Langara Public Artists Create New Installation for InTransit BC
Langara Public Artists Create New Installation for InTransit BC -
Placebo 4.9, hanging outside the Langara/49th Ave Canada Line Station. Photo: Tomo Tanaka.
Vancouver,
BC – A new public art installation created by
Langara College students has been unveiled outside of the Langara/49th
Ave Canada Line station. The
project is the second to be produced through a public art initiative created in
partnership between Langara College and InTransit BC.
The provocative piece, entitled Placebo 4.9, features 28 compartments
designed to suggest the daily chambers of a pill organizer. The contents of the
compartments are fairly realistic representations of pills and capsules along
the top row, but become more abstract as the “days” progress. The intention of
the work is to call to mind ideas of lifestyle and coping mechanisms in our
urban environment. The piece was conceived of and constructed by students in
the Public Art Studio Practice class in Langara’s Fine Arts Program.
"Once again I am delighted by the
intelligent and engaging work that our public art students have produced for
the Langara Station of the Canada Line,” said Julie Longo, Langara’s Dean of
Arts. “We are so proud them. It is inspiring to see how they have embraced
our unique relationship with InTransit BC and the Canada Line by working
collaboratively to create compelling and challenging public art."
The main structure of Placebo 4.9 is made of painted plywood, with doors of clear acrylic
sheet attached by stainless steel hinges. Letters representing each day were
sandblasted onto the surface of each acrylic sheet, and the doors have been
left partially open to allow for the materials inside to randomly move if
caught by the wind, as well as for moisture to escape. The materials inside are
made of found objects, wood, acrylic tube, wool, chicken wire, and other items (including
a teddy bear). They represent the trials and tribulations of daily
routines, and how individuals create habits and coping mechanisms that may be
initially helpful, but gradually fade to become mere abstractions of their
original purpose.
The students in the Public Art Studio
Practice course who designed and fabricated the work are:
Kelsey Jacobsen
Mayeli Alvarez
Claire Blazi
Natalia Nguyen
Janine Sakai
Stephen Shorthouse
The College would
like to extend its thanks to the Langara Centre for Art in Public Spaces, the
Canada Line's art coordinators Janice Fairley and Coleen Nemtin, and Brian
McGibney for technical advice.
Learn more.
Annie Mullins
Communications Officer,
Communications & Marketing
T 604.323.5058
amullins@langara.bc.ca
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