Unlimited Growth Increases The Divide
555 Hamilton Street
Or Art Gallery
On exterior of building
1990
Site-integrated work
In place
Privately owned
Text-based workDowntownWaterfront/Downtown TourDowntown North Quadrant
Description of work
The text consists of 7" copper letters above the entrance to the gallery. The text is cut from 1/4" copper plate and installed in its original red metallic state, inviting a "corporate" reading. However, it will change with time and exposure, to a greenish, aged surface. The text will be visually assimilated into the existing green color of the building, and will remain permanently on the site.
Artist statement
"The strategy behind "Unlimited Growth ..." is direct. It is directed at those who operate our free-market economy in their own interests, while excluding those interests that would be 'responsive to the needs of the community'. The subtext to "Unlimited Growth .." relates to several aspects of public art including the need to address the use of site-specific work as a way of intervening in local issues, and in this instance, acting as a marker of resistance by the economically marginalized, as represented by a parallel gallery and a hotel providing affordable housing. Walter raises questions related to the systems underlying the transactions and power-plays that constitute normal business in the world of real estate development. In Walter's art the museum without walls is also a museum OF walls, walls new and old, as well as those walls that perpetuate economic class distinctions. Her text on the façade of the Del-Mar Hotel will stand as a witness to the various power-plays, including the threat to move B.C. Hydro's head office to the suburb of Burnaby, that led to the development surrounding 553-555 Hamilton Street." - from "The Interventions of Kathryn Walter" by Bill Jeffries, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, 1990
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