31 January 2018 – Despite my Stares & Chairs post of January 13, I do not go looking for chairs. I do not. I’ve become a moss-on-trees junkie, a crow junkie, yes … but no, not for chairs. They just keep turning up.
Even so, the first thing I stare at, this not-raining morning, has nothing to do with chairs.
Think toe-nails.
So that’s a good laugh, a silly moment to launch a walk that takes us out to Vanier Park, on the south shore of False Creek in Kitsilano.
Past the Maritime Museum, past the Museum of Vancouver, with kids and dogs and adults and bicycles and hiking boots all enjoying the day.
And then …
Sixteen chairs. Echoes, an art installation by Michael Goulet, part of the Vancouver Biennale of 2005-2007, reinstalled by Goulet here on the beach in 2010. (Note: not my photo. It’s from the Goulet page on the Biennale website.)
I could tell you more, but the signage next to the installation says it so much better…
We lean over chairs, each with its few words, in one official language or the other. This one is a bit of a stand-alone …
while these, somehow, seem to talk to each other.
Follow the arrows …
And we walk on.
And on, and then on some more. Onto Granville Island, among the offerings of the Granville Market. And finally, down to the Aquabus dock, for a ferry ride back home.
One last message, as we cross an outdoors eating/gathering space that leads to the wharf.
The gull hopes you can’t read.
morselsandscraps
/ 1 February 2018I bet the gull hopes that – but a useful message. Last time I fed birds I provoked a savage brawl amongst visitors to the seed dish, who were perfectly civilised amongst the callistemon flowers. I wonder who dared paint a lion’s toenails? Another amusing walk, and then the poems. I’m always awed by an imagination that conceives such things.
icelandpenny
/ 5 February 2018I too am awed. I am so grateful that such people exist — and, sometimes, have wonderful public forums. (Fora??)
Mary C
/ 12 February 2018Love the toe nails!