Client

Overview

“Succession II” is part of a comprehensive body of work I have been developing and articulating through my Public Art practice over the past 25 years. This work is a true reflection of my undying love for the Landscape. I have been fortunate to combine my professional life as a Public Artist and Landscape Architect and to express both a global and nuanced vision of the urban landscape influenced by the natural landscape. “Succession II” is an opportunity to continue to explore the passionate dialogue on the complex intricacies of restoring our landscapes.

The location of my proposed submission is Public Art Site 1 in the Cedar Creek complex. This is an exterior passageway between Buildings 2 and 3 that connect 14th Avenue with a private laneway. Thematically, the walkway and surrounding landscape are reflective of a dry stream bed which is an episodic water system that occupies a common ecological niche in British Columbia’s West Coast Rainforests. These ephemeral streams are charged during the wet season and are completely dry in the summer.

Goals

Conceptually this proposed dry stream bed creates an associative connection with nearby Byrne Creek. This prominent creek originated with the precontact Coastal Rainforest whose evolution has been tempered by Burnaby’s urban development. Ecologically it is common for such dry stream beds to seasonally feed such water courses as Byrne Creek.
Reinforcing the Cedar Creek Development Site 1 thematic concept of a dry stream bed, my proposed sculpture takes its name from the biological concept of succession. This biological phenomenon is the process of the successive evolution of plant habitats within an ecologically disturbed site to create a stable productive community. The intention of the sculpture “Succession II” is to reinforce metaphorically, the dynamic changes that make an urban development successful.