Public Art Registry
Spring Awakening
Photo: City of Vancouver
Spring Awakening by Atheana Picha - photo by City of Vancouver
600 Hamilton
Vancouver Playhouse
Civic
2023
Digitally printed onto adhesive vinyl
Two-dimensional artwork
In place
Description of work

PlatformsNine Places for Seeing is a series of temporary public art projects that presented from June 2023 until the end of 2025.

PlatformsNine Places for Seeing commissioned 21 local xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and urban Indigenous artists. 

Selected artworks were displayed on the following platforms: 

  • Billboards along 6th Avenue between Arbutus and Fir 
  • Light box at šxʷƛ̓ exən Xwtl’a7shn Plaza  
  • Banners at Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch  
  • Glass wall at City Centre Canada Line Station  
  • Transit shelter posters throughout the city 
  • VanLive! video screen, Robson St and Granville St 
  • Glass wall at Marine Drive Canada Line Station 
  • Windows at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre 
  • Windows at the Vancouver Playhouse 
  • Glass Wall at Olympic Village Canada Line Station
  • Glass Wall at King Edward Canada Line Station
Artist statement

Spring Awakening was exhibited on the Vancouver Playhouse windows from June 2023 - June 2024.

Spring Awakening includes four different repeating images (a frog, a wild rose, a salmonberry, and a bear) designed and framed using Coast Salish Design elements. Each of these figures are symbols of spring and fresh starts.

In Coast Salish culture, the new year begins when the frogs awaken and begin to sing. The bears are drawn in a way that reflects an old type of design language in Coast Salish work. The salmonberry is the first berry to come in the spring and brings colour to the environment, while wild roses that come a little bit later represent the beauty and fullness of spring and summer, and the full circle of these patterns.

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