Apr 7, 2010
The sculpture, titled Park, is the latest feature from the Langara College Art in Public Spaces (LCAPS) program. Local artist Marko Simcic participated in a LCAPS speaker series event in December 2009 and subsequently offered his piece for display.
Resembling a vehicle draped with a grey tarp, the piece explores ideas of public and private spaces, the notion of sharing and entitlement, and the cultures of automobiles, domestic life, and visual arts.
“It is wonderful to be able to have Simcic’s piece at Langara. Park fits well with the work that our artist-in-residence Holly Ward is undertaking in her Pavilion project at the front of the campus. Park makes me think about our relationship to vehicles; at first blush it looks like a car, but when I look again it is not that at all,” says Ken Pawlak, the Chair of the LCAPS Steering Committee.
Park acts as a comic anomaly in a familiar landscape,” says Lorna Brown, past LCAPS Facilitator. “It is likely to prompt some interesting parking lot conversation.”
The Langara Centre for Art in Public Spaces, an initiative designed to inspire collaboration among students, professional artists, and the community. The Centre generates creative projects through Artist-in-Residence programs, guest speakers, and continually evolving curricula. The 2010 program welcomes Artist-Residence Holly Ward, and Simcic's Park sculpture among other initiatives.
Simcic’s piece was created in 2002 as a response to the City of Vancouver’s public art program. The competition was to solicit art pieces to showcase on the Ontario Street greenway. Simcic’s piece has been placed in a number of locations along the route, and will remain parked at the northwest entrance of the College parking lot (Stall 757) until the end of the summer semester.
Learn more.
Langara College Centre for Art in Public Spaces
Park, by Mark Simcic