The Grace of Movements

The Canadian Goose casts an almost mythological enchantment in this region. It is proud and sovereign. It traverses the land, sea and air. Whimsical and elegant, it habituates the city and takes liberty of the ocean and surrounding wilderness. It vacillates between these distinct environments—penetrating and connecting.

But what’s most arresting is the grace of their movements. The elegance of their pose. Their head in the sky and feet on the ground. A head that points, giving direction to the steps. Making ideas come true. They simply exist, occupying the horizon where the sky meets the land and sea. It’s an animal of migration and direction. In flux. And for all their finesse and beauty, they can endure tremendous physical strain, leaving one part of the world for another.

As a non-native to Canada, my work is also a response to my immediate environment, specifically Granville Island and mountain-immersed Vancouver city. In particular, its sci-fi silhouettes and temporary architecture, which seems to be perpetually under construction, encouraged me to create the installation in a social space – cafe. Without distinguishing signs upon the buildings, their anonymity and temporality alone marks the identity of the buildings. The temporality within the identity of Vancouver’s urban planning is connected as well to the seasonal migration of the Canadian goose. A flux state shared both by the animal and the city it inhabits.