Mud Flat Squatter

Following on the previous post about Ken Lum's installation 'From shangri-la to shangri-la - I was reminded about what happened to the shacks at Burrard Inlet from a blog about Tom Burrows - an artist who has been featured on the 19th Hole for his work inspired by Lowry.

Read article here

Ken Lum: 'From shangri-la to shangri-la'

Back in 2010, I posted about Ken Lum's installation entitled 'From shangri-la to shangri-la'.

I have since discovered that the installation has a permanent location:

The District of North Vancouver and the North Vancouver Arts Office unveiled Ken Lum’s sculptural installation, “from shangri-la to shangri-la” at the Maplewood Flats Conservation Area (2645 Dollarton Highway). Lum’s work takes its form from the architecture of squatters’ cabins located at Maplewood Flats on the north shore of Burrard Inlet during the early to mid-twentieth century.

 By the 1940’s, an informal but cohesive community of squatters was living in the ramshackle cabins that lined the area’s intertidal zone. The most acclaimed resident was the English-born writer Malcolm Lowry, who completed his novel Under the Volcano while living there from 1940 to 1954.

 By the 1960’s, the area had attracted an assortment of hippies, artists and displaced loggers who sought out nature and self sufficiency as an alternative to the accelerating pace of development in Vancouver and its suburbs. The longstanding tension between the squatters and the residents of North Vancouver came to a head in December 1971 when most of the mudflat dwellings were burned down by civic authorities to make way for development.

 Lum created from shangri-la to shangri-la in 2010 for the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Offsite large scale art program. The work consists of scale replicas of three squatter shacks: the dwelling occupied by Malcolm Lowry, one built by artist Tom Burrows, and one inhabited by Dr. Paul Spong, who later led Greenpeace’s “Save the Whales” campaign.

 The artwork was situated on West Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver surrounded by high rise buildings, and adjacent to the City’s tallest building, the Shangri-La Hotel. Considered in relation to the surrounding urban environment, the squatter shacks represented an acute contrast of a rustic conception of the ideal life with contemporary visions of perfection embodied in present day architecture.

 Ken Lum gifted from shangri-la to shangri-la to the District of North Vancouver in 2010. Situating the squatter shacks in their original Maplewood Flats location allows viewers to travel back in time and reflect on a foreclosed moment in the history of the Lower Mainland.

 Ken Lum is a Vancouver artist whose work questions the relationship between modernism and everyday experience often blurring the boundaries that separate high art and popular culture. Over the past 25 years, Lum has exhibited widely throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

 Explore the District of North Vancouver's Public Art Collection online.

See a collection of photos of the installation at Teregraphic.com

Ken Lum’s offsite installation heading across Burrard Inlet

An art work that plays around with the meaning of Shangri-La is moving closer to the local spot that inspired it.

Earlier this year, artist Ken Lum’s from shangri-la to shangri-la was installed at Offsite, the Vancouver Art Gallery’s public art site at the Shangri-La Hotel on West Georgia. Works installed on the site are all intended to be temporary, and Lum’s three scale replicas of the shacks that once stood on the mudflats in North Vancouver will be removed as scheduled on Tuesday.

What’s changed is that the art work has a new lease on life: the District of North Vancouver has agreed to take the wood-and-glass installation, which was built at a cost of about $50,000.

“We’re very excited,” said Ian Forsyth, the director of the district’s arts office. “It was an initiative of the mayor, Richard Walton. He was intrigued about bringing it over to North Vancouver.”

Forsyth said that at a recent council meeting, the mayor and six councillors voted unanimously to bring Lum’s piece to the district “and make it a permanent part of our story.”

What still hasn’t been decided is exactly where the art installation will be located. No permanent site has been chosen, but Forsyth said it could go to a new interpretative centre at the Wild Bird Trust just off Dollarton Highway or in a new development in Maplewood Business Park or Parkgate Community Centre.

“There are lots of ideas floating around,” he said. “We’re going to get it over here and store it in one of the district work yards for however long it takes to identify a site.”

Lum’s artwork is comprised of one-third to one-quarter-scale replicas of squatters’ shacks that once stood on the mudflats at Maplewood and Dollarton. The area had been home to a community of squatters starting in the early part of the 20th century until they were burned down in 1971. The oldest shack belonged to writer Malcolm Lowry, author of Under the Volcano. The other two shacks were replicas of the homes of Greenpeace activist Paul Spoon and artist Tom Burrows. Read more on Vancouver Sun