Vancouver, Glass Object 6 - Heat
2023

Vancouver, often ranked as one of the most liveable cities worldwide, is a world-class city with waves of global capital flowing through its property markets. In 2020, it was ranked the 2nd most expensive city in the world in which to live. It has become a city of hyper gentrification, with escalating displacement and the stigmatization and pathologization of poverty.

Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) is one of the city's oldest neighbourhoods and is the site of a complex set of social issues, including disproportionately high levels of homelessness, drug use, drug overdose deaths, poverty, crime, mental illness and sex work. It is also known however as a community with deep roots, strong social activism and a history of defiance.

To accompany my drawing Vancouver DTES, 2021-2022, I have created a series of glass sculptures. Organic, transparent, natural, hard, linked to breath, linked to the body, they are restrained, squeezed, punctured, disfigured, entwined, and shatterable. Through these new glass sculptures, I aim to explore and convey ideas of vulnerability, damage, trauma, and confinement, while also creating objects that speak of protection, resilience, and beauty.