Burrard Inlet, so named by George Vancouver after his friend and fellow British sea captain, Sir Harry Burrard, is a coastal fjord that has for thousands of years served as the home and workplace of the Musqueam, Skwxú7mesh and Tsleil-Waututh people. Since Vancouver?s visit in the summer of 1792, the inlet has become ?a staging ground for global industry. Today, ?it features two impressive bridges, the comings and goings of cargo ships and ocean liners, ?a sulfur pyramid and, closer to its second narrows, grain towers. And now, on the North Vancouver waterfront, the Patkau-designed Polygon Art Gallery.
Untitled (Grain Terminal), 2013, by artist Greg Girard, part of N. Vancouver, at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver. Courtesy of the Monte Clark Gallery. The Polygon and its inaugural exhibition?N. Vancouver?both recognize the historic place of industry in the development of the region (from sawmills to shipyards), but also that region?s symbolic production: how local artists work with and against the world of our making though the use of its materials, its manufacturings and its modes. Among the highlights of the inaugural exhibition is Greg Girard?s 2013 work Untitled (Grain Terminal). At first glance, this 30 x 37 inch pigment print irks me, evoking as it does the artificially hued splash of a stock-prospectus cover image. Or maybe it?s more than that. Maybe the angle of the shot, its post-production touch-ups and its commercial veneer have it closer to a full-page ad...