Curating Kwantlen

A Walking Guide to KPU’s Public Art
Charis Au

Let’s take a walk around the Surrey campus. You step into the main courtyard and take a deep breath. Nothing is out of the ordinary. You head into the Cedar building to get your Timmy’s fix and notice something in the corner of your eye. Outside the window there’s a small cement book with a tree growing from it. You rub your eyes. No, you are not seeing things. What you are seeing is The Book of Incubation (2012), an art piece by KPU Graduate Daryl Markiewicz.

The Book of Incubation

Public art is art that’s been designed to be executed in a public space. The Book of Incubation, which was created in response to an environmental art class taught by KPU Fine Arts instructor Sibeal Foyle, is one such piece that has been planted out in the open in a non-particular setting.

The Continuation of Knowledge

The second floor of the library hosts an award designed by Rosaura Ojeda, a KPU Fine Arts graduate from 2014. The design is situated in the Dean of Arts office and is an teaching award for teachers who are recognized for their outstanding instruction in the field of arts.

“The design emphasizes the idea of teaching,” explains Ojeda. “There is a big circle in the centre and there are lines to expand like the rays of the sun. From the lines, names are stenciled on to them. The whole design emulates teaching and how teachers expand their knowledges and open up other people.”

This design was commissioned by the faculty of arts, and a contest was held to choose the best student for the job. “We have an art department, and it’s important to show people what we can do and make people actually aware that we make art,” says Ojeda.

“I think we definitely need much more [public art]. We want to show people why we want to make art, question things, and analyze things—and also to alter people’s environment in a more positive and creative way. We are already practicing art so why not make it more effective and put it into practice. Especially [if] it’s already in school!”

Aves

When you enter Fir building there is a ring of golden birds looking down at you. These birds were created by Andres Perez Castro in 2014 with plaster and gold paint. His piece, dubbed Aves, questions the idea of judgement within a community.

“The reason they are golden is to provide to them a higher level of authority or a superior class,” says Castro. “The location is above the viewer to reinforce this idea of being superior [to] the viewer. A collection of birds [also] gives them more power, as if they are more than you, looking down to you as if they were perhaps judging you or checking on you.”

Castro goes on to explain that, “The birds are also something out of the norm because right outside, there is always a few birds—but when you come into the building, seeing birds indoors becomes odd.”

Arbutus Gallery

The Arbutus Gallery, located in the atrium of the library, is one of the two galleries that have different exhibitions during the year. “Kwantlen is a community and there are different departments out there. [It] should not be confined into just one department,” says Keith Harris, a third-year fine arts student who currently has paintings up on display at the Arbutus Gallery. “Go out and meet other people. It [fosters] a type of community.”

“[The Arbutus library] is quite an open hallway and it’s great to see people stopping and looking at [the art]. Sometimes they walk up close and actually look at it. It’s good that they are engaging in the [artworks],” says Harris. They see other stuff going on and not just leaving classes and then going into another class.”

Anyone itching to see more art can head over to the Fine Arts department in the left wing of the Spruce building. Many artworks are hung up to dry and displayed while art students weather through the semesters. Don’t be alarmed by anything out of the ordinary, since in Fine Arts, nothing is ordinary.