New public art unveiled on Vancouver's Granville Island (PHOTOS)
An old art installation is getting new life on Granville Island this summer.
The Family, a sculpture by Vancouverite Jack Harman, used to sit at the entrance to the former headquarters of the Vancouver Sun and The Province on Granville Street.
Now, the sculpture has a new permanent home on Granville Island right by the Sandbar Restaurant.
Vancouver Biennale
Vancouver Sun publisher Stu Keate originally commissioned the work from Harman in 1966 and it sat outside their headquarters until 1997.
The cast bronze sculpture towers at 12.6 feet tall and depits a “1960s definition of the traditional nuclear family,” said Vancouver Biennale in a release, featuring a heterosexual couple with their two children, and their son is starkly naked.
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The naked boy could represent “a new generation stepping forward, shedding the metaphorical baggage of the past,” according to the artist’s son Stephen Harman.
Vancouver Biennale
Artistic Director and President of the Vancouver Biennale Barrie Mowatt said in a release that the “world has drastically altered in the past 60 years and so has the definition of the family.”
“It is not a one size fits all, but more the vision for a unit based on love, comradery and support not limited by biology, sex, race, religion, lifestyle or any other restrictive ideals,” he said.
You can learn more about the sculpture and the artist on the Vancouver Biennale website, and see it in person the next time you’re on Granville Island.