A beacon of the East Van scene: With Monument for East Vancouver, Ken Lum has transformed a popular graffiti image into a defining fixture of the cityscape
Now that the Olympic hoopla is done and the throngs have going home, the question is: What will be the lasting legacy for Vancouver?
In the realm of the visual arts, there will be the memory of the art scene coming together in a spectacular display of talent and shared purpose, with every gallery in town pulling out all the stops on exhibitions that defined a sense of place. (Many of them will remain on view in the coming months.)
But one work is the clear mascot of the moment: Ken Lum’s Monument for East Vancouver – a 57-foot, LED sculpture bearing the words East (running up and down) and Van (running left to right), with the letters arranged in a cruciform. Perched atop a rise overlooking the city from the east, the tougher side of town, it’s public art that the public actually likes.
“Every time I drive by, there are people just hanging around,” say Lum of the site, at the corner of Clark Drive and East 6th Avenue. “The other day there was a story in The Georgia Straight about a musician, and he was photographed with the sign. He must have chosen the location.”
Almost immediately, it has become a defining permanent fixture of the cityscape.
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