"One of the threads running through our body of work is a meditation on landscape and culture and on positioning ourselves within the world. Our work reflects on perception and interpretation, on how we mythologize the world around us. The work is intended to “change the focus of the eye”1 and references the iconic paintings of mountains by Lawren Harris2, the connection between landscape and identity.
The artwork is titled lightness of being.
One component is grounded, one suspended. Each is a representation of the nearby natural world.
Set in the pool, resting on concrete plinth, is an over-scaled totemic figure, coyote, at eye level with passersby. Coyotes are familiar residents of Burnaby, yet evoke a sense of the wild, the unknown.
The eye of coyote is caught by something lustrous overhead.
As your eye follows coyote’s gaze, you are drawn to an abstract, intricate form suspended above the entry – the inverted topography of a mountain peak.
lightness of being links us to the larger landscape, a timeless one beyond urban confines. There is an implied, undefined, narrative between coyote and mountain, the two connected by a focused gaze. The artwork forms an imaginary landscape – connecting past and present, urban and wild – with you as the figure in the landscape."
- Jacqueline Metz & Nancy Chew, artists
Muse Atelier Art & Architecture Inc.
___________________________ 1 Joseph Campbell, On Being Human 2 a long-time resident of Vancouver