch-fest, but at least it is a discussion of the use of public space (both physical and mental).

I am still trying to find a way to bill Jimmy Pattison as a "consultant" for thowing at those billboards up into my conciousness.

Look at the way Pattison welcomes American tourists into Canada at the Peace Arch crossing. He effectively blocks the view of the ocean and trees; everyone is greeted with a smattering of billboards.

In fact, in comparison, those darn bears aint so bad after all!

:-) :-) Never underestimate the power of billboards to overtake a landscape; especially at strategic locations like Snauq (Burrard Bridge south side) and Homulchesan (Lions Gate north side) and in the Ironworkers north loop area (not sure which native name there). Don't expect them to be tasteful "vignette" billboards, and don't be surprised if they block the views of Park Royal and even British Properties and Grouse near-completely. And re the Burrard Bridge, hell, we've all gotten tired of that same endless row of apartments blocking the view of the mountains you could once enjoy from that bridge (I have an old pic from the '40s to prove it).

What the heck; how else would you know where else to blow your money if you didn't have all those billboards for Victoria's tourist traps lining the Pat Bay Highway? C'mon, now... ;-)

Advertising's one thing; be grateful it's not like England where you get advertising on damned near everything; even on the floor moulding and trim on escalators and what-not. Trashy public art is another. I'm still bewildered at the huge amounts of money paid to "artists" who construct fairly ugly/mundane objects that only have aesthetic appeal if you've taken fine arts courses...and not even really then.

Anybody noticed the pile of highway dividers on the NW plaza of the library? They're poured from some other material than concrete (using the same molds as the real highway dividers) and stacked artfully. I dread looking up what the public paid for it. And relative to other things I've seen, it's almost tasteful. But for a library plaza? Truckhead mentality, industry-as-art.....how BC.

Those bears aren't "art". They're kisch. And ugly. And insulting. And tacky. And should be adapted to be "garbage gobblers", with trash cans set inside.

I actually miss those old thunderbird garbage bins that used to line the province's highways; there's still a few in the Fraser Canyon I think. Big green things, almost like owls but with grill-like teeth and totem-style eyes. Not high culture, but definitely part of the culture of a certain time and place...

But yeah, there's a temptation to put garbage in the bears' bellies if there was an opening there. Maybe they could be robotized so you'd put your cup in the bear's paw and it raises it to its mouth and eats it? No, they'd do that in Japan, but not here....

Speaking of Japan, is there a Bear-zilla out there?

anne cameron wrote:

Oh come on! They aint that bad.
They are a lot better than a lot of that IKEA crap that everyone decorates their homes with. Or even worse, the "authentic" pub flare.

"Kitsch" is art. Not great art, but art nonetheless.

I agree with you Skookum, those garbage bins are cool, kitschy, and are sort of unique to BC.

Rock on!

I don't mind kitsch if it comes at kitsch prices; it's what souvenir stores are for. But the bears were mega-buck "artistic statements" by "leading" artists (i.e. those who've been to the Canada Council trough previously). Kitsch passed off as high art only worked for Andy Warhol....