Final Remand

No. 0834 - 26 May 2015 - 20:51:12

I have yet to count the actual estimated number of pictures taken of this project which I named PALIMPSEST but it probably ranges between 100 and 200 thousand images that rest quietly on an external hard drive.  The documentation of this public process was made possible by two DTES Small Arts Grants, generously funded by the Vancouver Foundation.  In it I photographed the conversion of the Richard Henriquez design for housing prisoners at the BC Courts into the re-design, by his son Gregory, of social/market housing for residents.

The three year project was located on the St. James' Anglican bell tower's western deck and utilized various handheld cameras and digital apps.  The image above was composed with an iPod camera, a landscape-stitcher with a final crop in iPhoto. 

The repetitive exposure to this particular point of view led to the development of additional perspectives.  The body of the edifice I perched upon became more significant, demanding inclusion in all of the images other than the standard documentary shots taken with an SLR camera at every session.  My own creative connection to the architecture notwithstanding I recognized the intrinsic pull of St. James' physical impact.  But it wasn't alone in affecting a view that includes the Burrard Inlet and North Shore mountains, the urban core, industry and re-development and the eternal components of wildlife, weather, seasonal flux and the sky itself.

The final piece of this project entails archiving PALIMPSEST to its own website.  By now, the residents have moved in and the building lives on its own again.  It now provides a positive opportunity for a neighbourhood that has too-long languished in aggressive obscurity.