Langara arts students to create new piece for Canada Line station

This year sees the return of a partnership with Langara College and the Canada Line to create a work of public art on display at the Langara SkyTrain station.

Students are currently working on a piece titled Shelter, which is a collaborative effort with several arts students.

“[The piece] is going to look very ramshackle,” said William DeJeu, one of the several fine arts students working on Shelter.

Shelter will showcase several different materials such as cedar shingles, tar paper and corrugated roofing material, which was one of the elements from Alex Zizka’s pitch.

DeJeu was inspired by the piece still featured at the Langara Canada Line station called Placebo 4.9, which features days of the week accompanied with various pills.

This year five students are working on the project while seven students were involved last year.

However, arts student Jasmine Baetz said she preferred less people because the process is more personalized and there is more access to instructor, Luke Blackstone.

How did Shelter come to be?

Baetz was inspired accidentally inspired by a colleague in the program to make an umbrella the focus of the piece.

“Vancouver is a city about rain, so umbrellas have become an important part of my life,” said Baetz.

Shelter is also about housing, and will have various pipes of the umbrella representing different lifestyles and social classes in Vancouver.

“It’s a very ambitious project,” said Baetz. “The piece is going to be interactive as well.”

The students are forecasting the piece’s completion for the end of November, well in advance of the official deadline of February.

A more enjoyable SkyTrain station

Coleen Nemtin, public art consultant for the Canada Line, said that this is a wonderful way for students to not only get their work out there but to also go through the whole process of working with a professional business.

The partnership started with the opening of the Canada Line and features temporary pieces in Canada Line stations that make transit “more interesting and fun for our ridership,” said Nemtin.

While there is a Langara arts course designed to work on the project, the project is open to any Langara student with six or more credits as well as recent graduates.

Reported by Brenna Brooks and Niall Shannon

Langara students and teacher work on the new Shelter piece.

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