ART SEEN: Old Column recalls Burnaby's former old growth forest

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By Kevin Griffin

Old Column, stainless steel and steel wire filigree, by Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo at Modello, a 37-story tower by Boffo at Willingdon Avenue and Beresford Street, Burnaby. *

Artists Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo hope that Old Column makes passersby stop, look and explore.

 
Han and Mihalyo are the team behind the 7.6-metre tall public art work in the public plaza at the corner of Willingdon Avenue and Beresford Street in Burnaby. Old Column is made from blackened stainless steel and steel wire filigree. Its form made me think of the old growth trees that once covered the site.
Mihalyo said the sculptural work is located on a prominent corner in Metrotown.
“You might drive by at some point and say, ‘What was that?’ and get out of your car and go and touch it,” he said.
“If you see it, I think you’ll want to explore it.”
Old Column is at the start of the planned Beresford Art Walk to the east.
The public art work is in front of Modello, a 37-storey residential tower by Boffo designed by Chris Dekeakos Architects. One of the building’s unique characteristic is that it’s heated with geothermal power.
Mihalyo said the design of Modello was one of the reasons he and Han were attracted to the project.
“It’s a brand new building, a beautiful piece of architecture,” Mihalyo said by phone.
“The building is so vertical, so elegant. We wanted Old Column to be something that you had to discover.”
Mihalyo said Old Column’s design also references nearby Douglas firs in Central Park and the neighbourhood’s rapid pace of change.
“We’re not shying away from the reality that there was a forest and then there was a neighbourhood and now there is a dense city with mass transit and this old growth park nearby,” he said.
“It’s important to see the layers through things. We wanted to bring that back to the site.”
The scale of development in the area surprised Mihalyo.
“It’s a fascinating transformation going from forest to suburban housing to boom! This massive, really, really high density. It is kind of incredible.”
In 1997, Han and Mihalyo founded Lead Pencil Studio based in Seattle.
Old Column is the second work designed by Lead Pencil for Metro Vancouver but the first to open to the public. The duo designed Home and Away, the bleacher-like public art work planned for Empire Fields, the site of the old Empire Stadium in east Vancouver.
Empire Fields opened to the public two years ago but Home and Away is still awaiting final approval from the city of Vancouver.

 
Lead Pencil has designed another public art work likely recognized by many Metro Vancouverites who drive to the U.S. through the Blaine border crossing. Non-Sign II is a haunting, sculptural work that uses negative space to create a ‘ghost billboard’ out of dark, wiry metal.
Han said the texture and pattern of the welding on Old Column resembles cellular structures. The shapes are based on images of electron microscope cross sections of wood. The form also echoes the strong vertical and horizontal form of construction cranes at other condominium sites in Metrotown. 
“There are no sharp ends,” she said.
“We wanted it to be monochromatic except for the one branch that sticks out one side: the leaves coming off it are bright shiny in shades of green.”
Han said Old Column and Non-Sign II are similar in the way they create a sense of shadow or mirage.
Han said there was another similarity between the public art pieces at the U.S.-Canadian border and at Modello. The two clients gave the artists complete freedom to design their work once they were selected.
She said public art pieces allow artists like herself and Mihalyo to produce work that’s a little more accessible that can start conversations with the public.
“It’s been a really lovely process,” she said.
 
Original source: The Vancouver Sun
Read original article here.
 
Photography by Broda Photography.